Cover image courtesy of Inglis
At A Glance:
Clearance across Day 1 of the Inglis Great Southern Sale was down at 66% (79%), and the aggregate was down to $4,597,000, below 2025 ($10 million) and 2024 ($11.9 million). However, it was a shortened afternoon session with only 137 horses offered. Across Day 1, 91 horses were traded, down from 221 in 2025 and 256 in 2024.
The average lifted to $50,516 ($45,357), while the median lifted in 2026 to $24,000 ($20,000).
On day one, 17 lots sold for $100,000 or more, down from 27 last year.
The top lot on Day 1 was a Home Affairs colt sold by Amarina Farm for $330,000 to J Carolan.
Top Buyers: SP Bloodstock was the day’s top buyer by gross, spending $710,000 on four lots. They were also the leading buyer by average at $177,500.
Top Vendors: Burnewang North Pastora headed the vendors by aggregate on day 1, selling four lots for $570,000. Armidale Stud finished the day as the leading vendor by average (two or more sold) at $197,500 for two lots sold.
Top Sires: Home Affairs led the stallions by gross with the sale topper at $330,000 and five weanlings sold for an aggregate of $870,000. Home Affairs also topped the averages chart at $174,000.
#1. Home Affairs hunger runs rampant on Day 1
Champion First Season Sire elect Home Affairs has more than lived up to the hype with his first 2-year-olds, so it’s no surprise that his third crop of foals have been hot property at this year’s weanling sales. Lot 107 at the 2026 Inglis Great Southern Sale set the high water mark on Thursday when topping the sale’s first day for a price of $330,000, bought by James Carolan, in partnership with Tamworth-based trainer Mel O'Gorman and Duncan McRae.
Offered by Armidale Stud, the colt is a half-brother to three winners, and out of Myhro (Lonhro), a winning daughter of multiple Group victress Tickle My (Perugino {USA}). Tickle My’s other offspring include Listed Takeover Target Handicap winner Snitz (Snitzel), Listed-performed Eye Of The Eagle (Alpine Eagle), and Take All Of Me (Jeune {GB}), dam of dual Group winner I’ll Have A Bit (Smart Missile) and grandam of this season’s Listed Jim Moloney Stakes victress Yum (Ghaiyyath {Ire}).
"You can breed a life-changing horse or you can own a life-changing horse, and something like this is huge for us,’’ Armidale’s David Whishaw said. "We brought him here knowing he was the right product, Home Affairs is very hot and he’s out of a Lonhro mare who’s doing the job.
"You can breed a life-changing horse or you can own a life-changing horse and something like this is huge for us." - David Whishaw
Lot 107 - Home Affairs x Myhro colt | Image courtesy of Inglis
"We had a reserve of $150,000 and we disclosed that to anyone that asked, we’re realistic vendors and we come here to sell. It’s a huge result for (breeders) Ken and Jen Breese, to get a result like this for them is just huge."
Whishaw thanked the Inglis team for their hard work in the run-up to the sale, and added, "for small breeders like us, this is the reason we stay in the game. You can get that life-changing horse and it gives you that confidence to buy a new mare and bat up and go to these expensive stallions and hope you get a huge result like this."
"Home Affairs is one of the most exciting young sires around," said Carolan. "And as for this colt, we might race him, we might trade him, we’ll just get him back to Tamworth where we all live and let him grow out and make that decision later in the year."
"Home Affairs is one of the most exciting young sires around." - James Carolan
The sale assisted in securing Home Affairs the top spot at the end of the first day of selling, becoming the leading sire by aggregate and average (two or more sold); five of his offspring sold for an aggregate of $870,000 and an average of $174,000. He was the only sire (with two or more sold) to see all of his lots offered sold for six figures or more. Seven more weanlings by the sire are scheduled to sell on Day 2.
Home Affairs’s headliners have been in the yearling sales ring, but his weanling results tell the same story of success for investors. Stefan Pardi’s SP Bloodstock set a new record price for a Home Affairs weanling at the Inglis Australian Weanling Sale when paying $680,000 for a daughter of the Coolmore resident.
