Cover image courtesy of Inglis

On Sunday, Inglis released the catalogue for the 2026 Inglis Classic Yearling Sale, to be held at the Riverside Stables sales complex in Warwick Farm from February 8 to 10. The sale that has previously offered Group 1 winners Sepals (Calyx {GB}), Private Harry (Harry Angel {Ire}), and Coco Sun (The Autumn Sun) has a catalogue of 798 lots secured for next year’s sale.

“Classic doesn’t need to be ‘sold’ to breeders or vendors anymore, it’s a sale that they want to be involved in, and so the quality of yearlings in the sale improves year after year,’’ Inglis Bloodstock CEO Sebastian Hutch said.

“We are excited by the ongoing upward trajectory of the sale and are looking forward to welcome a massive contingent of clients and friends to Riverside in February.’’

A total of 113 individual sires will be represented at the sale, including offspring from the first crops of 14 stallions, by 74 individual vendors. The majority of the catalogue will be paid up or eligible for the BOBS, VOBIS Silver, QTIS, Racing Rewards SA, or Westspeed bonus schemes, in addition to being eligible for the lucrative Inglis race series as graduates of the sale.

Widden Stud maintain their position as presenters of the largest draft at the sale, with 51 in the catalogue, which is six more than were entered in this year's edition of the sale.

Chart: Five vendors with the largest drafts at the 2026 Inglis Classic Yearling Sale

A sale full of value

The Inglis Classic Yearling Sale has consistently been a source of success at all levels, with last season proving to be another year of exceptional graduates.

The 2024 sale has produced to date the likes of millionaires and Group 2 winners Rivellino (Too Darn Hot {GB}) and Within The Law (Lucky Vega {Ire}), $1 million Golden Gift and Group 3 winner North England (Farnan), recent G2 Moonee Valley Fillies Classic winner Salty Pearl (Tagaloa), and G2 Silver Shadow Stakes winner Savvy Hallie (Hellbent), amongst others.

The year before, buyers could have purchased G1 Galaxy Handicap winner Private Harry, one of 24 Group 1-winning graduates of the sale since 2018, 13 of whom could have been purchased for $100,000 or less. In the same period, the same has produced 41 millionaire earners on the track, and price tags have averaged just $113,594 for stakes-winning graduates.

The average purchase price for the last three sales sits at approximately $20,000 below this price point; last year's final average settled at $92,514 and a median of $70,000, with 82% of the catalogue finding a buyer. This is in line with the previous two editions of the sale and the 2021 edition, with the boom year of 2022 being an outlier that saw the average soar to $107,660.

Chart: Final clearance rates across recent editions of the Inglis Classic Yearling Sale

To date, the 2024 sale has produced seven Group winners and a further two stakes-winning graduates, plus an additional 12 stakes performers. Seven individual winners have already hit the track from the 2025 edition of the sale, and five graduates have been stakes-placed, including G3 Gimcrack Stakes runner-up Screen Icon (Nicconi) and R. Listed Inglis 2YO Banner-placed Bohemian Rhapsody (Prague).

“The success of graduates was in evidence as recently as last weekend when Revengeance became the second consecutive winner of the Golden Gift to graduate from the Classic Sale following the win of North England in 2024,” said Hutch. “While the past two winners of the $2 million Inglis Millennium are also both Classic graduates in Fully Lit and Rivellino.”

Performance and pedigree

Fourteen first season sires will have members of their first crop heading through the ring at Riverside in February, including yearlings by Inglis Classic graduate Sejardan - winner of the G3 Breeders’ Plate on debut - and fellow Inglis sale series graduates Stronger and In The Congo. They will be joined by the likes of Anamoe, Daumier, Diatonic (Jpn), State Of Rest (Ire), Hitotsu, and Profondo.

Tne G1 Golden Rose Stakes winner In The Congo and Jacquinot tie with triple Group 1 winner Hitotsu for highest representation amongst the first season sires, with 18 yearlings apiece entered in the sale.

The Inglis Classic sale cannot be underestimated as a source of sire prospects in the recent past, with Extreme Choice, I Am Invincible, Hellbent, Castelvecchio, Brazen Beau, and Cosmic Force all walking through the Inglis ring during the Classic sale. Extreme Choice has provided both of the sale’s highest priced lots, with his colts selling for up to $825,000 and $775,000 respectively, and will have three entrants in this year’s sale.

Buyers will have access to progeny by the country’s leading sires, including five progeny of I Am Invincible, 18 by Written Tycoon, two by Wootton Bassett (GB), and five yearlings from the penultimate crop of Snitzel. Home Affairs leads the sires by representation with 22 lots, followed by Farnan with 20 yearlings from his third crop.

Table: Nine most represented sires in the 2026 Inglis Classic Yearling Sale

Amongst the catalogue are full or half siblings to Group 1 winners Tashi (Sebring), Private Harry, Skybird (Exosphere), Lady Laguna (Overshare), and Henley’s Joy (USA) (Kitten’s Joy {USA}), out of 56 lots with Group or stakes-winning siblings. Not to mention, 76 entrants in the catalogue are out of Group or stakes-winning mares.

While the Classic sale’s reputation is more for producing Classic year racehorses, there are plenty of early runners amongst graduates, including Gobi Desert (Too Darn Hot {GB}), the winner of last year’s $160,000 Max Lees Classic, Golden Gift winners North England and Revengeance (Hellbent), and R. Listed Inglis 2YO Banner winner Arkansaw Kid (Harry Angel {Ire}).

Since the R. Listed Inglis 2YO Millennium's inception in 2019, five of the seven winners have been graduates of the Classic sale, including stallions Castelvecchio and Profiteer.

International appeal

In addition to top performers in Australasia, 199 individual Inglis Classic graduates have won 531 races in Hong Kong since 2018, including Hong Kong Triple Crown winner of over HK$107 million (AU$21 million) Voyage Bubble (Deep Field).

Hong Kong-based buyers were in the thick of it at last year's sale, with the top lot, a colt by The Autumn Sun, selling for $520,000 from Valiant Stud to Magus Equine Ltd, who also bought the sixth top lot. Of the top five highest priced yearlings sold at last year's edition, the buyers were from four countries, including a Wootton Bassett (GB) colt selling to Japanese interests.

“It’s a sale that attracts a very cosmopolitan buying bench and we feel having a well-diversified catalogue is particularly important, so to have 113 individual sires and 74 individual vendors represented is a very pleasing outcome,” Hutch said.

“The Classic Sale continues to produce some of the biggest names in the thoroughbred world in Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong especially, and we have every confidence that the 2026 renewal contains any number of top-class performers of the future.”

Hard copies of the catalogue will be available to be ordered from Inglis within the fortnight. Selling will commence on Sunday, February 8 2026, after Inglis Millennium Raceday on Saturday, February 7, at Royal Randwick.