Cover image courtesy of Newgate Farm

Hidrix’s (Extreme Choice) victory in the G3 Canonbury Stakes on Saturday comes at the perfect time for Newgate Farm, who will offer two yearlings by the sire at the Inglis Classic Yearling Sale taking place at the end of the week.

Alongside a filly offered by Kingstar Farm, the breeder and vendor of G1 Blue Diamond Stakes winner Devil Night (Extreme Choice), they are the only yearlings by the stallion in the sale - and it is the firm belief of Newgate director Henry Field that they could have sold anywhere.

But he wants to sell them at Inglis Classic. The key for Field is in disseminating Extreme Choice’s crop as far and wide as possible, and ensuring that the stallion’s shareholders - many of whom have their yearlings consigned by Newgate - receive the best results possible in the ring, and on the track.

Dividing the market

Extreme Choice’s current yearlings are the second crop born from a $275,000 (inc GST) service fee, and is one of his largest crops to date, numbering 44 foals. Scarcity in the marketplace will always be in the stallion’s favour, and separating out the ones going through the ring seeks to maximise the interest in each one.

“We have a number of Extreme Choice yearlings that we are consigning across all of the major sales for a range of people, most of whom are shareholders in the stallion,” said Field. “A lot of their mares live at Newgate as well, so their offspring are born and raised in our systems. We try to split them up into different sales so they’re not all in one marketplace.”

It makes sense to sell at a place where the demand for Extreme Choice’s progeny has reached fever pitch. He is the sire of the two highest priced lots ever sold in the Classic sale; the year after Stay Inside won the G1 Golden Slipper Stakes, the Classic buyers remained hungry for more sons and forked out $825,000 and $775,000 respectively for a pair of colts by the stallion.

The former price tag belonged to Make A Call, who was fourth in the G3 Breeders’ Plate on debut, before placing twice in stakes company in the autumn and coming within two thirds of a length of winning the G3 Baillieu Stakes.

Newgate were part of the syndicate that purchased Make A Call, and it’s far from the only success they and regular partners China Horse Club have had purchasing out of the Classic catalogue. Extreme Choice’s roster mate Cosmic Force was a Classic purchase in 2018 for Newgate and company, and last season’s $1 million Golden Gift and G3 Kindergarten Stakes winner North England (Farnan) was also bought from the sale.

Extreme Choice was in high demand at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale again this year, achieving two seven-figure lots amongst eight sold. Investors in the success of their stallion’s stock, Newgate Bloodstock signed the docket for Lot 666, a son of winning I Am Invincible mare Penang (NZ).

Any sale in the country

“The two that we selected for Classic are actually offered in conjunction with Gooree Park,” Field said. “They’re a pair of very nice chestnuts. The filly is a real star, she has been born and raised on the farm. She’s out of an Exceed And Excel mare, so she has the terrific speed influence from that line in her, and she’s a strong filly with good action and a deep girth. I'm sure she'll be a very popular filly in the sale.”

Lot 233 is out of a half-sister to Gooree Park stallion Your Song, who celebrated a fresh stakes winner in 2025 when Melody Again won the G3 Dark Jewel Classic at Scone.

“Physically, she could have made it into any sale in the country,” Field said. “We have a smaller draft for Classic, but we wanted to make sure that it was still a draft that would stand out, and she was a filly that we thought could help us achieve that.”

The same is felt by Field about Lot 621, a colt out of a full sister to Northern Meteor. Second dam Explosive (USA) (Fappiano {USA}) can also count G1 Tattersalls Tiara winner Palaisipan (So You Think {NZ}), Smart Missile, and gun 2-year-old Tornado Valley (Too Darn Hot {GB}) amongst her descendants.

“He’s a big, strong August foal,” Field said. “He actually reminds me a lot of one of our stallions, Tiger of Malay - he has plenty of length and very good action. And he has a very enticing pedigree, being by Extreme Choice out of an Encosta De Lago mare, out of a Fappiano mare. He's got incredible blood, and is a very athletic, big, strong colt to boot.”

Tiger Of Malay, whose first runners have put him on top of the first season sires’ podium for the moment, was an Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale purchase for China Horse Club and Newgate.

“If he can run up to his pedigree,” Field added, “then he could be worth an unlimited amount of money.”

