Run The Numbers – How race fillies stole the sales show

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.

The average price of a “race filly” at the Inglis and Magic Millions breeding sales in Sydney and the Gold Coast in 2015 was just over $98,000 for 213 sold. The corresponding average across 188 sales this year is $462,196, a nearly five-fold increase.

The other major change has been the impact of online sales on broodmare trading.

In 2015, there were 745 pregnant mares sold through those three public sales, for an average of $78,500. In 2025, just 300 in-foal mares changed hands on the Gold Coast and in Sydney at an average of $186,732.

So where have all those in-foal mares gone?

Online is the answer.

Across the nine Inglis Digital sales so far in 2025, there have been 498 pregnant mares sold. Ten years ago, that market, which is a much simpler and affordable method of trading breeding stock, simply didn’t exist.

But looking back through the figures, the precipitous drop of in-foal mares offered through public auction has accelerated over the past three years. Inglis acknowledged this by changing the Great Southern Sale, which used to include broodmares, into a weanling-only sale in 2025.

Across the 2023 Inglis Chairman’s and Australian Broodmare Sale and Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale there were 539 in-foal mares sold at an aggregate of just under $91 million. It represented over 57 per cent of the money spent across those sales.

In 2024, that number dropped to 476, with just under $63 million traded on mares carrying a foal. That aggregate was significant as it was the first time that more money was spent on race fillies than in-foal mares across those three sales.

In 2025, the number of in-foal mares sold at public auction in Sydney or on the Gold Coast dropped to 300. That was still over 60 per cent of horses sold at that sale, but, as mentioned earlier, it represented just 38 per cent of the total spend.

The average price of a mare in-foal increased to $186,732, as a more premium offering emerged. The 27 in-foal mares sold at Inglis Chairman’s Sale averaged over $460,000 including $1.6 million buy Enbihaar. Last year, at the same sale, 26 mares carrying a foal sold for an average of $383,000.

At Magic Millions, 228 in-foal mares changed hands and an average of $177,000. Ten of those mares cost more than $1 million. Last year, the average on the Gold Coast was $138,000.  

As an aside, Yulong-related entities purchased seven of the 12 seven-figure in-foal broodmares offered this year.

In-foal broodmares at Inglis Chairman’s and Australian Broodmare Sale and MM National Broodmare Sale

It is easier to see this in-foal market becoming more and more select. It is already being used to complement the race fillies section. In 2015, the Gold Coast sale was four days. This year it was two.

While the average price for a race filly continues to explode, the public auction market has also become more select. Across Sydney and the Gold Coast 196 race fillies/mares were sold, as compared to 214 in 2024 and 230 in 2023.

Yet the aggregate keeps growing, from $68.4 million in 2023 to $76.2 million last year and then to $90.6 million this year. Corresponding with that, the average price of a race filly at Australian public auction has leapt 55.4 per cent in two years.

That’s an astonishing rise, much greater than any other metric in the bloodstock market, which have generally plateaued since 2023, including yearling prices, stallion fees and prize money.    

Race fillies at Inglis Chairman’s and Australian Broodmare Sale and MM National Broodmare Sale