WHETHER buying, selling or just looking, those visiting the new Riverside Stables complex for the Classic Yearling Sale – which commences on Saturday evening, are in for a treat when walking around the $140 million state-of-the-art facility.
Taking its name from the Inglis company’s founder William Inglis, The William Inglis luxury hotel appears to be the cornerstone of the new Riverside Stables precinct, which is expected to draw travellers from around the world.
While many of the horse barns were built using timber taken from the original Newmarket stables, particular care has been taken with signage, and as well to acknowledge what the family’s business was built around, and that being horses.
The William Inglis Hotel features a two-story bookcase that runs from the Newmarket Room restaurant and along the mezzanine level into the 1867 Lounge. It contains a collection of artefacts, old catalogues and trophies relating to Inglis’ time of operation.
There is also the Chiltern Pool Deck and bar, which is located on one end of the roof of the hotel.
The Gallery is a collection of private suites designed to host clients on sale days and are named after Inglis graduates that have excelled either in their racing careers or the breeding barns.
Their names include Hydrogen (who won successive W S Cox Plates), Australian Horse Of The Year Might And Power, and current hot sire I Am Invincible. On the same level there is also a Grand Armee Meeting Room, which will double as the repository on sale days.
Sires first winners
HANDSOME bay Arrowfield Stud based stallion Dundeel is off the mark as a sire. The New Zealand-bred son of So You Think’s Sadler’s Wells sire High Chaparral was represented with his first winner when Cutadeel won a maiden juvenile race over 1200 metres on debut at Tauranga in New Zealand.
While already having a winner in New Zealand, Fighting Sun had his first Australian winner when Sunfighter won on debut at Wyong. Standing at Sun Stud, Victoria, Fighting Sun won his only two career starts as a two-year-old including the ATC Canonbury Stakes-LR in Sydney, and is by Encosta de Lago’s ill-fated sire son Northern Meteor.
While serving only 22 mares in his first stud season, Niconoise also had his first crop two-year-old winner recently, when Gottabiton won for his Port Lincoln conditioner Simon Drewitt at his local seaside course.
Standing at Ponderosa Park at Nathalia (near Echuca), Niconoise is a half-brother to $3.4 million earning gelding Niconero and dual Group 1 winning sprinter and Widden Stud’s popular and prolific sire of stakes winners and winners Nicconi.
A sprinter/miler, Niconoise won four races from 1100 metres to 1800 metres including the Flemington feature Swisse Wellness Trophy.
Country conditioner Lights Up
TAMWORTH conditioner Michelle Fleming scored her most important win from her short training career when The Lion stormed down the middle of the track to take the $60,000 TAB Highway Handicap at Rosehill last Saturday week.
Among Fleming’s small stable of eight horses, The Lion – who paid $26 for the $1 outlay, has won three from his 10 starts. The Lion belongs to the second crop by Red Ransom sire Arlington, which stands at Tamalee Stud, Tamworth.
Trans-Tasman Millions
NEW Zealand champion sire Savabeel grabbed headlines last week when his colt who was produced from champion New Zealand three-year-old filly Katie Lee, fetched top price of $NZ1.025 million at the Karaka Yearling Sale near Auckland.
Breeding buffs should recall Savabeel when the son of champion sire Zabeel won Australia’s weight-for-age championship race MVRC W S Cox Plate-G1 as a three-year-old. The colt was purchased by leading local buyer Davis Ellis, who also outlaid $NZ900,000 for a Savabeel filly from stakes placed Redoute’s Choice mare Joy’s Choice.
Progeny by Australian based sires proved popular with a colt by Coolmore Stud’s champion sire Fastnet Rock (from Savabeel stakes winner Diademe) fetched $NZ1m.
New Zealand bred Sacred Falls and Irish bred New Zealand shuttler Charm Spirit had the most representatives at the sale of the first crop sires. By I Am Invincible’s champion UK sire Invincible Spirit, Charm Spirit had 30 yearlings sell for an $NZ112,000 average and a top of $NZ400,000, which was for a filly from stakes winning Savabeel mare Lady Kipling.
While Sydney’s dual AJC Doncaster Handicap-G1 winner Sacred Falls had a top price of $NZ300,000, the son of Last Tycoon’s outstanding race and sire-son O’Reilly had 41 lots sold for an $NZ123,659 average.
Of the Australian based first crop sires Coolmore Stud’s Rubick (by Encosta de Lago) had two sell for a top of $NZ320,000, while Irish bred Adelaide (Galileo) had one sell for $NZ150,000. Newgate Farm’s Deep Field had eight yearlings average $NZ141,875, for a top of $NZ300,000.
Taking its name from the Inglis company’s founder William Inglis, The William Inglis luxury hotel appears to be the cornerstone of the new Riverside Stables precinct, which is expected to draw travellers from around the world.