The average price of a race filly through public auction in Australia has increased 55.4 per cent in just two years with total investment in mares and fillies bought ‘straight off the track’ now surpassing live auction trade of mares-in-foal. Run The Numbers breaks down this trend.
A decade ago, nearly three-quarters of the money spent on broodmares across the two major sales in Sydney and the Gold Coast was invested in mares-in-foal. In 2025, that market has inverted with over 62 per cent of the aggregate this year spent on fillies or mares straight off the track.
A lot has happened in the past 10 years in the Australian industry to warrant this change.
There have of course been prize money increases, which does incentivise those wishing to buy fillies to race on, with an option to breed later. Competition for elite breeding prospects has also been supercharged by the involvement of the likes of Yulong and Coolmore, as well as other international buyers like Katsumi Yoshida. Their preference, largely, has been to buy mares and fillies right off the track.
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