News

Buyers walk away with Gold yearlings

29th Apr 2013

Racing Victoria - by Sarah Peatling - Monday, 29 April 2013

The Historic VOBIS Gold Yearling Sale ends on a high as Victorian thoroughbred industry looks forward to an exciting year ahead.

The final day of the new Inglis VOBIS Gold Yearling Sale has come to a successful end with a gross total of $2,550,750 exchanged between vendors and buyers across the Select Sale (Day 1) and the General and Supplementary Sale (Day 2).

An impressive list of local buyers including David Hayes, Mick Price, Jason Petch, Shane Fliedner, Salanitri Racing, Niall Phillips, Terry O’Sullivan and Barry Griffiths purchased VOBIS Gold eligible horses to take advantage of the owners and breeders incentive scheme.

Others on the 90-strong buying bench included buyers from Hong Kong, Malaysia, New Zealand, New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia and Tasmania.

Inglis Managing Director Mark Webster was particularly happy with calibre of the buyers, yearlings and results but with all new sales, believes there is scope to improve the number of quality yearlings on offer next year.

“We’re excited and delighted with what we’ve been able to achieve with the catalogue offered, particularly in the Select Session, but we need to work on offering more high quality yearlings, because the buying bench is there.

“There are enough buyers who understand the benefits of the Super VOBIS and VOBIS Gold schemes, even those in New Zealand who buy horses to put back through a ready-to-run sale, like the idea of yearlings being Super VOBIS qualified because they think they’ll get some benefit down the track when they re-offer them,” said Webster.

“Victorian breeders now need to get further behind this sale and have confidence in their local market and confidence in us that we can attract the buyers, because this sale has huge potential.

“Inglis are very appreciative of the support the Victorian government and Racing Victoria have shown for getting behind the promotion of this sale and for creating awareness around the benefits of VOBIS Gold.”

One of Victoria’s boutique farms, Caithness Breeding, was pleased with how their draft sold, and in particular their Sebring x Moonah Bells filly which fetched $68,000 on Day 1.

“We originally nominated her for Premier but after a conversation with Inglis they suggested we consider entering her in this sale mainly because she was a later foal and not a big filly,” explained Farm Principal Cathy Dingwall.

“It was a wise choice on reflection and the owner was very happy. After having some success at this sale we’d definitely considering putting any of our late maturing yearlings through next year.”

South Australian-based hobbie breeders Greg and Wendy Barber from Ashmore Thoroughbreds, only had two yearlings on offer but were thrilled with the results with Lot 39 (Street Hero x Thrift filly) fetching $14,000 and Lot 200 (Purrealist x Puss Puss filly) $26,000.

“We decided to go with the VOBIS Gold Sale because the bonuses are better than the SABIS bonuses offered in South Australia and we also thought we might have a better chance of selling them for the price we wanted.

“Greg and I were happy with the way the trainers received our horses, everyone was really friendly and helpful and we’ll certainly consider coming back to sell next year,” said Wendy.

While the Barbers only breed two to three yearlings per year, they believe selling horses in Victoria is the way forward because of the investment by local government and industry to really support owners and breeders where possible.

“We like to try different things to sell our horses and this time (selling at the new VOBIS Gold Sale) it’s really paid off,” said Wendy. “If your horses are qualified for Super VOBIS and go on to be VOBIS Gold horses, it’s well worth your while because in South Australia, the government don’t really help the industry so it forces you to take other avenues.”

Top 5 lots from the Inglis VOBIS Gold Sale include:

Lot 161 Not A Single Doubt x Meddling $70,000 (Northern Lodge Stud / J Petch)

Lot 168 Sebring x Moonah Bells $68,000 (Caithness Breeding / R Gudden)

Lot 4 Redoute’s Choice x Rainbow Bubbles $65,000 (Grange Thoroughbreds / Lindsay Park)

Lot 138 Magnus x Keluca $48,000 (Ballarto Lodge / Glenhuntly Lodge)

Lot 20 Written Tycoon x Shacklady $40,000 (Little Plains Stud / Lyndhurst Farm)

Racing Victoria’s General Manager – Racing, Greg Carpenter, described the sale result as a great reflection of widespread industry support for the lucrative Super VOBIS and VOBIS Gold incentive schemes.

“Racing Victoria has been extremely pleased with the level of support afforded the very first VOBIS Gold Yearling Sale,” Carpenter said.

“The sales ring has been host to a great many opportunities for the astute buyer and I believe the VOBIS Gold Yearling Sale concept will go from strength-to-strength and demand more attention from breeders as owners reap the financial rewards on offer and begin to target this sale.

“Today we will witness the significant return on investment which can be achieved when a full field of two-year-old fillies contend the $100,000 TAB VOBIS Gold Strike (1000m) on day one of the TAB Warrnambool May Racing Carnival, available to VOBIS Gold horses only.

“It serves as an important reminder for owners and breeders that eligible yearlings must be nominated by 30 June to qualify for the VOBIS Gold features and bonus races throughout the duration of the horse's career.”