News

Blake Ryan colt tops Ready2Race Sale as one of many quality pinhook results

10th Oct 2023

A Capitalist colt of Blake Ryan Racing topped today’s Inglis Ready2Race Sale that saw some “mind blowing’’ pinhook results at Riverside.

The Capitalist x Ghalia’s Dream colt (lot 97) was the star of the show, his $70,000 price tag at this year’s Classic Yearling Sale turning into a sale-topping $400,000 today.

He was purchased by leading Hong Kong bloodstock agent Willie Leung.

A delighted Ryan described the result as “out of this world’’, with the price not only a new individual record for him as a breeze up vendor but also one which helped contribute to him being leading overall vendor grossing $1,960,500, another record tally for the horseman.

“To turn $70,000 into $400,000, well that’s just ridiculous in the very best of ways,’’ Ryan said.

“That’s what we’re all about. It’s mind blowing really, it’s a fantastic result.

“He was a very popular horse all week, he’s just a lovely horse and deserved to sell well like he did and I’m sure he’ll go on to do good things.’’

Leung, who was involved in many purchases today for different Hong Kong clients, was thrilled to secure the colt (pictured).

“He looks really athletic and moved really well in the breeze up,’’ Leung said.

“He didn’t breeze in the fastest time but he looks like a racehorse, that’s why I want to bring him to Hong Kong straight away and hopefully he can run next April in a Griffin race.

“This year, the [Inglis] Ready2Race Sale looked a very good sale with a lot of quality 2YOs that would suit Hong Kong so I wanted to be quite active for the sale.

“The quality on offer was very strong, I had five Hong Kong trainers come to the sale and they’re all very happy, they got what they wanted.’’

Second-top lot honours today were shared by an I Am Invincible x Bit of Cheek colt of John Malcolm’s Cheltenham Stables and a Justify x Boudicea Belle colt of Ryan’s, both realising $370,000.

Leung purchased the I Am Invincible juvenile for Keith Ng and Hong Kong trainer Michael Chang while Warwick Farm trainer Annabel Neasham – who bought Stakes-winning 2YO and 3YO Libertad out of this sale last year – teamed up with Pato Leung to buy the Justify colt.

For Malcolm, the outcome was one of great satisfaction.

“He’s been such a nice horse to work with through the whole prep so to achieve such a good result here has been great,’’ the New Zealand vendor said of lot 32.

“It’s such a good facility here and the Inglis guys try their hardest to help us settle in and have a good sale.’’

Leung added: “The horse will stay here for further education before he comes to Hong Kong, he may take a little more time this one but he’s a very good mover, powerful and strong.’’

Neasham was thrilled to be taking the Justify colt home, especially considering she’s had great success with progeny of the stallion through Inglis sales previously.

“We’re obviously a big fan of Justify, we bought quite a few yearlings by him this year off the back of [$2m Inglis Millennium winner] Learning To Fly, we had an order from a client and he again was a fan of Justify so it all just matched,’’ Neasham said.

“I watched his breeze, I mean that’s the advantage of coming here and buying two-year-olds is you can watch them gallop beforehand and he’s got a beautiful big action.

“I’ve got Alix Turpin and Tabitha Ridley Thomas here, who work for me, it’s obviously a busy time of year so I’ve left them really to do this sale because it worked last year, I didn’t even see Libertad so I can’t take any credit for him and he’s now a dual G3 winner. The girls have gone around and they picked out what they liked and that’s how we landed on this fella.’’

The result was another successful pinhook, given the colt was a $110,000 Classic Sale purchase in February.

“We gave him a lot of time early to grow out and that really paid dividends with what turned up this week and I was very confident a long way out that he would sell well and he’s certainly done that,’’ Ryan said.

“I’ve been very fortunate that the clients had very reasonable reserves on the horses today, both the Justify and Capitalist colts had $200,000 on them, the Capitalist doubled that and this one almost did. It gives buyers the confidence they can buy the horses from me.

“What’s been just as satisfying as the two big results today are some of the good results at the lower end that we’ve had for clients, horses that were $30,000 yearlings and sold for well above that today, they all make the clients happy.’’

Inglis Bloodstock CEO Sebastian Hutch felt there were a lot of positives to come out of the day.

“Horses that met the criteria of buyers and vetted well tended to sell well, particularly where the expectations of vendors were reasonable in the context of the market,’’ Hutch said.

“We were delighted to have such strong Hong Kong representation for the sale and it was also very pleasing to have horses bought to go to Malaysia, China and Macau.

“The growing confidence of the domestic market in this sale format was evident in the list of buyers, with the likes of Henry Field, Annabel Neasham, Darby Racing, Waterhouse/Bott and Bruce Slade, Craig Rounsefell, Price/Kent and Matthew Sandblom amongst the major domestic buyers at the sale.

“There is no doubt the market generally has its challenges and evidently supply is outstripping demand in certain parts of the market, but we feel strongly there is a lot to be positive about in this sale format for Inglis going forward.

“We are very grateful for the support of vendors and buyers of the sale and we’ll continue to work on getting more horses sold over the coming days before starting to consider plans for the 2024 renewal.’’

To enquire about a passed in lot from today’s sale, contact Inglis Senior Bloodstock Consultant Harry Bailey on 0420 997 417.

Buyers’ attention now switches to the online sphere with the Inglis Digital October (Early) Sale, which closes for bidding from 10am tomorrow.

Among the catalogue of 223 lots is G1 winner Western Empire (Iffraaj), a pair of exciting Chris Waller-trained 3YOs in Randwick juvenile winner Caballus (I Am Invincible) and City winner Fightertown (Snitzel) as well as several well-related breeding prospects.

To view the catalogue, organise credit or participate in the auction CLICK HERE.

2023 INGLIS READY2RACE SALE (2022 stats in brackets)

Sold: 92 (145)

Average: $113,886 ($107,907)

Median: $92,500 ($80,000)

Gross: $10,477,500 ($15,646,500)