The thrilling appeal of Extreme Choice and the resilience of the Inglis Easter yearling market were on show on opening day at Riverside, with Newgate Stud's star stallion holding the top and equal-second lots spearheaded by a AU$3 million (US$2,065,200, AU$1=US$0.69) colt (Lot 26) March 29.
Before the sale, Inglis officials restrained their predictions due to uncertainty stemming from the ongoing war in Iran and its economic impacts, such as downward pressure on global stock markets and the opposite on fuel prices.
And while many rated the catalog as the finest they had seen at Easter, an even and deep spread of quality, combined with events in the Middle East, led to doubts that last year's top price of AU$3 million could be matched.
Within less than an hour, those doubts were erased when Coolmore's Tom Magnier out-dueled Yulong in a tense bidding war to emerge with Lot 26, Lime Country Thoroughbreds' powerful bay colt by Extreme Choice out of dual group winner Pretty Brazen.
Later, trainer Clinton McDonald and Shane McGrath Bloodstock paid AU$1.8 million for Lot 117, Newgate's filly by the same sire out of group 1 winner Speak Fondly.
That ranked equal second on the day alongside Lot 126, Widden Stud's Zoustar filly out of group 2 winner Summer Sham, who's a sister to elite-winning sprinter and now Rosemont Stud-based sire Schwarz. She was bought by Dean Hawthorne Bloodstock on behalf of Jonathan Munz's GSA Bloodstock.
It came in an opening session which, although several markers were down on last year, left Inglis Bloodstock CEO Sebastian Hutch "delighted," given his pre-sale jitters due to events in the Middle East.
Soon after the close of business, the average was AU$452,603 (US$292,985), down 7.4% at the same stage last year, albeit with 17 more lots sold (146). The gross stood at AU$66,080,000 (US$45,489,472), up 4.5%, while the median dropped 6.6% to AU$350,000 (US$240,940). The clearance rate was down three points at 76%.
In a sign of the spread of quality, the day's eight seven-figure lots came from six different vendors.
And in a hint of the strength and breadth of the buying bench, they involved seven different purchasers.
"It's hard not to be buoyed by the outcome of today," Hutch told reporters. "It's a promising start to the sale.
"I was apprehensive ahead of the sale. But ultimately, it's played out that people wanted to buy nice horses and pursue them with real vigor. We get to the end of the day with a set of figures which, if you'd offered them to me at the start, I'd have bitten your hand off for.
"The gross is up, the clearance is ... fractionally behind last year. We offered more horses, so I think we were prepared for that.
By a fluke of the catalog, Hutch believes bigger and better should be expected March 30. That was hinted at by the fact that the AU$3 million colt was the usually big-spending Magnier's only purchase of the day.
"I would expect people to have a longer list for tomorrow than they would have had for today. There's plenty of nice horses tomorrow," said Hutch, while reminding buyers there were still lower budget buys to be had.
Expectations were high for Extreme Choice at this sale, with his ten lots hatched from his first season after entering the service fee stratosphere, at AU$275,000 (inc GST). Only three of his offerings were on sale on Sunday, but his two seven-figure lots helped him top the averages among sires, with three or more lots sold, at AU$1.9 million.
