Not A Single Doubt filly tops Inglis Weanling Sale at $280,000
Victorian vendor O’Brien relieved with strong result after stressful period
The Inglis Australian Weanling Sale, which ended yesterday with a Not A Single Doubt (Redoute’s Choice) filly becoming the star attraction at $280,000, has helped keep the breeding industry wheel turning and took the week’s trade to nearly $17 million.
The market sentiment experienced at the Sydney foal sale, in particular, bodes well for those vendors who also have stock catalogued at the upcoming Magic Millions National Sale on the Gold Coast.
The two-day Australian Weanling Sale achieved turnover of more than $7.5 million, coming after $6.9 million was traded at Inglis Easter Round 2 and a further $2.3 million changing hands in the Scone Yearling Sale.
There were 220 weanlings sold over the two days, averaging $34,155 (down seven per cent year on year), with the median sitting at $20,000 overnight. The clearance rate was 76 per cent.
The three sales, held at Inglis’ state-of-the-art Riverside Stables, were the first conducted as live auctions since the Covid-19 pandemic struck and were held with the premises closed to Victorian participants, whose state grappled with the rapid spread of the deadly virus.
The Australian Weanling Sale figures were boosted by the late addition of a strong draft from Victoria’s Lauriston Thoroughbred Farm which included the $280,000 Not A Single Doubt sibling to the stakes-performed sprinter Legend Of Condor.
The filly, one of 16 weanlings to make $100,000 or more, usurped an Exceed And Excel (Danehill) colt who fetched $260,000 on Wednesday as the sale’s highest-priced foal.
A colt by Written Tycoon (Iglesia), who was offered by Woodside Park Stud, also sold for $180,000 yesterday after being bought by Binalong Bloodstock.
Sale results
2020 2019
Catalogued 379 250
Offered 290 208
Sold 270 (76%) 173 (83%)
Aggregate $7,514,000 (+18.5%) $6,340,750
Average $34,155 (-6.8%) $36,652
Median $20,000 (+11%) $18,000
Top Lot $280,000 $600,000
The honour of selling the highest-priced lot brought to an end a turbulent and emotional few weeks for Lauriston Thoroughbred Farm’s James O’Brien, who was the leading vendor by average at the sale, after the recent death of his respected father Kevin and the fact he had to contend with the off-again, on-again nature of the sale for Victoria-based sellers.
“I’m ecstatic, over the moon, emotional, very proud of the achievements of today. What a day,’’ O’Brien said.
“We were jumping in a car Friday to sell up there in Sydney but we got blocked on Wednesday, so everything changed.
“We had to find staff, organise travel, accommodation, who could offload the horses once they got to Sydney, all the logistics while trying to let Victorians know they had one day basically to do on-farm inspections here in Victoria before the horses left and everything else.”
The filly was one of a number of last-minute supplementaries as a result of the cancelation of the Great Southern Sale, with Lauriston Thoroughbred Farm selling all ten of its weanlings offered yesterday. The draft averaged $69,900.
“Karis Clarkson ran our team for us at Riverside and she did an outstanding job, as did all the staff, who had never seen these weanlings before until the weekend,” O’Brien said.
“It really took my stress to a new level. The foals are born on your farm, you raise them, get them ready for auction and come to the grand final. It’s like we’ve pulled a hamstring three days out and can’t play. It really was distressing.
“But to come out the other side as leading vendor, all credit goes to my team here on the farm, they put a lot of effort in and the feedback I was getting daily from Karis and her crew at Riverside was exceptional, so thank you to everyone who helped us achieve these great results.’’
Agent Suman Hedge, who was bidding from hotel quarantine in Sydney, combined for a second time at the sale with prominent owner and breeder Steve Grant to secure the top-priced filly.
He relied on Rob Petith, who oversees Grant’s Silverdale farm in the NSW Southern Highlands, as well as Milburn Creek’s Scott Holcombe to provide him with feedback after inspecting her at the complex.
