Treasures To Be Found At Easter

The Australian yearling sale market has shown signs of excellent health in 2016, with significant gains posted at every major auction. With the country's highest-averaging yearling sale, the Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale, still to come Apr. 5 to 7, breeders and consignors alike would be forgiven for being filled with optimism.

The Easter sale last year posted resurgent results despite the expansion of its catalogue. The average climbed 15.4% to A$291,743, while the median was up 5.3% to A$200,000–both seven-year highs for Easter. There were 10 millionaires among the top-priced lots.

No sale will move forward by looking back, however, and Jonathan D'Arcy, Inglis's National Bloodstock Director, had high praise for this year's book of 580.

“I think the quality of the catalogue this year certainly ranks in the top two or three I've seen put together in the time I've been with Inglis,” D'Arcy said. “With things like the last crop of Street Cry and the first crop of Frankel, there is a lot to look forward to.”

The sire and pedigree power on offer at Inglis's Newmarket complex in Sydney the first week of April is immediately apparent upon opening the catalogue. Australia's current top five general sires–Not A Single Doubt (Aus), Street Cry (Ire), Fastnet Rock (Aus), Lonhro (Aus) and Sebring (Aus)–have 132 catalogued between them. Redoute's Choice (Aus) and his red-hot sire-son Snitzel (Aus) have 24 and 30, respectively, slated to sell, and other leading sires like High Chaparral (Ire) (18), Exceed and Excel (Aus) (17) and More Than Ready (16) are also well represented.

First-season sires are always a cause for excitement this time of year, and old racetrack rivals All Too Hard (Aus) and Pierro (Aus) have both made big impressions with their first crops in the ring thus far. Easter graduate All Too Hard, a A$1.025 million buy in 2011 who went on to win four Group 1s, has 37 catalogued, while the 2012 2-year-old Triple Crown winner Pierro (Aus) has 41 to go under the hammer. Group 1-winning sprinter Your Song (Aus) has eight to sell from his first crop, and G1 Dubai World Cup and GI Kentucky Derby winner Animal Kingdom has seven.

The star of the show, however, could be Frankel (GB), who has five yearlings from his first Southern Hemisphere-sired crop to sell. Frankel covered 21 mares Southern Hemisphere-time at Juddmonte's Banstead Manor Stud in England in 2013 and the first of those to see a sales ring was a colt that made NZ$1.3 million at New Zealand Bloodstock's Premier Sale in January.

D'Arcy noted that attracting the progeny of the top sires was a goal for the Inglis team.

“It's one thing we've worked really hard at,” he said. “The horses that are successful on the racetrack here, the new boom horses such as Exceed and Excel, Snitzel and High Chaparral, are well represented. The mainstays of our industry, horses like Redoute's Choice, Fastnet Rock and More Than Ready, are very well represented.”

“All Too Hard and Pierro were two outstanding champions,” D'Arcy added. “All Too Hard is a graduate of the Easter sale and we have 37 of his progeny. He's been very well received at all the sales so far this year. Pierro of course is the champion 2-year-old representing a great sire line and I think some of the best Pierros to be offered for sale anywhere in Australasia are coming to the Easter sale, so Pierro is going to have a strong sale as well.”

Another intriguing offering is a Shamardal colt (lot 71) consigned by Widden Stud. A former Darley shuttler, Shamardal is the sire of Australian Group 1 winners Captain Sonador (Aus), Faint Perfume (Aus), Maybe Discreet (Aus) and Delectation (Aus), as well as talented performers like Puissance De Lune (Ire) and Bow Creek (Ire). He has also been successful in Hong Kong–which historically has a strong presence at Easter–with the likes of champion miler Able Friend (Aus). Other current top performers like G1 Dubai Turf hopeful Tryster (Ire) should ensure his popularity at Inglis, which sold a Shamardal colt for A$320,000 to Melbourne Cup-winning trainer Darren Weir at its Melbourne Premier sale in February.

“We have a Shamardal colt who is an outstanding individual; I've seen him three or four times and he's a colt who is going to capture a lot of imagination,” D'Arcy said. “We sold a Shamardal colt in Melbourne that sold very well. Shamardal isn't shuttling anymore so I'm sure the Hong Kong buyers as well as our local market will be very interested to have a look at that colt from Widden.”

The sire power on offer is backed up by pages from some of the best families not only in Australia, but globally.

“There's a combination of international bloodlines both from the sires and the mares,” D'Arcy pointed out. “A lot of our breeders are very good at sourcing top-class American and European families. The visitors will recognize a lot of the families, because our breeders have done a great job over the last 10 to 15 years of sourcing top-quality breeding stock from around the world. A lot of the families are household names in both Kentucky and Newmarket.”

D'Arcy's statement is supported by the fact that this year's Easter catalogue features fillies from the families of breed-shaping matriarchs like Fanfreluche, Easy Date (Aus), Dancing Show, Detroit (Fr), Oceanfast (Aus), Circles Of Gold (Aus), Emancipation (Aus), Jesmond Lass (Aus), Piccadilly Circus (Aus), Subterfuge (GB), Snippet's Lass (Aus), Scandinavia (Aus), Danelagh (Aus), Parfore (NZ) and Helen Street (GB).

The catalogue includes the progeny of 173 stakes-winning mares and 142 siblings to stakes winners, including 44 Group 1 winners. The Group 1 siblings include lot 135, a Snitzel half-brother to current superstar mare Winx (Aus) (Street Cry {Ire}) and a full-brother to Thursday's debut-winning 2-year-old El Divino (Aus), who earned 'TDN Rising Star' status; lot 399, a colt by Pierro who is a half-brother to multiple Group 1 winner Criterion (NZ) (Sebring {Aus}) and two other stakes winners; lot 15, a half-brother by Dalakhani (Ire) to Hong Kong champion miler and Easter graduate Able Friend; lot 285, a full-brother to champion sprinter Lankan Rupee (Aus); lot 260, a full-brother to Horse of the Year Dissident (Aus) (Sebring {Aus}); lot 249, a Street Cry half-brother to triple Group 1 winner Fawkner (Aus) (Reset {Aus}) and dual Group 2 winner Tanby (Aus) (Galileo {Ire}); lot 100, a full-brother to G1 Cox Plate and G1Australian Guineas winner Shamus Award (Aus); lot 312, a full-sister to Foxwedge (Aus) (Fastnet Rock {Aus}); lot 381, a Sepoy (Aus) half-brother to dual Group 1 winner Star Witness (Aus) (Starcraft {NZ}) and Group 3 winner Nostradamus (Aus) (Medaglia d'Oro); lot 413, a More Than Ready filly who enjoyed the ultimate update last weekend when her half-sister Peeping (Aus) (Redoute's Choice {Aus}) won the G1 Coolmore Classic; and lot 198, a Rip Van Winkle (Ire) half-brother to triple Group 1 winner Preferment (NZ) (Zabeel {NZ}), the winner of last weekend's G1 Australian Cup

Other standouts on pedigree include lot 7, a Fastnet Rock filly out of Perfect Persuasion (Aus) (Encosta De Lago {Aus})–a full-sister to the champion filly Alinghi (Aus)–who has had full-siblings sell here the last two years for A$1.6 million apiece; lot 10, a colt by Street Cry who is the first foal out of G1 New Zealand One Thousand Guineas winner Planet Rock (Aus) (Fastnet Rock {Aus}); lot 137, a Team Valor International-bred daughter of Animal Kingdom out of Victory Party (Yankee Victor), a half-sister to multiple champion Beholder (Henny Hughes) and leading young sire Into Mischief (Harlan's Holiday); lot 199, a Sebring colt who is the first foal out of Singapore champion mare Better Life (Aus) (Smarty Jones); lot 229, a Fastnet Rock half-brother to Group 1 winner Gathering (Aus) (Tale of the Cat) and Group 3 winner Florentina (Aus) (Redoute's Choice {Aus}) who descends from the great Dancing Show family; and lot 340, a full-sister to stakes winner and A$1 million Easter buy Lake Geneva (Aus) (Fastnet Rock {Aus}) and another filly who made A$1 million here last year.

“We had a lot of horses entered in the sale and we were able

to select a really good bunch of yearlings,” D'Arcy said. “I've only just gone around and had a final check of the yearlings and I'm really happy with the way the horses are coming up. The word we're getting from our vendors is that they're very, very happy. Several vendors have said it's the strongest group of horses they've ever brought to Easter. If the vendors are confident with the product they're going to offer it certainly adds to our confidence leading into the sale.”

While the Easter sale appears to have a catalogue that can continue to propel it to new heights, D'Arcy remained cautiously optimistic, pointing out that the Easter sale is unique among its counterparts.

“To be quite honest if we were to repeat the results of last year I'd be quite satisfied,” he said. “While the expectation is that Easter will go up in line with others sales it's difficult because it is a different sector of the market.”

“Our median is higher than the other sales,” he continued. “A lot of the growth in the sales this year has been in the A$100,000 to A$150,000 mark. The number of horses making that mark has seen the averages rise for the major sales thus far. Having said that I certainly feel we have a lot of horses capable of making A$500,000 and above. If the buyers like what they see I'm sure we'll see a good result. If we can get 5% growth at Easter that's still a huge amount of money to be going up on average. We'd be happy to replicate what we did in 2015 and if there's a little increase in average that would be great.”

