Cover image courtesy of Inglis

The ring at Inglis Riverside Stables opens on Sunday to begin three days of selling for the 2025 Inglis Classic Yearling Sale. A total of 805 yearlings have been catalogued by 73 vendors, representing 106 individual stallions, of which 18 have had their first yearlings hit the sales rings this year.

The catalogue is weighted slightly in favour of those seeking colts, with 472 in the book, compared to 334 fillies. Like the 2024 edition, the sale has been streamlined into one book, dispensing with the Highway session of previous years.

Even with the format change, catalogue sizes have remained relatively stable at just over the 800 mark, although last year had 113 withdrawals, which was almost double that of the previous year.

“I’m really happy with the catalogue,” Inglis Bloodstock Sales CEO Sebastian Hutch told The Thoroughbred Report. “I’m happy with the cross section of stallions and vendors that we have represented. I think it’s a sale that the vendors have tremendous respect for now.

“People want to sell here, and they want to bring nice horses here.”

Vendor and buyer support ensures quality increases year on year

Widden Stud will offer the largest volume of yearlings across the three days of selling with 45 in the catalogue, down from 56 offered last year. Close behind them is Arrowfield Stud with a catalogued draft of 40, which is in line with last year’s draft of 42. Alma Vale Thoroughbreds are the newest vendor amongst the top ten vendors by draft size, with a draft of 23 yearlings - they were a new name on the scene last year, offering 22 yearlings for the first time under a shared banner with Kitchwin Hills.

Table: Top 10 vendors by size of catalogued draft

Blue Gum Farm will present a draft at the Classic sale for the first time, with nine yearlings by nine different stallions catalogued under their banner.

The sale saw its aggregate peak in 2022 where, aided by the end of lockdown and increases in prize money across the country, the gross post-sale exceeded $73 million with 680 lots sold for a peak clearance rate of 91.9 per cent. The two most expensive lots in the sale's history were sold that year - Extreme Choice colts Gun and G3 Black Opal Stakes-placed Make A Call, who sold respectively for $775,000 and $825,000.

Table: Aggregate and average purchase price comparison across recent editions of the sale

There has been an understandable dip in aggregate, average, and clearance rate in the two following years, however 2024's average purchase price was similar to that of 2023, with buyers still appreciative of the catalogue's consistent quality. Gobi Desert (Too Darn Hot {GB}) set a new filly record in 2024 when selling for $600,000 from North's inaugural Classic draft to YLP Racing.

Productive sires well represented in catalogue

Yarraman Park’s Hellbent is the most represented sire in the catalogue with 30 of his offspring on offer before withdrawals, split evenly between the sexes with 15 colts and 15 fillies. Yarraman Park support their young stallion with five offerings, including Lot 153, a three-quarter-sister to multiple Listed-placed Embassy (I Am Invincible). Hellbent’s fillies should be of particular interest, given that four of his six stakeswinners - and both Group 1 winners - are fillies. His son Fully Lit, winner of last year’s R. Listed Inglis Millennium, was a graduate of this sale.

Table: Top 10 sires by number of progeny

There is a golden theme amongst the young sires; Newgate Farm’s G1 Golden Slipper Stakes winner Stay Inside is the most represented first season sire, with 23 of his first yearlings in the catalogue, whereas Kia Ora Stud’s Slipper-winning Farnan leads the second season sires with 29 on offer. They share the top five most represented sires list with another Slipper winner, Capitalist, as well as The Autumn Sun, another prolific producer of top line fillies.

Table: Top 10 first season sires by number of progeny catalogued

Farnan’s offspring have been popular across the market, with 23 individual vendors offering one or more of his progeny. His first 2-year-olds to sell through Inglis Classic have already seen success on the track, led by $1 million Golden Gift winner North England (Farnan). Arrowfield Stud will offer one of his sons in Lot 427, the first foal from Miss Guggenheim (Dundeel {NZ}), a winning daughter of dual Group 3 winner Sharnee Rose (Nadeem).

Table: Top 10 second season sires by number of progeny catalogued

Capitalist was the leading sire by aggregate at the end of last year’s sale, with 26 lots achieving a gross of $2,714,000, averaging $104,385 per yearling sold - $11,819 above the sale’s average for the whole catalogue. This year’s crop were bred off of the same service fee as last year’s crop - a career high of $99,000 (inc GST) - and his record has been bolstered by six new stakes winners since last year’s sale. Lime Country Thoroughbreds present an attractive colt from his sixth crop, Lot 793 out of Listed Gosford Guineas winner Ygritte (Snitzel), who has produced three multiple winners from three foals to race.

