Fireworks on remarkable opening day of Easter Yearling Sale

The much anticipated first Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale at Riverside Stables lived up its billing on Monday, with seven horses breaking the A$1 million (£545,000/$770,000) barrier, headed by a daughter of Australia’s champion sire Snitzel, who was snapped up by Guy Mulcaster and Chris Waller for A$1.3 million.

On what was a remarkable first day of trade, Arrowfield Stud were responsible for five of the top seven lots, with Snitzel siring three of the seven figure yearlings sold, including the top-priced lot.

While Snitzel proved as popular as ever, Arrowfield's decision to bring yearlings by international stars Deep Impact and Frankel was also richly rewarded, with the Scone-based farm’s two fillies by the son of Sunday Silence all making over A$1 million.

The daughters of Deep Impact were purchased by Waller and Sheikh Mohammed bin Khalifa, with the latter set to head into training with Tony McEvoy, while Domeland took home the colt by Juddmonte Farm sire Frankel.

Arrowfield Stud sold nine yearlings in total for an aggregate of A$7.15 million (£3,900,000/$5,510,000) at an average of A$794,444 to finish the day as the leading vendor by both aggregate and average and principal John Messara told ANZ Bloodstock News that he was pleased the stud had been rewarded for the yearlings they offered on day one.

"It is a good result all round," he said. "We had the product the market appreciated and they paid us accordingly, but it is a long haul from the day you mate your mare to the day you come and offer your horse.

Messara took particular satisfaction in the results achieved with the two fillies by Deep Impact.

He said: "We go looking for stallions who will suit our mares. There is so much Danehill blood in Australia now that we need to go outside to find blood that will be an outcross for him and that has pushed us towards Deep Impact, who is one of the best sires in the world.

"There is a method in our strategy and it is always the long view that we take."

Electric

Inglis managing director Mark Webster was understandably thrilled following the opening session, which began at 2pm local time and produced high drama from the word go.

"I was really surprised that by the end of the first hour we had sold five A$1 million yearlings - I had one on my sheet we thought could make that, so we certainly got off to a good start," said Webster.

"The sale steadied after that, but there were some nice lots early and people were ready to fire some shots. It added to the drama and it was electric down in the sales ring during that first couple of hours."

Webster said the strength of the market meant a number of buyers were yet to secure a yearling, making it likely that they will continue to be active in the next two days.

"In terms of the buying bench, half of the spend at this point is coming from Australian interests, 25 per cent from Asia, 15 per cent from the Middle East and the rest is a mix of New Zealand and other markets," he said.

"What may not be transparent in those results is that Gai Waterhouse has bought a number of horses and there are Americans investing in those, whether it be Eclipse or George Bolton.

"It was also interesting that the Hong Kong Jockey Club were here. They got beaten on a colt that made A$1.2 million and they left saying the lots they want to bid on are in tomorrow or the following day."

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