News

Spectacular June (Late) Sale grosses $8m as Daisies delivers at the top

28th Jun 2023

Bloodstock agent Sheamus Mills was “rapt with the prices’’ and grateful for the “phenomenal service’’ after selling two of the top three lots in the Inglis Digital June (Late) sale, the second biggest in the platform’s history.

Tonight’s auction – which saw six horses realise $200,000 or more and 16 realise $100,000 or more - grossed $8,056,950, second behind only the April (Late) Sale of last year, which ended with an incredible aggregate of $10.8m.

The leading light tonight was the three-time Group winner Daisies (Sebring), which at $920,000 became the highest-priced horse sold online in Australia this year and the equal-fifth highest in Inglis Digital history.

She was one of two offerings for Mills and his clients, who also sold Literary Magnate (Written Tycoon) for $640,000, the third-top lot of the sale.

Both Daisies and Literary Magnate were purchased by International powerhouse Yulong, who continued their sustained investment in the world’s best bloodstock.

Mills was thrilled with both results, saying they vindicated his decision to sell the pair through Inglis Digital.

“It’s been a great afternoon, I’m rapt with the prices and it’s great that you can offer quality bloodstock online – and I mean world-class elite bloodstock – and get more than a fair price for them,’’ Mills said.

“The customer service this past week with [Business Manager] Nick [Melmeth] and the whole Inglis Digital team has been nothing short of phenomenal. Having a dedicated team like Inglis do for their Digital platform, it just makes such a difference and they’ve been fantastic to deal with, as they always are.

“Inglis Digital is just such an easy platform to use as a buyer or seller and the IT behind it and the people behind it is unrivalled.’’

On the Mick Price and Michael Kent Jr-trained Daisies and Literary Magnate - trained by Matthew Williams - Mills added: “They’ve both been great mares. Daisies was great fun to race and had really good people involved but the downside to success is these fillies and mares become too valuable to keep.

“Literary Magnate was a lovely buy out of Inglis Classic and is the prime example of what we’re trying to do for clients, to buy these fillies for the right price, get them to Stakes victories and then sell them for a fantastic price, like we have today with both Daisies and Literary Magnate.’’

Splitting Daisies and Literary Magnate at the top tonight was the proven producer More Aspen – the dam of recent G1-winning 2YO King Colorado - which realised $720,000.

Offered in foal to WA-based stallion Maschino by Kim Doak and his partner Maria along with WA trainer Luke Fernie, the 12YO mare was purchased by Ultra Thoroughbreds.

“It’s crazy, absolutely crazy, I don’t know what to say,’’ an elated Doak said.

“I still can’t quite believe what’s just happened. You hear about these stories and hope that one day it might be you and today was our day.

“I’m totally grateful to Sinead [Flannery], Chris [Russell] and the entire Inglis team, the service has been incredible and has totally vindicated our decision to use the platform to sell this mare.

“The last hour we’ve all been sitting at a restaurant together with an iPad on the table watching it all unfold as the bidding went up and up and up.’’

Ultra Thoroughbreds’ Sean Buckley added: “We’re thrilled to get this mare. For her to have produced a Group 1 winner so early in her career is an unbelievable achievement so who knows how far she can go as a broodmare.

“We’ll foal down the Maschino foal and then decide who we send her to next but there are plenty of options.

“Everything we needed to know about the mare was provided on the Inglis Digital website, it’s so transparent whether you’re buying or selling, you just know you can trust it.’’

Other strong results in the June (Late) Sale include:

*The Pike Racing-offered mare Not Guilty, which realised $480,000

*Silent Sovereign (Dalakhani), which sold to Grandlodge Thoroughbreds for $280,000

*Clemenceau (Capitalist), the 4YO racing prospect which sold to WA’s Gangemi Racing for $200,000

*Darby Racing were active, purchasing talented young gallopers Mafia (Written Tycoon) and Bunker Hut (Savabeel) – both offered as part of a Newgate Syndicate draft – for $180,000 and $155,000 respectively

“It’s been a phenomenal day, to gross more than $8m shows that a lot of owners and vendors have achieved incredible results and that’s what makes it all worthwhile,’’ Inglis Digital Business Manager Nick Melmeth said.

“It’s really satisfying to see clients on both sides of the spectrum enjoy success on Inglis Digital so regularly and I know, having spoken to many of them today, that there’s a whole lot of them going to bed tonight really satisfied with their outcomes.

“This June (Late) catalogue was huge at 612 entries and the July (Early) catalogue has already attracted some top quality fillies and mares, some mares off the track that would be a standout at a Chairman’s Sale and the first of those will be announced tomorrow so that’s really exciting moving forward.’’

Entries for the July (Early) Sale are now open and will remain so until midnight on Wednesday July 5.

The auction runs from July 7-12.

To enter CLICK HERE.