SP Bloodstock signed for two more of his offspring on the first day of Great Southern, paying $160,000 each for Lot 114 and Lot 146.
Gallery: Home Affairs weanlings bought by SP Bloodstock on Day 1 of the Inglis Great Southern Sale, images courtesy of Inglis
His first crop of foals averaged $150,000, his second crop $105,357, and his third have been averaging $210,250 ahead of the Great Southern Sale - a tidy return to breeders with a crop conceived off a $82,500 (inc GST) service fee.
Those who secured him for that same fee in 2025 will be feeling confident ahead of the foaling season, as his fee rises to $176,000 (inc GST) in 2026 in response to his breakout first crop of 2-year-olds - headlined by the G1 Golden Slipper Stakes winner Guest House, who has been secured to stand beside his sire at the conclusion of his racing career.
Top Lots
| 107 | Colt | Home Affairs | Myhro | Armidale Stud, Carrick, Tas | J Carolan | $330,000 |
| 31 | Colt | Shinzo | Je Suis Belle | Burnewang North Pastoral, Rochester | SP Bloodstock (Aust) Pty Ltd | $240,000 |
| 9 | Colt | Ghaiyyath (Ire) | Holy Spirit | Shadow Hill Thoroughbreds, Avenel | Bromfield Park Pty Ltd | $220,000 |
| 79 | Filly | Anamoe | Magic Art | Twin Hills Stud, Cootamundra, NSW | Cannon Hayes Stud | $200,000 |
| 114 | Filly | Home Affairs | Night of Romance (GB) | Stonehouse Thoroughbreds, Eddington | SP Bloodstock (Aust) Pty Ltd | $160,000 |
| 146 | Colt | Home Affairs | Ra Ra Epic | Merricks Station, Merricks | SP Bloodstock (Aust) Pty Ltd | $160,000 |
| 29 | Filly | St Mark's Basilica (Fr) | Jamita | Supreme Thoroughbreds, Romsey | Sheamus Mills Bloodstock (FBAA) / Ash Dowley Bloodstock | $150,000 |
| 59 | Colt | Toronado (Ire) | Le Societe | Cornerstone Stud Farm Pty Ltd, Angaston, SA | SP Bloodstock (Aust) Pty Ltd | $150,000 |
| 85 | Filly | Home Affairs | Meu Amor (Fr) | Shadow Hill Thoroughbreds, Avenel | Northern Cork Investments | $120,000 |
| 93 | Colt | Toronado (Ire) | Miss Conduct | Gilgai Farm, Nagambie | Shane McGrath Bloodstock | $120,000 |
| 103 | Filly | Toronado (Ire) | More Bubbles | Burnewang North Pastoral, Rochester | Byerley Bloodstock | $120,000 |
Top Sires by Aggregate
| Home Affairs | 5 | 0 | $870,000 | $174,000 | $330,000 |
| Toronado (IRE) | 6 | 0 | $615,000 | $102,500 | $150,000 |
| Maurice (JPN) | 3 | 0 | $295,000 | $98,333 | $110,000 |
| Shinzo | 2 | 1 | $270,000 | $135,000 | $240,000 |
| Ghaiyyath (IRE) | 1 | 0 | $220,000 | $220,000 | $220,000 |
| Anamoe | 1 | 0 | $200,000 | $200,000 | $200,000 |
| In the Congo | 2 | 1 | $180,000 | $90,000 | $90,000 |
| Cosmic Force | 2 | 0 | $160,000 | $80,000 | $100,000 |
| St Mark's Basilica (FR) | 1 | 0 | $150,000 | $150,000 | $150,000 |
| Ozzmosis | 2 | $0 | $134,000 | $67,000 | $70,000 |
Top Sires By Average
| Home Affairs | 5 | 0 | $174,000 | $330,000 | $870,000 |
| Shinzo | 2 | 1 | $135,000 | $240,000 | $270,000 |
| Toronado (IRE) | 6 | 0 | $102,500 | $150,000 | $615,000 |
| Maurice (JPN) | 3 | 0 | $98,333 | $110,000 | $295,000 |
| In the Congo | 2 | 1 | $90,000 | $90,000 | $180,000 |
| Cosmic Force | 2 | 0 | $80,000 | $100,000 | $160,000 |
| Ozzmosis | 2 | 0 | $67,000 | $70,000 | $134,000 |
| Cylinder | 2 | 1 | $37,000 | $60,000 | $74,000 |
| Farnan | 2 | 3 | $35,250 | $62,500 | $70,500 |
| Zousain | 2 | $0 | $33,000 | $40,000 | $66,000 |
#2. Good moving Ghaiyyath kicks off sale in style
Within the first 15 minutes of the Inglis Great Southern Sale, the first six-figure lot walked into the ring in the form of Lot 9, a son of Darley’s red hot shuttle sire Ghaiyyath (Ire), who was knocked down to Bromfield Park for $220,000. Shadow Hill Thoroughbreds presented the colt, who is the second foal out of a daughter of stakes-performed Holy Cow (Teofilo {Ire}).
