Inglis has its best Easter sale

The Inglis Easter yearling sale in Newmarket, New South Wales, ended Thursday with record gains.

The three-day auction sold 23 yearlings for $1 million (Australian) or more, up from last year's 14. One of those was the sale-topping Rock of Gibraltar-L'On Vite colt, a three-quarter-brother to Holy Roman Emperor whom trainer Gai Waterhouse purchased from Coolmore for $3 million Australian (about $2.5 million U.S.). That price equaled the previous Australian record.

The parade of millionaires helped give the Easter yearling sale its best results ever. Inglis sold a total of 446 yearlings for approximately $122,530,437 U.S., resulting in an average price of about $274,732 and a median of about $165,210. In Australian dollars, the gross soared 27 percent above last year's total for 406 yearlings. The average and median increased by 15 percent and 11 percent, respectively. Those figures easily topped last year's numbers, which were records at the time. The buy-back rate at the 2007 sale was 19 percent.