A fantastic opening day of the Easter Yearling Sale saw a remarkable 14 lots realise $1m or more as buyers stepped up to defy global economic trends and ensure Easter remains in a league of its own.
On an incredible day of action at Riverside, a Pierro x Ennis Hill filly from Coolmore – a half sister to Inglis Millennium winner Learning To Fly - topped proceedings, selling to Michael Wallace and Gandharvi’s Kuldeep Singh Rajput for $1.75m.
She was one of 14 horses to sell for seven figures or more, which were offered by 11 different vendors and sold to 10 different buyers.
Of the $1m+ horses, eight were colts and six were fillies.
This is Kuldeep Singh Rajput’s first Easter Sale as a major investor and his bloodstock agent Michael Wallace said he was here to buy at the top.
“Kuldeep Singh is a new entrant into the business really and is looking at building a quality racing and long-term breeding prospects business and with her credentials, this filly fits that mould,’’ Wallace said.
“The plan is to race high quality fillies here in Australia, as we’ve done around the world already, and take some equity in some colts when we can.
“This family is probably deemed the most dominant family in Australia currently and it’s only going to continue to thrive.’’
The filly will be trained by Annabel Neasham.
“Annabel saw us looking at the filly a couple of days ago and tapped us on the shoulder and you’d only be too happy to give her to her, given Learning To Fly’s success,’’ Wallace said.
Coolmore’s Tom Magnier was delighted with the outcome.
“She’s a special filly and all the top judges were on her. The sales complex was packed when she went through the ring so you kind of knew she was going to make a top price,’’ Magnier said.
“She’s a lovely filly and with a bit of luck, she’s the next Learning To Fly.
“It’s a lot of money and when your filly goes through the ring and has the top price of the day, you have to be happy.
“It’s very strong, all the buyers are here, the horses are here, the pages are here, it’s going to be a strong couple of days.’’
The second-top lot was a stunning I Am Invincible x English colt of Newhaven Park, which Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott teamed up with Kia Ora and Tony Fung Investments to secure for $1.55m.
Waterhouse and Bott trained the dam for the Kelly family of Newhaven Park and saw so many similarities between her and this colt that they “just had to have him’’.
“I first saw him at Newhaven and he came out and paraded and I thought ‘oh you’re a bit of a cool dude’, having no idea he was out of English, the great mare that Adrian and I trained for the Kelly family,’’ Waterhouse said.
“And then I kept seeing him here and he grew on me more and more. You look at them a bit differently when you know their breeding.
“Adrian was committed that we should try to secure this horse and we were very lucky to be able to have had the people come in at the same time in Kia Ora and TFI, it all came together you could say the moons aligned.’’
Newhaven’s John Kelly added: “To come here today and sell the colt for that much money, it’s just quite extraordinary really.
“He was a lovely colt, he had a lovely pedigree, champion colt, champion mare by a champion stallion, and he sold very well.
“We’re very pleased that Gai is going to end up back training him and very gracious of Kia Ora and TFI for purchasing the horse. We’re just really pleased.’’
There were many other outstanding results on Day 1, among them the brother of Russian Revolution (offered by Newgate Farm) selling to James Harron Bloodstock for $1.4m, while late in the day Linda and Ian Duckworth of Fairview Park Stud sold a Written Tycoon x Meryl colt on behalf of Francis and Christine Cook for $1.4m to Yulong.
Inglis Bloodstock CEO Sebastian Hutch was delighted with the Day 1 trade.
“It was very pleasing, there were some fabulous results for a lot of our vendors and importantly I feel buyers were encouraged by the high quality on offer and bid accordingly,’’ Hutch said.
“There are a lot of buyers going home frustrated that they haven’t been able to secure the stock they wanted today and I think that’s a really positive facet to any sale.
“Tomorrow is another even day across the catalogue where opportunities will arise at all ends of the market and we look forward to getting back here in the morning and going again.’’
To enquire about a Passed In lot from today’s action, contact Harry Bailey from the Inglis Bloodstock team on 0420 997 417.
The second and final day of the 2023 Easter Yearling Sale will begin at 10am at Riverside and will again be broadcast live on the Inglis website and Facebook page via our Sale Day Live coverage from 9.30am.
Online Bidding and Make An Offer facilities will again be available on Day 2.
To view the Easter catalogue, CLICK HERE.
EASTER 2023 DAY 1 STATISTICS (2022 in brackets)
Lots sold: 160 (173)
Clearance Rate: 77% (81%)
Average Price: $409,500 ($383,873)
Median Price: $300,000 ($300,000)
Top Price: $1,750,000 ($1,500,000)
Gross: $65,520,000 ($66,410,000)