The cross is one that folds back in Ghaiyyath’s own family, with the colt’s fourth dam, Irish Champion Older Female Miler Caumshinaun (Ire) (Indian Ridge {Ire}) being Ghaiyyath’s second dam.
"We thought he (Lot 9) was in the top two or three colts on the complex." - Chris Pearce
“We thought he was in the top two or three colts on the complex,” said Bromfield’s Chris Pearce. “He’s by a stallion that is certainly doing a fantastic job - he’s currently at 10% stakes winners to runners, I believe. It’s a fairly small crop that this colt is part of, so I think the lack of availability (of this crop) will bode well for putting him back through the yearling sales.”
Lot 9 - Ghaiyyath (Ire) x Holy Spirit colt | Image courtesy of Inglis
When asked about having to stretch to the price he did, Pearce said, “he was just a beautiful moving colt that we thought would furnish into something we thought could make the Easter sale. I know he was on the lists of a lot of good judges, and there were some very good judges in the underbidders on him.”
"He (Lot 9) was just a beautiful moving colt that we thought would furnish into something we thought could make the Easter sale." - Chris Pearce
If you had said the name Ghayyaith to someone at the time of last year’s weanling sales, you may well have been met with a “who?” in response. Ghaiyyath exploded into the second season sire rankings in the spring courtesy of G1 VRC Derby winner Observer - amongst others - who will join his sire at Darley’s Victorian location this breeding season.
Ghaiyyath was busy enough in the Northern Hemisphere in 2025 to not return for the season, but will shuttle again in 2026 with a new fee of $88,000 (inc GST), while Observer will debut at $33,000 (inc GST).
Chris Pearce | Image courtesy of Inglis
Observer has been one of five individual stakes winners for his sire this season, setting Ghaiyyath ahead of his fellow second season sires. He currently sits in fourth place by prize money, with a million dollar gap back to fifth, and is one of only two sires (with 10 or more runners) on that list currently with a winning strike rate above 50%.
Ghaiyyath’s 2025 crop numbers just 57 foals, and the sale sets a new weanling record for the sire son of Dubawi (Ire) in the Southern Hemisphere, with his previous top-priced weanling being a $135,000 filly sold last year.
#3. Shinzo colt joins Pardi’s 2026 haul
Bloodstock agent Stefan Pardi has been riding high this sales season after successfully pinhooking a $775,000 Too Darn Hot (GB) colt with Equine Growth Fund, selling the full brother to Group-winning Too Darn Lizzie (Too Darn Hot {GB}) through Widden Stud’s Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale draft for $2.2 million, and he has returned to the weanling sales with a voracious appetite to repeat the act.
Signing under the banner of SP Bloodstock, the agent struck four times during the Inglis Great Southern Sale opening session on Thursday afternoon, with the highlight lot being a $240,000 son of G1 Golden Slipper Stakes winner Shinzo. All four lots bought by Pardi on Day 1 of the sale were in the top 10 lots for the session, leading him to be the top buyer with a total spend $710,000 and average spend (for two or more bought) of $177,500.