Alabama Express led by average sale price last year, with two lots selling for a $275,000 average. Vendors would have enjoyed a return of 12.2x the $22,500 (excluding GST, for comparison to yearling purchase price) service fee for progeny conceived in 2021. His yearlings this year, conceived on a $22,000 (inc GST) service fee, include highlights such as Lot 595 in Yulong's draft, a full brother to Western Australian dual-winning juvenile Strideaway.

A source of strong trade across all markets

The Classic sale has long been a popular source of breeze-up sale candidates, both in Australia and across the Tasman. New Zealand-based buyers purchased 39 yearlings from last year’s catalogue, with 31 Classic sale graduates appearing in the New Zealand Bloodstock Ready To Run catalogue later in the year. For the 2024 Inglis Ready2Race Sale, the Classic sale was the leading place to buy a breeze-up pinhook as 62 entrants came through the Classic sale, accounting for 31.6 per cent of the breeze-up catalogue and over 10 per cent of sold Classic graduates last year.

Table: 2024 purchasing habits of international buyers

“For people looking to buy stock to trade, (the Classic sale) is going to be a very suitable option for them,” Hutch said.

Hong Kong buyers matched the enthusiasm of Kiwi buying at last year’s sale, accounting for 41 purchases or 6.7 per cent of the yearlings sold. International buyers across four countries accounted for 82 lots sold, or 13.5 per cent of purchases, with a combined spend of 21.1 per cent of the 2024 sale aggregate.

The sale continues to be a popular event for syndicators as well. Last year, it was Mr YP Cheng’s Domeland that led the buying by numbers, taking home 13 yearlings, but Darby Racing was next behind them, tying with John Foote Bloodstock (FBAA) to take home eight apiece. Scott Darby’s operation has already seen a significant return of investment from last year’s $30,000 Classic purchase Within The Law (Lucky Vega {Ire}), winner of both the R. Listed Inglis Banner and R. Listed Inglis Nursery.

She finished a tough second on Saturday in the R. Listed Inglis Millennium behind fellow Classic graduate Rivellino (Too Darn Hot {GB}), a $180,000 purchase from Lime Country Thoroughbreds for Kris Lees Racing and Bahen Bloodstock.

“It's a sale that we find comfortably satisfies the objectives of just about every form of market participant,” Hutch said. “Whether it's some of the colt syndicates looking for high end colts that will go and win nice races, and become stallion prospects - plenty of nice colts have come out of this sale.”

Graduates that have pursued successful careers at stud include Champion Sires I Am Invincible and Choisir, Extreme Choice, Brazen Beau, Hellbent, and Castelvecchio.

“Or all the way through to trainers, owners, syndicators, traders. People looking to buy fillies to race and become broodmares. I don't think there's really anything the sale can't do or that people can't achieve at the sale.”

Incentives making return on investment quicker and easier

Buyers will have access to a vast array of bonus schemes, with 670 lots being BOBS eligible, 77 listed as VOBIS Sires eligible, and 21 (out of 50 eligible) lots having already had the first QTIS payment made.

Inglis itself has spent the last few years increasing its own bonus schemes, most notably with the Inglis Race Series that offers $4 million in prize money over six races for Inglis sale graduates - four races for juveniles and two for 3-year-olds. In addition, the $1 million Inglis Pink Bonus series awards bonus prize money to the first nominated horse home with at least 75 per cent female ownership across four of those races.

A new incentive in 2024, the $5 million Inglis Xtra Bonus series offers additional incentive to buy a Classic graduate, granting a $100,000 bonus to the winners of 50 maidens across Australia and New Zealand if they graduate from an Inglis sale. The series kicked off at the beginning of the racing season, and is an incentive that Hutch is particularly proud of.

“We're almost halfway through the series and we've seen 23 bonus winners, so that's a commitment on our part of $2.3 million, with a huge number of races still to be won,” he said. “Those bonuses so far have been won by 22 different trainers, which very much is in keeping with our objective of seeing more people win more prize money, more often.

“It's the only race series in the market that people can win prize money and be successful with right away, and throughout the year. It's an important part of our sales series, and I think it's an ever increasing reason why people want to participate in our sales.”