Moody steps up as Maher lies low at Premier

Peter Moody made a splash at the Inglis Premier Yearling Sale in Melbourne, spending $1.405 million, including the top two priced yearlings of what was otherwise a sluggish first day of trading.

The day was also notable by who wasn’t on the buyers’ sheet with only one purchase from the country’s leading trainer Ciaron Maher, who has signed for 71 yearlings at this sale since 2020.

Maher was the biggest buyer of yearlings in the land over the past few years and while his name featured on 36 horses in the Gold Coast, seven at Inglis Classic and seven at Karaka, but his only purchase was a Too Darn Hot filly for $60,000.

The clearance rate battled its way to 73 per cent by the end of the day, down on recent years, with 185 transactions overall and $25.7 million spent, $400,000 down on the first day in 2023.

However, the average and median held up reasonably well. The average ended up $140.022, the median on $105,000. Last year the respective figures were $142,568 and $110,000.

Inglis Bloodstock CEO Sebastian Hutch felt the market performed slightly about the pre-sale expectations, which were quite muted.

“We expected demand for the popular horses to be strong and that certainly felt the case, but it’s been a selective market all year and the expectation was that would be more pronounced here,” he said.

“That’s how it has played out to an extent, but the day has ended with a close to 74 per cent clearance, compared to 76 per cent last year.

“All things considered, I think most vendors would reflect on the results and think things were better on the horses they expected to do well with and as challenging as they thought it would be the others.”

Moody started out strong when going to $525,000 for Lot 2, a colt by Written Tycoon and later on buttered up to pay $650,000 for a Snitzel filly, Lot 167.

He then added a colt by first-season sire Ghaiyyath, Lot 182, for $200,000 and co-signed on an Ole Kirk filly for $40,000.

Moody already trains the Snitzel filly’s stakes-winning half-sister She Dances and her unraced full sister Bridal Waltz, and was happy to make a full set from Lonhro mare Charleston Dancer.

“She is a very nice filly. Obviously, we have the half-sister She Dances at home and we actually have a bit more insight as we have the two-year-old full-sister at home who we have a lot of time for as well,” Moody said.

“She looks to be a lovely running filly, typical of the Snitzels, and typical of the family, not overly big but she looks fast.”

The extended family includes Saturday’s Listed winner Bold Bastille, with both grand-daughters of multiple Group-winning sprinter Innovation Girl.

“She looks to be a lovely running filly, typical of the Snitzels, and typical of the family, not overly big but she looks fast.”

Although just the second lot of the sale, the Written Tycoon colt was always seen as one of the best of Yulong’s monster 68-strong draft. He is out of the Snitzel mare Talented, who was stakes-placed and is a daughter of stakes-winner Exceptionally.

“He was a nice colt, Yulong have presented a terrific draft here, they have done a nice job. He’s typical of the nice Written Tycoon colts, a big, strong horse. There is a fair bit of Snitzel about him, nice size and strength and he looks quick and sharp,” Moody said.

Yulong was on the other end of the transaction for a Written Tycoon with Lot 226. Under the YLP Racing banner of general manager Vin Cox, they paid $480,000 for the colt from Rosemont Stud’s draft out of Listed winner Everyday Lady together with McEvoy-Mitchell Racing and Belmont Bloodstock.

Meanwhile, TFI will send Lot 263, a Zoustar colt from The Chase purchased for $500,000, to in-form trainers Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott.

The colt is out of Grasslands, a half-sister to Away Game, who was raced by Loretta Fung, the wife of TFI’s Tony Fung.

“He was a beautiful athletic colt. He is bred by great breeders at The Chase, and we are delighted to get a horse off Mr Teo and Ivy, Alex and Michael down there do a great job, it’s a beautiful farm,” TFI’s Sally Williams said.

“He’ll be trained by Gai and Adrian who we have had a little success with in the past. They couldn’t be training better. We think he’s an early two-year-old and we look forward to getting him into our stable.”

Hong Kong buyers were also active, with Boomer Bloodstock’s Craig Rounsefell going to $460,000 for Lot 140, a Zoustar colt on behalf of the Hong Kong Jockey Club and Upper Bloodstock and Ricky Yiu paying $380,000 and $360,000 for respective colts by Toronado (Lot 98) and All Too Hard (Lot 13).

Blue Diamond-winning trainer/agent combination Clinton McDonald and Shane McGrath were spending up in the afterglow of Hayasugi’s win last week, buying two fillies for $460,000 (Lot 160) and $360,000 (Lot 34) respectively.

Lot 160 was a Justify filly offered by Twin Hills Stud and her pedigree contained a Blue Diamond connection through her third dam Midnight Fever, who was the last filly prior to Hayasugi to sweep the Blue Diamond series.

It came after they had signed for Lot 34, a filly by Ole Kirk from Gilgai Farm from the family of Jukebox and Bruckner, colts who McGrath had an involvement with from his previous role at Aquis.

“The two fillies that we purchased we thought they were the two best fillies of the sale, the one by Ole Kirk and this Justify filly,” McDonald said.

“After we saw the Justify filly in the back ring, we just had to have her. I thought she was a really lovely filly, she got room to improve and she is by probably the hottest sire in Australia at the moment in Justify.”

“It’s a good fillies family and she’s a filly you can see is going to grow into a lovely animal and hopefully do the job for us.”

Day 1 Statistics – Inglis Melbourne Premier Sale: