Melbourne Gold Another COVID-19 Triumph for Inglis

An intense four-month period for Inglis came to a close when almost 250 yearlings were offered in the July 16 Melbourne Gold Yearling Sale, conducted through the Inglis Digital platform.

The Melbourne Gold Yearling Sale was due to be held at the company's Melbourne complex at Oaklands and was still set to proceed as a live auction even after the COVID-19 flare-up in the city in recent weeks.

However, the implementation of Stage 3 restrictions and the closure of the border between New South Wales and Victoria made it logistically impossible to host the sale as planned, and it was instead hosted online.

Inglis had only been able to stage the Classic Yearling Sale at Riverside Stables in Sydney and the Melbourne Premier Yearling Sale at Oaklands before the pandemic brought life—and regular business operations—to a screeching halt. 

The auction house has managed to continue operations, though; in the four months up to Thursday, it hosted—in different formats—the Australian Easter Yearling Sale, the Australian Broodmare Sale, the Chairman's Sale, Easter Round 2, the Scone Yearling Sale, and the Australian Weanling Sale, as well as its twice-monthly Inglis Digital offerings.

"It's been challenging, but it's also been rewarding," Inglis general manager of bloodstock sales and marketing Sebastian Hutch told ANZ Bloodstock News. "Each of the sales has had their own challenges; even last week, we obviously weren't able to have Victorians or New Zealanders at our Sydney live sales, and we were restricted in the number of people we could have at the complex. 

"However, we've managed to provide sales to meet all different parts of the market, and I think there are particular results that stand out as particularly satisfying. I'd also say that it's no coincidence that those people that worked really hard to promote themselves well, whatever the means, they were the people on average that performed best. I think that's important to note going forward.

"We still have the Great Southern Sale to try and address, and we are looking ahead to the Ready 2 Race Sale, too, but we have learned a lot from it and I think we've taken plenty from them looking to 2021 and beyond. You learn a lot about the mechanics of the services that we offer, and you learn the capacity of people to deliver under a bit of pressure."

The Melbourne Gold Yearling Sale originally had 470 yearlings cataloged, but there were 222 withdrawals with the sale switched to the digital platform. While the average and the median were slightly down year on year, two lots fetched six figures, something which had not been achieved in a live format last year. 

"We really have to express our gratitude to the vendors and the buyers who have been extraordinarily patient with us when we've required them to be," Hutch said. "This sale highlights all the challenges we've faced in recent months. This is a sale that's obviously been scheduled quite some time, and then we'd scheduled it as a live sale even through COVID-19.

"We've had to do a considerable amount of chopping and changing with it, which I appreciate has been a great inconvenience for a lot of people. We were confident that we could put a viable market together for a digital sale when we needed to do that last week. We feel that has borne out with a number of positive results today.

"It's very pleasing to engage a huge number of Victoria's leading trainers and a number of interstate investors as well. It looks a well-diversified buying bench, and we are pretty pleased with how it has ended up."

A Dundeel colt out of the unraced Commands mare Blessit was sold for AU$120,000 to Western Australia-based Peter Caporn. The youngster, offered by Maluka Thoroughbreds, set a new Australian record for a yearling sold on a digital platform.

"Given the current situation, I was obviously unable to see the horse myself in person, but from what I could see online and from talking to the right people, he's very reminiscent of a couple of good gallopers I've had over the years,'' Caporn said. "He walked like a good horse, looks like a good horse. He's very typical of the Dundeels, and the first two out of the mare can both gallop, and this colt is bigger and better than either of them at this stage of their development, I believe."

Maluka's Luke Anderson was excited to receive a result like that, particularly given the current market environment and the switch in format.

"It was great to see him achieve that price,'' Anderson said. "To see how he developed the past three or four months, it was a blessing in disguise that this sale was forced back to now for this bloke as he just needed a bit more time to mature and develop, which he has. He's a lovely horse with a great attitude. I just like the way he goes about things. He's athletic, he's got a lot of attributes you want to see in a nice horse. He's got a lot going for him.''

Also getting involved was Hong Kong buyer Eden Wong, who purchased a Teofilo colt out of Hot Augusta for AU$110,000. 

Faretti Tops Inglis Digital Auction

While most attention was on the Melbourne Gold yearlings, they joined an existing Inglis Digital sale, the July (Early) Online Auction, that already featured a strong draft in itself.

The sales topper was stakes-performed 3-year-old Faretti, a AU$2 million yearling who fetched AU$235,000.

Sent off as the second choice in the Silver Slipper Stakes (G2) on debut last year, he was bought by Adrian Bott, who already trains the gelding in partnership with Gai Waterhouse.

"He's always been a high-profile horse that's promised us plenty and shown us plenty of potential, but due to some really unfortunate circumstances, the horse had to be sold,'' Bott said. "Once he was listed, we were approached by a group of people to continue racing the horse in the hope he can continue to train on and hopefully fulfill the early potential he's shown us.

"Trading horses online is an ever-evolving way of doing business, and these past few months especially, it's become a necessity at times and the Inglis Digital platform is outstanding, very user-friendly. We've sold and bought online through Inglis and have never had any issues. It's great.''

Also making six figures were the well-bred Laybuy, who will remain with Michael Moroney after being bought by Ballymore Stables for AU$120,000, as well as China Horse Club pair Coat Of Arms and Concealed, who fetched AU$105,000 and AU$100,000, respectively.

Godolphin also offered a consignment of 41 broodmares and race fillies, following on from selling a draft of tried horses last month. The collection proved popular with 39 individual buyers investing in their stock; the top lot was 3-year-old filly Delicately, sold for AU$65,000 to businessman Tory Lavalle.

"It's obviously a very strong market online at present, and we're very happy with these results,'' Godolphin's racing and bloodstock manager, Jason Walsh, said. "We've had some individual breeding prospects sell nicely, and we wish all the new owners all the very best with their purchases.''

It was the sixth consecutive Inglis Digital sale to gross in excess of AU$3 million, with the gross of AU$5,623,900 a new record for the platform, eclipsing the previous high of AU$4.8 million set in May.

"It's a huge endorsement of the work that has been done by people associated with that platform and our bloodstock team as a whole," Hutch said. "When you consider the amount of work that our bloodstock team did to try and inspect Gold lots over the last four, five, six days when it became apparent that we wouldn't be able to have horses on the complex. They got through an enormous amount of work, and that work has borne fruit through the sale. 

"Similarly, with the Godolphin lots, a lot of effort goes into the management and the promotion of a draft like that. Again, it's been very effective, the engagement from people right across the country in that draft. Right across the sale, we've had weanlings sell for strong money, we've had some good prices for fillies that have been sold as breeding propositions—Indigenous made AU$95,000—and pregnant mares have sold well. It's really a true and viable market.

"It's hard not to be complimentary about the people in our team that work on Inglis Digital, people like Nick Melmeth. They deserve all the credit."