The second session of the Inglis Classic Yearling Sale on Monday again saw a son of leading young sire Deep Field set the pace with a colt from Raheights fetching $380,000 for Torryburn Stud.
Bred and sold by Torryburn, the star colt is a half-brother to four winners headed by Group III winner Diddums and stakes-placed Brettan with Hong Kong trainer Ricky Yiu securing the much admired youngster.
Yiu is a big fan of Deep Field and insisted he wasn’t going home without one from Classic.
“The sire is very popular here in Australia and is also very popular in Hong Kong,’’ Yiu said.
“They are a very versatile kind of a horse. This one is a very nice individual, very athletic and I really liked him.’’
Torryburn Stud’s Mel Copelin was thrilled with the result and hopes he can follow in the footsteps of previous Torryburn Inglis Classic graduate Hot King Prawn, who is a multiple stakes-winner in Hong Kong.
“He was a nice moving horse and so well behaved down here. He just walked the house down, so it was really special for him to be the top lot today,” she said.
Deep Field also had big results with colts from She’s a Stalker and She Chose Me both selling for $260,000.
Capitalist made a big splash at the sale on Monday when his colt from Pearl Congenial made $340,000 for Newgate Farm to the bid of James Harron Bloodstock.
Harron purchased his sire Capitalist as a yearling and has been keen to secure his progeny in the sale ring this year.
“He is a lovely colt out of a good racemare, who was very precocious herself,” Harron told ANZ News.
“I just loved the attitude of his horse. He handled the sale beautifully and he has a lot of quality about him, lovely middle and I was watching him in the back ring and he just handled everything so well like his dad used to, so I was very pleased to get him.”
Bred by SF Bloodstock and partners, the colt is the first foal of stakes-placed Pearl Congenial, who has a Deep Field colt to follow and is now in foal to Russian Revolution.
Extreme Choice was also seen to advantage with a colt from Set to Skelter fetching $280,000 for Bell River Thoroughbreds to Dream Thoroughbreds / Blue Sky Bloodstock (FBAA) / Bluegrass Bloodstock (FBAA) / Anthony Freedman Racing VIC.
Dream Thoroughbreds’ David Azzopardi has high hopes for the colt, who he sees as a replacement for the soon-to-be retired dual stakes-winning sprinter I Am Immortal.
“There are a couple in the family coming through that we are aware of, so it is an active family. There’s a lot of black-type on the page and he is a lovely athletic colt – not too big – and Anthony Freedman loved him,” Azzopardi told ANZ News.
“We have had success with I Am Immortal and sending him to stud and we now need to replace him with another colt. Those owners have enjoyed a good ride and a lot of those owners will probably buy back into this colt.”
The colt was bred by in partnership by Bell River Thoroughbreds, who also bred and sold his sire at the 2015 Inglis Classic Yearling Sale for $100,000.
After the first two sessions, Extreme Choice is the leading first season sire at Inglis Classic by average with seven yearlings averaging $151,429.
Winning Rupert also made his mark with another Torryburn Stud bred and sold youngster making $180,000. The handsome chestnut colt from Suziequeue was snapped up by Ciaron Maher Racing / A Brennan.
