Two for one – buying mares in foal
With nearly 500 in-foal mares set to be offered at Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale next week, we look at the considerable upside of purchasing pregnant mares.
There is no better showcase for the virtues of buying a mare in-foal than the back story of one of the greats of Australian racing, three-time Melbourne Cup (Gr 1, 3200m) winner Makybe Diva (Desert King).
It was at the 1998 Tattersalls December Mares Sale that agent John Foote parted with 60,000 gns for Tugela, a Juddmonte-bred daughter of Riverman (Never Bend), who failed to win in two starts. Initially purchased for 21,000 gns in 1997, Tugela was put in foal to Desert King and returned to Tattersalls the following year where she caught the eye of Foote, who was buying for Tony Santic.
The filly she was carrying was foaled the following March and would re-write Australian racing history with her Cup hat-trick, launching Santic’s Makybe breeding empire.
Another record-breaking horse who was purchased ‘in utero’ was Hong Kong hero Golden Sixty (Medaglia D’Oro), who recently became the highest prize-money earner in the history of world racing.
Josh Hutchins of Element Hill paid $160,000 for Group 2-winning mare Gaudeamus (Distorted Humor) at the 2016 Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale.
Less than two years later Element Hill offered the Medaglia D’Oro (El Prado) colt she was carrying through the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale. Riversley Park paid $120,000 for the colt and pinhooked him through the NZB Ready To Run Sale later that year, where he sold for NZ$300,000 to Hong Kong-based trainer Francis Lui.
Since then, Golden Sixty has won close to HK$148 million (approx. AU$28.262 million) for his owner Stanley Chan in an extraordinary career which has featured 25 wins from 29 starts.
Arguably more valuable ‘in utero’ purchases have been the three Golden Slipper (Gr 1, 1200m) winners in recent years whose dams were sold the same year as they were foaled.
Farnan’s (Not A Single Doubt) dam Tallow (Street Cry) was purchased through Magic Millions for $250,000 in 2017 and then produced the colt who would win Australia’s richest two-year-old race in 2019. Farnan would go on to be a foundation stallion for the re-born Kia Ora Stud.
That pattern repeated itself in the 2020 Golden Slipper won by Stay Inside (Extreme Choice). Kingstar Farm paid $90,000 for his dam Nothin Leica Storm (Anabaa), who was in foal to Extreme Choice (Not A Single Doubt), at the 2018 Inglis Chairman’s Sale and then sold the resultant colt as a weanling to Newgate the following year. That colt would win the Slipper for Richard and Michael Freedman and then return to Newgate as a stallion at the end of his racing career.
In 2023, it happened again. Coolmore had secured Samaready (More Than Ready) for $1.8 million through the 2020 Inglis Chairman’s Sale in foal to Champion sire Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice). They retained the resultant colt to race and in March, Shinzo stamped himself as one of the country’s most valuable stallion prospects with his Slipper win.
Shinzo is one of three Australian Group 1 winners this season who were sold in utero. The other two are recent Australasian Oaks (Gr 1, 2000m) winner Affaire A Suivre (Astern) and The Galaxy (Gr 1, 1100m) victrix Mariamia (Toronado). Their respective dams Laurelling (Highest Honor) and Quinta Lago (Encosta De Lago) were sold through Inglis for $34,000 and $15,000 with their Group 1–winning progeny inside.
There are also ample opportunities from a commercial perspective as well. Our research shows that there were 376 yearlings sold this year who were initially sold in utero with their dams at a major Australian mare sale in 2021. Their average yearling price was $156,581, slightly higher than the overall average for this season. Of those, 19 sold for $500,000 or more.
Top-priced 2023 yearlings from mares sold in-foal in 2021
| Breeding | Sex | Yearling price | Dam’s price (2021) |
| Zoustar – Members Joy | Filly | $1,100,000 | $800,000 |
| Too Darn Hot – Enbihaar | Filly | $1,000,000 | $825,000 |
| I Am Invincible – In Her Time | Colt | $800,000 | $2,200,000 |
| I Am Invincible – Ektifaa | Colt | $800,000 | $1,700,000 |
| Exceed And Excel – Telaawa | Colt | $750,000 | $1,700,000 |
That list includes two seven-figure yearlings, both sold at Magic Millions in January, a filly by Zoustar out of Members Joy (Hussonet) who sold for $1.1 million and a filly by Too Darn Hot out of Enbihaar (Magnus), who secured a $1 million pricetag.
