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Two-day Inglis auction kicks off in Sydney.
A colt by Darley's Exceed And Excel (Danehill) proved the most popular on the opening day of the Inglis Australian Weanling Sale on Wednesday as Bruce Mackenzie went to a session-topping $260,000 for the foal from the Middlebrook Valley Lodge draft.
Verna Metcalfe of Middlebrook Valley Lodge said she was pleased to see the colt well received in the ring and was delighted to see the colt deliver a great result for longtime client Kate Gadsby.
"I've said all along, this is the sale to come to," said Metcalfe. "It's the first weanling sale, bring them here, the good colts sell well.
"This is an awesome result all round, and an awesome result for a long-time client in Kate Gadsby It's good for her to get a good result as she's had a lot of bad luck lately.
"I thought the colt would make his $200,000 because the Exceed And Excels are hard to get.
"He's a lovely colt, the first foal out of the mare. He was a good colt from the day he was born, just a good, straight forward, easy-to-rare colt.
"Actually I feel a bit emotional. Inglis has done a top job trying to get people here, you've got to take your hats off to them."
Catalogued as Lot 174, the colt is the first foal out of the unraced Pierro (Lonhro) mare Count Your Money, who was purchased by Gadsby for $50,000 at the Magic Millions National Yearling Sale in 2016 from the Ambergate Farm draft.
Count Your Money herself is a half-sister to WATC Railway Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) winner Good Project (Not A Single Doubt) and Singapore Listed winner World Airlines (Umatilla).
Mackenzie, who stayed in Port Stephens due to the coronavirus, said he was happy to leave the sale with the foal, believing it to be the standout of the sale.
"I'm not there because I didn't want to take the risk with the virus," said Mackenzie.
"I had multiple people look at the horse who I trust and they said this was the one. This colt is the pea, he could be the nicest colt at the sale. I had a guy there for two days looking around, at the end of the day he had four to five picked out but said this was the one.
"With the bidding, I baulked at the barrier a couple of times but then I kept going. I wanted him, I wanted to take him home, full stop. I was going to buy him no matter what.
"We'll break him in here, educate him here, rare him here and then race him. Hopefully he's our next star."
Middlebrook Valley Lodge finished the day as leading vendor by both average and aggregate, selling 11 weanlings for an aggregate of $726,500 at an average of $66,045.
