Performance & value offered at Inglis Classic
It’s a given that every vendor wants to sell yearlings as profitably as possible, but for most buyers the big question is “Where is value to be found?”
The Inglis Classic Sale has been supplying the right answers to that question for some time now. For example, the seven Group 1 winners that have so far emerged from the 2012-16 Classic Sales were bought for an average of less than $55,000.
The price range of those star graduates is bracketed by the sensational Arrowfield-sired pair Extreme Choice (by Not A Single Doubt; bought for $100,000) and Yankee Rose (All American; $10,000). They’ve since returned $3.7 million prizemoney and hefty residual values for their owners’ investments.
Ditto Arrowfield’s contribution to the Classic Sale honour roll, Group 1-winning sprinter-miler Contentment (Hussonet-Jemison), bought for $65,000 by John Foote from the 2012 auction.
The now 6YO gelding has fashioned a superb record in Hong Kong for owner Benson Lo Tak Wing and trainer John Size, winning nine of his 25 starts, including the 2016 Queen’s Silver Jubilee Cup G1, and around $4 million.
Contentment’s quality is underlined by a slew of excellent placings, among them a second to international champion and new Arrowfield stallion Maurice in the 2016 Champions Mile G1m and a very game fourth in December’s Hong Kong Mile G1.
Other recent Arrowfield graduates encourage Classic Sale buyers to consider yearlings by an emerging sire that has the backing of a major stud.
Back in 2012, when Snitzel was on the cusp of “hot sire” status, Ross & Clint Price spotted his daughter out of Deputy Lil in the Arrowfield draft and bought her for $80,000 on behalf of Perth owners Frank & Josie Fiore.
She notched up a Listed success at three and has since added four more victories and a Group placing for earnings of more than $250,000.
My Sister Lil’s younger sister Ygritte proved an even better investment for owner Carl Holt who gave $135,000 for her at the 2013 Inglis Classic Sale. A Listed win, multiple Group placings and more than $300,000 prizemoney later, she was re-sold for $800,000.
Those results are matched by a pair of Snitzel colts from Arrowfield’s 2014 Inglis Classic consignment: Spill The Beans, passed in & raced to Group 2-winning, $500,000-earning success and a stud career; and $25,000 buy Odyssey Moon, a arecent Group 3winner and Group 1-placed at two with more than $600,000 on his record.
Snitzel, along with champion sire Redoute’s Choice and Group 1 sires Not A Single Doubt and Charge Forward are all represented among Arrowfield’s 39-lot offering for this year’s Classic Sale, which begins onSaturday evening. So are All American, sire of Yankee Rose, and popular Hong Kong sire Starcraft.
Firmly in the emerging sire category is 2015/16 Champion First Season Sire Smart Missile, now leading the Second Season list by winners and earnings.
Hard on their heels come Dubai World Cup champion Animal Kingdom, represented by three colts and two fillies from his second crop, and six-time Group 1 winner Dundeel, with five first-crop yearlings on offer under the Arrowfield banner.
Buyers keen on yearlings out of young mares will find 10 first foals in Arrowfield’s Classic draft, including the only Redoute’s Choice in the Sale, a filly out of Group 3 winner Pretty Pins. That makes her a three-quarter sister to Group 1 winner Allez Wonder and a relative of dual Group winner Tivaci.
