Zoustar filly sets an Inglis record of A$2.2 million, but for how long?

Inglis set a new record price for a filly sold at its Australian Easter Yearling Sale but the A$2.2 million (£1,146,000/€1,889,000) daughter of Zoustar may have the honour for less than 24 hours. 

The Widden Stud-bred and sold filly, the most expensive of four seven-figure yearlings sold at Riverside on Sunday, is likely to be just an entree to the offering of 25-time Group 1 winner Winx’s only foal by Pierro who faces her date with destiny on Monday afternoon.

She could break the overall Australasian yearling filly record price of A$2.6m and possibly the overall A$5m figure, which was set at the 2013 edition of the Easter Sale by the half-brother to Black Caviar. 

The current Easter filly record-holder is the third foal out of Group 1-winning mare Prompt Response and she was bought by agent James Harron for Fairway Thoroughbreds’ John Camilleri, the man best known for breeding Winx.

Earlier in the session, a colt by Zoustar sold for A$1.9m to Coolmore, while fillies by I Am Invincible and Snitzel also changed hands during the opening session, fetching A$1.8m and A$1.1m respectively. 

Harron believes the family of his newly acquired Zoustar filly could prove to be integral to the Australian Stud Book over the next decade.

"Zoustar is absolutely flying and his fillies are doing an outstanding job as well. She was a standout in the sale for us and very happy to get her," Harron said.

"She’s just a very special filly out of a very good race mare and the sister looks very handy. She’s trialled up a few times and looks like she could quite easily obtain some black type, so that’d be a nice update for the family.

"The family’s been bred up really nicely and it’s one of those pages that you might look back on in ten to 12 years’ time and it’s thickened right out from what is a really tough, high-end race mare."

Prompt Response’s second foal, two-year-old filly Sister Cynane, won two barrier trials last month in New Zealand for Wexford Stables’ Lance O’Sullivan and Andrew Scott. Sister Cynane was purchased by her trainers for A$1.3m at the Easter sale last year. 

Widden’s Antony Thompson said the filly was deserving of the strong competition she received.

"I think they had to stretch a bit there to get her but she’s a gorgeous filly and one you would really stretch for. She’s a gorgeous filly and we always had really high expectations and you never really know but to see her sell the way she has is unbelievable," Thompson said.

"She presented so well all week and everybody who saw her loved her, and you saw that around the ring with four or five serious teams playing well above the A$1 million mark. 

"It was going to take someone with real belief and real conviction to buy her and obviously John Camilleri has that sort of trust in James, so hopefully they’ve set themselves up with a bit of a legacy with such a beautiful filly."

During Sunday’s opening session, Widden sold 12 yearlings for total receipts of A$6,750,000 at an average of A$562,500 in what Thompson described as a "hard" market at times.

"It feels like it’s been a hard day and obviously the market knows what they want and, it’s like anything, the blue chip assets always hold their value and we’ve seen that again at Inglis," Thompson said.

"The real quality is very strong and then there’s wonderful value here. The smart shoppers are buying as good a value as we’ve seen all year.

"It hasn’t been an easy day, but good trade’s been done."

First-day figures

Almost A$64m was traded on day one at an average price of A$390,091, a five per cent decline year-on-year, but the median of A$300,000 held firm compared to the day-one session in 2023. The clearance rate climbed to 74 per cent by the close of the session after 164 horses were sold.

Inglis Bloodstock chief executive Sebastian Hutch said indications were that vetting may have hampered the prospects of some horses offered on day one, but overall he was comfortable with how it played out.

"There are a lot of factors that go into a horse making a lot of money, they have to vet perfectly and we didn’t have a lot of luck in respect to vetting for some people," Hutch said. 

"But I kind of look at it and say, 'Did the median hold up to be a good figure? Yes. The did the average hold up to be a good figure? Yes. The clearance at the end of the day is going to be consistent with what it was 12 months ago'. 

"Obviously, last year we had a situation whereby Yulong spent A$9.2 million on this day 12 months ago, and that’s a significant factor in driving turnover of the sale, and today we just had no dominant buyer.

"We had great variety among the buyers, but no-one really pinned their colours to the mast like Yulong did 12 months ago."

Day two starts at 10am local time.

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