Day 3 sale toppers: I Am Invincible colt star attraction on final day at Classic

Cover image courtesy of Inglis

At the close of trade, Inglis reported that 546 lots had sold at a clearance of 85 per cent and with an aggregate of $56,719,500, while the average was recorded at $103,882 and Inglis Bloodstock CEO Sebastian Hutch was satisfied with the week's trade.

“I am very pleased. It has exceeded our pre-sale expectations. We have had a broad section of buyers and we are particularly pleased with the number of international involvement and plenty of interstate buyers,” said Hutch.

“We knew coming here there wasn’t a big banger of a horse that was going to set a record like it did last year, but we knew we had a strong cross-section of nice horses. We have come out of a sale, conducted in difficult enough circumstances, and we are very pleased.

“There has been evidence of an area of selectivity to the market that hasn’t been present to the same extent for the last number of years. You talk to a lot of buyers; they walked in to buy horses and they just found the competition really strong. Ultimately, I’m very pleased. It’s the beginning of a number of significant sales for us.”

With the first sale now in the bag, Hutch was already looking forward to the Inglis Premier Yearling Sale, which gets underway in Melbourne on March 5.

“We’ve got Premier in a couple of weeks and that is a very important sale for us, with a brilliant catalogue and that has a fantastic reputation as a source of great horses and then obviously Easter is a few weeks after that.

“These are massive sales in the context of the calendar and they will give context of how the market is shaping up. There is very evidently still money in the market, it might be a case of vendors having to work a bit harder to get their horses sold but ultimately the rewards are there.”

Lot 633 - I Am Invincible x Navajo Dreamer (Ire), colt - $400,000

After paying $400,000 for a colt by Yarraman Park’s super star stallion I Am Invincible on the final day of the Inglis Classic Yearling Sale, Justin Bahen came to the conclusion that the youngster will prove to be good value.

Offered by Yarraman themselves, the colt is out of US stakes-placed mare Navajo Dreamer (Ire) (Dream Ahead {USA}) and she is herself a half-sister to Grade 2 winner Hoh Buzzard (Ire) (Alhaarth {Ire}), the dam of Grade 3 scorer Via Villaggio (USA) (Bernardini {USA}).

Bahen said the colt would now head into training with Newcastle-based trainer Kris Lees.

“He is off a good farm, so that makes life easy. The stallion’s doing everything in front of him. You only have to look back to Saturday at the races, he was pretty in the finish of every race there (at Randwick). We thought that was where we’d have to be as far as the spend was.

“He will be trained at Newcastle by Kris Lees. I thought he might’ve ended up at a Magic Millions sale but he’s ended up here where he stands out. In and around that money, I thought he was good buying for an I Am Invincible and a colt like him. He’s sharp but he might take a little bit longer than normal, but I am happy to have a good horse at any age.

“I think it’s been strong enough. I found it difficult on the ones I’ve tried to buy. We’ve got three now, so I am happy with that, and maybe one more later.”

I Am Invincible had four lots sell for an aggregate of $715,000 and an average of $178,750, while Yarraman Park Stud sold 21 horses for a gross of $2,146,500 and Matt Scown said he was very pleased with the results this week.

“It’s been a great sale overall for us, 22 sold from 22 offered and this lovely Vinnie colt to end the sale for us,’’ Scown said.

“We always try to target a really lovely colt for this sale because, like we’ve shown, you can sell them really well and this colt was no exception.

“We always like to bring a strong draft here, the buyers are always here, Inglis have done a great job in getting everyone here and the inspection process was as good as usual.’’

Lot 592 - Deep Field x Marcellina (NZ), colt - $360,000

Having provided Silverdale Farm a good result earlier in the sale, Legend Racing’s Bon Ho handed the farm another reason to celebrate when he bought a colt by Deep Field for $360,000.

This was the second yearling Bon Ho had purchased off Silverdale this week, having bought a colt by Pierro for $160,000 on Monday, while the The Everest-winning owner purchased a filly by I Am Invincible off Steve Grant’s nursery for $550,000 at last year’s Inglis Premier Yearling Sale.

The farm’s manager Robert Petith was confident the colt would sell well and expressed his gratitude to Bon Ho for his enormous support of their product.

