International injection sets up high expectations for excellent Easter

Last year's Inglis Easter Yearling Sale featured the highest gross, $134.6 million, since 2008, and the highest-ever average, $368,945, for the iconic Sale, a result achieved despite diminished participation from the international buying bench because of COVID-19 related travel restrictions.

International investment was just 12 per cent of the overall aggregate spend in 2021, compared with 21.6 per cent in 2020, 20.4 per cent in 2019 and 24.3 per cent in 2018. International buyers purchased 38 horses in 2021, down from 70 and 75 in the two sales before the COVID pandemic hit in 2020, bringing a halt to international travel.

International buyers have remained active across the pandemic, bidding through agents and using technology such as videos, to assess prospects, but there is nothing like being on the ground to buoy buyer confidence.

What is clearly apparent from walking around the sale grounds at the Riverside Stables this week is that the international buyers are back in force, with familiar faces back enjoying the quality of both Australian bloodstock and hospitality ahead of this year's Easter Sale.

"The market has done a reasonably good job of engaging with people overseas through agents and videos, etc., but it certainly does give a better feel to the occasion to these international buyers here on the grounds," Inglis CEO - Bloodstock, Sebastian Hutch, said.

"Certainly it will enhance the nature of their participation. I think the last couple of years have been excellent with the relationships they have built up with people due to the nature of the interactions. People have had to work harder to get to know people because they have been dealing through them, rather than just with them. I think they will add to the market.

"We have had a lot of time to try and canvas international interest and international investment and have taken an optimistic view from a long way out that internationals will be able to attend the Sale."

While the international buyers present at Warwick Farm this week are not quite back to full strength, they will help fuel demand towards the top end in particular. Across the past four sales, the average price of an Easter Sale yearling purchased by an international buyer is around $30,000 more, or 8.5 per cent, when compared to local investment.

"We haven’t left any stone unturned, in terms of people we have reached out to about the Sale, I think we will see some new names on the sheet, both in terms of new participants, and names that might not have been patients at Easter before," Hutch said.

"Hopefully at the end of it all, we will reflect on a good turnover and good clearance rate and happy vendors and happy buyers."

Strong catalogue meets bulging buyers' bench

The feedback from buyers through inspections has been very strong on this Sale, with most putting it on par or better, in terms of quality, than Easter sales in recent times. What that points to is very competitive buying, and a good sale for vendors.

"I think it will be very competitive on the horses that meet the criteria that buyers set. Horses that have the right pedigree, profile up well, present well and x-ray well, it will be very competitive," Hutch said.

"As in any sale, vendors will have to work hard for those horses that don’t meet the mark. There will be value there for horses that might, for whatever reason, be not quite meeting the absolute preferences of buyers.

"The top end of the market, right the way through the year, has been fantastic and there has been good liquidity beneath that. I’d expect that would be the case here. But, there has been $79 million more spent this year then there was at the same Sale stage last year, and I'm conscious of that."

'Cautious optimism' has been the default position of both major Australian sales companies through the current bloodstock boom and while it wasn't a phrase uttered by Hutch on Sale eve, there is a tangible nervous anticipation.

Having got the big picture in order, in terms of the strength of both the catalogue and the buying bench, Inglis will continue to work on the detail in the final hours before the first horse goes through the ring at 10am AEST on Tuesday.

"There are a lot of good horses here. This is the best yearling sale in the Southern Hemisphere. We canvassed for entries on that premise," Hutch said.

"It creates an expectation that we will deliver and we work very hard to ensure that everything is done to give vendors every possible chance to achieve the best result. We want buyers to come here and be excited with what they see. That has been the feedback over the past week and through the pre-Sale inspections on the farms," he said.

"People are genuinely excited about what they have been seeing, not just from one or two drafts, but across a variety of drafts. That's reassuring. By the same token, it creates a level of pressure and expectation that exists until the Sale gets going."

A huge opportunity

The significance of the moment and the opportunity on offer for history to be created this week is not lost of Hutch and his team, who have a clear idea of the metrics they'd like to see come Wednesday night but know that the success of the Sale will be judged by something that cannot be so precisely measured.

"What we want is people to feel positive about the experience, to have vendors feel that have done everything they can to get a good result," Hutch said.

"We have been given a great opportunity here and it's quite exciting to be at this point with what we have got here. There are so many nice horses here, but it’s a matter of making sure it goes well for as many people as possible."