Coolmore Sires Quinella HTBA Yearling Sale
Wootton Bassett and St Mark’s Basilica had the highest priced filly and colt at the Inglis HTBA Yearling Sale on Sunday in Sydney with the sale delivering rises in all key indicators.
Top lot at $140,000 was the Alma Vale Thoroughbreds consigned Wootton Bassett filly from placed Lonhro mare Zezolla that was bought by Tony Ottobre’s Cape Schank Stud.
Ottobre purchased his Australian Horse of the Year Pride of Jenni from the Inglis Classic Yearling Sale in 2019 for $100,000 and the daughter of Pride of Dubai has won over $10million in prizemoney.
Nearly all of the Ottobre owned horses run with ‘Jenni’ in their name in honour of their late daughter and this filly is likely to follow suit.
“She’ll be definitely named Jenni of some sort. A lot of [the naming process] has got to do with the name of the dam or the sire but I’ve already got a Wootton Bassett filly running around the farm who’s going to be named Jenni Bassett so we might have to use the dam with this one,’’ Tony Ottobre said.
“This filly, she’s a nice athletic build and that’s what I’m looking for.
“I’m really happy with that. We had a good look at her and she scoped well, she X-rayed fine so she’s certainly worth a chance.
“I’ve purchased horses for the Inglis Race Series and I thought I’d come out today and have a look to see if I could find the diamond.’’
Alma Vale’s Verna Metcalfe was delighted with the result.
“That’s a really good price, we’re really rapt with that, we didn’t think she’d bring that much,’’ Metcalfe said.
“She’s gone to a great home with Tony Ottobre too so it couldn’t be better.
“She was reared at Yarraman and we just prepped her for the sale and she did everything right and thrived during the prep. She’s got a really lovely walk on her and is just really professional.’’
The highest priced colt and second highest overall of the sale was a St Mark’s Basilica colt from metro winning Encosta de Lago mare Kristy Lee offered by Bowness Stud and sold for $130,000 to Rich River Meat Exports Pty Ltd.
Bowness’ James Daly purchased Kristy Lee for $35,000 at the Australian Broodmare Sale in 2023 – in foal to St Mark’s Basilica – and couldn’t have been happier.
“It’s a tremendous result for the stud. He’s an outstanding colt which had paraded well here all week and we’re just thrilled with the result,’’ Daly said.
“We bought the mare in foal because he (St Mark’s Basilica) was a first season sire and we’ve got a great result here today because he really stood out. It’s fantastic.
“It's good to stand out at a sale. He was really popular all week, was well paraded and handled himself well and sold accordingly. That said, when we got here I’d hoped he’d maybe get $50,000 but he paraded like a horse that was worth a lot more so to get $130,000 is huge for us.’’