Bullish Inglis Easter Sale. Record 14 $1m Yearilings sold

[Chief Stipe]

Records tumble at Inglis Easter Yearling Sales

Gai Waterhouse & Adrian Bott Racing purchased lot 116 I Am Invincible/English for $1,550,000 at the Easter Yearling Sale held at the Riverside Stable complex at Warwick Farm. Picture: Jonathan Ng

 

 

By Ray Thomas
09:49pm • 03 April 2023

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BIDS of $1 million-plus were as frequent as the congratulatory tinkering of champagne glasses as records tumbled on the opening day of the Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sales at the Riverside Stables on Monday.

The most important thoroughbred yearling auction in the southern hemisphere attracted buyers from around the world trying to purchase racing's next champion.

They rubbed shoulders with the nation's leading trainers like Gai Waterhouse, Chris Waller, Peter Moody, John Hawkes, Ciaron Maher and Annabel Neasham and champion jockey James McDonald.

English maestro William Haggas, trainer of Dubai Honour, the early favourite for Saturday's Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Royal Randwick, only arrived in Sydney on Monday morning but made a beeline to the Inglis Riverside complex near Warwick Farm racecourse to attend the sale.

The bidding on day one of the Easter Sale was frenetic at times as never before at an Australian thoroughbred auction where 14 yearlings sold for $1 million or more in a day's trading. The previous record for seven-figure bids in one day was eight.

 

The sale-topper was Lot 117, a filly by champion sire Pierro out of Ennis Hill, the dam of this season's outstanding two-year-old filly Learning To Fly. The yearling was knocked down for $1.75 million to American agent Michael Wallace on behalf of Singapore's Kuldeep Singh Rajput.

Buyers from England, France, America, Japan, United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Africa and New Zealand competed with domestic investors to push the sale aggregate for day one to more than $65 million at an extraordinary average price of $411,000 per yearling.

Gai Waterhouse, who trains in partnership with Adrian Bott, won her first ATC Australian Derby with Major Beel last Saturday and was on the lookout for her next stable star.

The Hall of Fame trainer had the "inside word" on Lot 116, the I Am Invincible-English colt which she secured with a final bid of $1.55 million.

Waterhouse used to train English, a dual Group 1 winner which ran second in a Golden Slipper and was twice-placed in the TJ Smith Stakes.

"I was looking at this colt at Newhaven Park one day and I thought he is a ‘cool dude','' Waterhouse said. "At the time I had no idea he was out of English.

"He grew more and more on me and we were lucky enough to get a syndicate together to buy him. As they say, the stars aligned!"

The leading buyer on day one was Chinese billionaire Yuesheng Zhang's Yulong Investment which spent more than $7 million to take home 15 yearlings.

Records fell at the opening day of the Inglis Easter Yearling Sale at the Riverside Stable complex at Warwick Farm. Picture: Jonathan Ng

Yulong spent $10.4 million to buy top English sprinting mare Alcohol Free last year and she makes her Sydney debut for the Waterhouse-Bott stable in the Queen of the Turf Stakes at Royal Randwick on Saturday.

The Australian thoroughbred industry seems almost immune to the economic pressures that impact the rest of society and the results on Day One of Easter was another indication the sport is enjoying boom times.

"The fantastic results from Day One of Easter are a reflection of the market confidence in the Australian racing and breeding industry,'' Sebastian Hutch, CEO of Inglis, said.

"This is a great time to invest in the sport with prizemoney at record levels and we have seen many domestic and international buyers here at the Inglis Easter Sale.

"Day Two (on Tuesday) promises to be as exciting and competitive as the opening day of the sale.''