Two sell for more than a million at Inglis Easter opener

While still a buyers' market, the first day of the Inglis Easter Yearling

Sale on Tuesday closed on par with the 2009 renewal, based on an average of

A$233,182 and median of A$160,000, compared with A$226,978 and A$150,000 for the

corresponding session a year ago. While the RNA rate of 28 percent is cause for

consternation, vendors are overwhelmingly reporting healthy trade privately

afterwards, and the clearance rate is confidently expected to improve. Inglis

Managing Director Mark Webster said the opening session was sufficiently solid.

"Any horse sale that averages A$230,000 is a very good result," Webster said.

"It's hard to expect this sale to make the same gains as some others have this

year, because Easter is coming off a much higher base, so it's hard to get the

same kind of lift. Obviously we would like to see the clearance rate improve,

and history says that is likely to be the case as we go on this week. It will

just take vendors a little time to adjust. The main message is that these are

the best yearlings in the Southern Hemisphere, and buyers are in pole position

to take advantage of what our vendors have to offer over the remaining two

days."

Boutique Upper Hunter Valley stud Kitchwin Hills outstayed some serious

opposition to secure a stand-out Redoute's Choice colt that topped the opening

session. The hammer fell at A$1.87 million midway through the afternoon.Widely

regarded to be the most outstanding individual at the sale complex, bidding on

the bay colt, who is reminiscent in many ways to his grandsire Danehill, began

at A$500,000.

Caulfield trainer Peter Moody, who puts the polish on multiple Group 1 winner

Typhoon Tracy, was underbidder, along with John Messara's Arrowfield Stud.

Shadwell's Angus Gold was in a prominent ringside position on his cell phone,

and was believed to have a A$1.2-million budget, while trainer David Hayes was

similarly glued to a mobile and shadowed by agent Mark Pilkington, positioned

near an aisle. Farther back in that aisle was Kitchwin Hills stud manager Mick

Malone, flanked property businessman John McGrath, and Graeme Brown, whose

family owns Kitchwin Hills, steadfastly returning the fire.

The rich bay colt with a neat off-white hind sock and dainty star on his

forehead simply exuded presence and walked around unfussed by the attention.

Offered as Lot 125, he has Easy Date (Grand Chaudiere) as his third dam; she was

among Australasia's blue-hen matrons and sired the immensely influential sire

Snippets. The colt is closely related to Golden Slipper (Aus-G1) winner

Forensics and to Group 1 winner Rewaaya. Malone said that Kitchwin had assembled

a group of buyers to secure the colt.

"We have put a syndicate together, but there are still shares available in

him," Malone said. "We are not sure what trainer he will go to -- we are still

throwing it around a bit -- but he has big support from the syndicate.

"I have a close association with Segenhoe Stud. I saw this colt not long

after he was born, and watched him develop throughout his life. For months now,

I have been really keen to put a team together and get him. If you want that

type of colt and that type of pedigree, you have got to pay for it but we were

very close to our limit.

"He is a star type, a beautiful mover with lovely bone, a lovely Danehill

head on him, and any stallion prospect with Snippets in him will do me."

Malone foresees a future for the glamour colt in the stallion barn at

Kitchwin Hills, which has foundation sire Dane Shadow and newcomer Duporth this

season.

"We have got Dane Shadow at the farm; we are not trying to take on the big

boys in the stallion game, but these are the sort of horses you have to have if

you are going to go forward in this game," Malone asserted.

Melbourne trainer Mark Kavanagh secured the first daughter of triple

Melbourne Cup (Aus-G1) victor Makybe Diva (Desert King) for A$1.2 million early

in the day. Kavanagh said he was acting on behalf of several existing stable

clients to snare the elegant chestnut filly by Kentucky Derby (G1) winner

Fusaichi Pegasus.

"I have purchased her for a couple of stable clients, but there is a piece of

her still swinging," Kavanagh said. "I believe she will only appreciate in

value, I have every faith in that family and that filly. She is a beautifully

balanced, good natured filly."

Tony Santic's champion mare Makybe Diva was booked to Encosta de Lago in

2007, but the Equine Influenza outbreak and that stallion's prolonged stay in

the Eastern Creek Quarantine Centre stymied those plans. Fusaichi Pegasus

stepped in to do the job with an immensely attractive outcome. Offered by Makybe

Diva's owner Tony Santic's eponymous Makybe Stud, the filly is the second to go

through this sale ring. Her first foal, a colt by Galileo (Ire), fetched A$1.5

million when knocked down to trainer Danny O'Brien at Easter last year.

Makybe Diva, who earned more than A$14 million on the track, has an Encosta

de Lago coal foaled last August and was covered last spring by More Than Ready.

Her Galileo colt is yet to be named.

Inglis Managing Director Mark Webster said it was an honor to sell the first

filly from the great mare.

"The filly was an outstanding type with a world-class pedigree," Webster

said. "It's fitting that she should be sold to Mark Kavanagh -- the most recent

Melbourne Cup-winning trainer -- and it's fitting that she should be the first

million-dollar yearling of our 2010 sale. We are grateful that Tony Santic and

the Makybe team have chosen Easter as the venue to sell Makybe Diva's first two

yearlings, and we congratulate him on another successful sale."