“They were adamant that she was quite elite and the pedigree was there as well,” Hedge said.
“Because of the circumstances, we did a fair bit of due diligence by talking to a number of people who had seen her.
“We lent on Inglis as well and they were very forthcoming that she was a really early, strong, agile type and very much in the mould of the sire. That’s the kind of filly that’s going to be attractive to the market.”
A sister to ATC Kindergarten Stakes (Gr 3, 1100m) runner-up and Skyline Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) placed Legend Of Condor, the filly is the fourth living foal out of the eight-time winner Rhodamine (Success Express). She was catalogued as Lot 343. https://inglis.com.au/sales/info/2020+Australian+Weanling+Sale/catalogue/343
While the intention is to reoffer the filly at next year’s yearling sales, most likely at Magic Millions, Hedge believes some of the risk was mitigated by the fact that the filly’s pedigree held a degree of residual value.
“When you have got a horse like that you’ve got a few options up your sleeve with what you do with her but certainly the intention will be to sell her,” he said.
“Not A Single Doubt’s also been such a good stallion and every day we are reminded how good he is.
“The fact that he’s been pensioned now and that they’re not making them any more, they are just going to be so valuable. You’d expect that he will make an impact as a broodmare sire later on, but this horse has got a good profile for racing, too.”
O’Brien was pleased the market backed up his opinion of the sales topper.
“She’s an outstanding type and was from the outset,’’ he said.
“We’ve always felt she’d be popular come sale-time so all credit to Suman and Steve and the team, I’m confident they’ll get a great result if they on sell or keep her to race.’’
Hedge and Grant also bought a Deep Field (Northern Meteor) filly on day one for $100,000 from Edinburgh Park Stud.
Mihalyka looking for lightning to strike twice with Pancho’s half-brother
Earlier in the session, Louis Mihalyka made a triumphant return to the Riverside Sales ring to buy the Russian Revolution (Snitzel) half-brother to his Laurel Oak Bloodstock-owned stakes winner Pancho (Dissident) for $150,000.
Not a noted weanling sale participant, Mihalyka made an exception yesterday to ensure the Sledmere Stud-consigned colt would wear the same red, white and green Laurel Oak colours as his sibling.
The agent had the backing of the syndicate who race the Chris Waller-trained rising four-year-old.
“I go through the catalogues and look for opportunities either for something that I’d like to buy as a yearling and if then I have clients who are interested in buying a weanling and putting it back through a sale with me as a potential buyer, then I buy for them,” said Mihalyka at Riverside Stables, his first visit to a sales ground since the Inglis Premier sale in Melbourne in early March.
“In this particular case, I actually asked the Pancho owners if they wanted to buy the horse now. If we don’t put him through a weanling sale it’s probably going to be $15,000 to get him to a yearling stage, so we will be paying that much for this colt as a yearling as what we paid for Pancho as a yearling.
“Similarly, he’s by a first season sire (as Pancho was), but this time the mare’s a bit more proven, so we think it’s good value.
“We’ll put him aside, wait patiently and then race him.”
A Sledmere Stud homebred, who was catalogued as Lot 322, https://inglis.com.au/sales/info/2020+Australian+Weanling+Sale/catalogue/322 the colt is the third foal out of the juvenile-winning Group 3-placed Novel Dancer (Written Tycoon), making him the half-brother to Listed winner Pancho and an unraced two-year-old Book Launch (Smart Missile).
Trained by Mark Newnham, Book Launch was retained to race by Sledmere Stud and the gelding made his first public appearance on Monday in a Warwick Farm barrier trial when fourth behind Jet Propulsion (Rubick).
“We’ve been good supporters of Russian Revolution, we believe in the stallion and he’s a nice colt,” Sledmere’s Royston Murphy said.
“We came here with the idea of bringing a nice colt to show what Russian can do. We are very happy with that result, so it’s nice to see the stallion shine here at the sales as well as on the track.”