It isn’t like the Inglis Classic sale hasn’t turned out stallions before; dual Group 1 winner Celestial Legend was one of five Group 1 winners sold through the 2022 edition of the sale, alongside valuable entire Libertad (Russian Revolution), who has won a Group race in all four seasons he has been racing.

The year before produced Sejardan, whose first yearlings are being offered on the sales circuit this year, and previous graduates include Castelvecchio, Hellbent, Brazen Beau, Profiteer, Lightsaber, Spill The Beans, and Santos - as well as Extreme Choice himself.

Newgate’s colt syndicate didn’t purchase Extreme Choice as a yearling, but instead incrementally bought into the colt as he began his career, taking a majority interest in the horse after his Blue Diamond win. In the same way, they identified the talent in horses like Artorius and Stay Inside, and sought to acquire shares in horses they could see with a future at stud. They have already acquired part of Hidrix in the hopes he continues his ascent.

In addition to their two Extreme Choice yearlings, Newgate have supplemented Lot 799, a colt by Artorius - into the sale, whom Field believes is also a high quality offering.

“He’s a cracking horse,” he said. “He was meant to go to the Magic Millions, but he had a few setbacks, so we have brought him to Classic instead. He will be another standout in the draft.”

A responsibility to maintain quality

Placing horses deemed Inglis Easter or Magic Millions Gold Coast quality in the Classic sale is a deliberate decision to elevate the whole draft, and Field is clear that he isn’t bringing an inferior product to the market.

“The key to it is that these two horses are very physically attractive individuals,” he said. “They aren’t the runts of the litter, they aren’t any lesser quality than those yearlings going to Easter or Magic Millions. They truly could have gone to any sale. We have a lot of faith in Inglis to have a competitive buying bench that appreciates these horses for the level of quality that they are, and Inglis is confident that will be the case.

“We have a terrific draft this year - we have a Wootton Bassett and a Too Darn Hot for Ridgmont, and our Extreme Choices. We have good representatives for our young stallions as well. It’s a quality draft.”

Since the announcement of Ridgmont’s sale in October, the vast majority of the Cunningham family’s stock and that of their clients has been moved to Newgate, who will consign all of their yearlings in 2026. Field called it a great responsibility to have.

“We have some beautiful mares on our property for Ridgmont,” he said. “You could see in the way their stock looked when they arrived at Newgate last year, just how well they had been raised and cared for, and the quality of the farm they had come from. It’s a privilege to be able to offer their yearlings in the marketplace.”

It has also been a thrill for Newgate to offer the first yearlings by resident stallions Artorius and In The Congo, as well as shuttle stallion State Of Rest (Ire). In The Congo proved one of the most popular first season sires at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale last month with a top price of $625,000.

“I felt that all three stallions were very well received on the Gold Coast,” Field reflected. “There was a lot of positive feedback about their first crops of yearlings. Any time you have a Golden Rose winner, a Cox Plate winner, and a Blue Diamond winner in the same crop of stallions, you get to feel very confident that you will have some very high class racehorses emerge who can produce the right results in the long term.”

Bring it and they shall come

Something that Field has recognised at every sale, but is particularly pertinent to the area of the market occupied by the Classic sale, is that the surrounding horses benefit from being associated with a higher quality horse. The evidence of this could be seen at the most recent Magic Millions Yearling Sale and New Zealand Bloodstock National Yearling Sale, both of which concluded with higher averages and clearance rates than the previous year, with no abatement of the strong competition at the top.

“To be honest, I think that good horses are found whatever sale they're in,” Field said. “If you have the right individual, then the market will find them. I would say that it is the lesser horses in the sale that benefit from the stronger market that develops because of the better horses.

“The same great judges go to all of the sales and they don’t miss much in the way of good horses, but when a sale can entice in more buyers, it can help to find homes for the horses of less quality.”

The Newgate-consigned Wootton Bassett (GB) filly is one of only two in the catalogue, and their Too Darn Hot (GB) colt is one of 11 by the sire.

“These are horses that we are very proud to bring to market and I think they will be well found at the Classic sale,” said Field. “They are horses with plenty of upside and could have gone to any sale, but it is a matter of how good it has been to sell at Classic over the years. History shows that if you bring the right horse, you can be rewarded.”

