The Inglis Classic Yearling Sale gets underway at Riverside Stables Feb. 8, with 715 yearlings to be offered across three days in Sydney.
The catalog features progeny by 113 individual sires, ranging from established commercial stallions to a strong cohort of first-season sires.
Proven names represented include Extreme Choice, Snitzel, I Am Invincible, Zoustar, and Written Tycoon, while the produce of 14 freshman stallions will be offered, among them Anamoe, Artorius, Hitotsu, In The Congo, Jacquinot, Profondo, and State of Rest.
Conditions have been ideal throughout the inspection period at Riverside and Inglis CEO Sebastian Hutch said buyer engagement has been encouraging ahead of the opening session.
"There is good footfall, good international representation here, good interstate, good local stuff," he said. "No auction house will ever say, 'I have enough buyers.' You always want more buyers, but I'm happy where we sit at the moment."
Hutch also pointed to the sale's strong record of producing high-end performers and value graduates, including Pride Of Jenni, Sepals, Private Harry, Skybird, and Hong Kong champion Voyage Bubble. Since 2018, Classic graduates have produced 41 individual millionaires, with recent seasons also delivering elite performers such as Veight, Celestial Legend, Beauty Eternal, and Coco Sun.
"The sale has had a good run in terms of graduate success," Hutch said. "Pride Of Jenni has been a great flagbearer for the sale, so has Voyage Bubble. These are all the important features of keeping the sale in the forefront of people's minds. We've talked about this over the last number of years, but I think there's genuine respect for the sale in the market now. I think that's a feature in helping consolidate a good buying bench."
Value remains a defining feature of the Classic sale, with Hutch highlighting the sale's long-standing ability to produce top-level performers at accessible price points.
"It excites people about coming to the sale," Hutch said. "People want to know that they can come here and buy a nice horse for not a lot of money. And vendors come here knowing that there's going to be a huge consolidation of people here, and it gives them their best chance to sell a horse. That's why they keep coming back year after year with better horses every year."
With Magic Millions and Karaka delivering improved clearance rates and averages, Hutch is hopeful that momentum will carry through to Classic and beyond.
"It's a new year. At this stage, last year is irrelevant, even though we take confidence from the success of the year. I feel like we've prepared at least as well, if not better, than what we did last year, and I suppose you take some confidence from that.
"This year, we go into the sale with Magic Millions down about AU$5 million and New Zealand up AU$9.6 million, with different profiles of catalog. But auction houses work off turnover—they're the figures that are important."
