Yulong goes all in on Group 1-winning family at Great Southern Sale

*An Anamoe filly, a half-sister to Queensland Oaks winner Fireball Miss and last season’s South Australian Derby heroine Femminile, has sold for $825,000 at the Great Southern Sale. (Photo: Inglis)*

Yulong has doubled down on the family of Group 1 Queensland Oaks winner Fireball Miss, equalling an Inglis Great Southern Sale record by paying $825,000 for her Anamoe half-sister.

The filly’s value was boosted by the dominant Group 1 victory of her Bivouac half-sister in last weekend’s Eagle Farm feature, but it was the interest of Yulong – owner of the older Group 1-winning sibling Femminile – that ultimately drove an outstanding result for Three Bridges Thoroughbreds and their partners, including Pete Murray.

Yulong paid $1.5 million for South Australian Derby winner Femminile at last year’s Magic Millions sale – the same auction at which Murray and bloodstock agents Boomer Bloodstock and Paul Willetts spent $900,000 on her dam, Femme Fireball.

The mare was in foal to Anamoe at the time of that purchase, and the new investors nearly recouped their outlay with her first foal – the filly offered as Lot 406 at the Great Southern Sale.

Yulong stepped in to secure the filly, setting a new benchmark for a weanling at the winter Melbourne sale in the process.

The operation now owns both Group 1-winning daughters from the Pierro mare, who has firmly established herself as a top-class broodmare

“So exciting. Can’t really believe it to be honest, I’m kind of speechless,” Murray said.

“It was amazing, really. You get caught up in the moment and you don’t know which way the bids are coming because they’re coming from online, from the other end of the room, the auctioneer (Will Gardner) was fantastic, it was great theatre.

“I’d like to also thank Inglis, they’ve been fantastic getting the right buyers together, they’re very supportive and we’re very appreciative.’’.

Anamoe was again in focus on the second day of the sale, with a second-season colt by the Darley stallion selling for $480,000 to buyers including Grenville Stud, SP Bloodstock and Suman Hedge.

Offered by Burnewang North, the colt is out of the Lonhro mare Witches, a member of the family of Sessions and the brilliant but ill-fated filly Unworldly.

Continuing the strong demand for young stallions, a colt by Ghaiyyath out of the Redoute’s Choice mare Taqdees, offered by Gippsland Bloodstock, was purchased by Lyndhurst Farm for $260,000, while a Home Affairs filly was snapped up by Suman Hedge Bloodstock for the same price.

Overall the Great Southern Weanling Sale gross of $15,289,500 saw a $4.2m jump (51%) on last year and set a new record for the sale, eclipsing the prevtious benchmark of $12,140,600 set in 2024.

Inglis Bloodstock CEO Sebastian Hutch praised the past month of breeding stock sales.

“When you look back and reflect, to gross almost $35,000,000 for our weanling sales series is really incredible, especially when you consider the Magic Millions Weanling Sale grossed $16,149,500, so our sales have more than doubled that,’’ Hutch said.

“For context, as recently as 2019, our weanling sales series was over $10.2m behind that of Magic Millions in terms of turnover, so thank you to all vendors for working with us to help to turn that around.

“Our team has worked exceptionally hard to generate momentum behind our weanling sales series and I’m confident the drive and passion within our team will see us continue to progress the standard of service that we offer our clients through the balance of the year and into 2027.

“These past two days at Oaklands have been hugely rewarding for a large number of people and we are incredibly grateful for the support that we have been afforded by our buyers and, in particular, our vendors.

“Special mention must go to Catherine Hains, Aaron and Emma Todd, Tanya Edwards and the entire Burnewang North team, to sell all 17 weanlings offered is a tremendous achievement.”