‘Hand in glove’ – Yulong Premier Sale presence making waves in home state
Since joining Yulong as general manager in December, Vin Cox has heard “a thousand rumours and not one of them true”.
Despite once managing such companies as Magic Millions and Godolphin Australia, Cox has never come across the levels of public interest he’s found during his time at the Victorian-based Yulong.
“It’s very much a new thing for me, but I’ve enjoyed hearing all the rumours because not a single one has been true,” he told The Straight.
“I don’t know what the fascination is, but if I had to guess I’d say it’s because Yulong is so prevalent in the market and everyone is trying to guess what we’re up to.”
The scrutiny will intensify as the Inglis Premier Yearling Sale gets underway at Oaklands Junction. Yulong catalogued 77 horses for the sale (68 after withdrawals), and it’s by far the largest draft in the sale, and the largest that the breeding operation has fielded at any auction.
Yulong’s contingent represents about 10 per cent of the 2024 Premier catalogue,
It also means Yulong has the largest draft ever catalogued to a Premier Sale.
“That’s just a function of the development and expansion of Yulong along the journey,” Cox says. “I think the fact that Yulong’s presence is totally centred around Victoria is a positive for the Victorian industry, and the Premier Sale is the main sale in this state.
Jessica Owers
“The Victorian industry needs the Premier Sale to be strong because it’s a significant piece of the Victorian industry, and we therefore hope we get benefit from that. It’s hand-in-glove sort of stuff.”
Yulong first appeared at this sale in 2018, consigning eight horses as Yulong Park, location Bayles.
The inaugural draft featured yearlings by stallions like Wandjina, Helmet and Exceed And Excel, though the draft’s top-priced graduate was a filly by Not A Single Doubt, bought for $280,000. She was a full sister to Extreme Choice.
It was a solid start to Yulong’s history at the Inglis Premier Sale and, in the intervening years, the farm’s drafts have climbed steadily in number: eight in 2018, 11 in 2019, then 14, 26 and 32, until last year’s draft of 44.
While Yulong has courted headlines as a buyer in recent times, Sam Fairgray, who has been the chief operating officer since 2018, tells The Straight that considerable effort had gone into growing the farm’s yearling presence year in, year out.
“We’ve gone from those early days of less than 10 to this week’s 68, and it’s been a great effort from everybody to get where we are,” he says.
“It’s personally satisfying, but it’s all about the staff we have. They’re great people that have come to the farm and worked as a team to get the results that we’ve had.”
Before Yulong, Fairgray worked at Arrowfield and he’s no stranger to large drafts.
But the 77 catalogued for Oaklands Junction is a significant milestone, and preparing the draft went hand-in-hand with consigning all the yearlings that Yulong has committed to auctions this selling season.
Bren O’Brien
“We’ve had 130 yearlings in prep at one time, which is mammoth because these Premier horses started their prep when we still had the Magic Millions and Classic yearlings in, and they finished their prep as we’ve had the Easter and Adelaide horses in,” Fairgray says.
“It’s been a huge task just to get these horses here this week.”
Yulong is one of the 69 vendors at Oaklands Junction. They range from the big operators down to the smaller, local breeders like Highpoint Lodge, which has consigned three yearlings.
“I don’t know what the fascination is, but if I had to guess I’d say it’s because Yulong is so prevalent in the market and everyone is trying to guess what we’re up to” – Yulong general manager Vin Cox
Will smaller vendors avoid the Premier Sale in the future if the likes of Yulong front up with an arsenal of 77 well-bred thoroughbreds?
“I don’t think so,” says James Price, Inglis’s Victorian bloodstock manager. “The catalogue is no bigger than it’s been.
“Yes, Yulong is a big vendor but if the smaller vendors, of which many are here this week, have stock by popular stallions and they’re well-presented, there’s going to be lots of buyers to purchase those horses.
“We’re talking one in 10 horses that Yulong has in the catalogue, not one in two, so if any vendor has concerns, I think they’re unjustified.”
There’s no doubt that Yulong’s presence in Victoria has made waves in the local breeding scene. Mr Yuesheng Zhang is the largest investor in bloodstock in the world right now, and his Yulong operation is headquartered across his various farms in Victoria.
Bren O’Brien
“When you’ve got sires like Written Tycoon, but then you’ve also got the likes of Alabama Express, they’re in a pretty good spot,” Price says. “The market has deemed Alabama Express to be going particularly well, and it’s paying proven-stallion money for his yearlings so far.
“The size of the Yulong draft of course has great stallion representation, but also the depth of their mares is unmistakable, so the pedigrees that come with the yearlings selling this week … some of them are the best in the catalogue.”
The Premier Sale is Inglis’s second yearling event of the year. Three weeks ago, the Classic Sale in Sydney defied expectations with only minor market jitters.
What is Price expecting at Oaklands Junction?
“We were delighted with the figures out of Classic, and we were reasonably happy with the way those sub-$50,000 horses were able to be moved, and how buyers for those horses turned up,” he says. “We feel it will be the same this week.
“We’ve worked very hard to get buyers here into that lesser end of the market, buyers who might have a limited budget and we’re making sure they’re looking at the right horses.
“In that respect, we’ve worked closely with the vendors to see where their values are at and, all going well, we’ll have a solid clearance north of 80 per cent.”
Last year, Victorian buyers made up 51.2 per cent of the overall spending at the Premier Sale, but there are some questions about their level of enthusiasm and participation this year.
Figures suggest that their investment is down around $10 million to what they were at the same time last year.
Bren O’Brien
Is there an underlying issue here, or were Victorians saving their money to spend at the Premier Sale?
“Let’s hope they were waiting for Premier,” Price says. “There’s no doubt there are a lot of yearlings on the market, and people are less inclined in these challenging economic conditions to speculate on yearlings that they might otherwise have jumped on in previous years.
“I think more people are being cautious and buying at sales that they have orders for, rather than ‘speccing’ a horse.”
Trainers and syndicators have traditionally been the biggest on-spec buyers of yearlings, and Price is fairly certain they’ll be prominent next week. However, he’s also aware that over 60 per cent of horse owners in Australia are yearling breeders, so he’s hopeful the wheel will turn.
“If breeders represent over 60 per cent of owners, then trainers should really be supporting the breeders that support them,” he says.
Related Articles
Generational change – Chitticks look to new guard with son of Snitzel to stand at Waikato Stud
With Savabeel entering the twilight of a decorated career, Mark Chittick is already plotting Waikato Stud’s next chapter, installing Group 1-winning Snitzel colt Return To Conquer as a key plank in the farm’s succession plan.
Slipper picture a blur as online focus sharpens for Slade
Bloodstock agent Bruce Slade says Tulloch Lodge’s Golden Slipper strength lies in depth rather than a standout, as the respected bloodstock agent builds an online following by offering candid insight into racing’s realities.
Analysis: Three years of momentum – Inglis hitting back in the battle for yearling market share
Inglis has continued to claw back market share under CEO Sebastian Hutch, who has adopted a far more competitive stance against Magic Millions than his predecessor, and that public relations strategy was again to the fore at the Inglis Classic Sale.