There was a $150,000 reserve placed on the highly regarded colt and Murphy admitted he may have realised more had it not been for the Covid-19 crisis.
“We all realise the sales are probably down a little bit. He was a horse that four months ago we thought we might have got a little bit more for but we came here to try and meet the market and we’re very happy with that result,” he said.
Meanwhile, Pancho, who was purchased by Mihalyka for $165,000 at the 2018 Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale and has won three of his 11 starts and more than $400,000 in prize-money, is nearing a racetrack return.
“He’s in work and he’s only about ten days off trialling and he’ll resume in August. We did go the high road with him at the end of his three-year-old season,” he said.
“He’s only won a Listed race but ended up running fourth in the Hobartville, near the tail in the Rosehill Guineas and sixth in the Randwick Guineas and he’s only about a Benchmark 90 horse so we can go back to just winning races with now and taking him through the grades.”
Mihalyka also revealed yesterday that connections rejected lucrative offers from Asia for the rising four-year-old gelding.
He said: “Chris is very happy with him. We had an offer from Hong Kong and I asked Chris, ‘what would you do?’ and he said don’t sell which is what we’d decided anyway, so I take that as a positive on how he is going
“Being a Dissident, we think he will get better as a four-year-old.”
Safety in numbers for Jazcom
Jazcom Thoroughbreds’ Colin and Meagan Branthwaite, who sold a Toronado (High Chaparral) colt for $180,000 at the Scone Yearling Sale on Sunday, were the leading buyers at the Australian Weanling Sale by number of lots at 16.
Binalong Bloodstock was strong at the top of the market, taking home four weanlings for a total of $450,000.
“The horses are here for us to buy, there’s good quality in our market,’’ Colin Branthwaite said.
“I like to cover a lot of angles and have a lot of chances and try to cash in on whatever one comes good, rather than put all my eggs in one basket.
“I could tell from doing the inspections there were a lot more nice horses here. The horses are here and I won’t buy them if I don’t like them but I liked a lot of horses here.’’
Mike O’Donnell of Fairhill Farm was rewarded for committing his foal crop to the sale and was leading vendor by aggregate. He sold 23 weanlings for a total of $858,000, while Coolmore also sold 23 lots for $823,000.
O’Donnell said: “We can’t get away from the fact Covid is an issue we are all dealing with but the past 48 hours have been exceptional, considering the times we’re in, and the Inglis staff have been unbelievably good to make this happen.
“I had expectations that I didn’t want to think about so we’re very happy with how this has turned out for us.
“Everyone that could be here, was, and those that couldn’t, they were all represented, and as a vendor that’s all you can ask for.’’
Written Tycoon (Iglesia) ended as leading sire by average (for three or more sold), with his progeny averaging $100,000. Russian Revolution topped the averages (for three or more sold) at $75,000 on the first season sire table, while Hellbent was second with his progeny averaging $71,000.
Inglis manager of bloodstock sales and marketing Sebastian Hutch is aware of the importance the company played in ensuring a live auction was held in July, traditionally a quiet period on the Australian sales calendar.
“I think over the last two days we have turned over in excess of $7.5 million – it’s a very significant amount of money – and again we had in excess of $9 million on Sunday. In three days, there was in excess of $16 million, so it’s not something we’re complacent about,” he said.
“It’s repeatedly stressed the importance of keeping the wheels turning and we continue to try and find every possible way that we can do that.
“The industry’s been very much advantaged by the fact that racing’s continued during this period and, similarly, we’ve been able to keep the sales going.”
One aspect that pleased the auction house was the willingness of the buying bench to participate in the sale even if they were not able to attend.
“It is something that you can never necessarily master, but it’s something we’ve worked really hard on and that is trying to establish relationships with people to facilitate them doing business in absentia,” he said.
“That’s been necessitated by the circumstances, but we have really doubled down our efforts to offer the best service to our buying patrons to try and make the experience as satisfying as we can possibly make it.”