Following extensive discussions with clients, auction house Inglis has announced a number of improvements to the sale format for 2019.
A record 1000 horses will be catalogued for the 2019 Inglis Classic Yearling Sale, which will extend to a fifth day for the first time.
The Classic Sale – the first of five Inglis Select Yearling Sales annually – will begin at Riverside Stables on the night of Saturday February 9, directly following the Inglis Millennium Race Day at Warwick Farm which will feature the inaugural $2m Inglis Millennium for 2YOs and $1m Inglis Sprint for 3YOs. In a raft of changes to next year’s sales season.
*Classic Book 1 will run from February 9-12 and consist of 800 horses, with another 200 lots to be offered in Book 2 (to be known as the Highway Session) which will take place on Thursday February 14.
*A Warwick Farm race meeting is being scheduled for Wednesday February 13 and will feature two Highway Handicaps – one for Country-trained horses and one for Provincial-trained horses. This will make it convenient for country and provincial trainers and owners to travel to Warwick Farm for racing on the Wednesday and the Highway Session the following day.
*If the winner of either Highway race on Feb 13 is an eligible Inglis graduate (paid up for the current or a former Inglis Race Series), the winning trainer will receive a $50,000 credit voucher to spend at the Highway Session at Riverside Stables the following day.
*The Melbourne Premier Yearling Sale will run for the four days of March 3-6 at a newly-renovated Oaklands Junction. A more select Book 1 at Premier will be held over the first two days with the second two days devoted to Book 2.
*The flagship Australian Easter Yearling Sale will be streamlined into one Book and will run for three days from April 8-10. It will feature the traditional blue-blooded yearlings with a mix of yearlings that are simply great types by hot commercial sires spread across the three days. This format is aimed at making the Easter Sale more accessible to trainers and syndicators.
*The Chairman’s Sale will move to the evening of Thursday May 2 and will see a select offering of high class racing and breeding prospects catalogued, plus stallion shares and breeding rights. The sale will be significantly more selective than it was in 2018 and will not include weanlings – they will be offered in the Weanling Sales in Sydney and Melbourne. The Chairman’s Sale will kickstart the Broodmare and Weanling Sale.
*The Australian Broodmare & Weanling Sale will run for three days following the Chairman’s Sale on May 3, 5&6. The overwhelming response from vendors and buyers was to provide everyone with a gap after the Easter Sale to recover and return refreshed to Riverside.
*The Melbourne Gold Sale takes the place of the Vobis Gold Sale and will be open to all horses not just those paid up for Vobis. Day One will see a Select session followed by a non-Select second session which will assist those breeders with Vobis and non Vobis yearlings to sell at a later sale.
The changes stem from client feedback following the inaugural sales season at Inglis’ new world-class Riverside Stables complex at Warwick Farm.
“We’ve spent a significant amount of time gathering and analysing feedback from many of our clients and the overwhelming feeling is they want a larger Classic catalogue and changes to the overall Easter schedule,’’ Inglis Managing Director Mark Webster said.
“The results achieved in 2018 have been excellent but we could not have achieved them without the support of our loyal clients, which is why we need to continue to listen, learn and streamline our sales format.
“Our Classic Sale has experienced a sharp upward spiral in recent years and with over 2000 entries received for the 2019 sale from vendors in NSW, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and New Zealand, we feel obligated to offer breeders a fifth day to meet that demand.
“Also there is feedback from breeders under severe pressure from the ongoing drought conditions to sell early in the season.’’
In respect to the Easter schedule, Webster said the decision to combine Books 1 & 2 would open the marketplace to a broader buying bench.
“The 2019 Inglis Easter catalogue will be full of highly commercial sires with well conformed and athletic yearlings,’’ Webster said.
“Under the new Easter format, we expect the average to drop into the high $200,000s, making the sale more accessible to a wider market.
“We will be targeting a wide range of middle market buyers to support the new format in 2019 in addition to the top end buyers that support Easter year in year out.”
—News from Inglis—