Cover image courtesy of Inglis

There is a specific kind of gravity that pulls a fifth-generation farmer back to Scone, and for Angus Robertson, it was finally time to answer it. After a whirlwind tenure in the Inglis bloodstock team, Robertson is trading the suit and tie of Sydney for the family acres, betting on a future where elite contract auctioneering and building a bespoke horse business go hand-in-hand.

“Up until October last year, I've been full time in the bloodstock team with Inglis here in Sydney. And as of the end of 2025, I stepped away from full-time work to move back to a family property in the Hunter Valley. I’m there the majority of the time, and continuing to auctioneer on a contract basis during the yearling sales,” said Robertson.

“I’m very much involved with Inglis' inspections and sales, and it also allows me to start flesh things out back on the family property. We have a few mares, and it’s a longer term goal to build up there while still having a foot in the door in Sydney.

“It’s nice to stay present in the industry. When you finish up a job with an auction house, there's the risk that you can slip into the background. Being a contract auctioneer means having all those contacts and still being very much involved on a fairly regular basis, particularly through the sales.”

Thomas Cook and history of the farm

Having a family farm in Scone seems like a natural gateway into the horse racing industry, however for Robertson, it wasn’t so straightforward.

“We always had horses growing up, but not necessarily thoroughbreds. My father had Thoroughbreds with his old man back in the 80s and 90s. They brought a few mares and raced a few horses, and then there was a period there where we didn't have any Thoroughbreds on the place,” said Robertson who noted that the core business on the farm is cattle.

“We’ve been predominantly cattle for the last forty years. My siblings and I are the fifth generation and it’s quite interesting historically. The first guy who owned the farm was called Thomas Cook, and he was quite a philanthropic gentleman in the area. He had quite a bit of bloodstock and used to even host on-property auctions at the end of the 1800s. It’s cool to come full circle back to having horses on the farm. Sometimes you almost wish you could be able to take a step back in time and see what it was all like.”

Thomas Cook, born in Canada in 1834 came to Scone in 1837. His father worked for William Dangar, and at the age of 21, Cook took on the management of Dangar's Turanville property. He bred a number of good racehorses including 1895 Doncaster Handicap winner Courallie.

“Cattle are always going to be important (to the farm), and the ideal plan going forwards would be to branch out into Thoroughbreds a bit more.”

So if having a farm in Scone wasn’t the natural pathway into racing, how did Robertson get the bug? “Brett Cavanough and his family bought the property next door to us towards the end of 2016 when they relocated up from Albury. Maybe a year or two later, when I was back (in Scone) from uni over the summer, I was riding a bit of trackwork for Brett and his son Jack, riding breakers and pre-trainers too. I hadn’t really done that before.

“I'd ridden Pony Club growing up, but hadn't ever ridden track work before, and I got hooked on it pretty quickly. In my last year of uni, in 2019, I ended up doing 12 months of track work down at Randwick. I did 6 months with John O'Shea and then I came back in the middle of the year and did another 6 months with Mark Newnham. So that was my grounding or introduction into it all stemmed from.”

A COVID Flying Start

While riding trackwork and finishing his degree – a Bachelor of Commerce in Accounting and Agricultural Economics – Robertson applied to the Godolphin Flying Start program. He was accepted to join the 2020 crew, and it was the COVID-impacted cohort.

“I flew over to Ireland for the breeding season and ended up arriving just before COVID hit and blew up. We drew a bit of a short straw in terms of our movements and itineraries across the different countries (for the program).”

The Flying Start trainees typically spend 10 weeks in Ireland, eight weeks in England, six months in America, five months in Australia, finishing with a study tour in Dubai and a final four months in Ireland.

“Godolphin had to rearrange everything (due to COVID travel restrictions). I was quite fortunate that I got over to Ireland in time. And because it was a farm job, we were still able to commute to and from work and aside when you go and do your grocery shop. Life was probably more normal than it was for a lot of people.

“Being on the farm all day, we didn't have to really sort of lock ourselves up too much. It was sort of a loophole (being farm workers).”

The impact on the Flying Start program was noticeable, though.

