Slight Downturn Expected at Upcoming Premier Sale

The leader of the Victorian division of Thoroughbred auction house Inglis is remaining upbeat about the prospects of the company's upcoming Melbourne Premier Yearling Sale, despite suggestions of winds of change sweeping across the sector.

Preparing for the company's biggest three days of the year at Oaklands Junction, starting with the opening session of the Premier sale March 5, Victorian bloodstock manager James Price believes "everything points towards a successful and robust sale".

"The foot traffic has been very healthy, vendors have been pleased with the buyers they're seeing inspecting their horses," Price told ANZ Bloodstock News Friday.

"On the other side of the ledger, buyers are happy with what they're seeing on paper matches up very well with the physicals that they're seeing. I dare say there'll be some strong competition, particularly on those premium horses throughout the three days."

While mindful of the wider economic outlook, Price still expects a healthy market to be in play, but he urged participants to use the 2019 sale figures, which averaged AUS$115,586 at a median price of AUS$90,000 in the Premier Session, to benchmark their results.

"We are all talking about the economy. However, let's put it into a greater timeframe and into perspective," he said.

"I think we'll see a slight downturn, certainly from the 2022 Premier figures, but let's compare them to the 2019 sale for which I would hope we'll see a 5% to 10% increase on what those figures were.

"Let's remove the past two years of the (booming) Thoroughbred industry and we're still in a terrifically positive and healthy industry here in Australia."

The Victorian owners and trainers will understandably be the key to the depth of the market at the state's major yearling auction of the season.

Underlining the importance of the local market, Ciaron Maher and David Eustace bought 16 yearlings; Lindsay Park purchased 14 yearlings and Mick Price and Mick Kent Jr acquired 13 from the Premier Session of the Oaklands Junction sale in 2022.

Victorian farm Rosemont Stud consolidated its 2023 yearling draft by offering only at the select Magic Millions Gold Coast and Melbourne Premier sales this year, bypassing Inglis Classic and the upcoming Magic Millions Adelaide sale.

"Late last year we made that decision, and it was a deliberate decision, that we'd concentrate on these two sales in particular and regards to this sale it's a draft of 32 and I'd like to think that a fair number of these horses wouldn't look out of place at a Gold Coast sale," Rosemont Stud's general manager of bloodstock Ryan McEvoy said.

"I think the quality draft on paper reflects that on type and from a page point of view 15 of the 26 horses in Book 1 are either out of or a half to a stakes winner or stakes performer. Some of the sires represented in the draft (are) I Am Invincible , Snitzel , Exceed And Excel , Shamus Award, Fastnet Rock , Starspangledbanner , and we even have a Camelot  filly born to Southern Hemisphere time, so there's great diversity and we're through three days of inspections and the response has been really positive."

McEvoy expects the Victorian trainers to once again feature high up on the buyers' sheet from Sunday to Tuesday, but wouldn't be surprised if the trend of the eastern states' Australian sales continues where the middle to lower end of the market falls below the peaks experienced in 2022.

"That seems to be the feedback we're hearing and there's also guys who might've just had the gun in the holster at the Classic sale and indicated that they wanted to keep their powder dry for this sale," he said.

"This sale has clearly got a record (of graduate success) which is hard to ignore, but it is going to be interesting.

"I am cautiously optimistic of what the sale might look like. I think there's some evidence of the steam slightly coming off. The top-end of most of these sales will look after itself, but whether there might be a correction in that middle market with everything going on we'll have to wait and see."