O’Brien on Monday – Shooting the breeze, Froggy’s tears, Maurice flying high and a happy correction

Hutch answers back on breeze-up musings

Louis Le Metayer’s column published in The Straight last week, The illusion of speed and rethinking breeze-up sales, which argued that modern breeze-up sales place too much emphasis on short-term speed often at the expense of proper education, caused a ripple across the industry.

Several agents and vendors contacted The Straight directly to either offer their support or rebuttal of the article, which first appeared on Astute Bloodstock’s Industry Views section of its website.

One of those to offer a strong response was Inglis Bloodstock chief executive Sebastian Hutch, whose team is in the build-up to its own Ready2Race sale on October 15.

The sale has become a real focus for growth for Inglis over recent years, spearheaded by Hutch’s belief that it can develop the same reputation for star graduates as those breeze-up sales held in Europe and the United States.

It is a belief backed by some major industry players, including Henry Field.

Hutch is known for his comprehensive responses and this one, topping 1300 words, didn’t disappoint. We won’t publish the whole letter, although Hutch was comfortable for us to do so.

“Given the success, particularly over the past 12 months, of graduates of the Inglis Ready2Race Sale and the increased size/improved quality of the catalogue for the 2026 sale, it, and the breeze-up format in general in Australasia, has been the subject of more conversation and debate than at any other stage of my time at Inglis,” Hutch said.

Hutch named trainers such as Chris Waller, Ciaron Maher, Waterhouse/Bott, Price/Kent, Michael, Wayne & John Hawkes, Annabel & Rob Archibald, Tony Gollan, Peter Moody, Ben, Will & JD Hayes, Busuttin/Young, Kris Lees and Joe Pride among trainers to have had stakes winners from Australasian breeze-up sales in recent times.

He also reeled off a list of 23 well-credentialed horsemen and women who are preparing horses for the upcoming Inglis Ready2Race Sale.

“Our team has absolute confidence in these people to educate and prepare top-class racehorses of the future, as many of them have done already and on the evidence of results of the sale over recent years, the market agrees,” he said.

“Much of the criticism put forward by Louis of how horses are prepared for the sale might have been true 10 years ago, but, certainly in the case of the Inglis sale, is less so the case now.”

“Our experience is that many of those charged with preparing horses for the sale have in fact educated their horses in all facets of stable life.”

Hutch also pointed to the success of the top-priced horses at Inglis’ breeze-up sale compared to others around the world, a list that includes Group 1 winning graduate Tron Bolt.

“It is easy to glorify the standing of more established 2YO sales internationally but the reality is that the objective of vendors at each of those sales is for their horses to breeze in quick time, as evidenced by the vigour with which the sample horses at Tattersalls, Arqana and Fasig Tipton are ridden through their respective breezes,” he said.

Hutch also revealed that Inglis had considered utilising untimed breezes, but given third parties could time them anyway, it didn’t make sense.

“Improvements have been made in recent years to how Inglis conducts the breeze sessions,” he said.

“All lots, weather permitting, will breeze on turf in 2026. Horses breezing at each of Warwick Farm, Wangaratta and Taupo will breeze on the course proper.

“We are hoping to progress the format further so that our breeze-up format can adopt some more of the better features of the best breeze-up sales around the world, while still being conscious of the nuances of our market.”

In conclusion, Hutch said he and his team continued to look at ways to improve the sale, but giant steps had still been made in recent times.

“The format for the sale as it currently exists is not without its flaws, but is proven as an ever-increasing source of high-class racehorses of the future,” he said.

“I encourage Louis, or anyone else who is serious about racing a top-class horse, to engage with the sale in 2026. Certainly in the case of Louis, I think he will be pleasantly surprised by what he sees.”

In the spirit of healthy debate, Le Metayer offered a reply via email, conceding he had seen considerable improvement in breeze-up sales in Australasia over the past decade.

But he also stuck to his guns, suggesting again the product should be renamed, there should be less emphasis on times and greater emphasis on how a horse has been educated.

“On the basis that transparency increases buyer confidence, the ideal scenario would be to film each stage of a horse’s education once complete, and present it in a format that gives buyers genuine confidence,” he said.

“This would also benefit the auction company itself: every well-trained horse could tick these boxes, whereas most struggle to run sub-11 seconds naturally.”

Both the sales executive and the bloodstock agent make strong points and we are happy to facilitate the discussion.

You get the feeling Hutch won’t rest on this one until Le Metayer is raising his hand at the Inglis Ready2Race sale in the future.

Newitt’s tears at hometown Hall of Fame honour

This columnist had the pleasure of being at the Tasmanian Thoroughbred Awards last Friday night and the highlight was Craig Newitt’s acceptance speech after being granted legend status in the Tasmanian Racing Hall of Fame.

Newitt held back tears throughout the 10-minute speech, giving an indication of exactly how much it meant to him to be honoured in his home state. He recalled a journey from ‘doing laps’ on his father Guy’s horses at age nine, weighing ‘20kg wringing wet’ to a storied career which has featured 34 Group 1 wins.

It was the mention of his father Guy, who had been a constant companion for his son throughout his career before his sudden death in 2009, which had Newitt and the rest of the 200 of us in the room in tears.

It was a night of reminders of the glory and tragedy of the track, with Tasmanian champions The Inevitable and Hellova Street, both of which had premature deaths, also inducted into the Hall of Fame. There was also a Hall of Fame spot for jockey Harold Coutts, who died from injuries received in a track accident in the 1940s, with a large contingent of his descendants present.

The Tasmanian Horse of the Year award went to Group 1 Robert Sangster winner Geegees Mistruth for a second straight year, an ongoing tribute to her late breeder Paul Geard, whose long-term investment in Tasmanian racing at last yielded an elite success, albeit one trained ‘on the mainland’ as they say in these parts.

Last night I was elevated into legend status at the Tasmanian racing awards night,without question it is my most proudest achievement I have had in the sport I have loved since a young boy and to have the people i love the most in the room made it even more special💙 pic.twitter.com/iBAUPRxVbp

— Craig newitt (@craig_newitt) September 18, 2026

Maurice out of the blocks

Sitting pretty in second on the Australian sires table at the moment is Arrowfield’s Maurice, who has 26 Australian winners already this season, including three stakes winners.

Two of those came on Saturday, with veteran Mazu winding back the clock with an all-the-way win in The Shorts and Icelady winning the Thousand Guineas Prelude. He also had Cosmic Crusader run second in the G1 Underwood and Matcha Latte second in the Bill Ritchie.

Emperor Tzu made it three straight wins in the opening race at Caulfield and looks destined for stakes company, as does impressive Bendigo maiden winner Classic Gem.

MAZU wins The Shorts!

The @PrideRacing warrior passes $11 million in prizemoney with an upset all the way win in the Group 2 #TABEverest lead up at Randwick holding off Joliestar with King's Secret in third. @tabcomau pic.twitter.com/Ad88Fdc4uH

— Racing NSW (@racing_nsw) September 19, 2026

A happy correction

We reported last week that Sayyida, the legendary blue hen from Trelawney Stud, and dam of Ocean Park, had died.

Well, we were wrong. Contact was made from the stud over the weekend confirming that the 26-year-old was actually alive and well, despite a story about her passing appearing on its own website last week.

We are not sure what ‘the confusion’ was around this one, but we are more than happy to offer a correction.

Perhaps Sayyida could take a line from Mark Twain, who famously said, upon incorrect publication of news of his death, that ‘rumours of my demise were greatly exaggerated.’