Members Joy was purchased for $800,000 in 2021, while Enbihaar cost $825,000, so both returned profits to their owners at their first opportunity.
Those are the sort of results that buyers will be dreaming of at the Gold Coast next week when they are assessing the 493 in-foal mares catalogued in the Magic Millions National Sale.
The opportunity of a two-for-one deal, giving the chance for a buyer to recover the purchase price quickly, is often hard to resist.
Since the start of 2022, 68 per cent of mares sold at Australia’s three main breeding sales – the Inglis Chairman’s and Australian Broodmare Sales and the Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale – have been offered in-foal.
The average price of those 641 mares has been $202,447, compared to the overall average of $232,558. However, the median price at each of those five sales has been equal, if not higher, for mares in foal.
Mares-in-foal results at Australian broodmare sales since start of 2022
| Overall | Mares in foal | |||||
| Sale | Lots sold | Average | Median | Lots sold | Average | Median |
| 2023 Inglis Chairman’s | 80 | $558,188 | $375,000 | 39 | $480,513 | $385,000 |
| 2023 Inglis Australian B’mare | 108 | $74,509 | $55,000 | 85 | $69,812 | $55,000 |
| 2022 MM National B’mare | 550 | $226,368 | $140,000 | 349 | $215,443 | $140,000 |
| 2022 Inglis Chairman’s | 71 | $470,845 | $350,000 | 50 | $435,500 | $350,000 |
| 2022 Inglis Australian B’mare | 134 | $64,687 | $45,000 | 118 | $68,898 | $50,000 |
| Total | 943 | $232,558 | 641 | $202,447 | ||
At the recent Chairman’s Sale, the median price for an in-foal mare was $385,000, higher than the overall sale median of $375,000, with three mares, Berimbau (I Am Invincible), Dosh (Rich Enuff) and Summerland (Dubawi) breaking seven figures.
In that sale, the average price of an in-foal mare was 4.1 times higher than the average service fee of the sires they were in foal to. Every one of the 19 covering sires represented in the catalogue returned a profit on their 2022 service fee.
One of the best returns – a 5.3 multiple of service fee – came from mares in foal to a sire we have already mentioned, Stay Inside.
Even through the Inglis Australian Broodmare Sale, which plays second fiddle to the Chairman’s, the total spent on mares in foal – $5.93 million – was 1.85 times that which breeders would have spent on service fees for those sires their mares were in foal to.
Mares in foal to 37 individual sires were sold through that Australian Broodmare Sale catalogue and 26 of those covering sires returned an average profit on their 2022 service fee. The best returns (more than three mares in foal to them sold) were from mares in foal to Hellbent (I Am Invincible) – 3.7 times – and mares in foal to Wild Ruler (Snitzel) – 3.4 times.
It augurs well for action from next Tuesday on the Gold Coast. The most represented covering sires in that catalogue are Wild Ruler and So You Think (High Chaparral) with 19 apiece, while Harry Angel (Dark Angel) has 18, Stay Inside 17 and St Mark’s Basilica (Siyouni) 16.
You will notice from that collection the prevalence of sires who covered their first Australian books in 2022. In total 103 of the 493 mares offered in foal, or 20.9 per cent, are in foal to first-season sires.
There are also 11 mares in foal to northern hemisphere-based stallions, including nine in foal to Frankel (Galileo).
Frankel topped the averages for all covering sires at this year’s Chairman’s Sale, with three mares in foal to him selling for a total of $2.6 million. Last year at the Gold Coast sale, Frankel had ten mares in foal to him sell for an average of $880,000.
That average was only surpassed by Australia’s own commercial powerhouse I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit), whose average as a covering sire on the Gold Coast was $1.08 million. The average price of a mare in foal to him sold through Australian public auction since 2019 is a quite remarkable $930,244.
There are five mares in foal to ‘Vinnie’ catalogued on the Gold Coast this year, including the dams of Coolangatta (Written Tycoon) and Dubious (Not A Single Doubt), as well as a sister to Russian Revolution (Snitzel).
Most represented covering sires at 2023 Magic Millions National Broodmare Sire
| Sire | Mares in foal |
| So You Think | 19 |
| Wild Ruler | 19 |
| Harry Angel | 18 |
| Stay Inside | 17 |
| St Mark’s Basilica | 16 |
| Russian Revolution | 15 |