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Significant gains seen as HTBA May Yearling Sale concludes on Monday
A colt by Newgate Farm's Russian Revolution (Snitzel) topped the second day and overall HTBA May Yearling Sale at Riverside when bought by Bevan Smith Bloodstock and Singapore's Kuldeep Singh Rajput for $145,000.
The colt was bought for just $18,000 at last year's Great Southern Weanling Sale – held online due to Covid – and catalogued as Lot 238 from the draft of Kingstar Farm. The colt is the third foal out of the unraced Lucinda's Moon (Malibu Moon) who is a sister to Grade 3 winner Moonwalk and a half sister to Listed winner Thatswhatimean (Belong To Me) and the dam of Grade 1 winner Stormy Lucy (Stormy Atlantic).
"The back story of the colt is that Matthew [Sandblom], the boss, bought him online through the Inglis Digital site for $18,000 and fortunately enough for the ladies who run his farm at Kiama (Hollymount Stud), Michelle [Harris] and Kristy [Marsh], the colt came home and they liked him and they said, 'we'd like to buy half, Matthew','' Kingstar's Adam Cook explained.
"Once again it emphasises what sort of boss Matthew is.''
Lucinda's Moon, who is in foal to leading first season sire Capitalist (Written Tycoon) is catalogued as lot 449 at Sunday's Australian Broodmare Sale at Riverside in the Toolooganvale Farm draft and Cook said that the Russian Revolution colt had been extremely busy during inspections.
"He was very, very busy all week and he came through the prep with an amazing attitude, he didn't turn a hair so I think that helped him reach the price that he did,'' Cook continued.
"There has been a lot of buyers here over the last four or five days that you wouldn't have seen at Scone so hats off to Inglis.
"Obviously, with the draft that we had, we had 13 yearlings so having the facilities here at Riverside to parade these horses in a good space, a good colt like he was, in a confined space at White Park maybe there wasn't the opportunity to parade and show his strut off.''
Smith said he had been trying to buy a Russian Revolution all year but it wasn't until Monday that he was able to do so.
"And this guy I thought was one of the better ones I'd seen all year too,'' Smith said of the colt, pictured.
"There's lots of [Russian Revolution's sire] Snitzel about this yearling. I thought he was a standout at this sale.
"When he walked in they asked me his valuation and I thought he was a $120,000 horse, I thought that's what he would make at say a Classic Sale so yeah, we had to extend the budget.
"I've found this year that at just about every sale you've had to pay that extra 20 to 25 per cent more. The market has shifted and we've just got to shift with it and stump up to pay for the right ones.''
The inaugural HTBA May Sale – a rebrand of the old Scone Sale – ended with an average of $19,095, clearance of 81 per cent and gross of $5,079,250. Two lots sold for six figures, the other being Sunday's session topping Capitalist colt who made $140,000.
The equal leading buyers were Tim Martin as well as Teresa Bateup and partners with ten purchases each, while Vinery Stud ended as leading vendor by aggregate (selling all 14 lots offered for $437,000) and Tyreel Stud by average, selling all three lots at a $65,333 average.
A total of 23 lots realised $50,000 or more at the sale.
"I think what we have witnessed these past two days is that the decision to rebrand and move this sale to Riverside as the HTBA May Yearling Sale has proven an absolute success,'' Inglis Managing Director Mark Webster said.
"Taking last year out of the equation due to the changes resulting from Covid, if you compare the statistics of this sale from the 2019 Scone Sale, the average is up 21 per cent and the gross is up 89 per cent so from that perspective, we are very satisfied.
"The gross has exceeded $5 million and the clearance rate of 81 per cent will continue to climb as my team works with vendors the next few days especially to get as many passed in lots sold but to already be in the 80s is pleasing.''
