Inglis unveils strongest-ever Ready2Race line-up
Exciting new sires Home Affairs (I Am Invincible) and Stay Inside (Extreme Choice) will take to a new stage in their stud careers alongside proven counterparts such as Zoustar (Northern Meteor), I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit) and Written Tycoon (Iglesia) at a quality-packed Inglis Ready2Race sale.
With an increased representation of fillies, Inglis has assembled a strong catalogue of 222 two-year-olds for its burgeoning breeze-up sale, to be held at Riverside two days before The Everest (Gr 1, 1200m) on October 16.
As the buzz grows about Home Affairs’ first two-year-olds in their early preparations, Coolmore’s young stallion will have six first-crop offspring ready to race in the sale, with four colts, one gelding and a filly.
Newgate Farm’s Golden Slipper (Gr 1, 1200m) winner Stay Inside has a filly and two colts, one of the latter a son of ATC Oaks (Gr 1, 2400m) heroine—and the last horse to beat Winx (Street Cry)—Gust Of Wind (Darci Brahma), offered from the draft of Hanover Lodge.
Inglis bloodstock CEO Sebastian Hutch said he was delighted with the depth and diversity of the catalogue, saying its quality reflected the increasing strength of the sale since its inception in 2013, especially in the past few years.
Recent graduates include dual Group 1 winner Nettoyer (Sebring) plus Group winners Libertad (Russian Revolution), Forgot You (Savabeel), Democracy Manifest (Flying Artie), Lightsaber (Zoustar) and more.
The Ready2Race sale has also experienced change in recent years in attracting more interest from domestic buyers, alongside the traditionally strong business from Asian investors, with their emphasis on purchasing male horses.
Reflecting that shift is a greater representation of fillies this year.
Signature Scent (Written Tycoon)—who’s now won two out of three races for Ciaron Maher—created a sale record last year in being bought back by breeders Yulong from Baystone Farm for $1 million.
But what escaped a lot of notice in the excitement around her sale was that she was in fact the only filly sold at the auction, with six entered, three withdrawn and two passed in.
While 11 fillies were sold at the auction in 2023, this year 25 fillies have been catalogued, including six in the 19-lot draft offered by Dean Harvey’s Baystone. That’s the largest draft entered for the sale by the Victorian farm, which heavily targets the breeze-up market each year with training partner Troy Corstens.
The success of last year’s sale of Signature Scent—bought from Yulong for just $200,000 six months earlier at the Inglis Easter Yearling Sale—has partly inspired Baystone’s greater push for breeze-up fillies for this year’s edition.
“Last year was good to us, and we’ve bought some really nice fillies this year,” Harvey told ANZ News.
“The competition on Signature Scent at the sale was strong, so the appetite for well pedigreed fillies that are well conformed and have ability is definitely there.
“A third of our draft will be fillies. I’d love to get to having it half-half.
“The upswing of that is it gives everyone a good opportunity. There’s not really a lot for the filly buyers to get stuck into at that time of year—fillies who are ready to roll with good pedigrees.
“But the market’s there for them, so I’m happy to provide those. And when you think about residual value, there’s more than one way to skin a cat with a filly.”
Harvey said a greater awareness of the potential for females at the sale reflected how the auction had grown in importance in general.
“Traditionally the sale has been all about buyers from Hong Kong and Singapore,” he said.
“But now it’s been proven there’s a lot more of a diverse array of professional guys there now, buying really nice horses.
“It’ll become a sale buyers can’t afford to ignore. It’s a slam dunk in terms of buying horses that are ready to go.
“They’re trained differently now to what they used to be as well. Previously, they were trained up to run 200 metres for the breeze-ups for the sale. Now, they’re trained to be racehorses. They can slip straight into training and go straight into a trainer’s system and be there for the spring.”
Baystone will offer two fillies among the three lots at the sale by newly–crowned champion sire Zoustar:
Lot 96 is a granddaughter of New Zealand’s Champion Sprinter of 2005 Calveen (Canny Lad) who was bought at Inglis Premier for $230,000. Lot 89 cost $200,000 at Magic Millions Gold Coast and is out of winning mare Ordos Honour (Fastnet Rock), a half-sister to three stakes victors, including the Group 1-placed Media (Gilded Time) and Timbourina (Timber Country).
“The Ordos Honour filly is probably the stand-out in our draft,” Harvey said. “She’s big and leggy and doesn’t give you the early two-year-old look on physicality, but the way she does things—she’s very athletic and light on her feet—I expect good things with her.”
Baystone’s draft also includes one of the sale’s two lots by Wootton Bassett (Iffraaj) in Lot 158, a filly whose fourth dam is the great blue hen Shantha’s Choice (Canny Lad).
The farm also has two more fillies by Farnan (Not A Single Doubt) and Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice), plus colts by stallions including Ole Kirk (Written Tycoon), Harry Angel (Dark Angel) and two more first-season sires causing excitement in shuttlers Pinatubo (Shamardal) and St Mark’s Basilica (Siyouni).
The talk continues to grow around Home Affairs, who topped Magic Millions Gold Coast and Inglis Easter as a first-season sire this year, and whose first horses in training are sparking enthusiastic reports from stables around the country.
