Inglis Easter Sale begins with ‘elite offering’ against an uncertain global backdrop
Inglis Easter, the southern hemisphere’s most important yearling sale, kicks off on Sunday marked by the competing forces of what’s been hailed as its finest catalogue yet contrasted by deep global uncertainty over the war in the Middle East.
The latter factor has Inglis Bloodstock CEO Sebastian Hutch “apprehensive” about how the auction will pan out, with the tendrils of US president Donald Trump’s incursion into Iran possibly reaching as far as the Australian thoroughbred market.
And with that action erupting at the outset of the Melbourne Premier sale earlier this month, Hutch believes it renders exposed form in the 2026 Australasian yearling market thus far – mostly positive though it might be – as far less of a guide than usual.
Following withdrawals, a concentrated total of 421 yearlings will go under the hammer from 11am on Sunday in the two-day sale hailed as “the best of the best”.
When the catalogue was released in January, Hutch described it as the finest he’d seen in his seven years at Inglis. That assertion has been echoed by others at Riverside this week.
“I look at a lot of yearlings, and buy the odd one,” North Bloodstock’s general manager Mick Malone told ANZ News. “I’ve seen the whole catalogue, and I reckon I’ve never seen a bunch of Easter horses as good. They’ve put a very good catalogue together.
“There’s been huge interest here this week. Foot traffic is really, really good, with lots of parades. It feels good.
“There’s either a lot of tyre kickers here or it’s going to be a really good sale.”
However, the man in charge is taking a more guarded approach.
While Hutch is typically cautious and conservative in his forecasts for Inglis sales, he feels he has more grounds than usual this year, given what’s happening 13,000 kilometres away.
Trump’s attack on Iran and the wide and profound ructions it has caused – from global financial markets to Australian fuel prices – means the Inglis team will have their fingers crossed about seeing a level of immunity from the troubles of the world at Riverside on Sunday and Monday.
“I’m apprehensive in advance of the sale,” Hutch told ANZ News. “That’s not unusual for me before a sale, but I’m very aware of what challenges there are to be faced in advance of a sale like this. The timing is not ideal.
“It’s just a confidence thing. The level of uncertainty we have at the moment is not typically conducive to people making bullish decisions. There’s a volatile stock market, a weak currency in places like New Zealand and Japan. Travel from Europe and other places is a bit trickier than it ordinarily would be.
“We’ve consolidated a good group of people here for the sale, but these are not the conditions you’d choose if you could pick your conditions to have a sale.”
Hutch said he did not want to “elicit false expectations of false confidence in the market”.
“It’s normal to be apprehensive when, despite having a catalogue of good horses, you’re trying to conduct a sale with a backdrop of a war in the Middle East involving a number of the major economies in the world, and the effect that’s having on economies locally and internationally,” he said.
“They’re not the sort of circumstances you’d pick to go selling horses on.”
That said, Hutch said the sale could create opportunities for savvy buyers, especially considering one factor that’s not uncertain – the quality of stock on offer.
“I think people will see an opportunity in what’s happening and look to take advantage of that, and good luck to those people,” he said.
“I don’t want to be complacent about where we’re going to land on Sunday and Monday, but we’ve got a good product here, and people want to race good horses.”
He added: “Certainly at this stage we’re very positive about the horses. I think there are a lot of very significant horses here, and not just at the pointy end of the market, but right the way through.
“I think people will buy some spectacularly good horses at $120,000, $150,000, $220,000 – right the way through the various price points. I think there’s good horses at all levels of the market.”
Hutch also issued a reminder to potential buyers of the benefits of a long-term view, even in troubled times.
“The horses are very good and the response to them appears to have been very positive,” he said.
“There are plenty of buyers here. You can never have enough, but there’s been good footfall and there’s more people to arrive.
“But we’ve made a conscientious effort to remind people that the investment decisions they make on Sunday and Monday, and the capacity of those decisions to shape their business over the next 12 to 36 months and beyond … things might be tricky today, but some of these horses are going to be very important in years to come.”
Contrasting Hutch’s wariness, and despite the economic turmoil stemming from Iran, the experienced Malone said he was “expecting it to be a good sale”.
“There’s a lot of uncertainties at the moment in the world, but there’s probably not a sale that’s in a better position to face those uncertainties than Easter,” he said.
“There’s a different line of people that buy here, whose funds maybe aren’t as affected as buyers at lesser sales, where syndicators have to buy a horse and sell it to 30 or 40 people.
“People who come here have the money to spend or not, and they’re here for a reason – because they want to buy. They’re not here for fun.”
