Top yearlings, tense market – Easter sale vendors ready amid high interest and uncertainty

Inglis is preparing for what could be a bumper Easter Yearling Sale, but it’s the unexpected curveball of a Middle East conflict and the economic consequences that have Sebastian Hutch on edge ahead of Sunday’s opening session. 

Hutch, the company’s bloodstock chief executive, is confident about the quality of the horses catalogued for Inglis’ best-known annual sale; it’s the factors beyond his control that have him questioning himself two days out from the Easter auction.

On the back of last year’s Easter sale, which turned over $150 million and averaged almost $452,000, Inglis has built on the offering of this year’s catalogue, arguably in quality and in numbers.

But Hutch admits to feeling a degree of nervousness with the enhanced expectation from vendors of Inglis repeating last year’s sale results as well as potential factors which could hamper people’s appetite to make discretionary purchases of racehorses. 

“Look, I am anxious in advance of the sale, more so than what I would be in advance of a normal sale. With great opportunity comes great expectation,” Hutch told The Straight. 

“We’ve been given a really fantastic opportunity by our vendors. There’s some lovely horses here, just in terms of general profile, physique and pedigree, it seems like the catalogue has lined up well. 

“And obviously, we’re working feverishly to try and ensure that we can facilitate a market that satisfies those vendors.

“But that’s a challenging thing to do, particularly in the current circumstances with all that’s going on in the world.”

Arrowfield principal John Messara heads into Easter with a draft of 64 yearlings as the Hunter Valley stud chases a unique treble by topping the aggregate at the Magic Millions, Inglis Classic and Easter sale.

But forthright as usual, Messara maintained he was also more reserved about the Easter sale than he might otherwise have been.

“People regard me as always being pessimistic before a sale, and I guess it’s just caution really on my part. I am a bit pessimistic this time again, because I know, for example, that one or two potentially large customers have cancelled their trips out here,” Messara told The Straight.

“That doesn’t mean that they won’t necessarily buy anything, but they won’t be here to get the excitement and feel the excitement and probably have a proper go.

“So, I think it will be less than it could have been if we hadn’t had the Middle East conflict. I am slightly nervous, although my staff tell me that X-rays and numbers of looks, etc, are pretty reasonable for this time of the cycle.”

Hutch acknowledged that some major international buyers, whose identities have not been revealed, would not be at Riverside Stables but he was optimistic that they wouldn’t be ignoring the Easter sale altogether.

“There are people who, for a variety of different reasons, aren’t going to appear that we would have liked to have appeared, but at this stage, I’m not anticipating those factors to have a significant bearing on the outcome of the sale, personally, based on what I know,” Hutch said. 

“I could be feeling differently by Monday evening, but I’m not of the view that that’s going to be a major factor at this stage. 

“I’m more inclined to want to try and have people who we know are engaged in the sale and I am just cognisant of the opportunities that the catalogue presents right through it.”

Widden Stud’s Antony Thompson, who has a strong Easter draft and also suggested inspection numbers have been high, held a slightly different opinion to Hutch.

“Most of the major buyers we’d expect to see here are here but I’m always sceptical as to how much involvement absentee buyers will have,” Thompson said. 

“Ultimately, and I find it from my personal point of view, if I’m at a sale and I’m bidding on the stock in person, you tend to be the buyer, not the underbidder. 

“Whereas when you’re in absentee bidding, you’re more often than not the underbidder or pull up short, because you just don’t have the confidence to have that extra bid without looking at the horse you really want to go an extra bid for. 

“I think it’s important, particularly at yearling sales and auctions such as these, to try and get as many people on the ground as they can.” 

The sheer dominance at the top-end of the broodmare market by giants Yulong and Coolmore has led to some buying yearling fillies while other investors see it as a lower risk trading alternative to buying colts who carry the huge jackpot factor.

That was witnessed on Thursday with the sale of last Saturday’s Golden Slipper winner Guest House to Coolmore by Roll The Dice Racing for about $30 million.

“I don’t think the colts market’s changed at all, but obviously, with what’s happened in the broodmare market recently, lots of the major breeders are struggling to buy the types of mares they’d like to buy,” Thompson said. 

“We’ve seen that when the top mares in Australia that do go to auction, and possibly there’s not as many of them, how expensive they are, so it makes sense for breeders with a long-term vision to try and buy into really nice families with a good-looking filly. 

“I think there’s a lot of them here in this catalogue, so with such a good selection there, I think that a lot of those savvy breeders really see an opportunity here in the yearling stage to get in front of the really expensive broodmares in the market.”

Messara also sees fillies as a strength of the Arrowfield draft.

“I’ve gone around and looked at 30 or 40 other fillies around the place and I’m satisfied that our fillies are super competitive,” he said.

“So, look, I’m hoping it reaches our expectations, but I am nervous about people cancelling their trips in the current circumstances and therefore not having the level of intent that they might have otherwise had if they’d come to the sale.” 

Arrowfield has one of the likely headline-grabbing colts, with the brother to Coolmore Stud Stakes winner Switzerland to be offered late on Monday, while Lime Country Thoroughbreds is offering an Extreme Choice-Pretty Brazen colt early on Sunday.

Cressfield’s I Am Invincible colt out of Group 1-winning sprinter Pippie is also expected to prove popular, while Widden has a Too Darn Hot colt out of Enbihaar, a $775,000-pinhooked weanling.

Day one starts at 11am on Sunday, with Monday’s trade starting at 10am.