A quartet of seven-figure yearlings, an exceptional clearance rate and solid prices across the board.
That’s not a snapshot of this week’s Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale –merely the outstanding results achieved by the Darley stallions.
At a sale where questions on quantity and quality were being tossed around before the sale began, the Darley stallions emerged from two days of sometimes frantic buying with reputations enhanced.
A total of 47 Yearlings by 14 Darley sires passed through the Inglis ring at a total cost to their buyers of a little more than $18 million.
Exceed And Excel, Lonhro and Brazen Beau each set new personal records for their yearlings sold at auction.
For Exceed And Excel, the top-price of $1.7 million paid for Lot 337, a colt from the Stakes-winning Written Tycoon mare Written Dash, topped his previous best by more than $400,000.
The same mare produced Brazen Beau’s top-priced colt from last year’s Inglis Sydney Classic Sale.
Offered by Tyreel Stud and purchased by Aquis Farm, the colt is from the family of G1 winner Sizzling and the Stakes-placed Masthead.
The price was also a record for Tyreel.
"He was an exceptional yearling and the busiest horse we have ever presented at the sales. People were just coming back day after day to come and see him," Tyreel's Linda Monds said.
"This is my first horse over $1 million - it is quite remarkable. For a small boutique business like ours, to have an athlete like him that we have bred and raised and then to have been bought by the best judges in the industry for me is just phenomenal.''
Aquis CEO Shane McGrath said the colt, one of 13 purchased by the farm, was one they’d fallen in love with.
“At the end of the day you’ve got to buy the ones you love and he’s the one we loved,” McGrath said.
The colt was one of 13 outright acquisitions for Aquis which resulted in them being the sale's leading buyer by both lots purchased and aggregate ($8,375,000).
