Battle Maiden tops Inglis finale

BATTLE MAIDEN, a seven-year-old mare by Goldkeeper, led the way at Tuesday's

finale of the Inglis Australian Select Broodmare Sale on the strength of an

A$625,000 bid from Ultra Thoroughbreds. Champion older mare in South Africa in

2003/2004 and multiple graded stakes placed in Australia, Battle Maiden hailed

from the draft of Written Bloodstock. She sold in foal to Good Journey, winner

of Canada's Atto Mile (Can-G1) in 2002.

Overall, average and gross were down substantially from last year's sale, a

much larger affair that was boosted by Darley's purchase of Mannington (Aus) (Danehill)

for A$2.05 million. Last year's average was A$79,975, compared to A$53,668 this

term, a drop of 32.9 percent. Median, however, was off just slightly in 2006,

down 3.7 percent, from A$27,000 to A$26,000.

"We are very pleased with the results," said Managing Director Reg Inglis.

"The majority of vendors have walked away from the sale with their expectations

well and truly surpassed. The buying bench included bidders from South Africa,

Japan, America, Europe, Korea, New Zealand, and the Philippines, as well as

every state of Australia. Commercially bred young mares have never been in

stronger demand than at Newmarket over the last few days. Mares with black-type

performance or closely related to quality group winners met with feverish

bidding."