VISITING Adam Sangster's showcase property Swettenham Stud near Nagambie in Victoria last December, I thought I would look at what yearlings were on offer by its stallions at Inglis' three-day Premier Yearling Sale, from February 27 at Oaklands Junction, just north of Melbourne.
A total of 121 different sires has representatives amongst the 793 strong catalogue and which include entries by Swettenham's proven northern hemisphere bred sires Akeed Mofeed, Highland Reel, Puissance De Lune, and Toronado.
A seven-time Group 1 winner in three countries, Highland Reel is a young sire of a Group 2 winner in the northern hemisphere, while locally the Galileo-bay horse is looking for his first Australian winner.
Popular Irish bred, Toronado is represented with the greatest number of entries with 39 catalogued lots. These include a filly from the stakes placed I Am Invincible mare Lipstick Lover, a half-sister to Group 1 winner and stud success Ilovethiscity.
By emerging sire of sires High Chaparral, Toronado has proved a stud success in both hemispheres, his most prominent in Australia being scintillating sprinter and Group 1 winner Masked Crusader, the gelding himself being an Inglis Premier Yearling Sale graduate.
Other talented horses to grace the Melbourne sale-ring includes recently crowned world's best sprinter Nature Strip, as well as Group 1 winners Santa Ana Lane, Gytrash, Hey Doc, September Run, Kenedna, Youngstar, Ole Kirk and Written By.
Classic best
RECORDS were smashed at the history making Classic Yearling Sale last week, Inglis posting a $66.786m in gross sales (from 545 sold lots) and an average of $122,668 for Book 1 - up a massive 30% and 20%, respectively from last year's auction.
Total gross sales - of Book 1 and 2, amounted to a record $72.647m, which included the Highway Session its average increasing to $49,858 (from the 116 lots sold).
While a record Classic Sale top of $775,000 was achieved on the first day of the sale for an Extreme Choice colt (from Murtle Turtle) sold via Bell River Thoroughbreds, Dungog, another colt by Extreme Choice created a new record when fetching $825,000.
The record colt - from To Dubawi Go, was bred and sold by Neil and Denise Osborne of Mane Lodge, Sutton, their highest sale result from nearly 40 years of participating at the Inglis auctions in Sydney.
While familiar faces at live auctions, Neil has also proved successful as a trainer, preparing To Dubawi Go to win six races and $121,415.
At $200,000, was the top priced horse sold via the Highway Session, which belonged to the Arrowfield Stud Scone draft. The top colt was by its one-time shuttler Real Steel (by Deep Impact) and produced from winning Cape Cross mare Zerkela.
No more Talk
I'M All The Talk - a leading young sire in Western Australia was reported to have died at age 11 at his home at the Atwell family's Darling View Thoroughbreds at Mundijong, about one hour's drive south-east of Perth.
While registered as bred in Victoria, I'm All The Talk carries the Widden Stud brand of a capital JT over a "lazy 2" on his near-side shoulder, being a son of the famous property's Golden Slipper winning sire Stratum (by Redoute's Choice).
A two-year-old Sydney Group 3 winner, I'm All The Talk was an immediate stud success and was crowned champion Western Australian two-year-old sire and first-season sire in 2019-20, followed by leading Western Australian second-season and then third season sire, the latter in 2020-21.
Originally standing at the defunct Mungrup Stud, I'm All The Talk sired triple Western Australian stakes winning filly Watch Me Dance (has won $855,000), and Melbourne stakes winner All Banter.
Dance up
RACING NSW recently announced a boost of $27m per annum increase in prizemoney, new feature races and a much-needed upgrade of the Warwick Farm racecourse.
"The Big Dance", a new race over 1600 metres and will be restricted to horses contesting one of 25 selected NSW country cups throughout the year.
Details here in coming weeks.
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