Booming Inglis Easter Yearling Sale Defies Economic Headwinds

09 Apr 24

With the Gross and Averages up, it provides healthy signs for Australian Thoroughbred Industry after amazing results for the 2024 Inglis Easter Yearling Sale.

Day 2 action saw a day of drama, global records, incredible bidding and theatre that has never been witnessed previously in a thoroughbred sales ring, as the much-anticipated daughter of Pierro and Winx set a world record price for a yearling filly at Riverside.

Lot 391 – as the Winx filly – sold for $10m to Debbie Kepitis’ family company Woppitt Bloodstock on Day 2 of the Easter Yearling Sale, having been offered in the Coolmore Stud draft.

Kepitis was already a majority co-owner and co-breeder of the filly, along with fellow co-owners the Tighe and Treweeke families.

After the smoke and mirrors fades on a well-orchestrated plan that would more appeal to a "Netflix soap opera" than commercial bloodstock reality, Kepitis had ploughed back in her share of her prizemoney Winx had won, to buy out her co-owners and gain full control of this filly.

The fact is the sale price of $10m establishes a market value for insurance purposes and creates Headlines, yet the reality is Kepitis writes cheques for multi-millions of dollars less than this $10m figure to buy-out Tighe and Treweeke.

On a day of amazement at Riverside:

* The Pierro x Winx filly’s price of $10m eclipsed the previous world record for a yearling filly set in 2013 and decimated the Southern Hemisphere yearling record price of $5m

* The I Am Invincible x Booker filly sold for $3m, making her the second-most expensive filly ever sold in the Southern Hemisphere behind only the Pierro x Winx filly

* Both the Winx filly and Booker filly were sold by Coolmore Stud and played a significant role in them being crowned leading vendor, selling 32 lots for a gross of $27,615,000

* A total of 14 lots realised $1m or more today, taking the sale’s tally to 18 seven-figure lots

* The sale gross of $150,855,000 up 9% and average of $429,786 up 11% respectively year-on-year increase

* Inglis’ Sale Day Live broadcast saw extraordinary global reach with almost 550,000 views between the Inglis website, Inglis Facebook page and YouTube Channel to almost 100 different countries.

The Pierro x Winx filly was always going to attract significant global interest and it didn’t disappoint, with an incredible bidding duel in a full Riverside auditorium creating the most extraordinary theatre.

The room fell silent as the filly entered the ring, but it was fireworks for the next three minutes as Woppitt Bloodstock’s Debbie Kepitis and the USA based Resolute Racing’s John Stewart traded bids before Kepitis came out victorious at $10m.

An emotional Kepitis said post-sale, “I am privileged to have been able to secure this filly on behalf of my family.

“Thank you to everybody around the world who has taken this on board, it’s been thrilling to watch it and we’re lucky enough that we came out winners.’’

Coolmore’s Tom Magnier admitted he’s never witnessed anything like what he did at Riverside today.

“You wouldn’t see this anywhere else in the world,’’ Magnier said.

“You wouldn’t see the build-up, you wouldn’t see the hype and atmosphere today, I’ve never witnessed anything like it at any auction house around the world.

“It’s just the perfect story. I knew she was going to make a very high figure because somebody is buying history. She is a classic, a collectors’ item and there’s only one person who deserved this and that’s Debbie.

“It’s a dream story. I don’t think you can put a value on a filly like that. It’s just incredible, I’m delighted.’’

On being leading vendor for the Sale, Coolmore’s John Kennedy added: “It’s a great feeling. It’s an honour to be entrusted with some of the best bloodstock in the world by some of the best clients that are friends of ours.

“It’s a real team effort. We’re all just truly overwhelmed by the whole thing. It’s a fantastic result and something to cherish.’’

The second top lot was an I Am Invincible x Booker filly of Coolmore’s, which sold to the USA visitor Resolute Racing’s John Stewart.

She was one of six lots purchased by Stewart over the past two days.

“What a phenomenon. It’s fantastic that our two continents were connected through this sale in a situation like this,’’ Stewart said.

“I flew out to Australia a few weeks ago to look at these horses and while I absolutely wanted to buy the Winx filly, I also absolutely wanted to buy this Booker filly, she was my other favourite filly on the farm at Coolmore when I went there so to be able to buy her today at Inglis is fantastic.

“I’m very thankful to have met the Inglis team over the past couple of weeks and it’s been a lot of fun and hopefully I’ve bought some great horses to get our program started in Australia.’’

On the Booker filly, Kennedy added: “She’s always been a special filly, we’ve always held her in very high regard and we knew coming here she was going to get an awful lot of attention but to reach that height, it wasn’t expected.

“When you bring those quality products to a sale like Easter, the results happen.

“I don’t think anyone’s ever witnessed anything like what we saw today, it got world-wide attention, the tweets, the media, the text messages, the WhatsApp groups, the phone calls, it just hasn’t stopped all week. A lot of people got up in the middle of the night to watch the broadcast from around the world, it’s just a fantastic result for everyone involved.’’

Inglis Bloodstock CEO Sebastian Hutch was equally amazed at what he witnessed.

Hutch said “Today was a day the Australian industry can be proud of. To have every major television network, every major newspaper, so many national radio stations here at Riverside, the images and vision from today that are going around the world paints our industry in a magnificent light and I’m really proud that we have helped play some small role in that.

“This year’s Easter Sale will go down most likely as the second best in history, I mean an average of almost $430,000 is extraordinary, a gross of over $150m, they’re numbers we couldn’t have dreamed about but what it means is a lot of breeders and vendors are going home happy and I’m delighted with that.

2024 EASTER YEARLING SALE STATISTICS – (2023 in brackets)

Lots sold: 351 (352)
Lots sold (adjusted without including Winx filly): 350

Clearance rate: 79% (83%)

Average Price: $429,786 ($391,108)
Average Price (adjusted without including Winx filly): $402,442

Median Price: $300,000 ($280,000)

Top Price: $10,000,000 ($1,800,000)
Top Price (adjusted without including Winx filly): $3,000,000

Gross: $150,855,000 ($137,670,000)
Gross (adjusted without including Winx filly): $140,855,000

What sums up the fickle fortunes for breeders was the Top and Tail of the market.

It’s a fact that there were as many horses sell for one million dollars and over (18) as there were sold for $100,000 or under (19), whilst another 9 were passed in with reserves set at $100,000 or under.

Overall, the Easter sale was Heaven sent, leaving aside the Winx filly.

The overall metrics for the top-end horses soared and the number of yearlings purchased for $500,000 plus jumped from 82 to 95.