A Classic Yearling Sale that pre-auction doomsayers were declaring was in for a rapid decline today concluded with increases in many key fiscal metrics as Inglis’ live sales season began on a high.
Today’s third and final day at Riverside saw the sale’s overall top lot sell, with a The Autumn Sun x Talimena colt (lot 707) realising $520,000 to Magus Equine’s Willie Leung, who fended off several rival bidders to win the fierce battle.
The colt was offered by Valiant Stud, on behalf of his breeder Lloyd Walker, who purchased the colt’s dam Talimena for $130,000 at the 2016 Inglis Australian Broodmare Sale.
Among the mare’s progeny is this colt’s sister Tulsi – already G1 placed – which realised $550,000 at the 2022 Classic Yearling Sale.
Valiant Stud’s Fergal Connolly was ecstatic with today’s result, which was one of the farm’s best ever.
“I’m over the moon, it’s just fantastic. You bring your nice horses here to Classic and you get results,’’ Connolly said.
“This colt was well found by all the good judges, he conducted himself so well all week and look, he could have gone to any sale this year but we always like to come to Classic with the nice horses and we always get the results.
“This is a huge thrill, there’s no words for it really.’’
Leung said he inspected more than 200 horses during the week and had this colt earmarked as his top selection.
“I liked the two Wootton Bassetts yesterday but The Autumn Sun had two winners recently in Hong Kong so I thought this is the horse I should be going hardest for, so I did,’’ Leung said.
“I was a little bit scared I wouldn’t get him but I knew this was my best pick, I said to myself ‘I must get him’ and I got the job done.
“This is a very good Classic Sale. There’s plenty of quality here and while they’ve made their money, there’s been plenty of choices and I always love to buy at Classic.
“It’s a strong sale. Originally I thought it may be a little bit weak because of the economy but good horses always make money here.’’
Arrowfield’s Paul Messara agreed with Leung’s view that his pre-sale fears of a significant downturn were not realised as the Classic Sale matched or bettered last year’s figures in almost all aspects.
Arrowfield ended this year’s sale as leading vendor, grossing $4,242,500 from 35 lots sold from 37 offered.
Included in that was today’s equal second-top lot, a Snitzel x Re Edit colt which sold to Chris Waller and Guy Mulcaster for $360,000.
“It’s been a really good week for us. Coming in here I was a little bit pessimistic with how the market might play but I’ve been really happy with the results that we’ve got,’’ Messara said.
“There were lots of different buyers at different levels of the market which I think is really important for this sale.
“This Re Edit colt, we really thought he’d stand out in this sale and was well placed here and it certainly played out that way. He’s a beautifully balanced horse, been so calm right through the preparation and all the good judges were on him in the ring and he fetched a very good price.’’
Today’s other $360,000 lot was the Bhima-offered Proisir x Respect colt, which sold to YLP Racing.
Bhima’s Mike Fleming said: “The buying bench here at Classic is always so strong, the traders, the Asian support this sale always gets, there’s always a lot of people here so why wouldn’t we target this sale with him?
“He was the complete package, that helped for sure, but he was well viewed, well vetted and inspections had been super strong all week.’’
At the conclusion of today’s final day action at Riverside the average ($94,257) is up on the average at the equivalent stage 12 months ago, the median ($70,000) is the same while the number of $100,000+ lots sold (218), $200,000+lots sold (56), $300,000+ lots (20) and $400,000+ lots (5) either matched or increased year-on-year.
The increases across the board have largely bucked the trend of other yearling sales so far this year, to the delight of Inglis Bloodstock CEO Sebatian Hutch.
“As I said earlier in the week, if you’d told me at the start of the sale that we would have an increase in average, would have the same median and effectively the same amount of $100,000+ lots sold – as well as seeing the top end increase year-on-year – all while achieving an 80% clearance rate, I would have absolutely taken in,’’ Hutch said.
“There was plenty of pre-sale sentiment that this sale was going to follow the downward trend of the other yearling sales held so far this year, and I could understand the apprehension, but we knew as a team we had done the work, we had a massive buying bench here that evidently was positive about the catalogue, so it’s really satisfying seeing those figures at the end of the sale and very much a case of reward for effort.
“As ever, we are hugely grateful for the support of the sale by breeders and vendors, as well as the buyers who inspected through hot conditions and then bought through wet and at-times very trying conditions.
“We will continue to work hard over the next few days to press the clearance rate higher, but ultimately pleased to have been able to facilitate what has been a very healthy market in the context of the current economic climate.''
To enquire about any passed in lot from this year’s Classic Sale, contact Britt Hussey on 0409 333 823.
Attention now turns to Inglis Digital for the February (Late) Online auction, for which entries close next Wednesday, February 19.
The sale runs from February 21-26.
To enter CLICK HERE.
It’s then off to Melbourne for the Premier Yearling Sale, which will be held at Oaklands on March 204.
On-site inspections at Oaklands begin on Tuesday February 25, with the sale to be held at Oaklands from March 2-4.
Advertising opportunities for our Sale Day Live broadcast of the Premier Yearling Sale will be made available in the next 48 hours.
To view the Premier catalogue, CLICK HERE.
2025 CLASSIC YEARLING SALE STATS (2024 in brackets)
Sold: 574 (591)
Clearance: 80% (82%)
Average: $94,257 ($93,658)
Median: $70,000 ($70,000)
Gross: $54,103,500 ($55,352,000)
