The William Inglis & Son Australian Easter yearling sale opened April 6 in Australia with increases in gross, median, and average. A Redoute’s Choice colt topped the first session, bringing Aust$1,875,000 ($1,725,800 in U.S. funds).
Inglis managing director Mark Webster described business as “solid enough.”
The 132 horses that sold grossed Aust$30,780,000 ($28,331,300), which was up 34.9% from a year ago when 105 yearlings were sold. The average grew 7.3% to Aust$233,182 ($214,630), and the median rose 6.7% to Aust$160,000 ($147,270).
The buy-back rate was 28.3%, which was up from 21.1% in 2009.
“Any horse sale that averages Aust$230,000 ($211,700) is a very good result,” Webster said. “It’s hard to expect this sale to make the same gains as some others have this year because Easter is coming off a much higher base, so it’s hard to get the same kind of lift.
“Obviously we would like to see the clearance rate improve, and history says that is likely to be the case as we go on this week. It will just take vendors a little time to adjust.”
The top-priced Redoute's Choice colt is out of the Unbridled's Song mare Regrowth, who captured the Waltzing Lily Handicap and Feltex Carpets Queen Adelaide Stakes in Australia in 2003. He is a half-brother to 2009 Marsh Breeders’ Stakes (Aust-III) winner Colour (by More Than Ready ).
Kitchwin Hills purchased him from Segenhoe Stud.
Kitchwin Hills’ Graeme Brown said the colt was a perfect fit for the direction the stud is heading with its stallions, following the success of Dane Shadow and recent acquisition of group I winner Duporth.
“This is our biggest go,” he said. “We’re getting a position in the marketplace and this horse fits in well with our situation. He is a cracking sort, and we’re happy to be a part of it.”
Segenhoe’s Michael Sissian said he regarded the bay yearling as the best he has ever offered for sale.
“He has magnificent presence, a wonderful temperament, and terrific action, and his physical conformation is faultless,” Sissian said. “A lot of the good judges on the ground tell me he is as close to the faultless yearling as they have seen for many years.”
The colt is a fourth generation product for Sissian and Segenhoe.
“I bred Regrowth, True Blonde (granddam), and owned Easy Date (great granddam). That has been my major family for 20 years, and it is terrific,” Sissian said.
The first session’s most expensive filly and second-highest-priced yearling was a Aust$1.2 million ($1,104,540) daughter of Fusaichi Pegasus out of two-time (2005 and 2006) Australian Horse of the Year Makybe Diva (by Desert King). The filly is the second foal out of the mare, following a Galileo colt foaled in 2007.
Trainer Mark Kavanagh bought chestnut filly, which was consigned by Makybe.
“I was determined to get her,” he said. “She’s the nicest filly I have seen in a long time, and I think she’s worth the risk.”