“Rather than bouncing from Ireland to England at the end of that 1st year and then into America in January of the second calendar year, we were holed up in Ireland until halfway through 2021. I think it was fifteen or sixteen months until I got back to Australia.

“We were dispersed back to our home countries to do our first placement, so I came back out to Australia and spent a month at Arrowfield, which was quite handy being on our back doorstep at Scone.

“I spent the mornings in the training centre with Paul (Messara) and Leah (Gavranich) and their team, and in the afternoons, I was with Matt Hill on the stud side of things. I was fortunate enough to spend a couple of days in their office in Sydney and spent time with the likes of Jon Freyer and Mr Messara as well. I got a good cross section of things there.

Gallery: Angus Robertson's mentors during his time at Arrowfield

“Then my second placement was with Magic Millions, because by that stage I had become keen on the idea of an auction house, and had started developing an interest in auctioneering specifically. So (Magic Millions) lined up as a logical progression. I spent time with them in the lead up to Christmas and then during the January sale of 2022.

“Then, because we'd missed out on England and America in that first year, they were slotted into the last six months of the course. We went Dubai and then bunny-hopped onto England, then a month later, we were in Lexington. It was a pretty action packed last six months, but a lot of fun. We were very lucky in that regard, still getting to go to all those places.

“My last placement was in Ireland, with a guy called Kevin Blake, who writes for At The Races, and one of his primary roles is that he does a lot of work with Joseph O'Brien in terms of race planning and form analysis. He also has his own little stud farm in the south of Ireland. It was excellent being able to be hands-on at a farm on a day-to-day basis, and also learning from him.”

It’s all about the networking

The Godolphin Flying Start program was founded in 2003 by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, meaning that at least 250 people have gone through the two-year program.

“I was fortunate enough to go back to Keeneland a couple of years ago with Inglis and spend some time with some people over there during Keeneland’s September sale. Even the month I was there on Flying Start, it’s amazing the network you get. You can go anywhere in the world to do with thoroughbreds and chances are you're going to run into someone who has either done the course or you've met during the course,” said Robertson.

“I feel lucky to have spent time with people who were very good at what they do, and also have wide range of skills and lots of different balls in the air.”

From there, Robertson was offered a role in the bloodstock team at Inglis in Sydney and spent three-and-a-half years full-time with the team. “Having the likes of Jonathan Darcy and Brett Gilding and Chris Russell mentor me through auctioneering, and I was able to get up on the rostrum and start selling as well.

Gallery: Angus Robertson's mentors during his time at Inglis

“A lot of people who have trodden the auction house path say that no two days are the same. You’re doing everything from client relations and communications to hosting on race days, yearling inspections, valuations, sale inspections and sale days across all the different sales, yearlings, broodmares, weanlings, 2-year-olds. There's so much going on and it's just such a good environment.

“I was very lucky that it was at a time where I was looking to soak up as much as I could from such a good team with so much breadth of experience. It's a pretty awesome environment for a young person wanting to learn about the industry and develop and grow in the industry.”

Back on the farm and looking to the future

Now that Robertson has decided to step back into the family farm business, what does the future look like? “It's a good question. It definitely wasn't an easy decision to step away from full-time work, and move back to the farm, but it is something I’ve always been passionate about pursuing.

“There’s never going to be the ideal time to do it. It was always going to be a case of diving in the deep end a bit. Probably for most people, not just in the horse industry but any career path, you reach a point where if you have ambitions that you want to go and chase, you have to go out into open waters and sail your own ship.

“There’s some apprehension around (that choice) but it’s also exciting to be back, working on the farm alongside my parents. I've got a couple of younger siblings who are both very interested and passionate about (the farm). Getting to stay involved with Inglis through the sales and the contract work is a pretty ideal balance

“It's been great to get back to Sydney this week and get into inspections with the team. A few people have said, ‘Oh, how's part time work?’ It's certainly not a case of just doing the Inglis work part-time and nothing else. With farms, there's always a never-ending to-do list. It’s special too, being a family place, there’s that extra degree of intrinsic motivation. When you grow up in a place, it's becomes part of your identity. You almost feel a custodianship with a responsibility to carry it on.

“I would love to keep growing things back at the family place in terms of horse numbers and build up a bit of a client network. As with anything, it's always a bit of a slow burn. Nothing happens overnight. You just want to do it properly and do it right.

