Ole Kirk filly delivers Lemrac Lodge a dream result at Great Southern Sale
A filly by Vinery Stud’s first-season sire Ole Kirk (Written Tycoon) came out on top of a solid day of trade at the Inglis Great Southern Weanling Sale, when he was knocked down to Wilrace for $475,000.
Catalogued as Lot 198, the filly was offered by Lemrac Lodge, who purchased her dam, unraced Commands (Danehill) mare Rainy Daze carry the sale topper for just $12,000 on the 2024 Inglis April (Late) Online Sale, on the advice of Inglis bloodstock sales manager Will Stott.
In a lucky turn of events, Ole Kirk has made a furiously good start in his first season with runners, siring 12 winners from 25 starters and the cohort is headed by four stakes winners including Group scorers Legacy Bound and the ill-fated King Kirk. Off the back of this, the Vinery stallion will stand for a fee of $99,000 (inc GST), up from the $55,000 (inc GST) he stood for in 2024.
“It’s fantastic – unbelievable. A dream come true. We were so lucky to hit that hot stallion at the time of sale, so that always helps, but she sold herself,” Lemrac’s Megan Kirsopp-Cole told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“She was magnificent – her walk, her nature, everything about her was perfect. She has perfect confirmation. From the day she was born, she was just a ten out of ten and she stayed that way until sale day. We bought the mare online and she was foaled, we were there for the foaling, and we’ve got her to here today.
“We did really well. We love coming here. This sale is good to us. Will Stott [from Inglis] puts me onto mares to buy, and I love him dearly.”
Rainy Daze’s two winners are headed by Group 3 scorer Vegadaze (Lope De Vega), while further back this is the same family as VRC Derby (Gr 1, 2500m) winner Riff Rocket (American Pharoah).
Bidding on behalf of Wilrace was Canon Hayes stud director and general manager David Morrissey, who said the filly impressed on both type and pedigree.
“Obviously, the stallion’s doing a great job and she matched up physically. She’s got a pedigree, so she ticked a lot of the boxes for us,” Morrissey said.
“We loved her action, loved her length of hip, there was very little to fault. We don’t know if we’re going to put her in the racing system or we’ll present her next year at the sales, but we’re very happy to get her. We’ll get her home and see how she grows out over the winter and the spring and we’ll make decisions then.
“We might keep her to breed or we might put her back through the ring next year.
“We can’t get a mare into [Ole Kirk], so we’re going to have to buy one. We identified it as being the best filly in the sale. We think she is and hopefully we and the new owners will have a bit of luck with her.”
Morgan snares Wootton Bassett colt
The second highest-priced lot of the day was Lot 106, the sole offering in the catalogue by Coolmore’s standout shuttler, Wootton Bassett (Iffraaj).
Bred and sold by Rosemont Stud, the filly is out of a winning daughter of Frankel (Galileo) and initially left the ring unsold, but eventually a deal was reached privately, with Peter Morgan and Gall Bloodstock paying $350,000 for the youngster.
Morgan said he was eager to add a daughter of the high-profile shuttle stallion to his portfolio, and said the filly would likely head to the Magic Millions sale in January.
He said: “Wootton Bassett can’t do anything wrong at the moment, he’s about 400,000 service fee, so she’s half price, so let’s hope. She’ll probably go to Yarraman Stud and you might see her in the Magic Millions next year.”
The filly is out of Jadeerah, a daughter of Frankel, who was bought by David Redvers and Rosemont Stud for 110,000gns at the 2021 edition of the Tattersalls December Mare Sale. The mare is out of Queen Mary (Gr 2, 5f) winner Maqaasid (Green Desert) and is from the same family as Group 1 winner Shraaoh (Sea The Stars), Group 2 scorer Raheen House (Sea The Stars) and stakes winner Born The Pride (Born To Sea).
Morgan, the man best known for preparing Yarraman Park’s champion sire I Am Invincible during his racing career, was taken by the filly’s overall quality.
“She’s just a well put together filly,” he said. “She’s well balanced, walks well, well behaved, very good manners with her, so I think she’s a good buy at that. Frankel is on the line too, what more do you want?”
The purchase also continues a long-standing partnership between Morgan and Gall Bloodstock, the co-owners of I Am Invincible.
“Gall Bloodstock, who owns half of I Am Invincible. I trained I Am Invincible, so it’s been a long partnership and Vinnie has saved a lot of lives. We were very grateful for him.”
Rosemont’s Ryan McEvoy described the result as “wonderful’’.
“She was a gorgeous filly, when we filmed her pre-sale she just moved so well and she did that all week,’’ McEvoy said.
“We’re thrilled, Peter Morgan is a good friend and good client and Ray Gall, of I Am Invincible fame, I wish them the very best.
“She’ll go back to Yarraman where a lot of Ray’s horses are and they’ll make a call from there. Whatever way they choose to go with her, I think she’ll deliver in spades for them.’’
Emotional high for Fowler as Too Darn Hot colt shines
The popularity of Darley’s returning shuttler Too Darn Hot (Dubawi) came to fore at the Inglis Great Southern Sale when a colt by the sire sold for $335,000.
The youngster is out of Jen Fowler of Merrivale Farm’s homebred mare La Magique (Magic Albert), meant far more than just the $335,000 price-tag.
Well received by prospective buyers throughout inspections, the colt attracted strong competition when he entered the ring early on Friday, and was eventually knocked down to Tasmania’s Grenville Stud.
Bred and raised at the Congupna farm, the colt is part of a family line that holds deep sentimental value for Fowler, and emotions ran high as the hammer fell.
