Inglis Releases 'Excellent' Classic Yearling Catalog

A half brother to Private Harry (AUS) and a brother to Stretan Angel (AUS) are among the highlights of a sparkling catalog for a Classic Yearling Sale which Inglis expects to enhance the auction's reputation for quality at bargain prices. A total of 798 lots have been cataloged—eight fewer than in 2025—for the sale at Riverside from Feb. 8-10. And Inglis Bloodstock CEO Sebastian Hutch said buyers could expect a wide range of attractive offerings from what he feels could be the best crop of yearlings seen in Australia for several years. Among those likely to turn heads is Lot 56, a colt by Zousai (AUS) who's the seventh foal out of Happy Pilgrim, the dam of Nathan Doyle's star sprinter Private Harry. The colt is offered by NSW Southern Highlands farm Rheinwood Pastoral, who also bred Private Harry. Also sold at Classic, for AU$115,000, Private Harry went through his first five starts unbeaten last season, culminating in Randwick's The Galaxy (G1), before a multi-million dollar buy-in from Yulong. Also sure to be in demand is Lot 462, a colt from NSW's Kirks Bridge Farm by Harry Angel out of Sretan (Bernardini), who's a brother to Stretan Angel. That Phillip Stokes-trained mare is a winner of three stakes races and has been placed in three of Australia's most important sprints, with seconds in the Lightning Stakes (G1) and the The Goodwood (G1), and a third in the Newmarket Handicap (G1). Much is expected also of Lot 158, Glenlogan Park's son of the late Snitzel (AUS) and group 3-winning mare Madotti, and of Waikato Stud's Lot 480, a son of their 10-time New Zealand champion sire Savabeel (AUS) who's the second foal of three-time stakes winner Supreme Heights. A total of 74 vendors will present stock from 113 sires including such proven stallions as I Am Invincible (AUS), Extreme Choice (AUS), and Snitzel, up-and-comers including The Autumn Sun (AUS), Ole Kirk (AUS), and Too Darn Hot (GB), and 14 debutants such as Anamoe (AUS), Artorius (AUS), Hitotsu (AUS), and Jacquinot (AUS). Hutch was able to reflect on an "excellent" catalog he feels represents the vast depth of yearlings on the ground for the 2026 sale season. "My observation is it's a better yearling crop than the year prior," Hutch told ANZ News. "A lot of people might say a sales company would say that, but that's based on what we've seen and the information we've collected. We feel we've seen more nice horses than at any similar stage of the past number of years. "It may well be that people are just showing us more horses, and thus we're seeing more nice horses, but it just felt like earlier this year we had a fantastic round of yearling sales, and the market's recognized that, and consequently it feels like more people want to sell nice horses. "In general, we feel like it's an exceptionally good crop of yearlings." Inglis statistics show Classic has produced 24 group 1 winners since 2018, 13 of whom could have been bought for AU$100,000 or less. Classic has produced 41 millionaires in that period, while the average price for an Australian stakes winner out of the sale is AU$113,594, or 63% less than the Gold Coast January Yearling Sale, Inglis said in a press release. Those 24 elite winners include Pride of Jenni (AUS), bought for AU$100,000; Sepals, who was an AU$80,000 buy; Skybird, bought for AU$110,000; and Hong Kong star Voyage Bubble, who cost AU$380,000.