“I’m also trying to spend as much time as I can with as many different people in the game, to use a cliched phrase, to try and be a sponge and soak up as much as I can. There are so many people who have walked the same path and to be able to learn from all those individuals in the industry, I think it’s imperative to try and learn as much as you can from people. Ultimately it puts you in good stead when you're chasing your own ambitions.

“I do like the saying that the harder you work, the luckier you get.”

People are the key to a successful life in racing

For someone who has deliberately moved back to his family business, Robertson is highly aware of the need to maintain a network of people. His advice to others who might want to pursue a career in auctioneering, or build a horse business on a farm, is to get out and meet people.

“For someone who is really passionate about horses and keen to pursue a future career in Thoroughbreds, it’s important to do as many different things and spend time with as many different people as possible.

“There are so many different facets of the Thoroughbred game. It’s what makes it so fantastic, that there are all these different avenues, whether it's running a farm or working in a training stable or working for a syndicate or running an auction house or working in bloodstock insurance or marketing, if you can have prior experience in as many of those different fields as possible, then that will ultimately serve you well when you settle into one aspect.

“You've only got to look at all the different people in prominent industry roles in Australia, and also the world. Go and look at their CVs and see the amount of places and people they've worked with and their international experience for different operations. It’s imperative that people try and put themselves out there and soak up as much as they can.

“Racing is ultimately a relationships business. You've got to do right by people. If you look at the best operators globally, the ones that really stand tall above the rest are those who do right by people as well as the horses.”

Cover image courtesy of Georgia Young Photography

Just Fine sets tone for autumn return

G1 Metropolitan Handicap winner Just Fine (Ire) (Sea The Stars {Ire}) led home a strong heat to open Warwick Farm’s trial morning on Tuesday. The Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott trainee was last seen at the tail of the field in the Listed Mornington Cup last April and had an extended break before his return to the trials, with Tuesday’s outing being his second of the preparation.

Video: Watch Just Fine at Warwick Farm Trials, video courtesy of Racing NSW

The 8-year-old put a sizeable lead on the competition and sailed home with Wootton Verni (Fr) (Wootton Bassett {GB}) finishing strongly a length and a third behind him, with Ceolwulf (NZ) (Tavistock {NZ}) given a quiet ride in third. G1 New Zealand Oaks winner Leica Lucy (NZ) (Derryn) was next over the line, followed by Vauban (Fr) (Galiway {GB}) and Soul Of Spain (Ire) (Phoenix Of Spain {Ire}).

McKeever Bloodstock and Waterhouse Bott Racing secured Just Fine for 300,000 gns ($618,000) at the 2022 Tattersalls Autumn Horses in Training Sale; he has since amassed over $1 million in prizemoney. His half-brother Tornado Alert (Ire) (Too Darn Hot {GB}) won the G1 Grosser Dallmayr Preis in 2025.

Fast finish from classy Lilac

Multiple stakes winner Lilac (Justify {USA}) led home the pack in the second heat at Warwick Farm on Tuesday. The 4-year-old, trained by Annabel and Rob Archibald, jumped straight to the front and kept her rivals at bay by two lengths to win the trial, with Gerringong (Blue Point {Ire}) given some encouragement to come second.

Video: Watch Lilac at Warwick Farm Trials, video courtesy of Racing NSW

The spring’s G1 Caulfield Guineas winner Autumn Boy (The Autumn Sun) finished third, a nose ahead of G1 Spring Champion Stakes winner Attica (Lonhro) in his third trial of the preparation.

Champion Thoroughbreds and Annabel Neasham Racing paid NZ$300,000 for the daughter of Justify (USA) at the New Zealand Bloodstock National Yearling Sale. Her dam Paulownia (Fastnet Rock), a Group-performed full sister to Foxwedge and She’s A Fox, was one of a number sent to visit Justify in the Northern Hemisphere in 2024 and she produced a filly in the spring, before visiting City Of Troy (USA).

Angel Capital gets serious

Coal Crusher (Turffontein) was first across the line in the third trial at Warwick Farm on Tuesday, but Chris Waller-trained 4-year-old Angel Capital (Harry Angel {Ire}) caught the eye when improving home strongly to finish second by less than half a length. Under Zac Lloyd, the colt closed a considerable gap posed by Coal Crusher with Joliestar (Zoustar) in third by another length behind him.

