Inglis release quality Easter catalogue
Hutch rates the yearlings assembled for 2024 sale among the strongest ever compiled by the auction house
The keenly awaited first live foal out of Winx (Street Cry) and the maiden offspring of Group 1–winning mares including Melody Belle (Commands), Pippie (Written Tycoon) and Mizzy (Zoustar) are among the headliners for an Easter Yearling Sale catalogue Inglis’s CEO of bloodstock Sebastian Hutch calls ‘the best he’s seen’.
A neat 500 lots – the first time that figure has been reached at the sale since the Covid-hit 2020 edition – have been listed for Riverside on April 7 and 8 and Hutch believes the sale’s record of 28 million-dollar yearlings will come under pressure.
He’s also confident Winx’s first foal to see a sales ring – her filly by Pierro (Lonhro) offered by the great mare’s owners from the Coolmore draft – will be among those million-dollar yearlings, when she goes on sale just after the midway point of day two, as Lot 391.
But while ebullient over the stand-out yearlings, including those from the dams of the top three lots at last year’s Magic Millions Gold Coast sale, Hutch said Easter would once again defy “misconceptions” that it’s for the top-end only, stressing the value element – helped by being the last major auction of the season – would be on show again.
“There was the perception at one stage that it’s exclusive or an elitist type sale. That’s very much not the case,” Hutch told ANZ.
“It’s a sale in which the vast majority of investors in the market can participate, as shown by the fact that more than 120 yearlings in the sale last year made $200,000 or less.
“There is the opportunity for genuine value. People are very conscious of that now. It’s something people have taken good advantage of in recent years and they’ll do so again this year.”
Still, there will of course be many of the best-bred yearlings of the season on offer, at commensurate prices. None will draw more attention than the first live foal of Winx, whose 25 Group 1 victories make for an extremely full catalogue page.
Raised at Coolmore, the filly is already precious, but may turn out to be extremely rare as well, given her famous dam’s early breeding record. Winx’s first foal, by I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit), was born deceased in 2020, and she was not served again that year, before her 2021 mating with Coolmore’s Pierro, then standing for $110,000 (inc GST), produced this filly. Winx was covered by Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice) a month after her filly’s birth, but missed. She was covered again by Arrowfield’s flag bearer last November 29.
“It’s a special opportunity, selling Winx’s first live foal,” Hutch said. “We’ve had a lot of enquiries about her already, and that’ll continue as we draw closer to the sale. I’m confident she’ll be a seven figure yearling. Where she lands beyond that, we’ll be happy for the market to decide.”
The progeny of a host of other outstanding racemares will go under the hammer, including 14-time Group 1 winner Melody Belle’s filly first foal, by Written Tycoon (Iglesia), offered as Lot 143 through the Yulong Stud draft.
Canterbury Stakes (Gr 1, 1300m) winner Mizzy’s initial offspring, a filly by Coolmore’s in-demand shuttler Wootton Bassett (Iffraaj) (Lot 159)– whose daughter out of Avantage (Fastnet Rock) topped this month’s Magic Millions sale at $2.1 million – will be offered via the Coolmore draft, while dual Group 1-winning sprinter Pippie’s first-born, a filly by Snitzel, will be offered by Cressfield.
Triple Group 1-winning sprinter Sunlight’s (Zoustar) second foal (Lot 329), by Wootton Bassett, is another in the Coolmore draft. Her first foal Dawn Service (Justify) fetched $1.4 million at the Gold Coast last year, when selling to Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott and Bruce Slade’s Kestrel Thoroughbreds, and has had two barrier trials to date.
And Sunlight’s sixth sibling – a Widden Stud colt from the seventh among nine Zoustar (Northern Meteor) covers for her dam Solar Charged (Charge Forward) (Lot 304) – looks sure to fetch seven figures, especially given the prices for Sunlight’s past three siblings: Colt Dio fetched $1.1 million at Easter in 2020; another colt Kandinsky Abstract topped that sale two years later at $3 million; and Clean Energy – a filly who’s now had one barrier trial for Waterhouse-Bott so far – was the second top-lot at the Gold Coast last January, going to Yulong for $2.6 million.
Quadruple stakes-winner Anaheed (Fastnet Rock), who’s I Am Invincible colt topped the Gold Coast last January when he sold to Tom Magnier for $2.7 million, has a brother to that colt in Segenhoe’s Easter draft and he will be offered as Lot 418.
And Oakleigh Plate (Gr 1, 1100m) winner Booker – who’s I Am Invincible colt went to Ciaron Maher for $2.5 million a year ago – has a filly by the same dual-champion sire in this Easter’s Coolmore draft and she is catalogued as Lot 443.
The 19-year-old I Am Invincible leads the way at Easter with 44 lots, ahead of the 21-year-old Snitzel with 40. Zoustar – the “baby” of the bunch aged just 13 – has 36 and 21-year-old Written Tycoon has 31.
“We’re very fortunate in that the higher-profile stallions are still capable of generating very strong crops. They’re stallions who are still breeding in significant numbers,” said Hutch, “delighted” with the quality on offer this year.
