Cover image courtesy of Inglis
The dates have been announced and entries are open. Inglis opens with the Classic sale on February 7,8 and 9. Their sales season moves south to Melbourne for the Premier Sale on February 28, March 1 and 2, then heads back to Sydney for the showcase sale of Easter on April 4 and 5. Inglis round out their sales with the good value HTBA sale on April 22. Entries for all four sales close on August 14.
“It’s been fantastic seeing so many vendors enjoy incredible results in 2026 but now it’s all about working with breeders on the 2027 sales and ensuring we do everything in our capacity to see more clients enjoy even better results in 2027,” Inglis CEO Sebastian Hutch said.
“We work hard to get a lot of buyers and cultivate new buyers, and I’m delighted with the efforts of the team. We saw plenty of new buyers across the year and had good new investment in the sales.”
A trio of Group 1 winning juveniles
G1 JJ Atkins Plate winner Tron Bolt (Toronado {Ire}) and G1 Sires’ Produce Stakes winner Fireball (Snitzel) graduated from the 2025 Easter sale, while G1 Blue Diamond Stakes winner Streisand came through the 2025 Premier Sale.
“We’re very proud of the fact that our sales produce a lot of good horses. We’ve been producing ‘sexy’ horses like Fireball quite frequently, and this year we also had Tron Bolt who went to be a strong pinhook at the Ready2Race Sale. Both look like very exciting colts going into next season,” Hutch said.
“We’re very proud of the fact that our sales produce a lot of good horses.” - Sebastian Hutch
“Our sales produce a Streisand type horse every year. She was owned by big syndicate who sold her well for a lot of money. Across all our sales there’s a broad cross section of horses doing well. The Hong Kong Derby winner came from Classic which was a significant result for that sale, and he’s just won the Champion 4-Year-Old title.”
Sebastian Hutch | Image courtesy of Inglis
Invincible Ibis (Hellbent) won five races in Hong Kong this season, topped by the Derby, and was an $80,000 Inglis Classic Yearling Sale graduate.
“Our sales are genuinely producing good horses and that gives buyers confidence to buy again. Vendors should feel confident that we are facilitating the best possible marketplace for them.”
Healthy competition
Across all ten yearling sales in Australia, the aggregate rose to $555 million, up from $540 million in 2025. For Inglis, with four of the six sales, their portion of this gross rose to $279 million, up from $269 million in 2025.
“There isn’t a single primary metric where Inglis isn’t ahead of our rivals, which is not only something we are really proud of but is a stark selling point to all breeders out there to consider Inglis sales for their stock in 2027,” Hutch said.
“There isn’t a single primary metric where Inglis isn’t ahead of our rivals, which is not only something we are really proud of but is a stark selling point to all breeders out there to consider Inglis sales for their stock in 2027.” - Sebastian Hutch
“We have a great team that is getting stronger all the time, we work hard and are motivated to do well, all of which are significant positives for our clients when looking to do business with Inglis.”
| Easter Yearling Sale | $148,900,000 | $150,315,000 | 350,000 | $360,000 |
| Premier Yearling Sale | $69,373,000 | $60,275,500 | 120,000 | $100,000 |
| Classic Yearling Sale | $57,906,000 | $53,863,500 | 70,000 | $70,000 |
| HTBA Yearling Sale | $3,611,500 | $4,522,300 | 18,000 | $15,000 |
| Total Gross | $279,790,500 | $268,976,300 | - | - |
Table: Inglis sales from 2025 to 2026
The rise of Premier and Classic
The two sales who had the biggest lift in 2026 were the two in the middle of the market, being Premier and Classic. Improved clearance rates and lifts in average and median off similar sized catalogues saw the two sales provide the biggest change in impact on the Inglis bottom line for the sale season in 2026.
Premier only had a small increase in catalogued horses, with 814 horses in 2026 up from 803 in 2025, but a higher clearance rate saw 597 yearlings find a home compared to 541 in 2025. These yearlings also celebrated a rise in average to $116,203 and median, up to $120,000 from $100,000 in 2025. The 2025 sale, led by Streisand, has so far seen three stakes winners and 30 juvenile winners.
Likewise Classic, who had 806 horses catalogued in 2025 and 800 in 2026, saw a leap in clearance rate that resulted in 601 sales in 2026, up from 570 in 2025. This impacted positively on the aggregate with the 2026 sale grossing $4 million more than the previous year. Again, the average rose to $96,340, while the median stayed the same at $70,000.
The 2025 Classic Yearling Sale has already celebrated 52 juvenile winners this season, led by five stakes winners including group winners Vantorix (Captivant), Closer To Free (Street Boss {USA}) and Music Time (All Too Hard).
Vantorix | Image courtesy of racing Queensland
The HTBA Yearling Sale isn’t one that gathers a lot of headlines, but it’s still a good source of racehorses with the 2025 sale already seeing eight juvenile winners led by Listed winner Queen Regent (Wild Ruler). She was a $40,000 purchase by Blake Ryan and her Woodlands Stakes victory took her earnings over $112,000.
Queen Regent | Image courtesy of Georgia Young Photography
The median price at that sale rose in 2026 to $18,000, up from $15,000 in 2025. A smaller catalogue in 2026 saw 157 horses sold, down from 201 in 2025, and this impacted on the gross which fell to $3.6 million, down from $4.5 million.
Easter remains the best of the best
The cream of the crop usually end up at the Inglis Easter Yearling Sale and this was again true in 2026 where 26 yearlings sold for seven figures, similar to the 25 in 2025, and up from 18 in 2024.
The average in 2026 rose to $464,000 up from $448,000 in 2025, however the median dipped slightly to $350,000 from $360,000. A lower clearance rate in 2026 of 76%, down from an impressive 86% on sale day in 2025, impacted on the gross which fell from $151 million in 2025 to $149 million in 2026.
“The facts of our sales season don’t necessarily do it justice. We had an excellent Classic and Premier Sale, and thought we were on track for a record breaking Easter, at which point the world went a little pear-shaped with the conflict in the Middle East. The week prior to the sale was the peak of fuel prices, and there was extraordinary uncertainty at the time. All that had a detrimental effect on the sale. That being said, it was still one of the five best Easter sales of all times,” Hutch said.
“I do think the circumstances distorts some of the analysis of the sale and you have to make an allowance for that.”
2025 Inglis Australian Easter Yearlng Sale Catalogue | Image courtesy of Inglis
The 2025 yearlings, who are rising 3-year-olds, are currently headlined by 34 juvenile winners. Eight of these are stakes winners with Tron Bolt and Fireball leading them.
Not to be left out, the current 3-year-old Easter graduates are headlined by 20 individual stakes winners with G1 Queensland Oaks winner Fireball Miss (Bivouac) and G1 Queensland Derby winner Providence (Wootton Bassett {GB}) the current Group 1 stars of that year’s yearlings. The two previous years, 2023 and 2022 Easter sales, have four Group 1 winners apiece on their graduate record.
Seven figure yearlings Autumn Glow (The Autum Sun) and Switzerland headline the 2023 Easter graduates joined by Group 1 winners Feminile (Dundeel {NZ}) and Lady Shenandoah (Snitzel).
Entries for the Inglis yearling sales of 2027 close on August 14.