Both Waller trainees, Joliestar and Angel Capital, could kick off their autumns in the G2 Expressway Stakes a week on Saturday, although Waller told racenet.com that potentially the Royal Ascot-bound mare could wait a week and run first up in the G1 Futurity Stakes instead.

Video: Watch Angel Capital at Warwick Farm Trials, video courtesy of Racing NSW

“I don't want them all to clash in the Expressway, I don't mind them clashing in the Apollo, but the sprinters I want to try to keep their confidence up a bit,” he said. “I am half tempted to think about the Futurity for Joliestar, and Angel Capital will be in the Expressway..

“You've got a couple of other horses like Lazzura (around), and you have the Millie Fox there the following week if we need it. It's unlikely Joliestar would go to the Newmarket, because we've got three colts and they're very well weighted, whereas she would have a lot of weight.”

G1 Golden Rose Stakes winner Beiwacht (Bivouac) is set to resume in the G1 Lightning Stakes a week on Saturday, which Waller confirmed in the same interview that Wodeton (Wootton Bassett {GB}) will start in the G3 Eskimo Prince Stakes on Saturday before progressing to the G1 Newmarket Handicap.

Angel Capital is the third stakes winner for his dam Bahamas (Teofilo {Ire}), who has also produced Berkeley Square (Territories {Ire}) who won the Listed Ballarat Cup in December. Her Blue Point (Ire) yearling has been retained to race by breeder David Peacock and named Disraeli, and Bahamas patronised City Of Troy in 2025.

Gun Runner colt improves lengths to win trial

Pulled up in his first trial last month, Genesis Runner (Gun Runner {USA}) turned over a new leaf to win his trial at Warwick Farm on Tuesday. Trained by Richard and Will Freedman, the juvenile was given plenty of encouragement by jockey Teaque Gould in the home straight to let down and dutifully put away runner-up Inner Gold (Zoustar) by three quarters of a length.

The trial also featured high-priced yearling Defensemen (Wootton Bassett {GB}) - running fifth - who scratched from the G3 Canonbury Stakes last Saturday in favour of accepting for the R. Listed Inglis 2YO Millennium this coming weekend.

Video: Watch Genesis Runner at Warwick Farm Trials, video courtesy of Racing NSW

YLP Racing purchased Genesis Runner from Widden Stud’s Inglis Australian Easter Sale draft last year for $575,000, and his Zoustar half-brother was offered at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale last month, where he fell short of his reserve. Genesis Runner was one of only four yearlings by American supersire Gun Runner (USA) to be offered at public auction in Australasia last year. Dam Originator (USA) (Artie Schiller {USA}) is a stakes-performed half-sister to the dam of multiple Graded winner Fluffy Socks (USA) (Slumber {GB}). She visited Zoustar again in the spring.

Home Affairs colt sharp on debut

Trial debutant Barracks (Home Affairs) made winning look easy on Tuesday at Warwick Farm when taking out his heat by just shy of a length. The Ciaron Maher-trained colt sat behind early leader Spring Ruler (Wild Ruler) and only made his move once well into the straight, striding past to secure the win, with Sardar (Wootton Bassett {GB}) edging out the latter for second.

Video: Watch Barracks at Warwick Farm Trials, video courtesy of Racing NSW

Ciaron Maher Bloodstock went to $420,000 to secure Barracks at last year’s Magic Millions sale from the draft of Cressfield, and Bennett Racing purchased his Zoustar half-brother for $480,000 at this year’s Gold Coast sale. From the family of Overpass (Vancouver) and Ethereum Girl (Maurice {Jpn}), he is the sixth foal from multiple Group winner Wild Rain (Manhattan Rain), whose four winners to date include stakes-performed Spring Lee (Zoustar). She was served by Home Affairs in the spring.

Juvenile Farnan fillies impress at Warwick Farm

Clarry Conners’s Gone To Gowings (Farnan) showed grit to win her trial on Tuesday by half a length, but the Gary Portelli-trained Farcolo (Farnan) was the heat’s real eye-catcher when burning home to finish third. Gone To Gowings and runner-up Handloom (Exceed And Excel) had pulled away from the pack in the home straight, when Farcolo came sprinting from the back to cross the line two lengths behind with that gap rapidly closing over the following 50 metres.

