The buyer: Laurie back for another Bleu

Matt Laurie will approach the 2019 Inglis Classic Sale with plenty of confidence having guided his $230,000 buy from the 2017 sale, Bleu Roche (Fastnet Rock), to stakes success in just her first preparation.

Bleu Roche emerged from the spring as one of the most promising sprinting 3-year-old fillies, capturing the G3 Roses S. at Flemington on Oaks Day in a huge thrill for the Mornington-based trainer.

She is the latest of a string of successful purchases from the Classic Sale for Laurie.

"I've had pretty good success there," he told TDN AusNZ. "The first horse that I bought there, a horse called Lamingtons (Alert), I paid $20,000 for her and she won about $150,000. She won a race at the Valley and at Caulfield."

"I bought another filly there called Mezeray Miss (Artie Schiller {USA}) for $65,000 and she won the (Listed) Twilight Glow S."

"I also bought a filly called Pearl Star (Star Witness), she cost $100,000 and she won the Dequetteville S. and so she achieved stakes success as well."

"Based on that, it is the most successful sale I've had in the whole country."

Laurie purchased Bleu Roche after buying her older half-brother Scudtime (Smart Missile) for $60,000 the previous year.

Laurie assessed him as Group 1 class even before he hit the racetrack and was keen to secure his sister, admitting he paid more than what he ideally wanted for her at that 2017 sale.

A week later, Scudtime made his racetrack debut and then was discovered to be a wobbler.

"The main reason I bought her was because I bought her brother the year before. Unfortunately he turned into a wobbler. Before that came about, he was very impressive, and I was very excited about what he could potentially do for us," he said.

"She's had to do it by herself and fortunately she's got good ability also."

The 2019 Classic Sale catalogued was released this week and no doubt Laurie will be looking for the next Bleu Roche among the 808 lots in Book 1 and 205 youngsters catalogued as part of the Highway session .

"It is a sale that I will always visit based on previous results," he said. "There's already three stakes winners from there and I thought Scudtime was a Group 1 horse."

"We've consistently bought some nice horses out of there and your clients learn that too. It's generally good value. We paid a bit for her (Bleu Roche), but someone else liked her as well. But in the end, she was a good buy."

The vendor: Boom times to roll on

A desire to ensure their star stallion Spirit Of Boom gets a broad representation among different sales will see Queensland-based Eureka Stud take a record 17 yearlings to the Inglis Classic Sale in 2019.

There are 12 by Spirit of Boom plus yearlings by Nicconi, Exosphere, Rubick, Press Statement and Sizzling.

"We are trying to space them out a little bit. We didn’t want to take quite as many to QTIS if we could help it. We thought those horses we are taking down there (to the Classic Sale) suited the market down there," Eureka's stud manager Scott McAlpine said.

"We are trying to market them where we think they'll best sell. We want to take some nice Spirit of Boom types down there in conjunction with some nice NSW-bred horses we've got to go there."

It is the continuation of a strategy the McAlpines have taken with the progeny of the Spirit of Boom, in order to get them to a broader range of owners and trainers across Australia and New Zealand.

"We've tried to strategically market them across Australia and get them out there and we’ve been lucky enough to get a stakes winner in South Australia (Heaven's Deal) from the ones we sold there, we’ve got a stakes winner in Victoria (Champagne Boom) from the ones we sold there and Queensland speaks for itself," he said.

Included in Eureka's draft of 17 for the Classic Sale is Lot 88, the brother to Kinky Boom (Spirit of Boom)), who won the Inglis Premier race on debut at Caulfield earlier this year

"He's going to be a top of the line horse. He's a very nice horse," McAlpine said of the yearling.

McAlpine also picked out Lot 379, the Spirit of Boom filly out of I Like Red, as another worth highlighting.

"She's got a lovely pedigree and she's just a good sort of an animal," he said.

There are also full siblings to the two of Spirit of Boom's first crop that McAlpine sent to New Zealand, Spirits Aubeer and Beastmode.

"They are just across the board very nice horses," he said.

Eureka sold 11 yearlings at the 2018 Inglis Classic Sale at an average of just over $106,000, while Spirit of Boom had seven yearlings sell for an average of just under $180,000.

This year Spirit of Boom has 21 yearlings in total in the 2019 Classic catalogue.