His Ready2Race selection includes Baystone’s Lot 41, a colt out of unraced Japanese mare Ishikari Bay (Mikki Isle), and two from noted breeze-up trainer Blake Ryan—a colt out of Peace Of Mind (Bernardini) in Lot 95, and Lot 197, a gelding from Buzzard’s Bay (Snitzel), who’s from the same family as former Kiwi Champion mare Princess Coup (Encosta De Lago).
Hutch said Home Affairs and Stay Inside were two of the more exciting sires at an auction which proved again how the Ready2Race sale had blossomed in recent years.
“There’s a few top stallions in the twilights of their careers in Australia, so there looks to be a big opportunity for these young horses to make an impression on the scene,” Hutch told ANZ News.
“And the two-year-old sale will provide an early insight into the impression that they’re making. There are some well-credentialed two-year-olds amongst their stock, and it’s exciting to see them represented in the catalogue.”
Highlighting the “excellent variety” of stallions represented, Hutch said the catalogue shaped as the finest in the sale’s history.
“It’s a sale format we’ve invested a lot of time and effort into, and the improvement has been progressive year after year,” he said.
“It’s a less-established format here than in other parts of the world but it genuinely does feel to be making progress.
“The support of the sale by quality horse people and quality horse stock is crucial to its success, and I feel we’ve got the best combination of both that we’ve ever had going into the sale.
“There’s an excellent line-up of vendors from Australia and New Zealand, people recognised as experts in this field, people whose motivation is the development of quality racehorses, and people whose reputation is very much based on their ability to present horses at this sale and have them go on to be good racehorses.”
Hutch said Inglis had worked with vendors to broaden the buyer participation for the sale, which holds breeze-ups at Warwick Farm and Taupo, New Zealand, on September 29, and at Wangaratta on September 30.
“It had traditionally been a sale format favoured by international buyers, specifically from Hong Kong, Singapore and Macau,” Hutch said.
“But what has seen our sale progress significantly in recent years has been the extent to which domestic buyers have become involved, seeing there’s been an increase and improvement in the quality of the stock being offered.
“There’s a better quality of horse, and more of those horses stay in Australia and it has enhanced the confidence domestic buyers have in the format.”
Another of Home Affairs’ offspring at the sale is a Lot 216, a colt from Deokyhe (More Than Ready)—a half-sister to multiple Group winners Solicit (Street Cry) and Star Of Giselle (Reset)—offered by Victoria’s Crossley Thoroughbreds, which has a bumper 28-lot draft.
Crossley also has the only offering by triple champion sire I Am Invincible in Lot 68, a full brother to Melbourne Listed-winning two-year-old Ebhaar from the esteemed Legally Bay (Snippets) family that’s produced elite winners Joliestar (Zoustar) and Merchant Navy (Fastnet Rock).
“It’s the biggest draft we’ve put together and the best on paper that I’ve taken to a sale,” said Crossley boss Mitch Pearce, who’s a major fan of the Ready2Race format.
“I’m heading into the sale with a fair bit of optimism. Inglis do a great job of getting international buyers and the like there.”
While still colt-heavy, Crossley’s draft includes a Written Tycoon filly (Lot 7) whose presence was inspired by Signature Scent’s sale last year, and who’s another from the same family as Media and Timbourina.
“Last year when this sale’s first million-dollar horse was a Written Tycoon filly, that got my attention. I put a big circle around this sale this year for our Written Tycoon filly,” said Pearce, who offers three of the stallion’s four lots at the sale.
Another Victorian breeze-up player, Benalla-based Tal Nolen, has 17 lots at the auction, naming among his best Lot 87, a Farnan colt out of One More Tequila (Onemorenomore), dam of the dual stakes-placed gelding Mexico (Capitalist).
“He’s a pretty good horse, I think. A really nice, athletic type, and he’s shown me a bit on the track so far,” said Nolen, father of jockey Luke and breaker and former jockey Shaun.
Nolen, who’s sold $525,000 and $500,000 lots at the sale in the past three years, is also warm on Lot 118, his Wootton Basset colt by Royal Myth (Golden Archer) and Lot 109, a Pinatubo colt out of a half-sister to Blue Diamond Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) winner Reaan (Hussonet).
“The Pinatubo is out of a sharp family but looks like he’ll get over a bit of ground. They’ve got great attitudes the Pinatubos. I’ve only got one but Shaun breaks in a lot of horses and he says they’re very good,” said Nolen, enthused by the look of this year’s sale.
“They generally seem to get a lot of buyers there, it’s a pretty competitive market as a rule, and it looks a very strong catalogue this year. All the leading sires are represented there, and that doesn’t always happen at breeze-up sales.
“People have shopped pretty well at the yearling sales I’d say.”
Ryan also offers the only two sale entrants by the in-demand Too Darn Hot (Dubawi) in Lot 142, a colt out of Tennessee Gold (Lonhro) and Lot 132, a gelding from Smarter Than (Ghibellines).
Inglis said the Ready2Race sale had provided almost 800 individual winning graduates since 2016 at an average earning-per-runner of $111,069—some 35 per cent higher than its nearest rival.
“The timing is a significant positive for the sale, two days before the Everest,” said Hutch, adding the presence of Hong Kong star Ka Ying Rising (Shamexpress) in the $20 million sprint was a bonus.
“It’s a fantastic time to be in Sydney, so I think there’s going to be fantastic engagement with the sale, from Hong Kong-based buyers for one thing.”