‘We were going from one beautiful mare to the next’
Anticipation reaches boiling point as red-hot Inglis Chairman’s Sale arrives
International investors and a spectrum of domestic breeders are expected to clash for some of Australasia’s most sought after race fillies and broodmares at Thursday evening’s Chairman’s Sale, Inglis’ night of nights on its annual calendar.
Inglis Bloodstock chief executive Sebastian Hutch says this year’s high-end Chairman’s catalogue, the result of a concerted effort to attract as many of the most sought after fillies and mares available, can go some way to satisfying investors who play in the middle to top-end of the breeding stock market.
That is something, in a market that has been dominated by Yulong and Coolmore in recent years, that Hutch says the Chairman’s sale hasn’t necessarily been able to do given the soaring values of some of Australasia’s most sought after fillies and mares.
But gaining a read on who is doing what, including from Europe, China, Japan and America as well as, isn’t that straightforward, either, the Inglis CEO says.
“With a sale of this nature of people who play their cards pretty close to their chests. I mean, it’s not like a yearling sale where you have inspections and inspections and vetting and everything else,” Hutch told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“I mean, in many respects, there are people who are comfortable to go out and buy these mares unseen because they just know so much of what they need to know and it’s in the public domain anyway.
“And that’s normally enough for people who want to pursue them with conviction.”
She’s Extreme (Extreme Choice) is the potential Chairman’s Sale topper – and the likely baseline price guide for Imperatriz (I Am Invincible), Te Akau’s ten-time Group 1 winner who goes to auction in two-and-a-half weeks’ time at Magic Millions – and her ring appearance is expected about 45 minutes into the three-hour 88-lot bloodstock extravaganza.
The Champagne Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) winning two-year-old, who also won a Magic Night Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m) and finished runner-up in an ATC Sires’ Produce Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m) and a Sweet Embrace Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) as a juvenile, returned at three to win a VRC Oaks (Gr 1, 2500m).
Trained by Anthony Cummings at Randwick for Dorrington Farm’s Robert Crabtree and partners, She’s Extreme was also placed in a Flight Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) and Spring Champion Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m) and a Furious Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) during her three-year-old year.
Being offered through the Newgate Consignment, the rising five-year-old mare has not raced since her Oaks success in 2022 due to a tendon injury.
Newgate Farm stud manager Jim Carey described She’s Extreme as an elegant mare who is a fraction taller than 16 hands who will command a high watermark price given her racetrack performances and the feats of her brilliant but subfertile sire Extreme Choice (Not A Single Doubt).
“She’s a collector’s item and she’d be a rare gem in any breeder’s portfolio worldwide. She’s got great quality, great balance and she’s everything you’d hope to see when you see a Group 1-winning two-year-old who was a Classic winner at three,” Carey told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“It’s a very rare achievement to have a mare of this quality going through a sale and she deserves to be one of the highest-priced mares going to the sales this year.”
Rising six-year-old Tattersall’s Tiara (Gr 1, 1400m) winner and joint champion three-year-old filly of 2021-2022 Startantes (Star Turn) and dual Group-winning two- and three-year-old Autumn Ballet (The Autumn Sun) are also members of the Newgate Consignment.
Startantes is a daughter of her trainer Robert Heathcote’s three-time stakes winner Funtantes (Easy Rocking) who bred the Group 1 winner.
Autumn Ballet, who was trained by Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott and could race on if her new owner wanted to, defeated Estriella (I Am Invincible) in winning the Silver Shadow Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) first-up at three to go with her Black Opal Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) success as a juvenile.
Carey said: “She never ran in anything bar a Group race her whole career so far, she won a Black Opal on debut, which had never been done before, and she’s a very pretty filly who typifies exactly what we want here, all speed.”
Elite racing and breeding propositions are certain to be on the Chairman’s highlight reel and the trio of Group 2 winner Kimochi (Brave Smash), three-time Group 1-placed Tutta La Vita (The Autumn Sun) and Coolmore Stud Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) runner-up C’Est Magique (Zoustar) are front and centre in that segment of the market.
Runner-up in a Flight Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) and Thousand Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) in Melbourne last November, Kimochi won the Light Fingers (Gr 2, 1200m) in February, defeating Learning To Fly (Justify) and Kristilli (Hellbent), the Gary Portelli-trained filly was also placed in the Coolmore Classic (Gr 1, 1500m) before being unplaced in the Vinery Stud Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m).
