Vinery tackles Easter with strength in numbers and confidence in quality

Cover image courtesy of Vinery Stud

The famed Scone nursery has sold many future Group 1 winners through the Inglis Easter sales ring over the years, including Aristia (Lonhro), Russian Revolution, Entisaar (More Than Ready {USA}), Delectation (Shamardal {USA}), Shamus Award and Samaready (More Than Ready {USA}), right back to the likes of Benicio (More Than Ready {USA}) and Exceed And Excel in the early 2000s.

There will be 19 yearlings looking to follow in those successful footsteps when they present under the Vinery Stud banner at the Easter Yearling Sale on April 6-7, a draft that Bloodstock Manager Adam White holds particularly high hopes for.

"We are very excited about the draft we have got. It’s our biggest Easter draft for a few years. We've got some really nice mares around us now, and we are going in there with a good bunch of horses," White told TDN AusNZ.

"The sales series have been going extremely well this year. Right from the start, the market has been very healthy. Everyone is very buoyant and positive. I think it will be the same at Easter. It’s always a quality catalogue, with the pages and physically. I think a lot of farms will be presenting a lot of nice horses, so there is a lot of excitement leading into it."

Understanding what the market is seeking is an important ingredient of success at any sale, but particularly at Easter, where the standard of yearlings on offer is at such a high level. White feels Vinery has a strong sense of what works well in the Easter context.

"The market really looks for the whole package. It’s a Sale where you have to have a quality page for the buying market, and you also have to have the physical specimen to back it up. The old adage is that 'quality breeds quality' and there are a lot of yearlings in the catalogue by good-running mares and good-producing families," he said.

"A lot of these yearlings are the best representations of their families and sires. You need that whole package and have the quality, and I think it's a great effort by Inglis to pull this Sale together and the quality they have on paper and the types."

What has enabled Vinery to increase its numbers in what is a select catalogue, according to White, is the quality of mares it and its clients have built-up over the past few years.

The draft contains the progeny of six stakes-winning mares, and also the siblings of three black type-winning horses.

Fillies lead the charge

White has been particularly impressed with the quality of the 10 fillies Vinery will offer at the Riverside Stables.

"We have a nice bunch of fillies which are not just there physically, but have the pages to back them up," he said.

"There's a couple in particular that we have high hopes for. The Snitzel filly out of Miss Gunpowder (Lot 427); she is the first foal of the mare. She was obviously a very good-running mare herself and a talented 2-year-old.

"Obviously, Snitzel is a well-renowned sire who can get a top-class 2-year-old. She has that look about her. She looks like she will go early. She is a great mover and is very forward. She's one of those fillies that has both the pedigree and the looks."

Miss Gunpowder (Pendragon {NZ}) was purchased by Vinery for $700,000 in 2017 and hails from the family of Group 1 winner Absolut Glam (Snowland).

White is also very enthusiastic about another filly, Lot 421, who is by I Am Invincible out of the stakes-placed Snitzel mare Miles Of Krishan, who was also purchased by Vinery in 2017, in her case for $500,000, and is a half-sister to Group 1 winner Il Quello Veloce (NZ) (Captain Rio {GB}).

"She was a good race mare. Even though she didn't win a stakes race, she wasn't far from it. She won a couple of races at Flemington and had quite a bit of talent. This is her first one, and it’s a really good first foal," White said.

"She looks like she will go early and has quite a lot of quality. She's got the page behind her too. Her grandam is a sister to Parfore, who has been a great producer. So she has a lot there to back her up."

Getting the colts syndicates interested

The demand for top-end colts has been particularly noteworthy during the 2021 yearling season, with several colts syndicates competing on the best of them and driving prices higher and higher. There are at least a couple of colts in Vinery's draft which White thinks will be on the radar of that market.

"I am really excited about Lot 5, the Exceed And Excel colt out of Peace Force. He's a lovely individual with a lot of scope and is a very athletic sort of horse with lots of quality. He's by a great stallion and out of a Group 3-winning mare," White said.

"He's certainly one that will be at the forefront for the colts syndicates that get around a sale like Easter. We are very excited to be presenting him."

Lot 5's dam, Peace Force (Bernardini {USA}), was purchased for $520,000 by Vinery off the track back in 2016. She is a half-sister to multiple Group 1 winner Eremein (Timber Country {USA}) as well as Listed winner Gliding (Flying Spur).

White also holds high hopes for Lot 139, a colt by Snitzel out of Group 3 winner Turbo Miss (Sebring), with a pedigree that Vinery and the Easter market know very well.

"He is a very forward, early type of colt and a three-quarter brother to Russian Revolution, who we sold at Inglis Easter a few years ago. He's another really athletic horse that we feel a few of those colts syndicates will shortlist," he said.

Siyouni duo creates intrigue

Vinery's draft is generally made up of the progeny of Australia's highest-profile stallions, but a couple of yearlings by champion French sire, Siyouni (Fr), also take the eye. They are both out of mares imported to Australia by breeder Barend Van Dalfsen.

"He's been a great stallion and he's had good exposure down here," White said of Siyouni. "He's had five Australian runners for four winners and three stakes performers. That's a huge effort and that Pivotal sireline is a very early running sireline. It’s no surprise to see Siyouni doing quite well out here."

Lot 52 is a filly out of Rosey De Geneve (Fr) (Tapit {USA}), who is from the extended family of Lope De Vega (Ire), while Lot 348 is a colt out of Indiana Wells (Fr) (Sadler's Wells {USA}), who is closely related to French Group 1 winner Turtle Bowl (Ire) and whose 3-year-old brother Baha Mar (Fr), recently broke his maiden in impressive fashion at Chantilly.

"The client who owns those two bred the mares to Siyouni over there, Southern Hemisphere time and brought the mares out. They foaled here. They are both very nice," White said.

"The filly is a touch more forward than the colt. She has a lot of quality and she is probably what I’d call a typical Siyouni in what I have seen of them. She's very strong and athletic and has a lot of quality.

"The colt has a bit more scope to him, being out of a Sadler's Wells mare. He does look like he'd be a smart 2-year-old, but he's going to be an outstanding 3-year-old once he gets there as well. They are two very interesting ones to have in the draft."

White has no concerns about the appreciation the Easter market will have for the two Siyouni yearlings. The stallion has had 10 yearlings go before the Australian market in the past three seasons and sold at an average of $275,000, including the Group 2-placed Direct.

"We are lucky that the Australian buying market knows Siyouni a little bit and the amount of success he has had here quite early. We are excited to present them," he said.