“It’s a fantastic result, he was a lovely colt,” said Petith. “We are thrilled with the continued support from Bon Ho.

“This is the second horse he’s bought from us at this sale and we were also fortunate last year to sell him a Vinnie filly down in Melbourne and she won a trial on Monday for Hawkes Racing, so hopefully that helped in his selection of these two nice colts this week.”

Catalogued as Lot 592, the youngster is out of Group 2 scorer Marcellina (NZ) (Savabeel), a half-sister to G2 Matriarch S. winner Oceanex (NZ) (Ocean Park {NZ}), Amexed (NZ) (Pentire {GB}) and Listed scorer Miss Aotearoa (NZ) (Per Incanto {USA}).

Sadly, this colt was the final foal Marcellina produced before her death in July 2022 and Petith said it was a bittersweet feeling.

“It is a bittersweet situation because she was a beautiful quality mare and we were very sad to lose her after only a couple of foals, but she did a great job including producing this beautiful colt and it is a wonderful result,” said Petith.

“He is a tough colt and he has handled the sales in his stride. He is a good-moving horse who is very straightforward. We thought he would be around the $300,000 mark, but wasn’t sure where he’d go from there.

“We were optimistic. Coming from home he vetted up beautifully and he is a nice quality horse by a very good stallion, out of a performed mare with a good page and physically he was a very good colt, so we were hopeful of a good result.”

Silverdale finished the sale having sold all eight of their yearlings for an aggregate of $1,495,000 and they finished with a healthy average of $186,875 and Petith was pleased with the week’s results.

“We have had a good sale. Reserves are important and not getting carried away, but we do our best to bring a quality lineup of horses and we try to present them in the best possible way and we have been rewarded with some good results, who are all going to good stables.”

Lot 658 - Proisir x Orovela (NZ), colt - $320,000

Rich Hill Stud’s stallion Proisir has been in insatiable form all season and on Tuesday at the Inglis Classic Yearling Sale that good form translated into yet another sales ring success as Mick Price Racing and Breeding secured a colt from the Wentwood Grange draft for $320,000.

Proisir has sired seven stakes winners since August, headed by four Group 1 winners, including Legarto (NZ) and Pier (NZ), who won the G1 New Zealand 1000 Guineas and G1 New Zealand 2000 Guineas respectively, while his other daughter, Prowess (NZ), added another stakes win to her record last weekend when she won the G2 David and Karyn Ellis Fillies Classic at Te Rapa.

With this spate of good results, it is likely the stallion will be crowned New Zealand Champion Sire, bringing an end to Savabeel’s eight-year reign at the top of the table.

Proisir enjoyed exceptional results at the New Zealand Bloodstock Karaka Yearling Sale last month when 19 yearlings in Book 1 sold for an aggregate of NZ$3,590,000, while he finished with an average of NZ$188,947. Given Proisir’s service fee in 2020 was NZ$9000 (plus GST), this represented an average return this week of 21 times the stallion’s seasonal fee.

The colt offered in Sydney on Tuesday was the only progeny of the stallion in the Inglis Classic Yearling Sale catalogue and Sean Hawkins of New Zealand’s Wentwood Grange was delighted with how the colt was received by the buyers at the sale.

“He was targeted at this sale. We wanted to bring a draft of big, strong horses to Classic and he fitted that mould,” said Hawkins.

“To have people like Mick buying from us is outstanding. We’re looking to build those relationships (with Australian trainers) and get them into those top stables.

“We bred him in partnership with Danny Champion and Kezia Murphy. They raced the mare and then she retired to stud at Wentwood.

“At the time when we decided to bring him here, Proisir was going okay, but the run that he’s had over the last few months has been exceptional. He was just a big, strong colt and he was exactly the sort of horse we wanted to bring to Classic this year.

“Proisir has kicked on unbelievably well. He’s a credit to the team at Rich Hill and this result just goes to show how much the Australians appreciate him.”

Over the two days of trade at the Inglis Classic Yearling Sale, Wentwood Grange sold all four of their yearlings for total receipts of $710,000 and finished with an average of $177,500.

“We’ve had a really good sale. We’ve sold all four of the horses we brought over and they’ve all sold well, really well. They were headlined by this horse, but we had a Vadamos filly as well that sold for $180,000, which was an outstanding result.”

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