She is being offered for sale by owner Leo To through the Chairman’s draft of Twin Hills Stud.
“For anyone who wants to have a horse to race at the elite level, she is obviously of interest. We’ve been showing her for the last couple of days and all the big players are either here or represented,” Twin Hills’ Olly Tait said.
“She is a beautiful looking filly, a great shape to her, a lovely head, correct with a great temperament and she seems to be well admired by those who have looked at her.”
Sunshine In Paris (Invader) made $3.9 million at last year’s Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale as a Surround Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m) winning three-year-old with the $10 million Golden Eagle (1500m) on her radar.
While the now John Camilleri-owned Sunshine In Paris’ Golden Eagle campaign was curtailed by injury prior to the Golden Eagle, the Annabel Neasham-trained mare did win a Sheraco Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) last spring and was runner-up in The Galaxy (Gr 1, 1100m), fifth in a TJ Smith Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) and fourth in the All Aged Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m) this autumn.
The lure of the Golden Eagle at Rosehill on November 2 would loom large for any prospective new owner of Kimochi.
“It’s the course and distance when she ran third to Zougotcha in the Coolmore Classic when she drew badly and was very unlucky in a tremendous race,” Tait said.
“That’s the one immediately in front of her but as we know there’s lots of high-value races, not only in Sydney, but elsewhere in Australia and lots of Group 1s that could be well within her keeping as well to turn her from a Group 2 winner into a Group 1 winner.”
Tutta La Vita, a filly with strong formlines around Kimochi, is another three-year-old with significant racing upside and enormous residual value set to go under the hammer at the Chairman’s Sale.
A two-year-old winner who has been placed in the Vinery Stud Stakes, the Flight Stakes and the Surround Stakes this season, Tutta La Vita also carries a pedigree page stamped with black-type.
She is a three-quarter sister to Group 1-winning mare Secret Agenda (Not A Single Doubt), the stakes-placed Stellar Pauline (Not A Single Doubt) and Sweetener (Snitzel) and Final Agreement (Not A Single Doubt), herself the dam of Gimcrack Stakes (Gr 3, 1000m) winning juvenile Enthaar (Written Tycoon).
Back in work with trainer Chris Waller at Rosehill after rounding out her Sydney autumn campaign when fifth in the Australian Oaks (Gr 1, 2400m) behind Autumn Angel (The Autumn Sun), Tutta La Vita carries entries for the Queensland Oaks (Gr 1, 2200m) and the Queensland Derby (Gr 1, 2400m).
Representative Yusuke Ichikawa, who is at Riverside overseeing the parading of the filly under the banner of Chris Waller Racing, confirmed that the intention was for Tutta La Vita to tackle the ANZ Bloodstock News Doomben Roses (Gr 2, 2000m) on May 25 as a lead in to the Queensland Oaks on June 8 if her new owner wished to press on with her campaign.
“Obviously she’s a quality filly and Chris thinks she can win a Group 1 in Queensland [this preparation]. Fingers crossed someone buys her and sends her back to Chris to train,” Ichikawa said.
“She raced well as a two-year-old and continued to progress nicely as a three-year-old and once she retires she’ll be a valuable broodmare as well.
“She was a $300,000 yearling and she’s a great physical, she’s a great mover and she has an excellent temperament.”
Rising five-year-old C’Est Magique, a half-sister to Widden Stud’s Blue Diamond (Gr 1, 1200m) winning sire Written By (Written Tycoon), also offers buyers enormous racing upside and residual value.
Bred and raced by Neville Begg and trained by his son Grahame, C’Est Magique was Group 3-placed twice at Randwick during the autumn and rounded out her campaign with a fourth in the Sapphire Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m). She is being consigned by Widden Stud.
“[Wednesday and Thursday] are arguably the two most enjoyable days on the sales calendar. As a participant in the sales, you get the opportunity to go around and see on the grounds a host of just fantastically well credentialed racehorses and proven race fillies, some of whom are in their prime now,” Hutch said.
“Even as an enthusiast of the sport, you learn an awful lot from being able to look at those kinds of mares. I felt like when we were going around looking at mares on Tuesday and Wednesday, we were going from one beautiful mare to the next.”
The Chairman’s Sale starts at 5pm.