Value Buy: Inglis Melbourne Premier Day 1

4 min read

Written by Bren O'Brien

Each day of the Inglis Melbourne Premier Yearling Sale, TDN AusNZ will find a 'value buy', where an opportunity has been spotted - even in this hot sale market.

An Epaulette coup

Pedigree updates are always handy ahead of a sale, especially when a yearling's half-sister wins a Group 2 race and his sire has his first Australian Group 1 winner within 24 hours of a yearling going through the ring.

But Lot 4, the Epaulette colt out of Juliet's Princess (USA) (More Than Ready {USA}), making him a half-brother to G2 Guy Walter S. winner Forbidden Love (All Too Hard), appears to have snuck under the guard, with Avesta Bloodstock securing him for $100,000.

Lot 4 - Epaulette x Juliet's Princess (USA) (colt) | Image courtesy of Inglis

Perhaps being sold so early in the Sale saw him slip under the radar, but Avesta's Jimmy Unwala was more than happy to be the one to seize on the opportunity to get the colt from Bhima Thoroughbreds draft.

"I just feel that Epaulette is a bit underrated. Sometimes it can happen with certain stallions and maybe because he has now gone to Turkey some people have been put off him. I rate a horse that I see individually, not just by his stallion," Unwala told TDN AusNZ.

"He has a deep family. He's a half to a Group 1 winner. I worked at Darley for a long time, so I know the breed of Epaulette really well as well."

"He (Lot 4) has a deep family. He's a half to a Group 1 winner. I worked at Darley for a long time, so I know the breed of Epaulette really well as well." - Jimmy Unwala

The virtues of Epaulette should have been very fresh in buyers' minds given his son Daumier won the G1 Blue Diamond S. on Saturday, and like that colt, Lot 4 was a late foal, with plenty of scope for improvement.

"I thought he was a nice horse who maybe needed a bit of time. He is a November foal, but the Blue Diamond winner by Epaulette was a November 26 foal," Unwala said.

"It doesn't stop me, because I don’t do it one dimensionally. A good racehorse is a good racehorse and I thought at that price, he was really good value early in the day."

Jimmy Unwala | Image courtesy of Bronwen Healy

Epaulette, who was sold to Turkey by Darley last year, has had his best year yet in terms of results through the ring, with his 20 yearlings sold in Australia so far in 2022 averaging a career-high $77,050.

Just this week, he had colts sell for $150,000 in Perth and $115,000 in Tasmania. That one of his, who is a half-brother to a Group 1 winner, could sell for $100,000 at Inglis Melbourne Premier Sale seems somewhat of an anomaly.

Depth of pedigree

It's a family that doesn't stop at Forbidden Love, with Juliet's Princess a stakes performer and a host of American graded winners peppering the pedigree under the third dam.

"It’s good black type up front and the mum could run as well. And you keep going on there is more and more black type. Good families produce good horses. He was a no-brainer for me but I didn't think I'd get him for that," he said.

"Good families produce good horses. He was a no-brainer for me but I didn't think I'd get him for that." - Jimmy Unwala

"The Commands-line horses they don't typically look like sales horses. A lot of Australians like short-coupled, forward, 2-year-old types. There is many stakes races in this country over a distance for phenomenal prizemoney."

It may not be the last chance buyers have to buy the colt, with a good chance that Avesta Bloodstock may look to pinhook him through a 2-year-old sale in the spring. Unwala said he will make a call on where the horse heads in the coming weeks.

"I like to buy them, take them home, assess them after a couple of weeks and then make a decision what we’ll do. I'm sure he will end up somewhere," he said.

Value Buy
Inglis Melbourne Premier Yearling Sale
Epaulette
Bhima
Jimmy Unwala
Avesta Bloodstock