Yulong has doubled down on the family of Group 1 winner It’s Her Time, purchasing her half-sister by Too Darn Hot for $600,000 to top the second day of the Inglis Classic Sale.
The filly, Lot 325, was offered by North and is the 15th foal from Zeditave mare Hell It’s Hot, who has produced seven winners including In Her Time, who won the Group 1 Galaxy and Lightning Stakes before being purchased for $2.2 million as a broodmare by Yulong in 2021.
Yulong also purchased Hell It’s Hot’s Too Darn Hot filly for $280,000 on the Gold Coast last year. Named Flame Of Hestia, she recently won a trial impressively for trainer Kris Lees at Wyong,
So when that filly’s full sister came through the Inglis sales ring at Riverside on Monday, it was no surprise to see Yulong general manager Vin Cox signing for her under the YLP Racing banner.
“We are very invested in the family and in a lot of respects, we like her as much if not better than the full sister, so it was an obvious play for us,” Cox said.
“We probably had to dig a bit deeper than we anticipated, but congrats to the breeders.”
“She’s a little bit more scopier than the sister, and that’s not being critical of her, she looks pretty smart. The stallion has got off to a good start here in Australia and is a horse I’ve known well in my previous life.”
Cox is referring to the fact he was previously head of Godolphin Australia, which stands Darley’s Too Darn Hot. His first crop in Australia has already had four winners from eight starters.
YLP Racing, and by extension Yulong, was to the fore with another product of a freshman sire when it went to $320,000 for Lot 385, a Pierata colt out of Just No Kissing. Yulong stands Pierata, whose first crop includes the Blue Diamond favourite Coleman.
This filly is out of Just No Kissing, who features Group 1 winners Invincibella and The Hind in her extended family.
Trainer Bryce Heys purchased the second-highest priced yearling on the day when he paid $420,000 for Lot 366, a filly by Justify offered by Mullaglass Stud. She is out of Canadian mare Islay Inlet.
“She’s an outstanding filly who certainly made her money, but we had to back our judgement on type and the stallion needs no speaking for in terms of what he is and what he might be,” Heys said.
“Physically, I couldn’t fault her in terms of how we assess a yearling and where we think they’re at and where they might get to. Her physical presence in terms of how she carried herself was impressive and I just thought she was gorgeous.
“We’ll see if it means anything, but I thought she was the nicest horse I’ve seen so far this year. It’s hard to get a Justify, so we thought we’d try to be strong on her.”
Justify, whose oldest Australian crop are three, has made his own major mark. Australia’s champion first-season sire last season, he has second-crop colt Storm Boy as favourite for the Golden Slipper.
The overall sale average lifted to $97,338, while the $100,034 average for the second day was slightly better than what it was last year. The median also lifted from Day 2 last year to $80,000, while overall spending to this point has been $38.5 million, down from $46.8 million at the same time last year, but when it was a different format.
“It felt like a healthy day’s trade again. We didn’t necessarily feel like there was any particular bias in the catalogue in terms of where better horses would fall," Inglis CEO - Bloodstock, Sebastian Hutch, said.
“It did feel like there was more strength in the top end of the market today than what there was yesterday.
“It was very evident there was strong competition on the good horses, clearance felt pretty good. Day 1 clearance is up to 86 per cent, today is at 80 and still rising. We wanted to continue the momentum from the first day into today and it felt like that happened.”
