The most successful Inglis Australian Weanling Sale in history concluded at Riverside today with a record individual top price of $775,000 paid for a colt by Too Darn Hot (GB), a record gross and record average.
On an unprecedented two days of trade at the first and biggest weanling sale of the season, buyers’ appetite for quality was insatiable as the Southern Hemisphere breeding stock sales season began with gusto.
A total of 53 lots sold for $100,000 or more over the past two days – up from 49 last year - which helped the sale’s gross climb to $19,216,950, up 19% year-on-year.
The sale average, median and clearance rate are in line with the standard-setting sale of 12 months ago, despite an additional 92 weanlings having been offered for sale over the past two days.
The results have ensured a strong start to the 2025 Inglis Breeding Stock Sales Series, which continues later this week with the Chairman’s Sale and Australian Broodmare Sale.
The top weanling on today’s Day 2 action doubled as the highest-priced weanling to ever sell at an Inglis Australian Weanling Sale, the Too Darn Hot x Enbihaar colt (pictured) which sold to Equine Growth Fund for $775,000.
The colt was offered by Widden Stud, on behalf of Rob Cummings and partners, and eclipsed the previous sale record of $650,000 which was set yesterday.
Widden’s Matt Comerford described the result as “exceptional’’.
“He had yearling numbers of inspections here which is unheard of for weanling sales,’’ Comerford said.
“Everybody looked at him. He had a huge amount of options that we thought could be potential players on him – not just the pinhookers but the end users also – which is a great credit to the sale to be able to draw those pinhooking groups and your end users to a sale like this. Accordingly so, he’s ended up a pinhook but your elite trainers were all here to try and buy the horse too.
“The sale has been fantastic. Across the board we’ve found it hard to buy for our pinhooking venture. Foot traffic is strong, the market at that top end is off its head again.’’
A spokesperson for the Equine Growth Fund added: “The sire is one of the best in the land and maybe one of the best in the world, he gets fillies, he gets colts, he’s an exceptional horse.
“I pulled this colt out five or six times and I’ve never rated a horse 9.75 before out of 10. I didn’t want to leave without him.
“He’s just such a relaxed colt, an exceptional mover, everything about him was exceptional.
“It’s hard to find these good, quality colts. He could be easily in a colt syndicate next year for someone to make a stallion.''
Today’s second-top lot honours were shared between a pair of Alma Vale-offered weanlings – an Anamoe filly out of Eawase and a Too Darn Hot colt out of Josdesanimaux – which both realised $340,000.
The results helped Alma Vale end the sale as leading vendor by gross, selling 15 of their 17 lots for $1,445,000 in what was their first standalone draft at an Australian Weanling Sale.
“It’s a huge result, we’re blown away,’’ Alma Vale’s Oscar Engelbrecht said.
“The Anamoe filly ended up with 32 X-Ray hits, she’s been out of her box more than she’s been in.
“We thought if we got $200,000 for her it would be good money. But $340,000, it was awesome, that’s great money for a weanling. We were so happy with the faces we saw here this week, all the right people were here.
“We’ve had a really good year with Inglis. We sold the Earthlight x Sanadaat colt at Premier for $475,000, we sold a Siyouni x Roselyne colt at Easter for $650,000, it’s been a really good year, you get rewarded with the nice horses for sure.’’
The Anamoe filly was purchased by Lime Country Thoroughbreds, whose Jo Griffin said: “As a type, we were watching her parade all week because Alma Vale were opposite us so Greg had been seeing her day after day after day parade and just fell in love with her.
“We’ve had a sensational week. We brought five here, we sold them all, top price $180,000, we only brought good foals here and, as always here, you bring quality foals and there’s plenty of buyers.’’
Silverdale Farm purchased the Too Darn Hot colt.
“For us he was one of the nicest colts here at the sale,’’ Silverdale’s Rob Petith said.
“We’ve had good luck out of this sale in the past so we were keen to come back. I mean admittedly we had to spend a bit more than we had anticipated but we were strong to the end and that’s a recipe that’s worked well for us in the past so hopefully we can repeat that.’’
Inglis Bloodstock CEO Sebastian Hutch was very pleased with how the weanling sale played out.
“Year after year, it has been a source of frustration at this sale that the demand for quality weanlings has exceeded supply, so we felt confident in advance of the sale that we could generate good demand across the catalogue,’’ Hutch said.
“That said, I fully expected that each of the average, median and clearance would fall markedly, noting that tends to happen as catalogues grow, so to have reached the end of the sale with those metrics in line with 12 months ago is a very pleasant surprise.
“The growth in this sale over the past number of years has been extraordinary, to the point where now, it is the premier weanling sale in the country.
“We are incredibly grateful to vendors for their continued support of the sale and look forward to seeing buyers achieve positive results with their purchases over the next number of years.
“This has been a really positive start to the week and we now look ahead to Thursday evening’s Chairman’s Sale, which is going to be a memorable evening, and then the Australian Broodmare Sale on Friday.’’
To enquire about a passed in lot from either day of the Australian Weanling Sale, contact Sinead Flannery on 0416 243 696.
The Inglis Breeding Stock Sales Series reaches its crescendo on Thursday night with the Chairman’s Sale, where 96 lots are catalogued for what is typically a special night of selling.
Among the Chairman’s highlights are some of the best race fillies and mares of recent seasons including Bella Nipotina, Amelia’s Jewel, I Am Me, Too Darn Lizzie, Tiz Invincible, Estriella, Makarena, Coco Sun, Semana, Mumbai Muse, Grinzinger Belle, Royal Merchant, She Dances, Catchy, Enbihaar, Waikato Girl, Vagrant, Sirileo Miss, Eagle Nest, A Little Deep, Ethereal Star, Hell Hath No Fury, Honey Girl, Shesallshenanigans, Tulsi, Lekvarte, Castanya etc.
The sale begins at 5pm, with the Sale Day Live broadcast to begin at 4.30pm with a 30-minute Preview Show hosted by Jason Richardson, Emma Freedman and Jemma Cutting.
To view the Chairman’s Sale catalogue CLICK HERE.
Friday’s Australian Broodmare Sale concludes the week-long action at Riverside before focus switches to Melbourne for the Great Southern Sale, which will be held at Oaklands on June 12 and 13.
Entries for the sale must close at 9am on Monday May 12.
To enter CLICK HERE.
2025 AUSTRALIAN WEANLING SALE STATISTICS (2024 stats in brackets)
Offered: 465 (373)
Sold: 356 (292)
Clearance: 77% (78%)
Average: $53,980 ($55,167)
Median: $30,000 ($30,000)
Gross: $19,216,950 ($16,104,000)