Lot 31 - Shinzo x Je Suis Belle colt | Image courtesy of Inglis
Lot 31 was offered by Burnewang North Pastoral, and is the second foal of Je Suis Belle (Bel Esprit), whose eight wins include the Listed Ascot Handicap.
"He was a great moving colt," said Pardi. "He floated over the ground, good bone, a great hip and the walk and the presence was what I really loved. This particular colt could go to any yearling sale next year and at this stage I’ve earmarked Easter. It’s an Easter pedigree."
"This particular colt (Lot 31) could go to any yearling sale next year and at this stage I’ve earmarked Easter." - Stefan Pardi
A descendant of triple Listed winner Ice Cream Sundae (Sovereign Red {NZ}), Je Suis Belle is closely related to G1 Queensland Derby winner Sonntag (Teofilo {Ire}) and Western Australia’s multiple Group-winning sprinter-miler Valour Road (Frost Giant {USA}), but the mare herself was at her peak over five furlongs.
Stefan Pardi | Image courtesy of Inglis
"The Shinzo colt was well found," Burnewang North’s Emma Todd said. "He’s a lovely style of horse that we certainly felt deserved to sell well and he did just that."
The colt is the third Shinzo weanling purchased by Pardi this year, having also splashed out for a $600,000 half-sister to Miss Roseiano (Exceed And Excel) at the Inglis Australian Weanling Sale. His average spend on the first crop of the Slipper winner sits at $302,000, double Shinzo's pre-Great Southern sale average of $155,294.
As SP Bloodstock, Pardi signed for two weanlings at the Magic Millions Gold Coast National Weanling Sale, including the aforementioned $680,000 daughter of Home Affairs, and five at Inglis’ Sydney sale.
Top Buyers by Aggregate
| SP Bloodstock (Aust) Pty Ltd | 4 | $710,000 | $177,500 | $240,000 |
| Cameron Cooke Bloodstock | 4 | $334,000 | $83,500 | $105,000 |
| J Carolan | 1 | $330,000 | $330,000 | $330,000 |
| Bromfield Park Pty Ltd | 1 | $220,000 | $220,000 | $220,000 |
| Cannon Hayes Stud | 1 | $200,000 | $200,000 | $200,000 |
| Sheamus Mills Bloodstock (FBAA) / Ash Dowley Bloodstock | 1 | $150,000 | $150,000 | $150,000 |
| J Carey | 2 | $140,000 | $70,000 | $90,000 |
| Byerley Bloodstock | 1 | $120,000 | $120,000 | $120,000 |
| Northern Cork Investments | 1 | $120,000 | $120,000 | $120,000 |
| Shane McGrath Bloodstock | 1 | $120,000 | $120,000 | $120,000 |
Top Buyers by Average
| SP Bloodstock (Aust) Pty Ltd | NSW | 4 | $177,500 | $240,000 | $710,000 |
| Cameron Cooke Bloodstock | VIC | 4 | $83,500 | $105,000 | $334,000 |
| J Carey | NSW | 2 | $70,000 | $90,000 | $140,000 |
| St Kilda Lodge | NEW ZEALAND | 2 | $60,000 | $100,000 | $120,000 |
| Simon Miller Racing | WA | 2 | $23,000 | $26,000 | $46,000 |
| Fernrigg Farm Pty Ltd | NSW | 2 | $20,000 | $30,000 | $40,000 |
| DJM Bloodstock | NSW | 2 | $10,000 | $18,000 | $20,000 |
| Caithness Breeding Pty Ltd | VIC | 2 | $6,000 | $10,000 | $12,000 |
| Pinhook Bloodstock International (FBAA) | NSW | 2 | $5,000 | $8,000 | $10,000 |
#4. Half to Chain Of Lightning makes 200k
The sale’s top-priced filly - Lot 79 - commanded her fair share of attention on Thursday afternoon, and with good reason, being that she is a half-sister to G1 TJ Smith Stakes victress Chain Of Lightning (Fighting Sun). Twin Hills consigned the daughter of Anamoe on behalf of breeder Hall of Fame Bloodstock’s Leo To, and she was knocked down to Cannon Hayes Stud for $200,000.
