Cover image courtesy of Inglis

Selling for the 2025 Inglis Australian Weanling Sale commences on Monday, May 5, at the Riverside Stable complex in Warwick Farm, with a catalogue boasting 581 weanlings by 107 sires from both hemispheres. The weanling sale kicks off a huge week of selling at the Inglis complex, with the Inglis Chairman’s Sale on Thursday evening, followed by the Inglis Australian Broodmare Sale on Friday.

A total of 59 vendors have contributed weanlings to the catalogue, which will be split over two days of selling; Fairhill Farm will present the largest draft, having entered 35 weanlings before withdrawals into the sale, followed by Coolmore Stud, who have catalogued 27.

Alma Vale Thoroughbreds, who are rounding out their first season of selling under their own banner, have entered a draft of 25. When offering a draft last year in conjunction with Kitchwin Hills, Alma Vale topped the sale with Lot 195, an I Am Invincible filly out of G3 Powerflo Solutions Stakes winner Shoko (Sebring), who sold to Kaha Nui Farm for $575,000; they reaped a $125,000 profit when she was offered as a yearling earlier this year and bought by Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott Racing in partnership with Kestrel Thoroughbreds.

In 2023, the sale equalled the record price for a weanling sold in the Inglis Weanling Sale when Outer Banks (Capitalist), a full brother to G1 Champagne Stakes-winning sire Captivant, sold to China Horse Club, Newgate, Go Racing, and Trilogy for $625,000 from the Ashleigh Thoroughbreds dispersal. The original record was set in 2008 when Colm Santry Bloodstock outlaid the same figure for Pretty Flamingo (More Than Ready {USA}), the first filly from G3 Tokyo City Cup winner Milanova (Danehill {USA}).

Year on year growth across all metrics

The median and average weanling price across the sale has either remained consistent or improved year on year since 2020, despite fluctuations in the book size. A reduced book was offered in 2020 when the sale was pushed back two months to the beginning of July, with a smaller book again on offer the following year.

Table: Aggregate, averages, and clearance rates across the last five editions of the Inglis Australian Weanling Sale

That particularly curated book boasts the highest clearance rate at just under 90 per cent of any of the last five sales, but the 2024 edition was able to improve on both of the sales that preceded it by rising above 80 per cent again, in spite of a larger catalogue and less withdrawn lots than the previous year.

Chart: Clearances rates across the last five editions of the Inglis Australian Weanling Sale

The catalogue grows again for this year’s edition by over 120 weanlings, as well as with nine more vendors entering drafts than last year.

The top lot has fairly consistently grown year on year as well, with the exception of last year, which didn’t top the 2023 price but did beat the top seller in 2022. The amount of lots selling for over $100,000 has also increased year on year, hovering around 10 per cent of the catalogue size before withdrawals for the last three editions. It would feel safe to assume that there should be growth again in that region this year.

Table: Top prices and six figure lots across the last five editions of the Inglis Australian Weanling Sale

Young sires heavily represented

The top five - and beyond that, even the top 10 - most represented sires in the catalogue are all early in their careers at stud; Tassort tops the billing with 28 entries before withdrawals, nine clear of the next most represented sire, with his oldest crop currently three. He came extremely close to a second Group 1 winner a week ago when first crop daughter Ameena finished second in the G1 Robert Sangster Stakes at Morphettville.

Table: Top five most represented sires at the 2025 Inglis Australian Weanling Sale

This crop is the last of Tassort’s foals conceived before Manaal’s juvenile season boosted his fee from $11,000 to $38,500 (inc GST). Among the highlights of his draft is Lot 248 offered by Stockwell Thoroughbreds, a filly out of Ain’t She Smart (Smart Missile), a half-sister to multiple stakeswinner Ain’tnodeeldun (Dundeel {NZ}) whose first two foals to race are already winners.

Farnan, the only other top five represented stallion to have runners, ties with Acrobat for second place, followed by popular sires Home Affairs and Stay Inside, whose yearlings have flown off the shelves at the sales this year. Farnan’s first 2-year-olds have raked in the winners and delivered him three stakeswinners to date, earning him a $22,000 fee boost to $77,000 (inc GST) for 2025.

