A first foal from a former Inglis Chairman’s Sale-topper Shout The Bar headlined an extraordinary Day 1 of the Easter Yearling Sale at Riverside on Sunday.
On a record-breaking afternoon that was filled with countless mouth-watering results, a Home Affairs colt (ex Shout The Bar) from Coolmore sold for A$3m to the bid of Gai Waterhouse/Adrian Bott and Bruce Slade’s Kestrel Thoroughbreds.
Coolmore’s Lot 158 tops the day’s sales (Pic – Inglis)
It was a huge result for Coolmore, who bought Shout The Bar for A$2.7m at the Chairman’s Sale in 2022.
“Did not expect that! That’s exceeded expectations and then some,’’ a gobsmacked John Kennedy of Coolmore said.
“We said coming here that he was one of the nicest colts we’ve ever brought to a sale during my time at Coolmore and he certainly exceeded our expectations. It’s a special result.
“Shout The Bar probably looks a cheap purchase now. When you give a price like that for a broodmare you always hope to get a first foal like this fella, he’s a great representation of what we feel the Home Affairs yearlings are like.
“It’s been a very busy day, there’s a lot of competition there at all levels of the market, foot traffic around the sale has been absolutely terrific, Inglis has done a fantastic job. We’re delighted.’’
Adrian Bott added: “We expected we’d need to be very strong, as has been the theme throughout the day here.
“We’d been beaten a couple of times and this was one of the horses we had an asterisk next to that we really didn’t want to get beaten on. Gai was doing cartwheels!
“He’s a beautifully balanced, well-proportioned horse with a lot of maturity and strength about him, great athleticism.’’
While not officially on the buyer sheet, the colt will be part-owned by John Singleton, who was at Riverside with the Waterhouse/Bott team to see the colt go through the ring.
“It’s part of a heritage that name, when former Prime Minister Hawkey and I won the Slipper with Belle du Jour in 2000 what did we do? We shouted the bar.
“When the Shout The Bar colt came up, Gai thought he was the best stallion prospect here, my vet thinks he’s the pick of the crop, we paid a fair bit and Gai will tell me later how much I owe her.
“His breeding is magic, just wait and see, hopefully we look back and say how cheap he was.’’
Today’s second-top lot was a Snitzel x Ms Bad Behavior colt, the brother to fellow Easter graduate and Gr1 winner and stallion-in-waiting Switzerland.
Offered by Arrowfield, he sold for A$2.7m to Coolmore and will be trained by Chris Waller.
The result was the highest price ever realised by an Arrowfield-offered yearling.
“It’s a fantastic result for the farm and great to see Coolmore buy the horse, they’ve had a huge amount of luck off us in recent times and I hope he’s a great horse for them,’’ Paul Messara said.
“It’s a massive result, I’m just delighted for all of our team.
“His brother obviously sold here so we thought [Easter] was the right place for him and we were right.
“Things have been really busy, foot traffic has been great, all the horses have been well seen and when that’s the case, the market decides the price and we deliver the product. I’m pretty certain we delivered the product and in circumstances likes this, when you get two or more parties that love an animal, you get a great result.’’
Coolmore’s Tom Magnier added: “He’s a strong horse like his brother, he’s got loads of quality like his brother, he’s one of the standouts of the sale. You go to places where you’ve had success before and we’ve had that with Arrowfield, the Messara’s are very smart people and do a great job.
“Everybody is saying to me that this is the best Easter catalogue that they’ve seen in years, there’s some very good horses here.
“We’re very, very happy. You see all the people in the Northern Hemisphere are here buying at this sale or watching this sale, if you want to find the pedigrees and you want to find the types, this is the sale you have to come to.’’
Day 1 ended with a gross of A$63,055,000, an average of A$488,798 and a median of A$375,000.
A total of 10 horses sold for A$1m or more today, compared to four on Day 1 last year.
Inglis Bloodstock CEO Sebastian Hutch was thrilled with how the day played out overall.
“It’s been a very pleasing day and it was very rewarding to see so many great results for so many people on both sides of the ledger,’’ Hutch said.
“We have been blessed to have a lovely group of yearlings in the catalogue and the appetite of the buying bench has been tremendous, so when you have those two things, good things generally happen.
“In the context of how the market has been through the year, this was an incredibly robust day of trade.
“We look forward to Tuesday now with lots of nice horses to sell and an abundance of opportunities for buyers at all levels.’’
The second and final day of the 2025 Easter Yearling Sale takes place on Monday.
To view the Easter catalogue, CLICK HERE.
EASTER 2025 DAY 1 STATISTICS (2024 in brackets)
- Lots offered: 163 (222)
- Lots sold: 129 (164)
- Clearance Rate: 79% (74%)
- Average Price: A$488,798 (A$390,091)
- Median Price: A$375,000 (A$300,000)
- Top Price: A$3,000,000 (A$2,200,000)
- Gross: A$63,055,000 (A$63,975,000)
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