Video: Watch Gone To Gowings and Farcolo at Warwick Farm Trials, video courtesy of Racing NSW

David Norris purchased Gone To Gowings for $260,000 from Yarraman Park Stud’s 2025 Gold Coast draft, while Portelli paid $20,000 for Farcolo at the following Inglis Classic Yearling Sale, where she was offered by Middlebrook Valley Lodge.

Gone To Gowings’s dam Devout Heiress (USA) (Speightstown {USA}), a close relation to G1 Newmarket Handicap winner Zoutori (Zoustar), had her Exceed And Excel filly sell at the Gold Coast last month for $140,000 to Malua Bloodstock. She has a Farnan colt at foot and visited Harry Angel (Ire) in 2025.

Cover image courtesy of Inglis

The catalogue for the 2026 Inglis Classic Yearling Sale was released on 16 November 2025. Since that time, a number of yearlings set to pass through the ring at Inglis Riverside have had their pedigrees enhanced, an important consideration for both vendors and buyers alike.

Lot 50 – Time To Reign x Guapa (USA) (Rock Hard Ten {USA}), filly – on account of Glenbeigh Farm

This filly’s dam is already a proven producer of winners, with all five of her foals to the track being winners. The best of them, dual Group 3 winner Chica Fuerte (Hinchinbrook), has struck gold with her second foal, Invicto (I Am Invincible).

Trained by Ciaron Maher, the juvenile colt was a smart jump-out winner ahead of his debut a fortnight ago in the Listed Blue Diamond Preview (colts & geldings), where he tracked the leader well to finish third by two thirds of a length. The winner Alibaba (Alabama Express) will head to Sydney to chase the riches of the R. Listed Inglis Millennium, while Invicto remains committed to the G1 Blue Diamond Stakes path and has been entered in the G3 Blue Diamond Prelude (colts & geldings) this weekend.

Last year’s Blue Diamond winner Devil Night (Extreme Choice) broke his maiden in the Diamond, so it’s not an impossible feat - and there’s still time to add one more update to the page before sale day.

Lot 69 – Brave Smash (Jpn) x Honolulu Lass (Hinchinbrook), colt – on account of Yarraman Park Stud

This colt received a pedigree update worthy of any catalogue at the turn of the year when his older half-brother Zip Lock (Hellbent) was a winner on debut in November at Doomben, then accelerated away to win the G3 BJ McLachlan Stakes six weeks later on the Saturday after Christmas. It threw the Chris and Corey Munce-trained colt into justifiable favouritism for the R. Listed Magic Millions 2YO Classic and while he didn’t show his best there, his return for the Queensland winter carnival (or even the spring) is highly anticipated.

Dam Honolulu Lass (Hinchinbrook) continues to have a magnificent record and can now tick off four runners for four winners. In addition, one of her sisters Reve de Victoire (Anabaa {USA}) produced a new stakes performer in 5-year-old Just Cruisin’ (Street Boss {USA}), who collected three placings at Listed level in quick succession.

Lot 190 – Trapeze Artist x Misplaced (Fastnet Rock), colt – on account of Widden Stud

This colt has had a twofold update courtesy of two closely related juveniles, chief of which is his impressive full sister Where’s The Circus (Trapeze Artist). Trained by Paul Murray, Where’s The Circus has ensured that her brother won’t be nearly as cheap of a purchase as herself, by running in the R. Listed Inglis Nursery on debut and winning in a spectacular fashion by over a length. She is one of two juvenile stakes winners for Trapeze Artist this season alone, with the addition of Chilly Girl in the G3 Widden Stakes last weekend.

The winner of over $230,000 in prize money in just one start, the filly lines up in the R. Listed Inglis Millennium this Saturday in the hopes of nabbing another update ahead of the sale.

To further bolster the page, this colt’s half-sister Can’t Find Snippy (Snippetson) has also produced a stakes-performed juvenile this season. Elusive Capital (Capitalist) debuted to a third placing on the Sunshine Coast in November and backed that up with a third in the Listed Phelan Ready Stakes in December.