Among Farnan’s 19 weanlings is Lot 8, the second foal from Group 2-winning Needle And Thread (Makfi {GB}), who is offered by Farnan’s home, Kia Ora Stud. Acrobat, whose first yearlings averaged more than five times his service fee at the sales this year, equals him for weanlings catalogued, with a highlight offering being Lot 557 from Alma Vale Thoroughbreds; the first foal from Miss Five Hundred (Dundeel {NZ}), a six-time winner who was fourth in the G3 South Australia Fillies Classic.

All five were offered in much smaller quantities last year; Tassort and Farnan were both in single figures, whereas Acrobat had 14 weanlings catalogued in the 2024 sale. A good season on the track for the two sires with runners has perhaps made it more desirable to sell some stock now.

First glimpse of fresh bloodlines

The Inglis Australian Weanling Sale is the first time that the public gets a good look at the first offspring of our newest sires, and there are 14 stallions with first crop representatives in this year’s catalogue. Newgate Farm’s Artorius, State Of Rest (Ire), and In The Congo fill out the top three spots for most represented sire, with a combined 48 weanlings catalogued between them.

Table: Sires with four or more representatives from their first crop of foals in the 2025 Inglis Australian Weanling Sale catalogue

It makes sense that the New South Wales-based Group 1-winning stallions on the first season (weanling) sire list fill out the top of the list in terms of representation. Only Anamoe, the only entrant standing for six figures, from that cohort comes further down the list, in line with the amount of weanlings on offer by Queensland-based Stronger and Darley Victoria stallion Paulele, who have two each.

The median service fee for this cohort (including sires with only one weanling in the catalogue) sits somewhere in between $16,500 and $22,000, with the lowest fee being Lightsaber at $6000, who has one foal on offer. Collectively, first season sires account for 109 lots - 18.8 per cent of the catalogue before withdrawals.

The first foals of dual Group 1 winner Artorius have been highly anticipated - quite unusually, this sale features the first foals of two G1 Blue Diamond Stakes winners, as Daumier, who won the race the year after Artorius, also has his first crop in the catalogue. A highlight lot for Artorius is Lot 301 from Alma Vale Thoroughbreds; out of Californiasurprise (I Am Invincible), the colt is a half-brother to this season’s G3 Blue Diamond Prelude (colts & geldings) winner Field Of Play (Deep Field).

Mullaglass Stud prepare Lot 6 by globetrotting Group 1 winner State Of Rest (Ire); a son of Group 3-winning Native Bombshell (USA) (War Front {USA}), this colt is a half-brother to Listed winner Lady War Machine (USA) (Street Boss {USA}) and 11-time winner Deano (USA) (Macho Uno {USA}).

Also of note is that 10 of the 14 first season sires are Group 1 winners, who share an incredible 25 Group 1 wins between them, and the other four are all Group winners; eight of the group won stakes races as juveniles.

Making waves on the track and in the ring

The aforementioned Field Of Play is himself a graduate of this sale - sold for $255,000 to Kaha Nui Farm - and is one of nine winners to have come out of the 2023 edition. There are an additional four stakes performers amongst that cohort, including G3 Matamata Breeders’ Stakes-placed Born To Be Royal (King’s Legacy) and G1 Sistema Stakes runnerup Landlock (Merchant Navy), who was fourth in the G1 Matamata Sires’ Produce Stakes at his most recent start.

Every edition since the sale was split into individual weanling and broodmare sales until 2023 has turned out stakeswinners so far, with the 2022 and 2021 sales both turning out a Group 1 winner each in Hayasugi (Royal Meeting {Ire}) and Kimochi (Brave Smash {Jpn}).

An ever-popular hunting ground for pinhookers, the 2024 edition of the sale has turned out several lucrative results for astute buyers; Ed Stapleton Bloodstock outlaid $60,000 for a Toronado (Ire) colt out of Iamican (I Am Invincible) at this venue last year, and sold him at the Inglis Melbourne Premier Sale this year for $400,000.

Bay Of Plenty Bloodstock invested $25,000 into Buccellati’s (NZ) (Zabeel {NZ)) colt by So You Think (NZ), who realised NZ$240,000 at the New Zealand Bloodstock National Yearling Sale, and Carlaw Park spent $80,000 on a Street Boss (USA) colt out of Tokelau (Denman), who was sold for NZ$250,000 at Karaka.