D'Arcy said his biggest wish is to maintain the solid 84% clearance rate post last year.

“The most important thing for us is the clearance rate; we want to see our vendors sell their horses,” he said. “Achieving a strong clearance rate again is the number one aim.”

Session Two Punching Above Its Weight…

The more modest shoppers that may be deterred by Easter's near A$300,000 average can find solace in the catalogue's 115-horse Session 2, which takes place the second part of the third day of the sale. D'Arcy explained that session two was developed as a spot for horses projected to sell in the A$50,000 and A$150,000 range, and the sale's graduates have more than advertised its merits in recent years. They include the 2013 G1 Cox Plate and 2014 G1 Australian Guineas winner Shamus Award (Aus) (Snitzel {Aus}), bought for A$230,000; the 2014 G1 Golden Slipper winner Mossfun (Aus) (Mossman {Aus}), a A$85,000 buy; and more recently this year's G3 Blue Diamond Prelude winner and hard-luck G1 Blue Diamond S. runner-up Flying Artie (Aus) (Artie Schiller {Aus}), a A$50,000 purchase who is among the favorites for Saturday's G1 Golden Slipper.

“The quality of the horses being offered in session two probably points to that session as being one of the best, in terms of what you get for your buck, of any sale in the world,” D'Arcy said. “The horses have been hand-selected by our leading breeders to send to Easter, and we put them in there thinking they're horses worth between A$50,000 and A$150,000, so plenty of those horses can go and make a lot more than that, as we've seen in the past. We developed that session to make sure that buyers aren't scared off by the fact the average is up around A$290,000. If you have a budget of around A$80,000 to A$100,000 you'll be completing on plenty of horses at Easter.”

Other recent bargain buys from Session 1 include the 2014 G1 Al Quoz Sprint winner Amber Sky (Aus) (Exceed and Excel {Aus}) (A$80,000); last year's G1 Myer Classic victress Politeness (Aus) (Street Sense) (A$115,000); the 2015 G1 Spring Champion S. scorer Vanbrugh (Aus) (Encosta de Lago {Aus}) (A$100,000); the 2014 G1 Queen Of The Turf S. winner Diamond Drille (Aus) (Al Maher {Aus}) (A$200,000); New Zealand's champion sprinter Sacred Star (Aus) (Flying Spur {Aus}) (A$200,000); the 2014 G1 Dubai Golden Shaheen victor Sterling City (Aus) (Nadeem {Aus}) (A$200,000); and last year's G1 Darley Classic winner Delectation (Aus) (Shamardal) (A$250,000).

Parity Provides Plenty of Confidence…

Racing in New South Wales received a boost late last year when wagering tax parity legislation was passed, meaning an additional A$235 million for racing in the state over the next five years, and an additional A$90 million annually thereafter. Increases in prize money, combined with the weak Australian dollar–currently A$1.32 to the U.S. dollar, A$1.87 to the British pound and A$1.48 to the Euro–offers another reason for buyer confidence.

“The prize money levels in New South Wales and Victoria are certainly a catalyst for confidence in the yearling sales at the present time,” said D'Arcy.

Racing in Australia is divided into three classes–the top-class metropolitan racing followed by provincial racing and country tracks–and provincial and country racing received a boost along with metropolitan racing with the parity announcement, getting minimum purse increases of 23% (to a minimum A$27,000) and 33% (to a minimum A$20,000), respectively. Metropolitan races in Sydney are worth a minimum A$85,000, and in Melbourne A$80,000. Those benefits are flowing all the way to the breeders and consignors at the yearling sales.

“There is no doubt we've seen more country and provincial trainers getting involved in buying better class yearlings because of the levels of prize money now on offer,” said D'Arcy.

The Championships, this year going into its third year and bookending the Easter sales Apr. 2 and 9, also offers a A$400,000 race each for provincial and country qualifiers, with a variety of A$100,000 lead-up races also staged.

“The introduction of the Country and Provincial Championships in New South Wales has really invigorated racing in those areas,” D'Arcy said. “It's a really exciting innovation that has got people excited in the country areas. Having a A$100,000 race in some of those bush towns really brings not only the best horses from the district to the town but it also creates a really great raceday. That's been a very good initiative of Racing NSW.”

Champions Future and Present…

If the allure of some of the best-bred yearlings on the globe isn't enough incentive to travel to Sydney the first week of April, international visitors may be enticed by The Championships, a pair of A$10 million racedays at Royal Randwick bookending the sale Apr. 2 and 9. D'Arcy reiterated the Inglis team will be available to assist visitors in all facets of going to the sales and races.

“We value the fact our international guests come from a long way and we'd certainly be arranging airport transfers and tickets to the races and things like that,” he said. “We'd certainly like to show our guests a good time Down Under.”