Gandharvi Makes its Mark on Day One at Easter Sale

Gandharvi Racing, a relatively new entrant making its mark on the global racing industry, has upped the ante in its quest for success Down Under by acquiring an AU$1.75 million (US$1,169,436, AU$1.00=US$0.6682) blueblood filly (Lot 117) during the April 3 opening day of the 2023 Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale.

In a stunning show of faith in the Australian bloodstock industry, leading domestic and international investors indicated the longer-term health of the sector was in good shape as buyers shelled out more than AU$65 million in the first session on 208 yearlings, defying any economic downturn and sentiment at some of the earlier sales this year.

Fourteen yearlings sold for AU$1 million or more during the eight-and-a-half hours of trade, the headline act being a $1.75 million Pierro  half sister to top juvenile Learning To Fly, the Widden Stakes (G3), Inglis Millennium, and Reisling Stakes (G2) winner this season.

Successful bidder Michael Wallace was acting for Gandharvi Racing's Boston-based Kuldeep Singh Rajput, who has a growing bloodstock portfolio in a number of jurisdictions, including Australia, Singapore, and the U.S.

"He's looking to build a (portfolio of) quality racing and long-time breeding prospects, and with her credentials, she hopefully fits that," Wallace said.

"She'll probably take a little bit longer than what Learning To Fly took, she was a big, masculine filly, so this filly may take just a little bit longer, especially being by Pierro, but there's no rush."

Learning To Fly's trainer Annabel Neasham has been handed the keys to the daughter of Pierro.

Consigned by Coolmore, she is the third foal out of MRC Chairman's Stakes (G3) winner Ennis Hill, a sister to Inglis Nursery-winning sire Acrobat, and fellow stakes winner Lake Geneva. Her second dam is group 2 winner Hips Don't Lie , whose now 3-year-old daughter Humming, an AU$1.95 million Easter filly, won her first start in February.

Coolmore's Tom Magnier said he and co-owners Michael Kirwan, James Bester, and Demi O'Byrne, who bred the Pierro filly and maintain a strong interest in Learning To Fly, found it difficult to part with the session topper.

Targeting fillies was a strategic decision by Wallace and Rajput. 

"(The plan is to) very much race some high-quality fillies, which we've done worldwide, and to take some equity in some colts where we can," Wallace said.

"Obviously, that's a pretty saturated marketplace, the colts marketplace, so we'll step into that if and when we find the right colts. 

"Fillies, long-term, are a pretty safe play in this part of the world with such a thriving racing and sales environment, so that's the focus, to build a nice, quality racing team and long-term a quality broodmare program."

Yulong's Yuesheng Zhang, a Riverside Stables behemoth on Day One, was the underbidder on the half sister to Learning To Fly.

However, Zhang could be on course to break a long-standing Easter buying record after yesterday splashing AU$9.74 million, which comes after his unprecedented investment in broodmares across the globe in recent years.

Not since the 2008 Easter spending spree by Darley (AU$19.005 million on 20 yearlings), Jack and Bob Ingham (AU$18.125 million on 24 Lots), and Patinack Farm's Nathan Tinkler (35 yearlings for AU$9.647 million) has a single entity had such a stronghold over the market. 

The scale of the Yulong operation of stallions, broodmares, and now a dramatically ramped up racing division, has been turbo-charged by the addition of 18 yearlings, including a AU$1.4 million colt by Written Tycoon  and two AU$1.3 million colts by Snitzel  and I Am Invincible .

The Written Tycoon colt (Lot 223) is the first foal out of Frank and Christine Cook's group 3 winner Meryl, who was trained by Lee and Cherie Curtis. 

"He was the best Written Tycoon colt on the ground and possibly within the top three colts overall on the ground. He's a lovely horse with a great temperament, he has a great physical, and he's out of a great race mare," Fairgray said.

With tears welling in his eyes, breeder Frank Cook was flanked by vendor, Fairview Park's Linda Duckworth, after Yulong signed for his Written Tycoon colt who was underbid by Coolmore.

"We passed in (group 1 winner) Espiona's half brother for under AU$300,000 and I thought, 'oh, the day's just going badly,' and I was going to go and sleep in the car for two hours to wait to get to our boy and Linda said, 'no, come on, gee up'," Cook said.

English's First Foal Joins Waterhouse and Bott Team 

One lot prior to the session-topping AU$1.75 million Pierro filly going through the ring, an I Am Invincible first foal (Lot 116) out of Newhaven Park's champion 2- and 3-year-old group 1 winner English  was sold for AU$1.55 million to the triumvirate of Kia Ora, Tony Fung Investments and Adrian Bott and Gai Waterhouse.

"He's a first foal who is by a champion stallion as well, so he was a pretty straightforward horse for us," Bott said.

"He looks like a nice, forward type of horse, so I am hoping in 12 months time to see him performing pretty strongly for us already.''

History Repeats at Easter 

Before almost every horse sale there's optimism and pessimism, and not always in equal measure, but Monday's results exceeded many observers' expectations.

Widden's Thompson said: "There's always enormous competition at the top and then there's real value and opportunities that present if you're just below that, and that's the Easter Yearling Sale for as long as I've been coming here. 

"That's the way it is and certainly nothing's changed today."

On trend for the 2023 sales season, fillies have held sway, averaging AU$453,116 ($302,794) while the colts have averaged AU$376,429 ($251,548).

The overall average was AU$409,500 ($273,648), up from AU$383,873 on Day One last year, while the median was AU$300,000 ($200,475), the same as the corresponding day in 2022. The clearance rate was 77%.

Inglis Bloodstock chief executive Sebastian Hutch was pleased with the opening stanza of the Easter sale.

"We were confident that horses would sell really well, but I probably didn't envisage that we'd be quite in this position at this day," Hutch said. 

"So, it's very pleasing and it's nice to be able to achieve some really positive results for vendors who supported the sale in the way that they had."

The CEO acknowledged Yulong's immense presence at Riverside, but he felt he wasn't an overpowering figure on Day One.

"Mr. Zhang was strong, but there was good competition across a lot of horses and it's not to say that he bought every horse that he bid on," Hutch said. 

"He got beaten on plenty and, without necessarily looking at all the figures, it felt like there was a good spread of competition across the higher-end horses; names you'd traditionally associate with the top of the buyers' sheet didn't feature as prominently where they might ordinarily.

"That may or may not change by the end of the sale. There was good competition at the top end of the sale and good value to be found through the middle and value parts of the market."

Day Two starts at 10 a.m. April 4.