Ghaiyyath colt fetches $625,000 as Inglis Classic ends on a high
Tony and Calvin McEvoy lodged a ringing vote of confidence in Ghaiyyath (Dubawi) as the Darley shuttler took another great leap in his burgeoning career by emerging with the auction topper as the third most successful Inglis Classic Yearling Sale in history wrapped on Tuesday.
Team McEvoy paired with regular partner Damon Gabbedy’s Belmont Bloodstock to pay $625,000 for the imposing colt, offered as Lot 668 by New Zealand’s Wentwood Grange stud, making him Classic’s highest-priced lot since 2022 and its equal third-highest this decade.
The well-related bay is the fifth foal out of Berg En Dal (Dehere), a two-time winning half-sister to Leigh Valley (Bianconi), a New Zealand Group 3 victor but best known as the dam of Valley Girl (Mastercraftsman), who won Te Rapa’s Herbie Dyke Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m) in 2016 before running second in Rosehill’s Vinery Stud Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m) the following month.
Team McEvoy’s purchase highlighted an auction which showed increases in all metrics on its 2025 edition, with Inglis Bloodstock CEO Sebastian Hutch describing Inglis’s first sale of the season as “very pleasing”.
Ghaiyyath has become a hot sire, bursting to prominence last spring in Melbourne with his first four stakes winners in the space of a few weeks. Capped by the VRC Derby (Gr 1, 2500m) triumph of Ciaron Maher and Godolphin’s Observer, the quartet gave the four-time Group 1-winning stallion an 11.11 per cent stakes winners to runners ratio in Australia from just 36 starters. He also faces the near certainty of a return to Australia this spring after a year off the shuttle, and with a huge fee rise from his 2024 mark of $27,500.
Tuesday’s colt also obliterated the Ghaiyyath’s previous top Australasian sale, the Curraghmore filly who sold for NZ$375,000 to China Horse Club at Karaka last month.
And, still riding the wave from their Melbourne Cup (Gr 1, 3200m) success with Half Yours (St Jean), the father and son McEvoys are confident their first foray into Ghaiyyath’s stock will stand a strong chance of continuing their stable’s success overall, and its strong record at Classic in particular. The stable’s recent graduates from the sale have included Group 1 winners Veight (Grunt) and Coco Sun (The Autumn Sun).
“We love the stallion. He’s doing very good things, isn’t he? He’s got everyone very excited,” said Calvin McEvoy, moments after winning a tense bidding duel with bloodstock agent Dean Hawthorne.
“We tried to buy a few in New Zealand, but unfortunately we weren’t strong enough. But this is a colt that we’ve been really trying to piece together since I saw him on Tuesday last week.
“He’s just a beautiful walker, a good, strong colt off a great farm, a farm with very good stats. So I knew we’d have to be strong. I didn’t know I’d have to be that strong, but we’re pleased to have him.
“He’s not fully subscribed yet so there’s certainly positions in him.”
McEvoy hopes the colt might be the first of a few Ghaiyyaths to enter their stable “with a bit of luck in the next few months”, and will develop into a Classics type.
“He’ll be at his best at three and four, but he’s so well put together – he was a strong colt with a lot of substance – it wouldn’t surprise me if he gets there towards the end of his two-year-old days,” he said.
“He’s going to be a lovely three-year-old, no doubt about that, but he just had the best attitude. I’ve been watching them, and they seem to have great temperaments.
“He’s so well bred, the stallion, and it’s nice to have one by him.”
Wentwood Grange’s Dean Hawkins was almost lost for words with the sale. Only two weeks after the stud set a personal best with an Anamoe (Street Boss) colt sold to Bjorn Baker at Karaka for NZ$600,000, they’ve found a new high water mark.
It also put a welcome end to a tough sale for the farm, who saw two of their four lots passed in and an Anamoe colt fetch $200,000, sold to Liam Howley.
“That was unbelievable,” Hawkins said. “He has been a great mover the whole week, and the staff have done a terrific job.
“He was on the market at $150,000, he was here to not go home. But he walked so well here. I’m stoked.”
The sale’s Tuesday night aggregate of $57.57 million ranks behind only Classic’s booming 2022 edition, which grossed $67.23 million, and eclipsed 2023’s $57.48 million. It also bettered the gross at the same stage of the 2025 sale of $54.10 million, with 18 more lots sold (592 to 574).
Year-on-year, the clearance rate of 84 per cent outshone the 80 per cent of 2025, the average was up to $97,253 from $94,257, and the median was up from $70,000 to $75,000.
