To everyone’s delight in the domestic thoroughbred industry, the Inglis Melbourne Premier followed suit with the yearling sale series staged so far in 2021.
Vastly increased turnover on the previous year’s renewal and an almost unprecedented clearance rate sent virtually every participant home thankful that they’d been involved. And the Sledmere Stud contingent proved to be no exception.
Our 2021 Inglis Melbourne Premier draft comprised a dozen quality youngsters, of which 11 were sold for an aggregate of $1,385,000 and an average of $125,909.
Probably best illustrating the nature of our Melbourne Premier consignment is the fact that the Sledmere Stud median of $140,000 was greater than our average ($125,909), an unusual occurrence for the vast majority of auctions.
So, while there may not have been any half-million dollar-plus Lots, the general level of quality was high and consistent right across the board.
The top-price achieved by a member of the Sledmere Stud draft was Lot 479, an outstanding son of Per Incanto offered on behalf of our great friends and clients Little Avondale of New Zealand. After attracting an opening bid of $200,000, the handsome colt went on to fetch $300,000 and will ultimately be raced out of the stable of some other very good friends and clients in the form of Leon and Troy Corstens.
Top-price filly sold at Oaklands by the Sledmere Stud sales team proved to be Lot 147, a first-crop daughter of Russian Revolution bred by and offered on behalf of China Horse Club. The half-sister to Group 2 Sweet Embrace Stakes placegetter Dismissal was sold to Dalziel Bloodstock/Peter Moody Racing for $170,000 and joined a very long list of Russian Revolution progeny to have been purchased by revered judges at yearling sales since the beginning of the year.
In addition to Leon & Troy Corstens and Peter Moody, trainers of the calibre of Michael & Richard Freedman, Mark Kavanagh, Clint McDonald and Stuart Kendrick were registered as purchasers of Sledmere Stud yearlings presented for sale at the Melbourne Premier, as well as leading syndication companies such as Star Thoroughbreds, Roll The Dice Racing and the aforementioned Dalziel Bloodstock.
This only augurs well for the racing future of the stock we took to Oaklands on behalf of our clients, as well as the longer-term commerciality of the pedigree page of each individual sold.