Aggregate, average and median prices continued to grow on the second day of the Inglis Premier Yearling Sale, with 162 horses selling for a combined A$17,183,500 and an average of A$106,070, while the clearance rate, which had been the only downward figure on day one, received a significant boost from a buoyant 'Blue Riband session'. Overall, 79% of the 205 yearlings offered on Monday found new homes, but this figure reached 85% for the 48-lot Blue Riband session–a selection of yearlings bred and conformed to excel over middle and staying distances. Reflecting on the first two days of selling, with two more to go, Inglis Managing Director Mark Webster commented, “The sale continues to improve, which is the main thing. The clearance from day one is up to 81%, so we've overcome that little hiccup, and selling on day two was really strong.” Webster highlighted that all figures for days one and two combined were up from last year, with turnover reaching A$28,376,000, up 13%, and average and median prices both up 14%, at A$98,873 and A$80,000 respectively. The total number of lots sold for A$150,000 or more by the end of day two has also risen, from 26 in 2013 to 38 last year and now 56 in 2015.
A new Australian sales record price for the progeny of first season sire Foxwedge (Aus) was set before 11:00am when lot 185, a colt out of the Group 1 performer Glowlamp (Aus) (Encosta de Lago {Aus}) was purchased for A$420,000. Offered from the draft of Newgate Farm, the colt from the family of Rock Of Gibraltar (Ire) was bought by New South Wales trainer Paul Perry. Another popular first season sire in Sepoy (Aus) was responsible for the second-highest price of the day when a filly from Rosemont Stud (lot 285) sold to local trainer Clinton McDonald for A$350,000. The chestnut is out of the Stakes placed Choisir (Aus) mare Jesse's Girl (Aus), herself a full sister to dual Group 3 winner Eloping (Aus) and half-sister to Stakes-winning juvenile Of The Brave (Aus) (Starspangledbanner {Aus}).
South African buyers were responsible for the session-topping purchase Sunday and proved once again prominent on day two, providing particularly strong support to the Blue Riband session. Trainer Mike de Kock and Form Bloodstock's Jehan Malherbe teamed up to secure two yearlings headed by a A$310,000 Redoute's Choice (Aus) colt from the draft of Arrowfield Stud (lot 258). The brown colt hails from the close family of Group 1 winner First Seal (Aus) (Fastnet Rock {Aus}). Malherbe commented, “Mike has had some good Redoute's Choice's before so he is very excited to get that colt.” “His pedigree caught our eye first up. He's got a beautiful page and he is a very athletic horse,” the agent added. “He's not one of the very big Redoute's, he's more of the racy type, the type Mike has had success with.” The leading South African conditioner has had some pretty good offspring of the great Arrowfield sire in his care, including South African champion filly Majmu (Aus) and multiple Group winner Musir (Aus).
Fellow South African Paul Guy of Heritage Bloodstock forked out A$240,000 for lot 238, a Bernardini colt out of the Stakes-placed Gold Chant (Aus) (El Moxie), a half-sister to exciting sire Starspangledbanner (Aus). “He's obviously got a wonderful pedigree,” the winning bidder said of the Milburn Creek offering, “but as an individual he's just a well-conformed, great-moving horse with great action, a good head, just everything we want to find in a good colt.” Markus Jooste's Mayfair Speculators were also on the lookout for Classic prospects and secured lot 252 for A$250,000, a Street Cry colt out Oneworld Onedream (Aus), from the family of Charge Forward (Aus) consigned by New Zealand's Henley Park.
Local buyers were also active during the Blue Riband session, headed by Laurel Oak Bloodstock's A$280,000 purchase of a Fastnet Rock (Aus) filly (lot 269) out of the Group 3 winner Valkyrie Diva (Aus) (Jade Robbery), herself a half-sister to dual Australian Horse of the Year Makybe Diva (Aus) (Desert King {Ire}). Victorian trainer Henry Dwyer also bought a Northern Meteor (Aus) filly out of the Stakes-winning Be My Princess (Aus) (Chief's Crown) for A$240,000 (lot 222).
Overall, the Blue Riband session realized a record average of A$135,488–up 5% from last year–for 41 lots sold, with nine of them achieving A$200,000 or more. Inglis Victorian director Peter Heagney was pleased with the results and explained of the reasoning behind this highlight of the Inglis Premier Sale, “Despite the fact that many people want a sprinter or an early-coming two-year-old, the big prize money is in our staying and Classic races.” “Comes Spring Carnival time, everybody says “Where are our Classic horses? Where are our stayers? We're not breeding them,” he continued. “So we thought by having this Blue Riband session, we're going to expose those horses that were bred that way to the market place and encourage people to participate and buy this sort of horses, give them a little bit of time and have them running so we've got Australian-bred horses running in our Classics and our Cups.”
Day three of the Inglis Premier Yearling Sale begins today at 10:30 a.m. local time.
For a video wrap of yesterday's action, click here.
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