‘It is the best value sale in Australasia’: Hutch anticipating more bargain buys as Inglis release Classic Sale catalogue

Image courtesy of Inglis

In a change to the format of the sale next year, the removal of the Highway Session, which was introduced in 2019, will see Book 1 expanded to encompass the full 808 lots over the three days of selling, which will take place at Inglis’ Riverside Stables complex in Sydney from Sunday, February 11 through to Tuesday, February 13.

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Buy from the breeders of PRIDE OF JENNI and LIM'S KOSCIUSZKO at this year's NZB Ready To Run Sale

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Leading sires I Am Invincible (7), Extreme Choice (8) and the red-hot Zoustar (9) all feature among the 110 different stallions represented in the catalogue, while the first-season sires are typically well-represented again this year, with the group of 25 spearheaded by Farnan (23), Ole Kirk (23), King’s Legacy (22), North Pacific (22) and Anders (20), all of whom have at least 20 yearlings catalogued for sale over the three days.

Table: Top 10 most represented sires in the 2024 Inglis Classic Yearling Sale catalogue

Despite seeing a slight reduction (22) in the overall size of the catalogue, the demand for places in this year’s Classic Sale has been as ‘feverish’ as ever according to Hutch, who is particularly pleased with the increased number of vendors set to be represented in 2024.

“Year after year we promote the sale on the basis that it is the best value sale in Australasia, and year after year it does nothing but enhance its own profile,” Hutch told The Thoroughbred Report.

“We are really pleased with the quality of horse we have attracted to the sale this year as well as the quality of vendor - people who are capable of producing top-class horses year after year.

“The demand for places in the sale every year is feverish, and trying to condense the catalogue into a collection of horses that both we and vendors are happy with is a challenge, but we are really delighted with how it has come together.

“There is tremendous variety, which I think is very important to us, and we are very pleased to have been able to grow the number of vendors year on year from 69 to 79. I think it’s important to try and get as many people represented in the sale as we can.

“If you’re serious about buying good racehorses to race in Australia, New Zealand, South East Asia etc., then it’s a sale that you ultimately have to take very seriously.”

Many of those jurisdictions’ finest racehorses have emerged from the Inglis Classic Yearling Sale, and few have flown the flag better for the auction in recent times than the Ciaron Maher and David Eustace-trained Pride Of Jenni (Pride Of Dubai), who took her form to a new level this spring carnival with a pair of scintillating Group 1 wins in the space of a week.

Pride Of Jenni, alongside the likes of G1 Golden Slipper heroine She Will Reign (Manhattan Rain) and Hong Kong star Beauty Eternal (Starspangledbanner), was sourced at the Classic Sale for no more than $100,000, a mere drop in the ocean compared with the trio’s total combined earnings on the track of over of $10.1 million.

Add in that you could have purchased both G1 Melbourne Cup hero Vow And Declare (Declaration Of War {USA}) and dual Group 1-winning mare In Her Time (Time Thief) at this sale for a combined $100,000, and it’s clear to see why Hutch believes the Classic Sale continues to punch above its weight in terms of average purchase price and racetrack results.

“The statistics back it up,” he said. “The average price of an Australian stakes winner out of this sale since 2018 is a little more than $104,000. Relative to a lot of other sales, particularly the early sales, it’s just incredibly good value.

“I think it’s 78 stakes winners for $100,000 or less that could have been bought at the sale. That could be just about more than any other sale in Australia.

“Even the number of Group 1 horses that come out of the sale, generally for not a lot of money. Tony Ottobre turned up at Classic a few years ago and bought Pride Of Jenni for $100,000. The year before that it was Icebath. Mitch Freedman bought a filly (Skybird) that has just run a blinder in the Thousand Guineas, she’s a Group 2 winner and now Group 1 placed, and he gave $110,000 for her.

“You’d be hard pressed to find someone that doesn’t have a positive experience with a yearling that was sourced at the Classic Sale. They’re just great stories everywhere and we expect that to continue to be the case leading into the sale next year.”

Table: Top 10 most represented vendors in the 2024 Inglis Classic Yearling Sale catalogue

The racehorse sale

The story at last year’s edition of the Inglis Classic Yearling Sale was in keeping with that of most other auctions on the Australasian calendar, where a correction in the market after the boom of the COVID-19-affected years saw figures fall slightly from a record sale in 2022.

Whilst reluctant to make a prediction on how the market will fare this time round, Hutch is confident that the quality of this year’s catalogue is as good as ever, owing to a strong demand from vendors to be a part of the Classic Sale in 2024.

“We’re not talking about yearlings that are the creme de la creme necessarily, they are saved for Easter later in the year, but we are looking for yearlings that we feel are going to attract a broad cross section of buyers to the sale,” Hutch said.

“It’s a sale that people go to to buy a racehorse, and that’s very much in the forefront of our mind when we’re working with vendors to put the sale together. We feel that vendors have been very supportive of the sale and, if anything, we probably felt that the appetite for spots was maybe even stronger than what it has been in recent years.

“It feels like we have some more significant horses as a consequence, certainly based on our feelings coming off the farms during the spring. It certainly felt like we were coming away picking up more nice horses than ever before, and hopefully that is borne out on the three days of the sale.”

