Finding the right sale

The excellent results of last weekend’s Inglis Autumn Yearling Sale at Oaklands Junction in Melbourne – which bucked the national trend with a 14 per cent rise in average (from $8750 to $9965) – emphasises that the lower end of the yearling sale market is alive and well.

While the win of Autumn Sale graduate Pompeii Ruler (Ch g 2002, Genuine (JPN)-West With Night (NZ), by Pompeii Court (USA)) – passed in for $9000 in 2004 – in the Group 1 AJC Queen Elizabeth Stakes (WFA 2000m) on Saturday was a boost for the sale, it is doubtful the win sent prospective buyers scampering to find their orange-coloured catalogues.

From experience, looking at an Autumn Sale catalogue is a bit like looking down a black hole for gold – you need to get down and get dirty at the sale to find the nice horses because the better the page, the more likely the horse is an ordinary individual or has a physical problem.

Not only was the quality of the 2009 Autumn Sale yearlings excellent for a sale of this stature, but also the competition for the better individuals was fierce.

The Autumn Sale has its place – don’t expect to see Gai, Lee or Darley perusing the barns – and it’s timing is right for late maturing yearlings, especially those that are SuperVOBIS qualified, to find a suitable home. Importantly, there are buyers still in the market for an nice, well-priced yearling.

The same will be for Inglis’ Scone Yearling Sale, to be held at the Scone Showgrounds on May 14, now a major part of the impressively marketed Scone Horse Week. This sale has grown in momentum to become an important part of the yearling sales’ agenda.

Both these sales prove the point that a “nice horse will sell anywhere” and sometimes it is much better to be a big fish in a little sea than to swim against the tide of superior pedigrees and individuals at a sale with more prestige. Selling at the bottom end at any sale is a nightmare for vendors – there are just as many “grumblers”, especially those trying to sell less-fancied colts, at Easter as there will be at Scone.

The top sellers at the Autumn Sale were: $56,000 for a colt by Bianconi from From The Palace (sold to Tony Seymour); $54,000 for a colt by Statue Of Liberty from Saloon Bar Girl (Mark Young) and $46,000 for a filly by first-season sire Keep The Faith from Court Swinging (W. Gribble).