News

2007 CLASSIC YEARLING SALE DAY 1

9th Feb 2007

Fuelled by a tremendous program of racing at Randwick, the crowd turned out in droves for the opening session of the 2007 Inglis Classic Yearling Sale: a night session containing a relatively small, yet lucrative team of youngsters ... the ideal entrée for a two further days of sales action.

And, not surprisingly, the ‘night play’ brought its share of highlights, seeing six lots sell for six figures with a session topper of $160,000. 61 lots sold (70% clearance) at an average of $43,926 (up 22% on the 2006 average).

“The Inglis Classic Sale has, and continues to be, a tremendous venue for athletic, forward yearlings, as the incredible victory of Danehill Smile showed us at Randwick today,” William Inglis & Son acting Managing Director Jamie Inglis enthused.

“The money was certainly there for the right type of yearling, underscored by Holbrook Thoroughbreds’ smashing Tale of the Cat colt which sold for $160,000.”

Purchased by the perceptive yearling judge, Peter Ford, the flashy grey is a half brother to the multiple stakes placed Zakynthos Star.

“I believe the Tale of the Cat colt is a tremendous type and I’m very pleased to be taking this yearling back to Victoria,” an excited Peter pointed out. “He’s really well put together and appears to be an early type and, therefore, don’t be surprised to see us back here for the 2008 Inglis Classic race.”

Peter Ford (aka 4-D), who hails from Euroa, was also active near the close of play when he gave the final nod for a Dubai Destination filly from Satirical Miss (Lot 93), picked up for $110,000.

The night session certainly got off to flying start when Lot 2, a Snowland filly from Oaks Dream was knocked down to Keiran Moore for $80,000 after his opening bid of $50,000.

Danehill stallion, Commands, continued his good run on both the track (56 individual winners this season) and in the sales arena. His colt out of Oscar’s Pride (Lot 10) was picked up for $110,000 and followed nine lots later by his Palati filly which was sold to Denise Martin’s Star Thoroughbreds for $90,000.

Tale of the Cat is another Sire to continually capture the astute eye. Amarina Farm consigned a good example in Lot 4, a filly out of Outside Alice, who made $95,000. Amarina were also responsible for selling an Exceed and Excel colt, lot 52, out of Queen of the Blues which fetched $125,000.

Rick Worthington is yet another with a keen view on future talent and focussed on Brooklyn Lodge’s Untouchable colt out of Somoa (Lot 86), eventually winning a bidding duel to snare the colt for $110,000. Untouchable, whose oldest progeny are yearlings, has earned rave reviews and we will see several more of his progeny sell over the next couple of days.

Fittingly, one of the final six figure sellers for the session was by Zeditave out of Sassi Switch (Lot 91) who found a new home with Vin Cox when the hammer went down at $100,000.

The sale continues at 11am on Sunday.

CLASSIC MAKES ‘EM SMILE

Beaming owner Eamad Saba and trainer Anthony Cummings are laughing all the way to the bank following the crushing victory of Danehill Smile in today's $500,000 Inglis Classic (1200m) at Randwick.

Cruising to the lead topping the Randwick rise, Danehill Smile put time and distance between her and nearest rivals to win the prestigious Inglis Classic Race. She won with such authority that this daughter of Danehill Dancer has now been installed as the favourite for the 2007 Golden Slipper Stakes.

William Inglis & Son Director, Jonathan D’Arcy remembers the filly well and commented “Danehill Smile was a very strong yearling with a great hindquarter. The type of yearling the Classic is renowned for producing”.

Selected by the astute trainer Anthony Cummings out of the Kulani Park draft at last year's Classic Sale, Danehill Smile was a $50,000 purchase which, as it turns out, proved to be an inspired choice.

Amazingly, as Cummings tells the story, Danehill Smile is the first horse Eamad has ever owned. “A stable client recommended that Eamad give us a try when he’d expressed some interest in owning a horse. Originally, Eamad was going to spend $100,000 but thought he’d keep half aside for running costs so, after some discussion, I told him I had a filly for him for $50,000”. Undoubtedly one of the best ‘leg ups’ of all time!