Among the star offerings in this year’s catalogue is the first foal out of multiple stakes placegetter Vegas Jewel (NZ) (Shocking), who is a half-sister to the dam of the mighty Winx (Street Cry {Ire}). Catalogued as Lot 6 and offered by Widden Stud on behalf of hugely successful breeder Julia Ritchie, the colt is one of 22 horses in the sale by Coolmore stalwart So You Think (NZ), who for the past two seasons has pushed I Am Invincible all the way in the race to be crowned Champion Sire in Australia.

This year’s catalogue also features relations to some of the spring carnival’s leading lights, with Sledmere Stud set to offer the brother to last year’s R. Listed Inglis Banner winner Arkansaw Kid (Harry Angel {Ire}), who finished fourth in the G1 Coolmore Stud S. earlier this month. Elsewhere, HP Thoroughbreds will offer the Deep Field half-brother to G2 Moonee Valley classic heroine Skybird (Exosphere), who lost her unbeaten record but gained plenty of admirers when finishing a gallant third in Saturday’s G1 Thousand Guineas at Caulfield.

Serious stallion power

Having been crowned leading sire by aggregate at last year’s Classic Sale, it is no surprise to see Capitalist as the most represented sire (29) for the second year in succession, while five of the top 10 most represented stallions are freshman sires, including Capitalist’s Newgate Farm barnmate North Pacific, who has 22 yearlings set for sale.

Table: Top 10 most represented first-season sires in the 2024 Inglis Classic Yearling Sale catalogue

There will also be strong representation from a host of second and third-season sires, including Zousain (23), Russian Revolution (19), The Autumn Sun (18), Trapeze Artist (17), Yes Yes Yes (17), Exceedance (16), Harry Angel (16) and Hellbent (16).

“We have traditionally found at Classic that by the time the sale comes round, people are that bit more informed about the second and third-crop stallions, so we have significant representation of yearlings by those stallions,” Hutch said.

“They tend to be a popular feature of the sale, the sale tends to back them in because they’re starting to make their mark. When you look at horses like Trapeze Artist, Justify, The Autumn Sun, Harry Angel, they’re exciting stallions and are well represented in the catalogue.

“Even the horses with first 2-year-olds this year, whether it’s Pierata, Alabama Express, Exceedance has a stakes winner already, early runners by Yes Yes Yes have shown promise. There’s going to be a hell of a lot for people to choose from amongst the younger stallions and then we’ve got a good representation amongst the more established, proven stallions as well.

“We’re really pleased with how it has come together.”

A number of the proven stallions represented in next year’s catalogue are graduates of the Classic Sale themselves, including Extreme Choice, I Am Invincible, Brazen Beau and Hellbent, the latter of which sired his first Group 1 winner on Saturday courtesy of Magic Time’s victory in the G1 Sir Rupert Clarke S.

The Classic Sale, which also produced the late Coolmore shuttler Choisir and Arrowfield Stud’s exciting young sire Castelvecchio, will once again feature a larger representation of colts (57 per cent) than fillies this year, up from 54 per cent at last year’s sale where eight of the top 10 lost were colts.

It’s a feature of the sale which undoubtedly increases its appeal to buyers from Hong Kong, where Classic graduates have once again enjoyed feature race success this year, much to the delight of Hutch and all the team at Inglis.

“I think it’s a tremendous compliment to the sale that each of the three legs of the 4-year-old series in Hong Kong in 2023, rounded out by the Derby, were all won by graduates of the Classic Sale,” Hutch said. “Potentially the most exciting 5-year-old in Hong Kong, Beauty Eternal, is also a graduate of the sale.

“Ultimately for a lot of people it makes sense for them to shop where they have had success before, and a lot of people have been successful buying good horses at Classic.

“Whether it’s investors from Hong Kong or other parts of South East Asia, Australia and New Zealand, you can buy a very significant horse at this sale, and that’s not something you can say about every sale in Australia.”

Stars of the future

Those significant horses have become a regular feature of the Classic Sale in recent times, with The Everest winner Classique Legend (Not A Single Doubt), Group 1 winner Mazu (Maurice {Jpn}) and this year’s G1 Hong Kong Derby hero Voyage Bubble (Deep Field) just a handful of examples.

It’s a trend that will continue to become more apparent in the coming years according to Hutch, who is predicting a host of future stars to emerge from the Inglis Classic Yearling Sale in 2024 and beyond.

“I think the biggest compliment to the sale is that people expect good horses to come out of the sale now,” he added.

“Maybe a decade ago it was a pleasant surprise, but the sale has done such a good job forming its own reputation in the market. There’s an expectation that people will go to this sale and find top-class horses.

“That keeps happening and I think it is going to happen more and more often. It feels like year on year we’ve been selling more and more nice horses at this sale and that’s why this sale is turning over more and more money.

“There’s no more enjoyable experience for an owner than winning good races, and sales like Classic help people win good races. There will be a lot of winners of good races come out of the sale in 2024.”

Following the running of the $2 million R. Listed Inglis Millennium at Royal Randwick on Saturday, February 11, selling at the 2024 Inglis Classic Yearling Sale will commence at 10am AEDT on Sunday, February 11 and continue through to the third and final Book 1 session on Tuesday, February 13.

All horses offered at the 2024 Classic Yearling Sale will be eligible for the $12.55 million Inglis Race Series, which includes the $2 million R. Listed Inglis Millennium, $1 million Inglis Sprint and $5 million Xtra Bonus Maiden series, as well as the $1 million Inglis Pink Bonus, which is established as the most lucrative incentive for female racehorse ownership in the world.