An “extraordinarily successful’’ Australian Broodmare Sale – the first ever held in a digital format – closed this afternoon, bringing to an end a robust weekend of Inglis breeding stock sales.
Following Friday evening’s Chairman’s Sale, the online Australian Broodmare Sale concluded with all key metric figures largely on par with last year’s strong results, despite the new format and the Coronavirus-inflicted restrictions.
At the completion of today’s auction, 222 broodmares had sold at an average of $41,089 with 25 mares selling for $100,000 or more.
Today’s top lot was beautifully-bred Medaglia d’Oro mare Villa San Michele (lot 321), selling in foal to Deep Field for $260,000 to Yulong Investments from Segenhoe Stud, as agent for Fairway Thoroughbreds.
It helped Yulong to be the sale’s leading buyer, securing 10 lots for $1,043,500.
“Villa San Michele is from a very good family, a mare with a pedigree behind her, a lovely mare to have in our ever-expanding broodmare band,’’ Yulong’s Sam Fairgray said.
“Overall we’ve bought some really nice mares today by really good stallions in foal to some really appealing young horses and proven stallions.
“It’s great to get mares by Street Cry, Redoute’s Choice, More Than Ready and the like, really desirable mares for the Yulong broodmare band to support our stallions.
“Vendors are very good with the information they share with these Inglis digital sales, you can do your research and it works really well.’’
Segenhoe’s Peter O’Brien was thrilled with the price reached for Villa San Michele (pictured).
“We’re delighted, completely delighted. She was a queen of a mare with a pedigree to die for so she deserved a good price and she absolutely got that and more,’’ O’Brien said.
“It’s not often you get a Medaglia d’Oro mare that ticks every box, in foal to a hot stallion the quality of Deep Field.
“Yulong have been great supporters of us in buying weanlings, yearlings and broodmares for a long time and the most important thing for us was that this mare went to a good home and that’s absolutely the case with Yulong purchasing her, which is fantastic.
“We supplemented some of the better mares into this sale and they have sold brilliantly.
“It’s really a huge credit to Inglis for how they promoted the sale, their professionalism in the lead-up and during under challenging circumstances given the global situation and the quality and ease of the overall format. It really is beyond reproach.’’
The sale’s second-top lot was Stakes-winning mare Kentucky Miss (Foxwedge) in foal to Flying Artie, selling to Wilf and Rosemary Mula’s Aston Bloodstock for $250,000, having been offered by Luskin Park Stud.
It was a poignant sale for Luskin Park, offering an unreserved dispersal following the untimely passing of stud proprietor Paul Whelan - the highly respected thoroughbred breeder and former NSW Police Minister - who died late last year.
Luskin Park’s John Whelan couldn’t have asked for a better result.
“We’re thrilled with the price for Kentucky Miss and thrilled Wilf and Rosemary were able to pick her up. We’ll be cheering her progeny on from the grandstand and lounge room for many years to come,’’ Whelan said.
“We’re very, very happy. People seem to have embraced this format and it’s proving very successful. It really works well.
“Inglis have been exceptional. It’s an emotional thing having a dispersal like this but we put our trust in Inglis and as usual they’ve delivered in spades. Jonathan [D’Arcy] and the team have been exceptional and we’re thrilled with the overall results.’’
Kentucky Miss was the sole purchase for Mula, who praised the Inglis digital platform from both a buying and selling perspective.
“I’ve been exceptionally impressed with the online process and in some ways, it’s better than an actual sale in that you have time. At a live auction – as a buyer or seller – you don’t have that time,’’ Mula said.
“As long as you have the right videos and provide total transparency, I have no issues trading this way.
“Inglis is to be congratulated.
“It’s been very easy, even for somebody like me, to buy and sell with this online process. The sale was well marketed, well run and very successful.’’
In total over the weekend of the Breeding Stock Sales Series more than $32,500,000 has been traded, a result Inglis General Manager of Bloodstock Sales and Marketing Sebastian Hutch was extremely pleased with.
“We were absolutely determined to reward the fantastic support of us by our vendors by doing everything we could to help them to achieve a series of positive results, irrespective of the circumstances,’’ Hutch said.
“We are relieved that we have been able to deliver a positive set of results to many participants and we continue to learn ways in which we can improve our service to clients.
“We still have a number of very appealing mares available for sale privately following both auctions and we will be working hard to place those over the coming days before moving onto preparing for our extensive series of sales in July.''
To enquire about any passed in lot from either The Chairman’s Sale or the Australian Broodmare Sale, contact Morgan Thomas on 0422 450 363.
Entries are now open for the Inglis Digital May Online Sale, which will run from May 22-27.
To enter, CLICK HERE.
