In the heady flush of sale day, I do love the post-sale interviews where everyone has bought 'the best colt or filly of the sale' and all of them 'look like natural runners' and will be 'set for the Golden Slipper'.
The reality is that the two best colts in the country – Written By (2YO) and Trapeze Artist (3YO sprinter) - were offered for sale as yearlings and passed in.
If I heard it once last week, I heard it a thousand times, 'he (or she) was the
one we really wanted"…. well nobody wanted Written By or Trapeze Artist and
look how they've turned out.Bred by Neville Begg, Written By was offered at Inglis Premier where he passed in at $180,000 with a reserve of $200,000.
Written Tycoon had 20 yearlings sell at that sale at an average $183,500 and you can click to see them here. It's hard to think a $200,000 reserve was unreasonable in context with the horses that were sold and yet he left the ring as a pass in.
Retained by the Begg family and trained by Grahame Begg, the Blue Diamond winner has won four of five starts and $1.4 million in prizemoney proving himself as the best juvenile colt this season.
A son of champion sire Snitzel, Trapeze Artist was offered by his breeder Bert Vieira at the 2016 Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale with a reserve of $300,000, but passed in at $250,000.
Again it's hard to say it was an excessive reserve given 20 Snitzel yearlings
averaged $483,000,
click to see them here.Prepared by Gerald Ryan for Bert Vieira, Trapeze Artist won the Group I ATC Golden Rose in the spring and two weeks ago thumped the best older sprinter in the country Redzel to win the Group I ATC TJ Smith.
He's already won $2.7 million, but that's a fraction of what this colt is worth as a stallion if his owner chooses to sell.
What's interesting is that the 'stallion makers' that spend up big on yearling colts at all the sales looking for the sires of tomorrow completely missed these two and will now pay dearly to bring them back into commercial hands.
It's food for thought to every vendor this year that has a colt at home which left the ring unsold.
Could he be the next Written By or Trapeze Artist?
We all know about the sold yearlings at Inglis Easter this year and the 22 that sold for $1million or more, but what about the pass-ins?
Click here to see the full list of pass-ins, could the best horse from Inglis Easter 2018 in fact still be for sale!
