One-day, all-weanling format for 2025 Great Southern Sale

Cover image courtesy of Inglis

With a smaller catalogue than in 2024, the 2025 Inglis Great Southern Weanling Sale being held at Oaklands on June 13 is the final opportunity for pinhookers and weanling buyers to attend an in-person sale on the eastern seaboard to purchase 2024 born foals at auction for the year. For the first time in a decade, the Great Southern Sale will only include weanlings and will held on one day rather than two.

“It’s an evolving market,” said Inglis CEO Sebastian Hutch. “The traditional broodmare sale has contracted in size. We saw that in Sydney, and last year we catalogued a small broodmare session at the Great Southern Sale but it was very disappointing, so we didn’t want to do that again.”

The 2024 sale saw 72 broodmares catalogued but only 35 sold, while the 2025 Inglis Australian Broodmare Sale in Sydney recently had 106 entries, down from 219 in 2024.

“Digital is a better platform for broodmares. It means mares carrying pregnancies don’t have to travel, which is much more attractive to vendors, and our buyers are familiar with the digital platform for trade now. The evolution of the market where buyers are happy to purchase broodmares online but still want to see young stock in person has been evident over the past few years.”

“The Great Southern Sale is a natural progression of that evolution and it’s pragmatic to stick with weanlings only.”

The weanling market this year

While the numbers of weanlings for the Great Southern Sale, at 320, are down on 2024’s catalogue of 436, Hutch didn’t see that as a trend.

“I’m happy with where the catalogue number is for the sale. We have a capacity for more, but we had a massive weanling sale in Sydney earlier in the month with several Victorian vendors coming north for that, such as Yulong who took 40 to the Great Southern Sale last year, but none this year as they brought them to Sydney instead.”

The Inglis Australian Weanling Sale in Sydney saw 581 weanlings catalogued with a clearance rate of 78 per cent. Last year’s Inglis Great Southern Sale weanling section also had a similar clearance rate at 76 per cent.

“The clearance rate of a sale matters to us more than the average. One or two big lots can skew the average and if we were motivated by average, we wouldn’t bother trying to get the passed in lots sold post-sale. But we care about clearance rate and getting horses sold.

“As far as the numbers, we try to work with vendors to ensure there is sufficient quality of stock to warrant buyer’s interests. Our team have worked constructively with vendors in both Victoria and NSW to pull together a strong catalogue and with 15 weanlings by Toronado, a group of Too Darn Hots as well as sires like Ole Kirk, Wootton Bassett, and Justify, we have plenty of progeny by stallions that people are keen to buy.”

Of the 15 weanlings by Toronado (Ire), 11 are colts, while there are five weanlings by Too Darn Hot (GB), five by Alabama Express while other leading stallions represented include I Am Invincible, Zoustar, Wootton Bassett (GB), Siyouni (Fr), Justify (USA), Ole Kirk, Street Boss (USA), Dundeel (NZ), Exceed And Excel, Capitalist, Savabeel, Bivouac, Farnan, Super Seth, Harry Angel (Ire), Castelvecchio, Hellbent, and Lucky Vega (Ire).

Second season sires such as Home Affairs, and Stay Inside are joined by a strong selection of first season sires with progeny represented being Anamoe, Artorius, Best of Bordeaux, Bruckner, Daumier, Diatonic (Jpn), Hitotsu, In the Congo, Jacquinot, Paulele, Profondo, Sejardan and State of Rest (Ire).

Quality of local vendors

With the 320 weanlings spread across 42 different vendors, the largest drafts at the sale are led by Eddington based Stonehouse Thoroughbreds and Blue Gum Farm who both have 24 lots catalogued each. Rosemont Stud and Crossley Thoroughbreds each have 19 lots, while NSW farm Twin Hills Stud will bring 18 lots south for the sale.

“There are many vendors who have specifically held back their best weanlings for this sale so before spending any money elsewhere in coming weeks, I strongly urge buyers to look through the Great Southern Weanling Sale catalogue and consider their options first,” Inglis’ Victorian Bloodstock Manager James Price said.

“This is a mighty fine collection of weanlings. Having key support from the likes of Yulong, Rosemont, Yarraman, Twin Hills, Three Bridges, Supreme, Stonehouse, Noorilim, Musk Creek, Longwood, Gilgai etc has ensured the strength out of the sale will be as good, if not better, than previous years and it’s very exciting to be offering this outstanding catalogue to buyers.”

Hutch agreed, “There’s plenty of merit in having successful Victorian farms like Rosemont, Gilgai, Blue Gum, and Stonehouse represented in the catalogue. They appeal to the buying bench and it helps enhance the profile of the sale.”

Close relations to group performers

On paper the stand out lot is being offered by Noorilim Park. Lot 6 is a huge opportunity for buyers, being a filly by proven sire Blue Point (Ire) out of G1 Blue Diamond Stakes winner Catchy (Fastnet Rock) who is the dam of this season’s Listed winner Floozie (Zoustar). The chance to buy a filly out of a proven broodmare who had so much class a race mare should have all investors looking for residual value paying attention.

Formality (Fastnet Rock)’s half-brother by Too Darn Hot (GB) is being offered by Fairhill Farm as Lot 110. Not only is he a half-brother to a Group 2 winner, but his dam, Jolie’s Shinju (Jpn) (Jolie’s Halo {Jpn}) was Horse Of The Year in Singapore with nine wins including the Singapore Derby.

Stonehouse Thoroughbreds will offer Lot 189, a St Mark’s Basilica (Fr) half-brother to Group 2 winner Konasana (Dundeel {NZ}), while Twin Hills Stud’s Lot 250 is a Daumier half-brother to Group 2 winner Tango’s Daughter (Redoute’s Choice). Ponderosa Park have Lot 56, a half-sister by Wooded (Ire) to Kiwi Ida (Squamosa) who won 14 races up to Group 2 level.

Another eight weanlings are half or full siblings to Group 3 winners and a further ten to Listed winners.

The last chance to pinhook

Timed with only six weeks until the weanlings turn one, the Inglis Great Southern Sale is the last in-person weanling sale on the eastern seaboard. This sale has seen strong pinhooking results. Last year’s sale saw results like $70,000 into $380,000, $100,000 into $320,000, $30,000 into $240,000, $52,500 into $220,000, and $70,000 into $230,000.

“There’s a nuance (to this sale). People have a variety of motivations for selling,” said Hutch. “Often the bigger farms are making practical decision. They might have a lot of progeny by a certain stallion and want to move some on now so they have a better balance in their 2026 yearling drafts.

“For buyers, there are opportunities to pinhook into other markets. The Kiwi buyers do it very well, buying horses who will sit well in the Karaka catalogue. We see NSW farms buying stock by Victorian based sires to take to our Classic sale.

“Timing matters too. Horses that might not necessarily be hot today will end up being flavour of the month in six-seven months time when they sell as yearlings. Those who bought weanlings by Ole Kirk, Farnan, Bivouac last year have done very well selling them as yearlings this year.

“There’s an opportunity screaming to be taken if you can pick weanlings by promising sires who turn into the potential Champion Sire of the future by the time you on-sell them.”

And if you are an end-user, the sale has a list of graduates that includes Saturday’s Listed Straight Six winner Title Fighter (Lean Mean Machine) who was bought for $24,000, plus recent group winners Magic Control (Sioux Nation {USA}), and Bases Loaded (Deep Field).