The 2024 Inglis Classic Yearling Sale proved to be a triumph for Sledmere Stud and our sales team which headed home from Warwick Farm after three full days of trading at Riverside Stables officially recognized as the leading vendor based on aggregate.
With no fewer than 80 thoroughbred establishments based either side of the Tasman represented in this year’s Inglis Classic catalogue, the achievement of finishing the sale as leading vendor is no mean feat and something everyone involved with the farm is terribly of. And for good reason, as the Sledmere Stud consignment of 29 — after two withdrawls — was acutely smaller than that presented by some Hunter Valley goliaths yet still managed to generate the largest aggregate.
When ‘stumps was called’ on the sale late on Tuesday afternoon, the Sledmere Stud team had sold 25 Lots for a total of $2,932,000, just shading the respective returns of Arrowfield (31 Lots sold for $2,750,000) and Widden (39 Lots sold for $2,669,500).
https://twitter.com/SledmereStud/status/1757305431972835764Highlights of the Sledmere draft included the sale of Lot 507, a Written Tycoon filly which fetched $360,000 and proved to be one of the highest half-dozen prices realized during the three days of trading. She’s now destined to race out of the Gai Waterhouse-Adrian Bott stable in the very prominent colours of Dodmark Thoroughbreds.
Top-price of our colts in the sale proved to be the full-brother to top-class 2- and 3-year-old Arkansaw Kid offered as Lot 279 and sold for $300,000 to Ohukia Lodge of Cambridge, New Zealand.
The farm’s great producer Exabelle also played her part in a memorable sale when her 2022 Capitalist colt sold to Astute Bloodstock (FBAA) for $260,000. Her four foals to have raced include the dual Group 2 winner Yes Baby Yes.
More generally speaking, selling three second-crop Too Darn Hot (GB) yearlings on Day 1 for a collective $550,000 was also a very notable element of our three days of trading, as was the fact that such a vast cross section of buyers showed so much faith in what the farm took to auction. These included, but in no particular order, trainers Kris Lees, Simon Zahra, Matthew Dunn, Ciaron Maher, Chris Anderson, Mitch Freedman, Sam & Anthony Freedman, Gai Waterhouse & Adrian Bott, Shane Oxlade; syndication companies Monarch Bloodstock, Tricolours Racing, Roll The Dice Racing, Blueblood Thoroughbreds; racing concerns Domeland Pty Ltd, Dodmark Thoroughbreds; and agents Justin Bahen, Neil Jenkinson, Paul Moroney, Louis Le Metayer, as well as others.
We thank everyone for their support over the past week and wish them the very best of luck with their purchases at a renewal of the Inglis Classic Yearling Sale no one associated with Sledmere Stud will forget in a hurry.