‘The sales this year have been extremely strong and I can’t see that changing’
High expectations as global market turns its attention to Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale
By Tim Rowe
Sebastian Hutch has unwavering confidence that the Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale, the company’s global showpiece event on the calendar, can once again lay claim to what he believes is one of the world’s best thoroughbred auctions.
Twelve months after the Easter sale was decimated by the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, forcing it to be split into two rounds, the first as a virtual auction and the second as a live sale in July, Inglis is preparing for today’s opening session in a more traditional setting amidst a market which has been booming all year.
“There’s been 23 Group 1 winners out of the sale since 2018. The quality of stock here is unparalleled anywhere in Australasia and, statistically, this is one of the best yearling sales, if not the best yearling sale in the world,” said Hutch, Inglis’ general manager of bloodstock sales and marketing.
“You are more likely to buy a stakes-winning two-year-old here, you’re more likely to buy a Group 1-winning colt, you’re more likely to buy a Group 1-winning filly.
“At every metric this is the best sale that you can get to and we expect good horses will sell really well here.
“That is the standard the vendors and buyers expect here and I think we’ll see that again over Tuesday and Wednesday.”
Yearlings by champion stallions Exceed And Excel (Danehill), Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice) and Fastnet Rock (Danehill), as well as progeny of I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit) and Written Tycoon (Iglesia) are expected to be highly sought after on day one.
Kia Ora Stud, which is on the verge of relaunching its stallion arm led by last year’s Golden Slipper Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) winner Farnan (Not A Single Doubt), has a strong hand at this year’s sale with a draft of 13 yearlings, including a Written Tycoon half-brother to Group 2-winning stallion Zululand (Fastnet Rock) (Lot 283) and an I Am Invincible half-sister to this season’s Skyline Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) winner O’President (Fastnet Rock) (Lot 458).
“Our second inspections are under way and it’s a good sign when we’re getting multiple second looks,” Kia Ora’s breeding and bloodstock manager Shane Wright said.
“People are coming down with six, seven and eight horses on the list and it is always great seeing that.”
Wright believes there has been no indication that the significant upward trend of the market will not be maintained over the next two days as the select 466-lot offering is sold.
“The sales this year have been extremely strong and I can’t see that changing at this stage,” he said.
“It is not a huge catalogue – there’s 400 horses – but it’s high-quality and I think it’s going to be quite strong.”
The heavy-hitting colts syndicates are expected to play a major role at the top-end of the market, but champion Hong Kong trainer John Moore believes the fillies can hold court over the next two days.
“I was having a chat with James Harron (on Sunday) night and I said, ‘you know James, I think there’s better fillies here than colts’,” said Moore, who is in the process of setting up a Gold Coast stable.
“They’re very athletic, light on their feet, they have reasonable pedigrees without being the absolute top, so I am excited about that.
“I have never worked with them in a sense. I had one or two fillies in the stable in Hong Kong. I owned fillies, but I didn’t train them.”
Last year’s Easter Round 1 sale averaged $306,189 despite the uncertainty and a number of withdrawals from the catalogue, including Arrowfield Stud’s entire draft.
In 2019, 349 Easter yearlings changed hands at an average of $353,511 with a median of $260,000.
“It has been a challenging 12 months, as we know, but I think what it has done is really educate people on the mechanisms that are in place to buy horses in absentia,” Hutch said.
“Vendors have been very obliging with the volume of information they’re prepared to share with the buying bench, whether it’s getting horses weighed and measured, as you can do here, whether it is circulating various reports, the nature of the videos and the photographic content that has been generated has gone to another level.
“We find more and more with each sale that people are not only using videos and photographs around sale time, they are using it for the preparation of the sale.”
Hutch predicted a number of international buyers would call on that information over the next two days despite being unable to attend in person.
“We obviously have a significant number of interested buyers who can’t physically be here, but I think there will still be great international participation, whether it’s from the Far East or some European or American buyers who have Australian affiliates or Australian agents representing them,” he said.
“People get engrossed in the big prices that horses make and sometimes gloss over the fact that there are horses bought here for value for anywhere between $50,000 and $300,000.
“There are always some great stories about horses who have been very well bought and I don’t think it will be any different this year.”
Day one starts at 10am today.
Lots to watch
Lot 5 – Exceed And Excel – Peace Force (Bernardini) colt – Vinery Stud
Lot 45 – Snitzel – Rising Romance (Ekraar) colt – Arrowfield Stud
Lot 135 – Deep Field – Touch Of Greatness (Don Eduardo) – Newgate Farm
Lot 149 – I Am Invincible – Vezalay (Shamardal) filly – Widden Stud
Lot 173 – I Am Invincible – Zamzam (Redoute’s Choice) colt – Yarraman Park Stud
Lot 222 – Capitalist – Bonnie Mac (Thorn Park) colt – Yarraman Park Stud
Lot 283 – Written Tycoon – Dream Play (Hennessy) colt – Kia Ora Stud
Lot 330 – Snitzel – Harlow Gold (Tavistock) colt – Glenlogan Park
Lot 340 – I Am Invincible – Hips Don’t Lie (Stravinsky) – Coolmore Stud
Lot 377 – Zoustar – Lady Jivago (Beneteau) colt – Widden Stud
Lot 392 – I Am Invincible – Listen Here (Elusive Quality) filly – Cressfield
Lot 405 – Capitalist – Ma Can Do It (Majesticperfrection) colt – Newgate Farm
Lot 410 – Redoute’s Choice – Malala (Zenno Rob Roy) colt – Arrowfield Stud
Lot 458 – I Am Invincible – O’Marilyn (O’Reilly) filly – Kia Ora Stud
Lot 461 – Deep Impact – Omei Sword (High Chaparral) colt – Arrowfield Stud