The sale has of course been robbed of its expected highlight with the withdrawal four weeks ago of the colt out of Winx (Street Cry) by Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice).
But dozens of other potential headliners will be on offer from a catalogue of undoubted quality.
They include Lot 451, the brother to Coolmore Stud Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) winner and current sire at that farm, Switzerland (Snitzel) offered by Arrowfield Stud, the sale’s most prominent vendor with 64 entries.
Lot 308 is Widden Stud’s brother to Zougotcha (Zoustar), Golden Slipper (Gr 1, 1200m) queen Fireburn (Rebel Dane) has a sister in the sale offered by Goodwood Farm as Lot 452, while Milburn Creek has a half-brother to star sprinting mare Magic Time (Hellbent), as Lot 153.
Yulong’s expansive draft includes two filly first foals by their stallion Alabama Express (Redoute’s Choice). Lot 318 is from three-time elite-level winner Forbidden Love (All Too Hard), while Lot 345’s dam is Empire Rose Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) heroine Icebath (Sacred Falls).
Three-time elite-level winner Sunlight (Zoustar) – bearer of last year’s record $3.2 million Gold Coast sale topping filly by Home Affairs (I Am Invincible) – will this year be represented at Easter by Lot 128 – Coolmore’s filly by Justify (Scat Daddy).
Siblings are on offer to a host of other elite-level winners including Private Eye (Al Maher), Celestial Legend (Dundeel), Hitotsu (Maurice), Cool Archie (Cool Aza Beel) and Estijaab (Snitzel), while Inglis catalogued the progeny of 51 Group 1-winning mares for the sale.
Malone said the quality of the catalogue was so consistently high, the wealth would be widely spread across vendors. That could count against a matching of last year’s top price – the $3m Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott and Bruce Slade’s Kestrel Thoroughbreds paid for a colt by Home Affairs out of Shout The Bar (Not A Single Doubt).
“But when the better ones are in big numbers, which they are here, everyone gets a crack,” Malone said. “The buyers don’t just launch into 40 or 50 of them – there’s 150 of those really good ones here, so that money gets spread wider. So, as a vendor, you don’t get the big earn that you might be expecting.”
The 2026 edition could go down as the Easter of Extreme Choice (Not A Single Doubt), whose yearlings have been turning many heads at Riverside in the past week.
Newgate Farm’s subfertile sensation has ten offspring on offer and importantly, they’re from his first full crop after he entered the stratosphere of service fees at $275,000 (inc GST) following his stunning first few years of runners.
Much interest is certain to also focus on the progeny of Coolmore stallion Home Affairs (I Am Invincible), who’s explosive start to top the first season sires’ tables on both sides of the Tasman received a resounding exclamation point through Saturday’s Golden Slipper triumph of his son Guest House.
“There’s plenty of stallions they’ll be chasing, but Home Affairs will be right on the market now,” Malone said.
The relatively new North enterprise’s third Easter draft comprises 13 yearlings by an array of in-demand sires including Zoustar (Northern Meteor), Wootton Bassett (Iffraaj), Too Darn Hot (Dubawi), Ole Kirk (Written Tycoon) and Anamoe (Street Boss).
It also has two lots by Home Affairs. Lot 192 is a filly out of Yolanda (Shamus Award), a half-sister to the stakes-winning dam of Farnan (Not A Single Doubt), while Lot 393 is a colt out of an unraced half-sister to two multiple stakes winners, including the dam of another one in Eneeza (Exceed And Excel).
The sale will have a very early gauge to Home Affairs’ popularity with the well-bred Lot 1, Coolmore’s daughter of elite victor O’Marilyn (O’Reilly), the joint top filly on the 2013-14 New Zealand 2YO free handicap.
Coolmore offers five other of the 14 Homes Affairs yearlings on offer including Lot 165, a colt out of Twinkle (Galileo), a sister to Epsom Derby hero Anthony Van Dyck and a half-sister to the Group 1-winning Bounding (Lonhro), New Zealand’s Champion Sprinter of 2013-14.
The Jerrys Plains farm also presents Lot 384, a filly out of Lake Geneva (Fastnet Rock), a sister to Ennis Hill, the stakes-winning dam of Australia’s Champion 2YO Filly of 2022-23, Learning To Fly (Justify).
Also from Home Affairs’ selection is Lot 441, a Longwood Thoroughbred Farm colt out of a winning three-quarter sister to Eloping (Choisir), the five-time stakes winning dam of dual Group 1 victor In Secret (I Am Invincible).
The sale features progeny of 64 stallions headed by the late, great Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice), who’s the most represented sire with 43 entries from his penultimate crop, ahead of I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit) with 41 and Zoustar with 35.