‘You would be hard pressed to find a top trainer in Australia who hasn’t trained a good graduate’
Sale success to hold Inglis Ready2Race offering in good stead
Inglis last night released its catalogue for the 2023 Ready2Race Sale as the company, and its competitors in the two-year-old breeze-up space, head into uncharted territory, the likely absence of Singapore racing’s owners and trainers.
The auction house’s Sebastian Hutch hopes that the loss of the key Singapore market is offset by the quality of its 226-lot catalogue, a reduction on last year’s 290, which the Inglis Bloodstock chief executive believes is at least on par or the best the company has ever compiled.
Two-year-olds by a mix of champion, proven, young and first season sires will be up for grabs at Inglis’ October 10 sale, the first of the three Australasian breeze-up auctions to be held in the spring of 2023.
“I think the type of horse that people are looking to target for the sale; nice, athletic horses, are hard to buy. It’s very competitive to buy those horses for people looking to source stock for the sale through the yearling sales and weanling sales series,” Hutch told ANZ Bloodstock News yesterday.
“So, those people who stretched and bought really nice horses, I think they’ll be the horses who are particularly well sought after at the sale.
“There’s lots of the right stallions represented, but probably, most importantly, just the right people as vendors, who have a proven track record of developing good horses and I think that’s the feature of the sale that people take the most confidence from.”
The just inked catalogue includes the progeny of Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice), I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit), Written Tycoon (Iglesia), Zoustar (Northern Meteor), Deep Field (Northern Meteor), Per Incanto (Street Cry), Toronado (High Chaparral) and Starspangledbanner (Choisir), the sire of Hong Kong champion California Spangle, as well as the offspring of Justify (Scat Daddy), Written By (Written Tycoon), Hellbent (I Am Invincible) and The Autumn Sun (Redoute’s Choice).
Despite the increasing recognition of Inglis’ Ready2Race Sale in recent years, the ripple effects of the shock closure of key Asian racing hub Singapore, announced in early June with a 17-month grace period, is still to be borne out in the Australasian markets.
It will unquestionably have a detrimental impact, but how much and whether those Singapore owners switch their attention to other jurisdictions, possibly Malaysia, Macau, Australia and New Zealand, is unclear.
Singapore owners, trainers and agents bought 32 two-year-olds at last year’s Inglis Ready2Race Sale and some yearlings which were purchased at the sales earlier in 2023 that were destined for Kranji are catalogued for this year’s Inglis auction.
“There’s a lot being spoken about and there appears to be a lot of variables in play,” Hutch said of the future of Singapore racing participants.
“Singaporean buyers were a big feature of the sale last year, but two years ago I think we sold one horse to a Singaporean buyer and, at the time, that sale was a record sale, which was subsequently beaten 12 months later, but it was a very strong sale.
“Yes, they’re important participants to the market, but we’ll look to try and find other participants who might plug the gaps that they leave, whether it’s domestic buyers or other buyers from South East Asia.”
Familiar names once again preparing horses for this year’s Inglis sale include Blake Ryan (22), WBF Thoroughbreds’ Will Forrester (15), Tal Nolen’s Nolen Racing (14) and his son Shaun’s JCS Thoroughbreds (12).
Dean Harvey’s Baystone Farm – which sold last year’s sales-topping two-year-old at Riverside Stables in Sydney, a $750,000 colt by Dundeel (High Chaparral) now named Nondisclosure – Hannover Lodge and Matt Vella’s Glenn Haven Racing are also represented.
One of the newcomers consigning a draft for the first time is DSB Thoroughbreds’ Darrell Burnet who is preparing four two-year-old colts by Capitalist (Written Tycoon), All Too Hard (Casino Prince), Newgate Farm’s first season sire Brutal (O’Reilly) and Frosted (Tapit) respectively for the 2023 Ready2Race Sale.
The Capitalist and Frosted colts were bought by Wattle Bloodstock’s Peter Twomey and leading Singapore trainer Tim Fitzsimmons but the decision was made to re–offer them as two-year-olds given the limited timeframe for the pair to be able to race in Asia as result of bombshell Kranji closure.
Burnet, a Wagga-based horse breaker and trainer, has educated numerous horses in the past who have been sold at two-year-old sales, but elected to offer the quartet under his own banner this year.
“It’s obviously a bit of a craft as it’s about breaking them and educating them correctly, getting them to perform well and fit without causing any injuries and keeping the weight on them. It’s an art form and we’ll see how we go this year, which will probably dictate where we go afterwards,” Burnet told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“I bought one that I was going to educate, which was the All Too Hard, and maybe sell through someone else’s draft but I purchased a Brutal at the HTBA sale for $25,000 and his second dam is a half to [Winx Stakes winner] Fangirl and he’s also a half-brother to Waverider Buoy who Chris Waller trains and he’s won and placed in town numerous times since we bought him.
“Then I’ve got two horses I broke in earlier in the year for Tim Fitzimmons, so all of a sudden my draft’s come together quite nicely. It’s a good mix as well.”
Recent graduates of the Ready2Race Sale include Group 1 winner Nettoyer (Sebring), Group winners such as exciting three-year-old Libertad (Russian Revolution), Forgot You (Savabeel), Allibor (All Too Hard), Gunstock (Tarzino), Malkovich (Choisir) and Darling View Thoroughbreds’ first season sire Lightsaber (Zoustar).
Importantly, Hong Kong success stories Super Wealthy (Epaulette) and Wishful Thinker (I Am Invincible) and current Singapore star Golden Monkey (Star Turn) have also emerged from the Inglis sale ring in recent years.
It is that honour roll which Hutch and his bloodstock team at Inglis is counting on to attract a strong domestic and international buying bench in October.
Hutch said: “You would be hard pressed to find a top trainer in Australia who hasn’t trained a good graduate from a two-year-old sale, so I think it’s a format that’s become more acceptable in the eyes of domestic participants having always been a well respected one by international participants.”
The Ready2Race Sale will be preceded by four breeze-up sessions in New South Wales, Victoria and New Zealand, with the option of turf and artificial surfaces available to vendors.
Seymour and Taupo in New Zealand will host breezes on Monday, September 18, while Hawkesbury will be the host venue on Friday, September 22.
There will then be a final breeze up session back at Hawkesbury on Thursday, October 5, five days prior to the sale at Riverside Stables on Tuesday, October 10.
The Magic Millions 2YOs In Training Sale will be held on the Gold Coast on October 24 and the two-day New Zealand Bloodstock Ready to Run Sale will be conducted on November 22 and 23.