The next chance for buyers to purchase horses for the popular Inglis Xtra Bonus Series at a live auction is at this weekend’s Classic Yearling Sale, for which inspections officially begin at Riverside tomorrow, Tuesday February 4.
In its inaugural year, the Inglis Xtra Bonus Series sees 50 maidens incentivised Australia-wide through the 2024/25 season with a $100,000 bonus to the winner.
Connections of a designated maiden winner will receive the $100,000 bonus if the horse is an Inglis graduate from 2023 and beyond and paid up for the Inglis Race Series.
Since the series began in August last year, 22 bonuses have been won, incredibly by 22 different individual trainers or training partnerships, seeing $2.2m in extra prizemoney won by Inglis clients.
Already Xtra Bonus races have been won in NSW, Victoria, South Australia and Queensland, with Thoroughbred Park in the ACT joining the host-club list on their feature Black Opal Stakes Day next month.
The most recent Xtra Bonus was won by the Charlotte Littlefield-trained and Tony and Lynn Ottobre-owned Jenni Intiba at Pakenham on Thursday night.
“It’s huge,’’ Tony Ottobre said of the Xtra Bonus concept.
“If you’re not getting into the Inglis Race Series, you’re throwing away good money, it’s as simple as that
“We’ve picked up $140,000 for this maiden win, it’s like winning a Group 2 but you’re winning a maiden! You just simply have to be in the race series.’’
The Pakenham bonus was the second to be won last week after bargain buy Zoutastic for Terry Croft was successful at Wagga last Sunday, defeating horses trained by Bjorn Baker and Chris Waller.
“We only paid $5000 for her and she’s won $150,000 and only broken her maiden. It’s a lot of money,’’ Croft said.
“The owners were in tears, it was great. We’ll be buying more off Inglis to try and win it again, you’d be mad not to.’’
Other winning trainers include the likes of Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott, Chris Waller, Bjorn Baker, Ciaron Maher, Luke Pepper, Matt Cumani, Brad Widdup, Simon Zahra, Alexander Rae, Mick Price and Michael Kent Jr, Shane Nichols, Billy Healy, Liam Birchley, Mike Moroney, Robert Heathcote, Matt Dunn, Clinton McDonald, Mick Shepherdson, Robbie Griffiths, Tony McEvoy and James Cummings.
McDonald described the Xtra Bonus Series as “the best bonus race series in Australia’’ while Birchley said it’s “the best incentive there is around’’.
Inglis Bloodstock CEO Sebastian Hutch urged buyers to think about the Xtra Bonus when bidding on yearlings at the Classic Sale, which runs from Sunday through to Tuesday.
“The most satisfying thing about the Xtra Bonus Series is that hundreds of owners have won bonuses already and with horses from as cheap as $5000 purchases,’’ Hutch said.
“The intention when we first came up with the concept was to provide an opportunity for more of our clients to win more prizemoney more often and there’s no doubt that the series is doing that.
“The concept is still very much in its infancy, but we have seen $2.2m in Xtra bonuses won to date and there are plenty more to win through the balance of the season before the series kicks off again next season.
“It’s hugely important to us to see owners rewarded for their investment and what better way to do that than through a Maiden win that can result in a windfall for owners.
“We have been overwhelmed by the popularity of the series and we have had tremendous engagement with it, whether it’s been from owners, trainers or race clubs, which has created a reach that we have never seen anything like before."
The schedule of Xtra Bonus races for March has now been released. To view the schedule CLICK HERE.
To view the Classic parade schedule CLICK HERE.
To view the Classic catalogue CLICK HERE.
