Australia offers a higher percentage of Group 1 winning-mares to public auction than any other jurisdiction, with 18 in 2024. This week’s Run The Numbers examines the Australian market’s unrivalled access to elite broodmares.
The volume of Group 1 racing in Australia, second only behind the United States in a global context, gives our elite mares and fillies plenty of opportunity to achieve that most valuable of stamps in their racing careers.
There are 13 Group 1 races available exclusively to mares and/or fillies each season, plus a host of open-sex races that they can contest.
The 2023/24 season saw an unusually high number of fillies and mares win open-sex Group 1 sprint races.
Of the 28 open-sex Group 1 races contested over 1400 metres or less, including two and three-year-old races, mares or fillies won 19 of them. Imperatriz led the way with five of those victories.
In terms of the total number of individual Group 1-winning fillies or mares in Australia, this season that stood at 25. That is two more than last season, when it was 23, but two fewer than in 2021/22, when it was 27. In 2020/21, that number stood at 20.
Accounting for those mares or fillies who won multiple Group 1s in different seasons, we find there have been 81 different Group 1-winning mares or fillies in Australia since the start of the 2020/21 season. Of those, 31 are still racing.
So that means there have been 50 Group 1-winning mares whose racing careers have concluded and, with the exception of one horse, the ill-fated El Patroness, went on to breeding careers.
What makes Australia different from most other racing jurisdictions, is how many of our best-performed mares are subsequently offered for public auction after their racing careers.
In the case of the 49 Group 1-winning mares above, 25 have gone on to be sold at public auction. Espiona, who will sell at a special Magic Millions Virtual Sale on July 31, will likely be the 26th. A further six mares have been sold privately from the ownership that raced them.
That means there are just 17 Group 1-winning mares or fillies, or 34.7 per cent, since the start of 2020/21 who have been retained for breeding by their original owners/breeders. (For clarification, this includes Verry Elleegant, who sadly died in France foaling her first foal).
That is a very low rate when compared to the other jurisdictions around the world.
Group 1-winning mares and their subsequent ownership after retirement, listed by season
*Chain Of Lightning sold but still listed as racing
**includes Espiona
To illustrate this comparison, we have looked at Group 1-winning mares and fillies in Australia from the 2022/23 season and compared how many of them have subsequently gone through a sales ring to Group/Grade 1 winners from the USA, United Kingdom, Ireland, and France in 2023.
While not a direct comparison, as there is a six-month misalignment in timing, it does show some clear patterns.
Assuming Espiona sells in a couple of weeks, which given her ownership circumstances seems highly likely, she would be the 10th Australian Group 1-winning filly or mare of the 2022/23 season to sell through public auction. One more, Coolangatta, was sold privately after her racing career.
Given 10 of the 23 Group 1 winners from last season are still racing, that leaves just two who were retained by their owners. Those two are Roch ‘N’ Horse and Palaisipan. (Noting that Palaisipan was sold to Northern Farm shortly before her Group 1 win in last year’s Tatts Tiara.)
In comparison, there were 32 individual Grade 1-winning fillies and mares in the United States through 2023. Just three of them were subsequently sold at broodmare auctions.
In the United Kingdom, the ratio of elite-winning mares to sell at public auction was similarly small, just one out of a total of 11, while in Ireland it was one of the four Group 1 winning mares or fillies (that being subsequent Australian Group 1 winner Via Sistina).
In France, only one of the 11 female Group 1 winners in that jurisdiction through 2023 have been subsequently publicly sold.
Again, the comparison is not perfect, but it is at least indicative that while Australia does tend to have a high number of Group 1-winning mares and fillies, it also has a high percentage of those go to auction.
That is one of the reasons behind the long-held trend of Australian Group 1-winning mares and fillies selling at a discount to those overseas.
Group 1 fillies and mares in 2023 subsequently sold:
*Australian data is from 2022/23, not 2023
The average price of the top 10 broodmares sold in the United States in 2023 was AU$6.5 million, while it was US$5.8 million in the United Kingdom, but only US$2.94 million in Australia.
Despite the record price Imperatriz achieved in May of $6.6 million, the average of the top 10 in Australia is very similar in 2024. It currently stands at $2.96 million.
That could possibly increase with the Espiona sale. She looks a rare offering, given the only other Group 1-winning daughter of Extreme Choice, She’s Extreme, sold for $3.4 million at the Inglis Chairman’s Sale.
While digital, or virtual sales, are a distance from matching the public broodmare auctions, there have been some outstanding results. Inglis Digital has sold two Group 1-winning mares for more than $1 million, Funstar ($2.7 million) and Sierra Sue ($1.55 million) as well as a host of other stakes-winning mares for seven figures.
Magic Millions used its virtual format to sell Group 1 winner Sheeza Belter for $1.35 million last year, while Group 2 winner Kiku, like Espiona, offered on behalf of Star Thoroughbreds, sold for $1.46 million last August.
Gavelhouse, New Zealand Bloodstock’s online auction arm, holds the record for the highest price for an online Group 1-winning broodmare having sold Avantage for $4.1 million in 2021. Other Group 1-winning mares to sell for seven figures on that platform include Amarelinha.
