Inglis achieves $30 million goal as Ready2Race Sale jumps over 50 per cent

Inglis Bloodstock chief executive Sebastian Hutch lauded the dedication of his team to the Ready2Race format after the auction house posted record turnover at its 2026 breeze-up sale.

Thursday’s 321-lot breeze-up sale, attended by 17 of Hong Kong’s 23 trainers and an array of local and international agents, owners and trainers, reaped almost $31 million during the eight hours of trade at Inglis’ Riverside Stables complex in Sydney.

The aggregate was up $11.667 million on last year’s benchmark sale.

“We had an internal meeting the other day and I speculated that we should be aspiring to turn over $30 million at the sale and people laughed, ‘Yeah, right on’,” Hutch said. 

“But it was very obvious from inspections Monday and Tuesday that we had a good group of horses here.

“And the breezes were so professionally run. It’s time-consuming to work through the videos. But when you did the work and went through the videos, it was very evident that people had done a really good job of preparing the horses.

“I felt having watched the breeze videos myself that there was going to be plenty there to incentivise people to engage with the sale.”

Hutch’s bold $30 million call was vindicated. The average of $169,729 and the median of $120,000 were both up while the clearance closed at 71 per cent, down slightly on 2025 with Inglis this year operating from an enlarged 321-lot catalogue. 

Twenty-one horses made $400,000 or more.

The previous two editions of the Ready2Race Sale were topped by lots selling for $1 million and $900,000 respectively. On Thursday, three horses shared the podium at $600,000 each.

The last of those top sellers was a Wild Ruler colt who stopped the clock in an impressive 10.08-second breeze at Warwick Farm.

Agent Merrick Staunton teamed up with Hong Kong’s Lucky Owners to see off the strong competition for the Woodlow Equine-consigned two-year-old, who sold at the Magic Millions on the Gold Coast in January for $110,000.

“We had five vetted, he’s the only one that survived the vets and he breezed up very well, he’s a great type, a good shape and good size,” Staunton said.

“(The owner) was happy to pay. He probably paid overs, but there’s not many of them about. 

“The auctioneer asked for $300,000 when he started the bidding. I knew he’d be more popular than that because of the way he breezed, especially when you’ve got other ones failing the vet.”

Frankie Lor will train the colt for Lucky Owners, with plans for the colt to potentially be at Sha Tin in time for the griffin races later in the Hong Kong season.

Shenae Lowings of Woodlow Equine, who was participating as a vendor at her first Ready2Race Sale, was delighted by the result.

“It’s been a great experience. I’ve loved every second of it. It’s really exciting,” Lowings said.

“The Wild Ruler colt has been amazing to deal with, he’s got a great attitude and I see big things for him.”

Earlier, an Anamoe colt and a son of proven stallion Toronado also sold for $600,000, with both two-year-olds heading to leading Sydney trainers.

Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott will train the Anamoe juvenile. Chris Waller will take on the son of Toronado, who was bought by Hermitage Thoroughbreds’ Hong Kong-based Eugene Chuang. Chuang also races last year’s $900,000 Ready2Race Sale graduate Tron Bolt.

Also by Toronado, Tron Bolt won the Group 1 JJ Atkins at Eagle Farm in June.

The Anamoe colt will race in the MyRacehorse silks, which will be seen on Ninja in Saturday’s Everest, with the microsyndicator’s agent Damon Gabbedy teaming up with Waterhouse and Bott and their agent, Kestrel Thoroughbreds’ Bruce Slade.

“He (looks like a) three-year-old but he has the talent, the speed, the temperament and obviously the biomechanics to run the time,” Slade said of Lot 83. 

“He did it in such an impressive fashion, well held together, ears pricked and his data was just the top horse in the sale for us by a long way. 

“And he is the horse that hopefully is the highest probability Group horse we could find in the sale, put it that way.”

There was another factor that added to Slade and Bott’s confidence in the colt, who breezed up in 10.72 seconds at Taupo in New Zealand for vendor Woburn Farm.

Bott and Waterhouse train the year-older half-sister Low Key, who runs in Saturday’s Group 3 Reginald Allen at Randwick.

“She’s one of the favourites for that race and she won very impressively last start. We think she’s a Group filly,” Slade said. 

“Obviously, just being by Anamoe, the way he looked, all the other data that we had, all the other figures pointed to him being a high-probability prospect for us.”

The Anamoe colt was a $180,000 Inglis Easter purchase for New Zealand’s St. Kilda Lodge and Adrian Stanley’s Woburn Farm.

“He was a lovely yearling, but he was a bigger yearling, a bit raw, and he needed to develop in, so we took him back to New Zealand and we took our time with him, broke him in nicely, and he’s developed into an absolute beast,” Stanley said.

“We had a firm reserve of $500,000 on him, and we wanted to stick to that because we think he’s a very serious horse.”

Hermitage Thoroughbreds was the sale’s leading buyer, purchasing five two-year-olds for a combined $2.175 million, headlined by the equal sale-topping colt who is the first foal out of Group 2 winner Showoroses.

He was a $400,000 Inglis Easter pinhook for KB Bloodstock and sold through Matt Vella’s consignment. 

Trainer Ciaron Maher continued his spending spree at the two-year-old sales with the addition of eight juveniles including two in partnership with mainland Chinese owner Sanxiong Gao.

A recent Hong Kong permit holder, Gao also bought five lots outright with at least some of those being trained by Lindsay Park.

New Hong Kong trainer James Cummings also strongly supported the Inglis sale, buying five two-year-olds.

Shane McGrath’s Hawthorne Lane (nine lots selling for $2.695 million) edged out Blake Ryan (17 lots selling for $2.6 million) for leading vendor honours.

Hutch commended his team for its commitment to the Ready2Race Sale.

“I look at a day like today, and I feel like if we ran a straw poll of people in the industry five years ago and said, ‘Would this happen here in five years’ time?’ everyone would have laughed at you,” he said.

“They would have said you were bonkers. But the people in our group have really put their minds to it, made it happen.”

The Australasian two-year-old sales circuit will close out on November 17 and 18 when New Zealand Bloodstock holds its Ready to Run Sale at Karaka.