All of which delighted Hutch, who said while difficulties existed at the lower end, the thirst for higher priced horses at the sale – and by implication among owners looking to buy shares in them – was “very pleasing”.
“We wanted the sale to be up. We felt like we were in a position to have a better sale than 12 months ago, so it is satisfying to sit here and have the gross be up, the clearance be up, the average be up, the median be up – everything’s up. So that’s pleasing,” Hutch said.
“I don’t think there’s any disguising the fact there are challenges in the market, particularly in the value range of zero to $100,000 or zero to $80,000; it’s tricky there.
“But the appetite for what are perceived to be the really desirable horses seemed to be pretty ferocious right through the sale.
“We’re going to clear 84 or 83 per cent and that’s before we get stuck into passed in lots. I know clearance has been a concern for people through the prelude to the sale season, particularly in the part of the market this sale predominantly occupies, and so to be clearing 84 per cent with the prospect of that being higher is pleasing.”
Hutch said the sale’s results boded “really well” for Inglis’s Premier and Easter sales.
“The fact we ran good sales in 2025 gave us good momentum into the spring. So when we were on farms talking about the Inglis sales series of 2026, there was very positive sentiment towards the sale series as a whole,” he said.
“That was borne out to some extent by the results here, but if my expectations are right It will be borne out more so at Premier, where it just feels like we have an improved catalogue, certainly in terms of quality, and we have a very good catalogue for Easter.”
Sons of Dubawi (Dubai Millennium) were all the rage in the last session at Classic. Hong Kong-based trainer Casper Fownes nabbed a colt by Too Darn Hot (Dubawi) for $375,000, almost the second-top lot of the day.
Offered by Lime Country Thoroughbreds, the handsome bay is the ninth foal out of Courtyard Circle (Anabaa), who is a three-quarter sister to the stakes winning Key Bar Nights (Anabaa) and half-sister to another Queensland stakes winner in Princess Margaret (Spectrum).
“I love him,” Fownes said of Too Darn Hot. “What’s not to like about him? He’s a proven stallion and I love Dubawi as one of the best sires of all time.
“He looked a lovely athletic type,” Fownes said of the colt, “a great walker, a little bit on the smaller side but we’re looking for what he’s going to look like in another year’s time, and hopefully he’ll fill that frame out and get to where we want him to be.”
Between the Ghaiyyath and the Too Darn Hot as the day’s second ranking yearling was Lot 592, a Mullaglass Stud filly by Home Affairs (I Am Invincible) out of You Rang (Sebring) sold by Mullaglass Stud to Bryce Heys for $380,000.
The dam is a two-time scoring half-sister to Group 3-winning gelding Rise Of The Masses (Russian Revolution), out of New Zealand’s Champion 2YO of 2012-13, Ruud Awakening (Bernardini).
Mullaglass owner Richard McClenahan was ecstatic, having purchased You Rang carrying the filly from Coolmore for $160,000 at the Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale.
“I’m delighted and relieved. She’s been a very popular filly all week,” he said. “We were hoping she’d hit the $250,000 mark, so to exceed that by so much, we’re really happy. It’s up there with some of our bigger sales.
“She’s been an easy horse, foaled on the farm, straightforward and hasn’t put a foot wrong.”
Fourth-top yearling was Lot 621, Newgate Farm’s colt by Extreme Choice (Not A Single Doubt) out of Altair’s Glow (Encosta De Lago), bought by the stallion’s former trainer Mick Price for $360,000.
Newgate Farm’s sub-fertile flagbearer Extreme Choice was the sale’s leading sire by average (for three or more lots sold), with his trio going for a mean of $295,000, while Coolmore’s Home Affairs topped the aggregates, with 18 lots fetching $3.15 million at an average of $175,000.
Anamoe was comfortably the leading first season sire, with five lots grossing $785,000 at $157,000.
At the close of business on Tuesday, Arrowfield Stud ended as leading vendor with 32 yearlings sold for $3.72 million, ahead of Sledmere Stud with 27 moved for $3.14 million. Kirks Bridge Farm led by averages, at three or more lots sold, with four lots at a mean of $180,000.
Price led the buyers with eight lots for $1.3 million, ahead of the McEvoys with five for $1.15 million.
Sale statistics – Inglis Classic Yearling Sale 2026*
2026 2025
Catalogued 800 806
Offered 708 721
Sold 592 (84%) 574 (80%)
Aggregate $57,573,500 (+6.4%) $54,103,500
Average $97,253 (+3.1%) $94,257
Median $75,000 (7.1%) $70,000
Top Lot $625,000 $520,000
* stats from 2025 are taken at the close of trade on day 3