Vendors who targeted this year’s Classic Sale with ‘standout’ yearlings were strongly rewarded on Day 1 as Inglis’ first live sale of the season started on a high.
Willow Park Stud’s Glenn Burrows described today’s top lot – the Wootton Bassett x Elegant Air colt which sold for $400,000 – as “an extraordinary outcome’’ while Yarraman Park’s Matt Scown used superlatives like “huge result’’ and “awesome’’ to describe their I Am Invincible x Choose filly which realised $360,000.
Both lots sold to McEvoy Mitchell Racing and Damon Gabbedy.
Burrows was stunned by the price the Wootton Bassett colt (pictured) fetched, despite being blown away by how busy his draft had been all week during inspections.
“To get $400,000, we’re over the moon, we put a reserve of $150,000 on him, thinking he might make $250,000 so to get $400,000, it’s a huge result,’’ Burrows said.
“Full credit to [Inglis Bloodstock CEO] Sebastian, he saw the colt on the farm and said, ‘instead of going to Easter, why don’t you bring him to Classic and stand him out’. I was in two minds…but we came here and it was bang on, he’s been the leading horse in our draft all the way through, in fact yesterday he broke a record [for inspections] for a Saturday and my stats go back 20 years so we knew we were cooking with gas.
“Inspections all week have been remarkably strong. After we finished up north [at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale] where it was a bit patchy and going by my stats we were down about 20% on inspections but from the get-go here at Classic, it was like back to the boom times in terms of the number of parades we had. I felt sorry for my manager Jade and the staff, they honestly didn’t stop all week, they had to eat lunch on the run, it’s been phenomenal.’’
Scown – who also admitted Yarraman specifically targeted the Classic Sale with their I Am Invincible x Choose filly – was equally as busy throughout the week leading into sale day.
“You build confidence with a sale through foot traffic and the Inglis team has done an amazing job to make sure everyone was here, both internationally and locally, it’s a huge effort and it’s a real credit to them that the sale is going so well,’’ Scown said.
“Getting $360,000 is a huge result. She was a gorgeous filly and we really wanted to bring a gun Vinnie filly down here to Classic with a beautiful pedigree to really stand out and she did.
“She was our busiest horse by a mile, she had plenty of vet action, Inglis has done an outstanding job bringing all the people to the sale, the foot traffic has been amazing and she’s sold accordingly. We’re over the moon.’’
Tony McEvoy – who along with his son Calvin and bloodstock agent Damon Gabbedy ended day 1 as leading buyer with a spend of $1.22m on four lots – said they wanted to strongly support the sale due to its incredible recent success rate.
“The Classic Sale has been really good to us, horses like recent Group 1 winners Veight and Coco Sun and potential Group 1 horse Rue de Royale, it’s been a great sale for us, I’ve been able to sell them out of this sale and you can get a bloody good horse from this Classic Sale. That’s why I’m here and I’ll keep coming back,’’ McEvoy said.
“I’ll be honest, we’ve found it hard to buy in the middle here today, we had six or eight goes in the horses we valued around $150,000 and we’ve found it very difficult, they were all bringing much more. There’s a lot of people here trying to buy, that’s for sure.’’
On today’s two top purchases, McEvoy added: “The colt, I mean wow, what a stallion Wootton Bassett is and what a colt this guy is. I knew he’d be hard to get but he’s such a quality horse out of a good family that is happening.
“He looks tough to me and that will take him a long way.
“And the Vinnie filly, you look at these horses all the way through the week and sometimes even before you get to the sales grounds and she just kept growing on me, kept getting better.
“I just went and took a video of her again post-sale for a prospective client and her attitude - right at this late stage and the week she’s been through - was so magnificent. She’s got class.’’
At the conclusion of day 1 the sale average sits at $99,952 and median at $80,000.
Inglis Bloodstock CEO Sebastian Hutch was pleased with how the sale started.
“It has been a very satisfactory day, if you told me at the start of the week that we would end Day 1 with an average and median either above or the same as last year – given what we’ve seen at other sales this year so far in 2025 – I would certainly have taken that,’’ Hutch said.
“Today was a really fun day, there was a lot of people here – both clients and general spectators just enjoying their time at a yearling sale which is great to see – and some of the bidding was frenetic.
“We have plenty more nice horses to sell over the next two days and if today is any guide, there’s some great buying to be done at all levels of the market.
“We operate in what is generally a very savvy market and I think buyers have become very aware of the merits of this sale in terms of producing top-class graduates at home and abroad, which in turn is generating strong participation.
“It has been an encouraging start to the sale and we’ll be working hard over the next couple of days to continue the momentum that today has generated.”
To enquire about a passed in lot from today’s action, contact Brittany Hussey on 0409 333 823.
The remaining two days of the 2025 Classic Yearling Sale will begin at 10am and will again be broadcast live on the Inglis website and Facebook page via our Sale Day Live broadcast.
Coverage begins daily at 9.30am with the Preview Show.
To view the catalogue, CLICK HERE.
2025 CLASSIC DAY 1 STATS (2024 stats in brackets)
Sold: 177 (197)
Clearance: 73% (83%)
Average: $99,952 ($94,929)
Median: $80,000 ($80,000)
Gross: $17,691,500 ($18,701,000)
