Benedetta, a group 1-winning mare with global appeal, is the latest star attraction added to the Inglis Chairman's Sale, which is due to take place in Sydney May 7.
A standout performer since her 3-year-old season, Benedetta has built an elite résumé defined by consistency at the highest level. She won six of her first eight starts, including the AU$750,000 Inglis Sprint at Flemington, where she defeated a field featuring 11 individual stakes winners, and placed in her first nine outings.
Her crowning moment came in the 2024 Goodwood Handicap (G1) at Morphettville and has throughout her career proven a model of durability and class, finishing in the top five in 10 of her 16 starts at group 1 level.
A four-time group 1 place-getter—including dual placings in the Black Caviar Lightning Stakes (G1), as well as the William Reid Stakes (G1) and Robert Sangster Stakes (G1)—Benedetta is also a two-time group 3 winner.
Purchased by Laurence Eales for AU$75,000 from Mill Park's 2021 Inglis Premier Yearling Sale draft, the mare has won eight races and over AU$2.4 million in prize-money.
Still in peak form at age 5, she has enhanced her record this further this season, particularly when an unlucky third to talented colt Tentyris in the Lightning last month.
She will be afforded the opportunity to enhance her CV further before she comes under the hammer as a member of the Widden Stud draft. Future targets include the All-Aged Stakes, Robert Sangster Stakes, and The Quokka.
Inglis CEO Sebastian Hutch described the daughter of Hellbent as "the most accomplished mare confirmed as a sale entry" this year.
"We have a good relationship with Laurence—we've spoken regularly about her," he said. "He's obviously inclined to enjoy her racing career, which is totally understandable, but always said should he get the chance to sell her, Inglis would be at the forefront of his thoughts because she's a Premier graduate. It's a great part of our narrative at Chairman's to bring these narratives full circle.
"We had a meeting with Laurence prior to the Classic Sale and discussed his provisional plan for the mare, and it's worked out for her to end up in the Chairman's Sale in May.
"I'm delighted because she's just so talented. She's a filly that showed talent from the get-go, whose race record I don't think necessarily reflects her ability. She was desperately unlucky not to beat Tentryis in the Lightning Stakes. Those sorts of things are crucial to the profile of a horse. She has phenomenal talent, she's good looking, she's a nice pedigree—it's hard not to be really enthusiastic about her."
By emerging sire Hellbent, a son of I Am Invincible, Benedetta boasts a pedigree profile expected to appeal to any breeder in the world.
"I Am Invincible is obviously a champion stallion, but he's becoming hugely significant as a broodmare sire," Hutch said.
"A few of his better-bred fillies haven't had the opportunity to produce racing stock yet, but that's beginning to happen, and the results have been eye-catching, to say the least. I think it's inevitable he'll end up a champion broodmare sire as well.
"And then you have Hellbent, who appears to be following an eerily similar trajectory to his own sire as a stallion. He started off as something of an unheralded young stallion. He had a Hong Kong Derby winner on Sunday, significant 2-year-olds, significant 3-year-olds, older horses who train on, in the end, all from his starter books. His profile will only grow as better mares start to come on stream."