“It’s a lovely result,” said Twin Hills’ Olly Tait. “$200,000 is a lot of money, it’s hard to sell horses for that amount of money, so we are really pleased to get that result for her.
“She’s a lovely filly. She had been at Amarina Farm and then she came to us for the last few weeks so we could present her for the sale for Leo To, who is a great client of the farm and a great friend. So, really pleased for him. She has gone to an end user who will put her into training. I hope she is really lucky for her new owners.”
"She (Lot 79) has gone to an end user who will put her into training. I hope she is really lucky for her new owners." - Olly Tait
The winner of a further three Group races when running in the colours of her breeders, the Ramsey family, Chain Of Lightning won the TJ Smith in 2024 and sold to Yulong for $2.5 million at that year’s Magic Millions Gold Coast National Broodmare Sale. Her dam Magic Art (Perugino {USA}) must have looked a steal at the time, having last changed hands the previous March for $30,000 on Inglis Digital.
Lot 79 - Anamoe x Magic Art filly | Image courtesy of Inglis
The family is packed with grey talent that justifies the filly's price tag, also featuring the likes of Classique Legend (Not A Single Doubt), Racing To Win (Encosta De Lago), and Glint Of Silver (Rubick).
“Leo believes in the weanling market,” Tait said on the decision to offer the filly at Great Southern. “He likes selling weanlings, he sells a lot throughout the year and he has always done very well out of it. You see a filly like that, and on pedigree, she stands out, so there’s both end users and pinhookers interested in buying her. It’s a different avenue, but it’s one that worked well this time.”
“You see a filly like (Lot 79), and on pedigree, she stands out, so there’s both end users and pinhookers interested in buying her.” - Olly Tait
Hong Kong Bloodstock purchased Magic Art’s Jacquinot colt at last year’s Magic Millions Gold Coast National Weanling Sale for $60,000. She is back in foal to Anamoe this season.
Chain Of Lightning delivered her first foal, a filly by Pierata, in 2025, and is currently in foal to Alabama Express.
Olly Tait and Dave Morrissey | Image courtesy of Inglis
#5. Le Societe signs off on six-figure high note
The ninth and final foal out of Cornerstone Stud resident, stakes performer, and stakes producer Le Societe (Anabaa {USA}) walked into the Oaklands sales complex ring as Lot 59 on Thursday afternoon, and delighted connections with a final bid of $150,000 from SP Bloodstock.
Cornerstone’s Sam Pritchard-Gordon was pleased to see the mare, who has been retired after missing to Celestial Legend, achieve a sixth six-figure price in the ring with her offspring.
“She’s been a really important mare for the farm,” he said.
“She’s (Le Societe) been a really important mare for the farm.” - Sam Pritchard-Gordon
The dam of dual Listed winner Grand Pierro (Pierro), Le Societe joined the Cornerstone herd in 2020, when John Frankhuisen paid $32,500 for her via Inglis Digital, where she was offered in foal to Puissance De Lune (Ire).
Lot 59 - Toronado (Ire) x Le Societe colt | Image courtesy of Inglis
“The Puissance De Lune she was carrying at the time made $120,000,” Pritchard-Gordon said. “We also made a lot of money on her colt by The Autumn Sun and her Bivouac yearling this year sold to Henry Dwyer for $100,000.”
The aforementioned Molesworth (The Autumn Sun) sold for $200,000 to Ballymore Stables, Catheryne Bruggeman, and Paul Moroney Bloodstock in 2024, and while he has yet to break his maiden, his six siblings to race have all done so to date.
“Sadly, this one rounds out her career with us, but now she’s in the paddock and she will be bossing around the other mares for many more years to come,” said Pritchard-Gordon. “We will watch this colt in the future.”
Sam Pritchard-Gordon | Image courtesy of Inglis
The colt was the top price paid on the day for offspring of Swettenham Stud’s stalwart Toronado (Ire), and Pritchard-Gordon said he had been very popular throughout inspections.