“It’s hard to emphasise how pleased we are with how it’s come together. We had a great sale last year, and we felt this year was going to be at least as competitive a year as we’ve ever had when we were canvassing for horses for the sale.
“As the spring wore on, it became more evident we’d get phenomenal support for the sale. You still hold your breath a little when you speak to clients about what their final decisions are about placements of their horses, but it got really exciting, because each farm seemed to be placing what we, and they, regarded as their best yearlings in this sale at Easter.
“It’s come together as a fantastic catalogue, the best I’ve seen in my five years here, and the guys who’ve been here much longer have said they can’t remember another year that felt as strong as this.”
Asked about the Easter record of 28 million-dollar lots, Hutch said, “I think we’ll be taking a good swing at it.”
Siblings to 175 stakes-winners will be on offer, also including Militarize (Dundeel), Ozzmosis (Zoustar), Tofane (Ocean Park), Golden Mile (Astern), Fireburn (Rebel Dane), Private Eye (Al Maher) and Farnan (Not A Single Doubt).
And Farnan himself is among several first-season sires sure to create a major buzz, with the Golden Slipper (Gr 1, 1200m) winner’s 16 lots including Kia Ora’s colt first foal of former New Zealand filly of the year, the Oaks-winning Jennifer Eccles (Rip Van Winkle) (Lot 89).
Ole Kirk (Written Tycoon) has eight colts and two fillies, including the colt first foal of triple Group winner Sovereign Award (Shamus Award) (Lot 309) in his home stud Vinery’s draft. In contrast, Darley’s Bivouac (Exceed And Excel) has six fillies and two colts, while another debutant sire, Coolmore’s King’s Legacy (Redoute’s Choice) has five lots headed by Cannon Hayes Stud’s half-brother to Group 1 winners Mazu (Maurice) and Headway (Charge Forward) (Lot 458).
But the first season sire with the largest selection is that potential shuttling sensation again, Wootton Bassett, with 27.
Aside from the aforementioned lots out of Mizzy and Sunlight, the 15-year-old established Northern Hemisphere star’s selection includes colts out of Group 1 winners Daysee Doom (Domesday) (Lot 483) and Fanatic (Shocking) (Lot 18), and from multiple stakes-winners Tulip (Pierro) (Lot 360) and No More Tears (Darci Brahma) (Lot 181).
Wootton Bassett’s fillies include two from Group 1 winners Rostova (Testa Rossa) (Lot 252) – who’s also the dam of Anaheed – and Qafila (Not A Single Doubt) (Lot 228).
The stallion’s stock help make up an impressive 39-lot draft for Coolmore. Winx’s filly will have top billing, but the stud’s other lots out of top-tier winners including Sunlight, Booker, Rostova, Qafila, Mizzy and El Dorado Dreaming (Ilovethiscity) help make up one of their strongest Easter drafts.
“The huge investment Coolmore has been putting into mares in the past five years is really coming to fruition now, and that’s what we’re seeing in this Easter draft,” said the stud’s nominations and sales manager Colm Santry.
“We’re also really looking forward to Easter because of the yearlings by our sires Wootton Bassett and Justify, on the back of their Magic Millions sales and their current racetrack results worldwide, which have been phenomenal.”
Arrowfield has the largest draft, with 61 lots, ahead of Widden’s 42. Sitting behind Coolmore in fourth spot is Yulong with 33, with Newgate, who have 30 catalogued, the only other vendor with more than 20.
Among 65 sires represented, the catalogue is further enhanced by a strong line-up of yearlings by leading international stallions including Frankel (Galileo), Siyouni (Pivotal), Kingman (Invincible Spirit), Lope De Vega (Shamardal), Night Of Thunder (Dubawi), New Bay (Dubawi) and the first ever yearling to be offered in Australia by US sire sensation Gun Runner (Candy Ride).
Hutch said Easter’s position on the calendar did present challenges in terms of inspecting yearlings in early August with a view to a sale eight months later. But while this helps guarantee quality, the auction’s timing at the end of the sale season, he said, would present chances for budget buyers again this year. This has become more evident in recent years with syndicators increasingly keen to have their buying done early on.
“Whether it’s Gold Coast, New Zealand, Classic or earlier sales, certain people prefer to do the bulk of their buying earlier to give themselves as much time as they can to sell shares,” Hutch said.
“The fact many people might have done their buying, or a large percentage of it, just opens up opportunities to other people at Easter. So the sale presents a healthy marketplace and a broad cross section of participants.”
Hutch also backed Easter’s record for producing two-year-olds.
“Sometimes you hear people say the sale is for later maturing horses, given when it’s on, but that’s just not correct,” he said. “This sale has the best stakes-winners-to-runners ratio for two-year-olds of any sale in Australasia, as a percentage of the horses in the sale.
“It produces more high class two-year-olds than any other sale, whether you’re seeking a stallion prospect or a filly you want to be a foundation broodmare. The number of outstanding racehorses from fillies people have bought at Easter has been incredible.”