Records fall at Inglis sale

The Inglis auction house's Australian Easter yearling sale broke records for gross, median, and top price by its end Thursday.

Arrowfield Stud's young stallion Redoute's Choice dominated the top of the three-day market. Six of the auction's eight millionaire colts were by Redoute's Choice, a 9-year-old Danehill horse, including the sale's record-setting top lot, an Aus$2.5 million colt out of Tugela. Arrowfield Stud, agent, sold that colt to Woodlands Stud. Redoute's Choice's 35 yearlings sold for an average price of Aus$611,714, or about $472,977 U.S.

The Sydney auction, which was attended by a number of American first-time visitors lured by a new, consignor-backed North American marketing campaign, sold 436 yearlings for Aus$90,528,000, or about $70,023,410 U.S., smashing last year's record of Aus$75,477,500. The 2005 sale average of Aus$207,633 (about $160,604) did not set a new mark, falling just short of last year's record of Aus$205,102. But the 2005 median of Aus$150,000 (about $116,025) was up 20 percent from last year's record Aus$125,000. The buy-back rate was 21 percent.

"Given the increase in the number of yearlings cataloged, we always anticipated a rise in aggregate," said Reg Inglis, the sale firm's managing director.