“To have buyers with big, deep pockets at this sale, it’s really exciting.” - Sam Pritchard-Gordon
“He’s been a very busy horse,” he said. “(By the ring) a step to my left was Stefan who bought him, but there was also a Hong Kong buyer to my right, and I think Shane McGrath might have been involved (in the bidding) as well. To have buyers with big, deep pockets at this sale, it’s really exciting.”
Price is right for bullish first day of trade
Inglis’s Victorian Bloodstock Manager James Price was pleased with the sale’s start that saw a significant rise to both the median and the average at the close of bidding. While the gross and number of six-figure lots was lower than the same point last year, the sale’s return to a two-day format and later start time of 1pm were both major contributors, and Price was keen to focus on the sale’s upside.
“There are plenty of signs that the market is extremely bullish on the right horses,” he said. “And while year on year comparisons are hard with the extra selling day this year, it’s encouraging to have 17 foals make $100,000 or more today, considering it was 27 for the whole sale last year.
"There are plenty of signs that the market is extremely bullish on the right horses." - James Price
“The clearance is short of where we would like it to be, but selectivity in the market has been a theme for the year and it’s very much a factor here. There are a huge number of buyers engaged with the sale and it’s encouraging to see plenty of new names on the sheet, but buyers in general are being very particular in terms of their preferences, which is holding back the clearance as things stand.”
James Price | Image courtesy of Inglis
Price encouraged prospective buyers to peruse Thursday’s passed in lots ahead of Friday’s session, which will kick off at 10am.
“There are many more great opportunities tomorrow in what is the last day of the season to acquire stock at a live sale on the eastern seaboard,” he said. “The time for waiting is over, and we’ll be looking to facilitate as strong a market as we can through the day tomorrow.”
"The time for waiting is over, and we’ll be looking to facilitate as strong a market as we can through the day tomorrow." - James Price
Top Vendors by Aggregate
| Burnewang North Pastoral, Rochester | 4 | 0 | $570,000 | $142,500 | $240,000 |
| Stonehouse Thoroughbreds, Eddington | 9 | 0 | $468,000 | $52,000 | $160,000 |
| Armidale Stud, Carrick, Tas | 2 | 0 | $395,000 | $197,500 | $330,000 |
| Shadow Hill Thoroughbreds, Avenel | 2 | 2 | $340,000 | $170,000 | $220,000 |
| Twin Hills Stud, Cootamundra, NSW | 6 | 1 | $291,000 | $48,500 | $200,000 |
| Merricks Station, Merricks | 3 | 0 | $224,000 | $74,667 | $160,000 |
| Fairhill Farm, Mulbring, NSW | 4 | 0 | $206,500 | $51,625 | $100,000 |
| Blue Gum Farm, Euroa | 5 | 1 | $201,000 | $40,200 | $90,000 |
| Lemrac Lodge, Winchelsea South | 3 | 2 | $154,000 | $51,333 | $90,000 |
| Cornerstone Stud Farm Pty Ltd, Angaston, SA | 1 | $4 | $150,000 | $150,000 | $150,000 |
Top Vendors by Average
| Armidale Stud, Carrick, Tas | 2 | 0 | $197,500 | $330,000 | $395,000 |
| Shadow Hill Thoroughbreds, Avenel | 2 | 2 | $170,000 | $220,000 | $340,000 |
| Burnewang North Pastoral, Rochester | 4 | 0 | $142,500 | $240,000 | $570,000 |
| Merricks Station, Merricks | 3 | 0 | $74,667 | $160,000 | $224,000 |
| Three Bridges Thoroughbreds, Eddington | 2 | 1 | $67,500 | $75,000 | $135,000 |
| Longwood Thoroughbred Farm, Longwood East | 2 | 1 | $62,500 | $95,000 | $125,000 |
| Pepper Tree Farm, Cowra, NSW | 2 | 0 | $62,500 | $105,000 | $125,000 |
| Stonehouse Thoroughbreds, Eddington | 9 | 0 | $52,000 | $160,000 | $468,000 |
| Fairhill Farm, Mulbring, NSW | 4 | 0 | $51,625 | $100,000 | $206,500 |
| Lemrac Lodge, Winchelsea South | 3 | $2 | $51,333 | $90,000 | $154,000 |
