Racing
Ghaiyyath colt stamps Classic Sale
The top lot of this year’s Classic Yearling Sale came on Tuesday’s final day
A colt by last year's Victoria Derby-winning sire Ghaiyyath stamped this year's Classic Yearling Sale, which Inglis has hailed a resounding success.
The colt out of the Dehere mare Berg En Dal became the sale's second half-million-dollar lot, and highest-priced lot of the offering, when knocked down to Tony and Calvin McEvoy and Belmont Bloodstock for $625,000.
The Wentwood Grange-prepared youngster contributed more heavily than any other to a sale gross of $57,573,500, which was significantly up on last year's $54,103,500.
Eighteen more lots were sold this year, thanks to a clearance rate rise from 80 percent to 84, with the average up from $94,257 to $97,253 and the median up $5000 to $75,000.
Inglis Bloodstock chief executive Sebastian Hutch was delighted with the results.
"We catalogued a similar number of yearlings to 12 months ago but, with scratchings, have ultimately offered fewer yearlings than what we did last year but still managed to post a significantly improved gross figure and a markedly improved clearance rate, all while increasing both average and median," he said.
"There were so many pleasing aspects about the past few days.
"To have a buying bench that includes participation from China, Hong Kong, Japan, Indonesia, New Zealand, South Korea, Taiwan, Philippines, Europe etc and all over Australia is a testament to the work that is done throughout the year to promote the Inglis Yearling Sales Series.
"We've had 20 yearlings make $300,000 or more, by 17 different stallions, offered by 16 different vendors and bought by 18 different listed buyers, which is fantastic."
For the second consecutive year Arrowfield Stud ended the sale as leading vendor – selling 32 horses for $3.72m – while on the buyer front, Mick Price and Michael Kent Jr (with partners) ended as the biggest spenders at $1,470,000 and John Foote (with partners) purchased the most individual lots with 11.
Home Affairs was the most popular stallion, selling 18 horses for a total of $3,150,000, while Extreme Choice led the averages with three lots going for $295,000 apiece.
Calvin McEvoy considered the colt was a 'standout' and said he knew his team would have to be strong to land the son of Darley's impressive young stallion.
"We loved him from the first time we saw him, which you really need to when you spend that sort of money,'' McEvoy said.
"This is a colt we pinpointed early and every time we went back to look for something wrong with him, we couldn't find it. For that reason we knew we had to be strong and we're very excited that we're able to take him home.
"I thought he was the standout in the sale. I knew he'd be around that price but maybe not quite that mark, maybe a bid or two less but I heard there was a very good judge as under bidder so that gives us even more confidence.
"We've got a lot of confidence in this sale, we've bought a couple of Group 1 winners out of the sale recently and if you do the hard work, you can find a bit of value and we felt like we've shopped around that value and this was the big standout colt we wanted to take home.''
2026 Classic Sale top lots
$625,000 – Ghaiyyath x Berg En Dal colt (bought by McEvoy Racing/Belmont Bloodstock)
$540,000 – Harry Angel x Sretan colt (Equine Growth Fund/Blueblood/SP Bloodstock)
$425,000 – Extreme Choice x Nais Ko filly (Star Thoroughbreds/Vin Cox)
$400,000 – Hellbent x Miramare colt (BK Racing/Portelli Racing)
$390,000 – Castelvecchio x Panzerfaust colt (Ellerslie Lodge/Bryce Heys)
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