Inglis sale's Session I ends with gains in average, median prices

The Inglis company’s Australian Easter yearling sale concluded its three-day Session I portion on Thursday with gains in average and median price, aided by the $984,000 sale of a Casino Prince colt – a half-sibling to Group 1 winner Black Caviar – on Wednesday. Trainer John Hawkes, who signed for the colt, later said he would run for Nathan Tinkler’s Patinack Farm.

The three-day Session I sale lost 8 percent in gross after offering a smaller group of horses and selling 310 yearlings, as compared with last season’s 366. The 2011 gross was about $70,528,000 at Thursday’s exchange rate. The average price, about $227,510, was up 9 percent, and the median of approximately $171,000 was up 13 percent on last year’s figure.

Buy-backs also improved slightly overall, with the buy-back rate sliding from last year’s 20 percent to 19 percent in 2011.