Inglis Easter Sale Offers 'Creme de la Creme'

The opportunities to gain access to some of the generation’s best-credentialed colts and fillies out of blue hen families have participants excited about the Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale.

The prestigious auction, attracting some of Australasia’s most sought after yearlings born in 2021, starts April 3 at Riverside Stables. With economic clouds of doubt hanging over the bloodstock industry, vendors and buyers alike are remaining positive ahead of one of the Southern Hemisphere’s premium markets.

They reason that high-end Thoroughbreds, like any commodity, relatively speaking, hold their value irrespective of prevailing financial conditions, and they are confident that the maxim will hold true at the Easter sale over the next two days.

The Royston and Treen Murphy-owned Sledmere Stud Easter draft has fillies by Snitzel , So You Think , and Savabeel , the ageless champion sire who produced a resounding TJ Smith Stakes (G1)—Australian Derby (G1) double at Randwick April 1, and colts by Zoustar  and Toronado .

But it is Sledmere’s first horse through the ring—the Lot 8-cataloged I Am Invincible  sister to group 1 winner Invincibella and half sister to stakes winners Secret Blaze and Extreme Flight—who promises to be a litmus test for the top-end of the Easter sale.

While Sledmere will be an early tester for the market, late on Day 2 Steve Grant’s Silverdale Farm has a filly by The Autumn Sun, a three-quarter-sister to the recently retired Newgate Farm-based Golden Rose (G1)—winning sire In The Congo, who will be a marker for the depth of the buying bench’s willingness to spend at Easter 2023.

An AU$600,000 weanling purchase, and by the same sire as the Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott-trained Black Opal Stakes (G3) winner Autumn Ballet and the group 1-placed New Zealand juvenile Tulsi, she is the fourth foal out of champion South African sprinter Via Africa. She will go under the hammer as Lot 440 in the catalog of 457 horses.

Silverdale’s draft of eight also has a colt and a filly by sire phenomenon Extreme Choice (AUS), colts by Snitzel and Written Tycoon  and fillies by I Am Invincible and Deep Field (AUS).

“She was a beautiful weanling when we purchased her and she’s done nothing but go on since then and we haven’t had to do much with her,” Silverdale Farm manager Rob Petith said. 

“She’s a glorious physical, a great moving horse and we’re pretty excited to have her.” 

Petith added: “On Friday, we had 78 cards for the day, so we were busy, and second inspections have come back (on Sunday).

“We’re trying to assemble an elite group of mares on the farm, based on performance but also physically, and we feel we’ve brought a draft worthy of being in Easter and I think they’ll find good homes, which is ultimately what we are here to do.”

Treen Murphy said Sledmere brought a select draft befitting of the Easter sale.

“You’ve got to come here with the creme de la creme to get results (in the sales ring), but this is the sale we all build up to every year,” Murphy said. 

“We’ve got some standouts in the draft, one being the I Am Invincible out of Abscond who needs no introduction with Invincibella (being a sister).”

Murphy said the farm’s leaders had been constantly busy during the inspection period and the Sledmere principal suggested the value of high-end fillies will ensure competition on those horses.

“There’s been really good talk around the sales and we haven’t had any moments of downtime really. It’s been consistent,” she said. 

“I think with the market coming down a touch, it’s probably spiked a little bit more interest for a buyers market, but I think overall everybody’s really positive.

“This is a unique sale and there are lots of overseas buyers here. We’ve had a lot of interest already.”

She continued: “Some of these fillies, in particular, if they don’t ‘go’ on the track, they still hold their value as broodmares. 

“A lot of them are from blue hen families and a lot of them are (from families) being chased throughout the year and this is the only place that you can really come and purchase them.”

The impact of the economy may have swayed some owners and trainers to keep their powder dry at Easter, but there has also been an array of internationals at Riverside.

A strong contingent of New Zealanders, buoyed by a ‘Kiwi clean sweep’ of the four group 1 races at Randwick on Saturday, are at the Easter sale, but there are also trainers and agents from the Northern Hemisphere who have made the long–haul trip to Sydney.

They include expatriate Australian Michael Costa, who has just completed a stellar maiden season training in Dubai for Sheikh Ahmed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, agents Marie Yoshida, Stuart Boman, and Dermot Farrington, and buyers from Hong Kong. 

The leading Australian trainers are on the grounds such as Chris Waller, Waterhouse and Bott, Ciaron Maher and David Eustace, and Team Hawkes, as well as a plethora of agents and associates, including Joe Curran and Kevin “Milly” Walls, who have been acting for Ron and Judy Wanless at the Magic Millions and New Zealand Bloodstock Karaka sales this year.

“I feel like this sale is a little different in that I think people go to a lot of yearling sales and hope to buy a good horse, but I think people come to this sale and expect to buy a good one and I think that’s what drives interest in the sale,” Inglis Bloodstock chief executive Sebastian Hutch told ANZ Bloodstock News Sunday.

“Foot traffic has been really excellent independent of circumstances and interest in the sale has been really good. 

“What that means to the market, we’ll only find out Monday and Tuesday, but I just know there’s a lot of good horses there, and I think it’s ripe for people to do some really good shopping.”

In-form Victorian-based trainer Grahame Begg, who tasted stakes success at Randwick on Saturday when Magic Time won the PJ Bell Stakes (G3) and had smart mare Passive Aggressive contest the TJ Smith Stakes, was at Riverside Stables Sunday inspecting the yearlings on offer, particularly fillies.

“We haven’t got the budget of a lot of the bigger stables, but hopefully, we might be able to pick up some horses because the stable’s been in good form of late and there’s no time like winning nice races just before the sales,” Begg said.

For investors in quality bloodstock, the Easter sale is arguably the Southern Hemisphere’s holy grail and Hutch said buyers were entitled to be excited by the opportunities available over the next two days.

“Where the market lands, we facilitate the market rather than dictate it, but I think there’ll be plenty of horses who sell really well,” he said. 

“Inevitably, there’ll be some horses that people feel have pinched for value, for want of a better description, and hopefully, we can come away from the sale having solid turnover and good clearance.”

Day 1 starts at 10 a.m. local time.