A son of Darley shuttler Ghaiyyath topped Book 2 and second-crop stallions had the top three lots as the Inglis Premier Yearling Sale closed in robust fashion March 4.
Presented by Shadow Hill Thoroughbreds, Lot 702—a chestnut colt from a winning half sister to group 1 place-getter Heart Skipt A Beat—was bought by Mongolia's Ganbaatar Dagvadorj for AU$260,000, which was just AU$10,000 off the sale's Book 2 record.
The colt will be headed to Melbourne trainer Danny O'Brien.
Young Yulong shuttler Lucky Vega earned another laurel as the sire of the day's second-top-priced yearling in Lot 688, a colt from Yarran Thoroughbreds' draft who was bought by trainer Joe Pride for AU$250,000.
The bay is out of a half sister to I Am Me, with his third dam the dual stakes winner One World.
Third went to Lot 754, another colt from Shadow Hill's draft, this time from the second crop of Widden Victoria's Doubtland, bought by St Kilda Lodge and Shane McGrath Bloodstock for AU$170,000.
As with the better-than-expected results of Book 1, soon after the close of trading the Book 2 results were up on the 2024 Premier sale by most markers.
The average was AU$44,718 (US$27,725, AU$1=US$0.62), compared with AU$40,092; the median of AU$32,000 (US$19,840) was up from AU$30,000; and the gross of AU$6,573,500 (US$4,075,570) showed an increase from AU$6,334,500, with 13 fewer lots sold (145 to 158). The clearance rate for Book 2 was down slightly from 76% to 75%.
Overall, the gross for the three days of the sale stood at AU$60,275,500 (US$37,370,810)—a 3.5% rise on last year. By late Tuesday, the Book 1 average was AU$136,299—a 5% rise—while the clearance rate had reached 80%, almost reaching 2024's figure of 82%.
Closing Day Remarks
Inglis Bloodstock CEO Sebastian Hutch was delighted with the three-day sale. Like Inglis Classic only stronger, Premier emphatically defied fears among some vendors of a downturn based on difficulties in the bottom half of the market at Australasia's first two sales of the year—Magic Millions Gold Coast and Karaka.
"At the end of the day, the Inglis Premier Yearling Sale is the first yearling sale anywhere in Australia in 2025 that has seen an increase in turnover and improved metrics,'' Hutch said.
"We are very conscious of our responsibility to facilitate the best market that we possibly can for our vendors who work tirelessly to produce quality stock for this sale.
"The support of this sale by the leading Victorian breeders with quality stock is crucial to its success and I think the results here should give breeders confidence that they can bring their best yearlings to this sale and achieve optimum results.
"To have the clearance rate at 80% and climbing for Book 1 is a positive reflection on the depth of a buying bench which has seen incredible local and international participation.
"We are very grateful to the support of this sale by vendors and buyers, it's not something that we take for granted."
