Arrowfield tops a challenging Easter Sale

Exhilaration was tempered with frustration at this week’s Inglis Easter Yearling Sale, held in an environment of escalating global tension & uncertainty and an unusually compressed 2026 sales calendar, as well as magnificent competition on the track.

Arrowfield’s own results reflected the complexities of the market, with a 72% clearance rate, and 46 yearlings sold for $19,415,000, including the joint third top-priced colt, sold for $2 million, and the joint top-priced filly, sold for $1.8 million.

The Stud topped the Vendors’ table by aggregate for the 10th time in the past 12 years and, for the second time this decade, has claimed the #1 spot at Magic Millions Gold Coast, Inglis Classic & Inglis Easter. 

As John Messara told The Thoroughbred Report, “We’re very pleased and we’re fortunate at the moment to stand and have the progeny of some really nice stallions, Maurice, Dundeel, Castelvecchio, The Autumn Sun, and the progeny of Snitzel. They have all been active on the racetrack every week, which is all very helpful.”

Arrowfield’s stallions supplied 21% of the Sale’s gross of $147.5 million and they all added highlights to their strong 2026 major sale results:

Champion Sire Snitzel continues to defy any expectations of posthumous decline, on the track and in the ring.

After 6 stakeswinners in March headed by Group 1 winners Lazzura & Marhoona, he topped the Inglis Easter Sires’ table for the fifth time with 32 yearlings sold for $19,205,000, taking his aggregate 2026 sales past $40 million for the 7th year in the past decade. 

Snitzel’s 2026 tally of seven-figure sales is now nine after three yearlings breached that mark at Inglis Easter, including the $2 million colt ex Ms Bad Behaviour, purchased from Arrowfield by the James Harron Bloodstock Colt Partnership with Tony Fung Colts and Coolmore, now the home of his Group 1-winning full brother Switzerland. 

Ricky Surace Snr & Jnr made the final $1.8 million bid on the full sister to their Group 1 winner Lazzura, and the Waterhouse & Bott stable signed for 3 Snitzel fillies (one purchased with Kestrel Thoroughbreds)  at $350,000, $500,000 & $600,000 from the Kia Ora, Arrowfield & Coolmore consignments. 

Fresh from Saturday’s stakes double by his daughters Idle Flyer & Stung, Dundeel posted the 4th $1 million+ yearling of his career, Widden Stud’s colt ex multiple Group winner Fiesta, sold for $1.3 million to Jamie McCalmont for Tom Magnier. He headed 14 lots sold for $5,540,000, achieving an average price of 5.2 times Dundeel’s 2023 fee.

ARJB Consulting & de Burgh Equine signed for Dundeel’s $525,000 top-priced filly ex Stay With Me, and PR Thoroughbreds purchased three Dundeel colts from Arrowfield including the $650,000 full brother of dual Group 1 winner Celestial Legend. 

The Golden Slipper-winning stable of Mick Price & Michael Kent Jnr signed for two Dundeel yearlings, the colt ex Winx’s half-sister Courchevel and, with MyRacehorse & Belmont Bloodstock, the filly ex Rosie Rocket from Newhaven Park Stud. 

Dundeel also appears as damsire in the pedigree of Milburn Creek’s $1.3 million Home Affairs colt ex Group 2 winner Victoria Quay, knocked down to bloodstock agent Jim Clarke and owner Ted Huglin.

The Autumn Sun shone on Golden Slipper day thanks to the Autumn Glow-Autumn Boy Group 1 double, and vendors of his yearlings enjoyed the afterglow at Inglis Easter with 8 lots sold for an average price of $341,875, or 5.7 times his 2023 fee. 

His top price of $550,000 was paid by Gai Waterhouse, Adrian Bott & Bruce Slade’s Kestrel Thoroughbreds for Arrowfield’s filly out of the South African mare All That Jazz whose dam, like Autumn Glow’s dam, is by Var from a Champion Sprinter.

The Autumn Angel team of Dalziel Bloodstock & Moody Racing signed for Willow Park Stud’s $480,000 filly ex Bridget Wenlock, and colts ex Scarlet Dream & Bonny Gold were bought for Hong Kong where The Autumn Sun has had 5 winners of 10 races.

38 yearlings from The Autumn Sun’s 2024 crop have sold consistently well across 8 auctions so far this year, posting a $249,584 average and a $240,000 median. 

In the wake of Aeliana’s Group 1 heroics, all 4 of Castelvecchio‘s Easter yearlings sold, with a top price of $600,000 paid by the Waterhouse, Bott & Kestrel team for Arrowfield’s colt ex Edgy Style, a half-brother of Japanese Group 1 winner Urban Chic. 

Overall, Castelvecchio averaged $300,000 at Easter to make a total of 24 yearlings sold from his small 2024 crop at a healthy average price of 6.3 x his fee. 

Grand Group 1 sprinter Mazu and 3YOs Cannae & Classic Gem kept Maurice‘s flag flying last month, and he had 10 Easter yearlings sell from Arrowfield’s draft for an average of $243,500, with a median price of $200,000.

The $475,000 colt ex Yearning was a Paul Messara buy-back for a group of stable clients, but below that were fillies ex Re Edit at $360,000 and ex Smirnova at $300,000, purchased respectively by the WA-based Byerley Bloodstock & Yarradale Stud, and Hitotsu’s $200,000 full brother ex Love Is Fickle, destined for Hong Kong. 

Hitotsu himself had just one first-crop yearling catalogued at Inglis Easter, a colt from the excellent producer Top Cuban. He was bought for $160,000 by Victorian trainer Greg Eurell. It’s been a good start to Hitotsu’s commercial career, with 50 of 56 yearlings sold across the market for an anverage price of $84,708 – 4.2 times his fee.

Stallion photos by Bronwen Healy & Joan Faras.