Boutique operation Kaha Nui Farm has led a record-breaking opening to the Inglis Australian Weanling Sale by buying the two highest-priced first-day Lots.
Kaha Nui, run by the New Zealand husband-and-wife team of Nick and Nicky White, paid $575,000 for Lot 195, an I Am Invincible filly, after spending $370,000 on a Capitalist colt.
The filly from the Alma Vale/Kitchwin Hills partnership draft and offered on behalf of Ridgmont Farm, is the second foal of Sebring mare Shoko, a half-sister to $1.15 million earner Mimi Lebrock.
“The (I Am Invincible) fillies are doing well and at the end of the day if I want to keep her and race her, I’ve got a filly to race. I loved her,’’ Nicky White said.
“We ended up keeping a filly last year so we’ll get her home and just see how she goes, take a breath and calm the nerves and get on with it.
“You’ve always got residual value with a filly like her, which I really like … and I love developing young athletes myself.’’
Kaha Nui also signed for Lot 33, a Capitalist x Knit ‘n’ Purl colt from Macquarie Stud, which sold for $370,000.
White said she was running out of bids before securing the colt, a half-brother to nine-time winning sprinter Brudenell.
“For me, he was the colt of the sale to be honest,” she said.
“He had plenty of length about him, I think he’s got a lot of growing to do without getting too big and he’s definitely one I wanted to take home, but they were pushing me along a bit.”
“I was getting to a point where perhaps I should sit on my hands but I’m glad I got him. We’ll get him back to the farm in the Waikato and see what we can turn him into.’’
Teaming up with Queensland’s Lyndhurst Stud, Kaha Nui also paid $350,000 for a Written Tycoon filly from the Willaroon Thoroughbreds draft.
Warwick Barr
A colt by I Am Invincible from the Yarraman Park draft closely related to stakes winners Shades Of Rose and Scallopini sold for $360,000 while a Zoustar filly out of Group 2-winning Snitzel mare Snitty Kitty made $350,000.
Among the first-season sires with progeny represented on day one, a filly by St Mark’s Basilica from the stakes placegetter Tender sold for $200,000 as a highlight Lot.
They were two of 35 Lots to sell for $100,000 or more on Monday, compared with 24 for the opening day in 2023. A gross of $11,112,500 was the highest on a single day in the sale’s history - up 40 per cent year-on-year.
The day one average finished at $63,500, representing a year-on-year increase of 25 per cent while the median sat at $36,000. There were 175 Lots sold at a clearance rate of 75 per cent.
“The (I Am Invincible) fillies are doing well and at the end of the day if I want to keep her and race her, I’ve got a filly to race. I loved her,’’ Kaha Nui Farm's Nicky White on her $575,000 purchase.
“We were always confident that we had plenty of nice horses in the catalogue, and we were really happy with the volume of buyers engaged in the sale, so when you have those two elements where you want them, it is a promising sign for any sale," Inglis Bloodstock chief executive Sebastian Hutch said.
“We had foals by 24 different stallions make $100,000 or more today which to me is a good indicator of a healthy market."
The second and final day of the sale at Riverside on Tuesday has 176 weanlings catalogued.
