Vinery Stud continued its successful start to the yearling sale season with 25 lots totalling $2.38million at the Inglis Classic Sale this week. The fourth-placed vendor finish followed turnover of $4.89million at the Gold Coast Magic Millions in January.
DAY 1 saw an Alabama Express – Anyana colt (Lot 81) head the Vinery leaderboard on Sunday when purchased by Paul Moroney Bloodstock for $240,000. “We bought Alabama Express as a yearling and he’s currently the hottest sire of first-season juveniles in Australasia,” Moroney said. “There’s deep stamina in his dam’s family and I expect him to develop into an excellent classic prospect at three.”
Read full Day 1 report here
DAY 2 was a busy session for NZ-based Ohukia Lodge owner Jamie Beatson with two colts by All Too Hard among his buys for a combined spend of $310,000. Vinery offered the colt from Florida Girl (Lot 280) as agent for Berend Van Dalfsen and he will tour the ring again at the NZB 2YO Sale in November. So will the All Too Hard – Mhaille colt (Lot 467) who was bred by Vinery partner Greg Perry. The dam is from a half-sister to his Group 1-winning graduate Artorius (Flying Artie).
“We upped the ante a little bit this year to try and find some better horses,” Beatson told The Thoroughbred Report. “We spent a bit more than we thought but we’re pretty pleased so far. We can get them back home and get them going earlier. You get the sharper sort of horses over here and the Aussie sires sold very well at our Ready To Run Sale last year.”
Ohukia Lodge was second on the 2023 NZB 2YO Sale with 22 lots making an aggregate of $5.13million. Beatson can go one better this year after seven-figure spends at the Gold Coast Magic Millions (10 lots for $1.76 million) and Inglis Classic (6 lots for $1.01 million).
That shopping list also includes Star Turn colts from Chickaletta ($140,000) and Cleverley ($120,000) at the Gold Coast and Riverside Stables respectively. “The Star Turn colt was a real good buy at the Magic Millions,” Beatson claimed. “I thought he would make a couple of hundred thousand at least but we picked him up for $140,000.”
Last year’s NZB 2YO Sale was a triumph for Vinery with a Star Turn colt ($825,000) and All Too Hard gelding ($800,000) topping the overall leaderboard. They were both purchased by Hong Kong buyers at Karaka.
DAY 3 was another profitable session for Greg Perry when he sold a first-crop colt by Circus Maximus (Galileo) through Vinery for $260,000 to Annabel Neasham. Catalogued as Lot 552, he’s from NZ-bred mare Our Josephina (Zabeel) who is a full-sister to the dam of VRC Victoria Derby (Gr.1, 2500m) winner Johnny Get Angry (Tavistock).
“I had never seen a horse fight in a finish like Circus Maximus since Giant’s Causeway,” Perry told ANZ Bloodstock News on Tuesday. “The colt is a magnificent individual and Annabel loves him, too.”
Neasham admitted she had only seen him once. “I didn’t need to go back. He’s a standout physically. He’s bred to be a classic horse but he’s a powerful colt with a really big, strong hindquarter. I loved Circus Maximus as a racehorse and I’m excited to get one of his sons.”
Vinery Stud’s next port of call on the calendar is the Inglis Melbourne Premier Yearling Sale on March 3, 4 and 5. Its Oaklands Junction consignment consists of 14 yearlings and includes three first-crop fillies and colt by Ole Kirk.