“He’s doubled his food intake since he got here. He’s done nothing but work, sleep and eat, so he’s the perfect horse,” Fowler told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“He is absolutely pooped. He will be going home half an inch shorter than he came, because he’s just been up and down and up and down. But he’s never batted an eyelid.
“The minute I pulled him out of his mother and stood him up and held his little bottom while he had his first drink, he has been beautiful and nothing’s changed.
“I bred the mother and I’ve had the grandmother into her dotage and I just lost her just a couple of months ago. But she had a lovely retirement.”
“He’s just been a complete credit to the people who work with him. I have to say Kimberly Hobbs is the backbone of the farm and she’s done a fabulous job. Chris Rentessis is the professor who teaches them and gives them their life skills and he’s just been wonderful with them all week, and so they’ve all shown that love and care.”
The result was all the more emotional for Fowler, who topped the 2019 Inglis Great Southern Sale when she sold a colt by Zoustar for $250,000 to John Wheeler and Jason Warren Racing Stables, with the horsewoman having overcome recent health battles and downsizing her operation.
“For half an hour or so, I had topped the sale here and it’s been a few years since I’ve topped this sale, so it was a bit of a comeback after a lot of surgery and having to go to a smaller property and start again. So here we are again – we’re back.
“I’ve got a herd of about 30 mares and I breed and look after all my own, do all the covers and all the walkouts. It’s a full-time job, seven days a week, seven nights a week.
“Look, it’s so little about the money. It’s so much about how he’s presented himself and the fact that so many people just said to me, he’s the best here. He’s just wonderful.”
Although sad to see her ‘Chilli Bean’ go, Fowler is pleased that he will likely head through the sale ring as a yearling and she will be there to cheer him on.
“Stefan, who bought the other very nice Too Darn Hot colt up north, has bought into him, so they’re half each, and I believe that they’re going to take him through.’
“I would have thought he would be an Easter colt. It’s a pretty amazing family. The guys at Coolmore were so fabulous, they said to me ‘this family is just rock solid’. It’s an international progressive family and it’s a stallion producing family.
“And it was so lovely, I was talking to them and they said, ‘God, we sold your Rose Pompadour so long ago’, and I said, ‘I know I just lost her’. She’s been here with me that whole time. Which is fabulous. It’s that granddaughter of Rose Red, it’s just Rose of Jericho. It’s just a fabulous, fabulous family.”
Fowler’s admiration for Too Darn Hot, who will again shuttle to Darley in New South Wales for a fee of $275,000 this season, runs deep, and her early faith in the stallion only added to the significance of Friday’s result with the colt she bred and sold.
“I was an early adopter of Too Darn Hot. I’ve got a three, rising four-year-old Too Darn Hot that I bred who’s running for me. You can’t go wrong with Godolphin, the quality is just through the roof. I fell in love when I first saw him, I bred to him and went back. I don’t know that I’m in the affordable range anymore with him, but he’s that price for a reason.”
Sale results ‘delight’ Hutch
Inglis Bloodstock CEO Sebastian Hutch said he was ‘delighted’ with the results of the sale, with turnover exceeding expectations and clearance rates well above last year’s figures despite a leaner catalogue.
“Not for a second did I envisage that we would turn over in excess of $10 million, so I’m really delighted about that,” Hutch told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“I think it’s a reflection of the nature of the liquidity in the market. It’s incumbent on us as a sales company to get people engaged with the sale, and I think on the evidence of the day we got a lot of people who are motivated to buy involved in the sale.
“The clearance rate at the end of this day last year, which was a good selling day, was 67.5 per cent, and as we see here today the clearance rate is 78 per cent and climbing. The metrics have held solid with the increased clearance rate. The turnover is a million dollars shorter than where we were 12 months ago, with 100 fewer horses – it’s good going. Then complement to the vendors who are prepared to meet the market in a lot of instances.”
The sale rounded out what Hutch described as an ‘extraordinary’ breeding stock sales series for Inglis, with the company recording more than $88 million in turnover across its weanling and broodmare sales.
“The sale has had a good feel to it since inspection started on Tuesday morning, and it rounds out what’s really been an extraordinary round of breeding stock sales for us. Turnover for our breeding stock sales are in excess of $88 million now. That’s a record for us.
“We’ve worked really hard across all the respective sales all year, but the breeding sock sales have been a focus for an extended period of time for us, and it’s really bearing fruit, whether we talk about the Chairman Sale, the Australian Weanling Sale, the Great Southern Sale.
“A lot of positives come out of this period of time for us and ultimately, we want to try and give people who have horses to sell the confidence that they’re best doing that with Inglis, and I think the last six months have served to demonstrate that very effectively.”
“The top end of the market was strong. It’s very much stallion driven. If you have suitable stock that vets well by particular stallions, they sell well. With a hundred fewer horses in the sale, we probably didn’t have the depth of quality that we might normally have here.
“It feels like every weanling sale I have been to at Inglis in the six years I worked here, we’ve talked about insufficient depths, like demand exceeding supply in terms of quality stock, and the same has been the case here. A lot of people are going to leave here disappointed. But by the same token, there was just tremendous variety to the buying bench.
“I think one of the things that’s very pleasing for us is the variety of people that have been involved in our breeding stock sale series across the board and we are not reliant on one particular investor to sustain the market, there are people to step into the gaps, if any gaps are left by incumbent buyers. And I think that’s a sign of a healthy market.
Sale statistics
2025 2024
Catalogued: 327 436
Sold: 221 (79%) 271 (72%)
Offered: 281 379
Aggregate: $10,024,000 (-17%) $12,140,600
Average: $45,357 (1.2%) $44,799
Median: $20,000 $20,000
Top Lot: $475,000 $575,000