Inglis satisfied with latest online sale as four mares make A$200,000 or more

Four mares made more than A$200,000 (£105,400/€119,100) at the digital Inglis Australian Broodmare Sale on Sunday.

It was Yulong Investments who featured most prominently on the buyers’ list, securing ten lots including the top-priced Villa San Michele for A$260,000.

The daughter of Medaglia D'Oro and the Group 3-winning Redoute's Choice mare Florentina, in foal to Newgate Farm’s Deep Field, will be added to the significant and quality broodmare band put together by Yuesheng Zhang in recent years.

View sale results

Wilf Mula purchased Listed winner Kentucky Miss, in foal to the Aston Bloodstock-raced Flying Artie, in partnership with the late Paul Whelan for A$250,000 from the unreserved Luskin Park Stud dispersal while Taqaareed was bought by Widden Stud for A$215,000. A Sepoy half-sister to Group 2 winner Wawail, she was sold in foal to Pierro.

The other mare to break the A$200,000 mark was La Pomme De Pin, a daughter of I Am Invincible who is in foal to Coolmore’s shuttler Justify.

Offered by Middlebrook Valley Lodge, she was bought by Torryburn Stud, whose obvious attraction to the family is the fact that La Pomme De Pin’s dam Crimson Lane is a half-sister to John Cornish’s Group 3 winner Crimson Reign. La Pomme De Pin, who was trained by Lloyd Kennewell, made A$205,000.

Yulong’s activity on Sunday sale was, in part, prompted by the fact that the Nagambie stud recently announced the retirement of C F Orr Stakes winner Alabama Express to join its foundation sire Grunt.

Villa San Michele’s commercial appeal shone through to Yulong’s chief operating officer Sam Fairgray.

“She’s from a very good family, a mare with a pedigree behind her, a lovely mare to have in our ever-expanding broodmare band. We’re undecided who she will go to as of yet,” Fairgray said.

“Overall we’ve bought some really nice mares by really nice stallions in foal to some really nice young horses and proven stallions. We’re happy.

“It’s great to get mares by Street Cry, Redoute’s Choice, More Than Ready etc, really nice mares for the Yulong broodmare band to support our stallions.”

Segenhoe’s Peter O’Brien said the John Camilleri-bred and raced Villa San Michele’s price befitted her quality.

“I’m delighted, completely delighted," he said. "She was a queen of a mare with a pedigree to die for so she deserved a good price and she absolutely got that and more.

“It’s not often you get a Medaglia D’Oro mare that ticks every box, being in foal to a hot stallion the quality of Deep Field.”

He added: “Yulong have been great supporters of us in buying weanlings, yearlings and broodmares for a long time and the most important thing for us was that this mare went to a good home and that’s absolutely the case with Yulong purchasing her, which is fantastic.”

Yulong was the leading vendor by aggregate and number of mares bought, with the ten lots costing a combined A$1.043 million.

Segenhoe was the leading vendor by aggregate and average (three or more lots sold), with 22 of its 19 mares selling for A$1.15m at an average of A$104,591.

“We supplemented some of the better mares into the sale and they have sold brilliantly,” O’Brien said. “It’s really a huge credit to Inglis for how they promoted the sale, their professionalism in the lead-up and during, under challenging circumstances, given the global outlook and the quality and ease of the overall format of the Inglis digital auctions. It really is beyond reproach.’’

The Luskin Park Stud reserved dispersal also wound up on Sunday, with the vendor selling all 16 mares headed by Kentucky Miss who was raced by Whelan and Mula to four wins when trained by Joe Pride.

“By winning the Cap d’Antibes and running third in the San Domenico – beating home Capitalist that day – she proved herself on the track multiple times and I think she’s definitely a mare of the future,” Mula said. “We had a bit of a fight on our hands to get her but we’re very happy we did.”

John Whelan was delighted that it was Mula and his wife Rosemary who ended up with Kentucky Miss.

“We’re thrilled with the price and thrilled Wilf and Rosemary were able to pick her up. We’ll be cheering her progeny on from the grandstand and lounge room for many years to come,” he said.

Inglis has handled the dispersal of all Luskin Park’s stock, with 16 mares in Sunday's catalogue grossing A$947,600 at an average of A$59,225.

“People seem to have embraced this format and it’s proving very successful. It really works well,” Whelan said. “It’s an emotional thing, we put our trust in Inglis and as usual they’ve delivered in spades and some. Jonathan [D’Arcy] and the team have been exceptional and we’re thrilled with the overall results.’’

With Friday’s virtual Chairman’s Sale of elite breeding stock and Sunday's solely online Australian Broodmare Sale, Inglis had achieved a turnover of more than A$32.5 million.

The increase in quality lots in Sunday's sale compared to last year saw the average of A$41,058 hold up well against last year’s A$41,940 figure, but the median fell away this year to A$22,500, down 25 per cent, with a stretched buying bench due to the economic downturn.

The clearance rate was at 67 per cent last night, compared to 76 per cent at the same time last year.

Given the circumstances, Inglis general manager of bloodstock sales and marketing Sebastian Hutch was happy with the way the sale turned out.

“We were absolutely determined to reward the fantastic support of us by our vendors by doing everything we could to help them to achieve a series of positive results, irrespective of the circumstances,’’ Hutch said. “We are relieved that we have been able to deliver a positive set of results to many participants and we continue to learn ways in which we can improve our service to clients.

“We still have a number of very appealing mares available for sale privately following both auctions and we will be working hard to place those over the coming days before moving onto preparing for our extensive series of sales in July.’’

The live public auctions were banned due to federal government restrictions on the operation of businesses that attracted large public gatherings while the country attempted to slow the spread of Covid-19.

Of the thoroughbred auction houses, Inglis has been hardest hit with the ban coming into place prior to its Australian Easter Yearling Sale, which was subsequently held as a virtual auction as was the Chairman’s Sale. The Australian Broodmare Sale was held online and its weanling sale was deferred.

Inglis and rival auction house Magic Millions are hopeful of being able to hold live auctions in July.

>>> Subscribe to make sure you never miss updates from Australia, New Zealand and beyond and to have ANZ Bloodstock delivered to your inbox every day