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Inglis happy with results from first live sale of the year.
Inglis has labelled this year's Classic Sale 'satisfying' after its first live offering of the year wrapped up on Tuesday.
The three-day sale, which saw 721 lots offered, 591 of which were sold at an average of $93,658, was the first conducted under the new format of one book instead of a Showcase session followed by a Highway session.
That had Inglis Bloodstock chief executive Sebastian Hutch reluctant to compare statistics with previous years until the completion of the sale.
But with $55,352,000 changing hands, which was just over $6m less than last year, and an average comparing favourably with 2023's $93,877, Inglis was understandably happy with the results.
"We've been hesitant to compare year-on-year statistics up to this point because of the new format of the sale and the only realistic way to do that was at the end of the sale and to look at the 2024 figures alongside the combined Book 1 and Highway Session figures from 2023 and when you do that, they're effectively a mirror image of each other,'' Hutch said.
"There was understandably some trepidation leading into the sale given how the lower end of the other sales so far this year had played out, but the feedback on-site all week has been that inspections had been as good as any other year.
"The buyers from far and wide were here and the action in the ring was as strong as ever.
"Our main goal every sale is to see vendors go home happy and I'm confident a majority of vendors are doing exactly that.
"There were some really extraordinary results over the past three days, some great buying to be done and some great results for sellers so when you can facilitate a market where both buyers and sellers go home happy, it's very satisfying."
The top lot of the sale was the daughter of Too Darn Hot and Hell It's Hot, the dam of dual Group 1 winner In Her Time, who sold to Yulong for $600,000 – the most expensive filly ever sold at Inglis Classic.
A North Pacific half-sister to last Saturday's $2m Inglis Millennium winner Fully Lit sold for $420,000, the same as a daughter of Justify and American mare Islay Inlet.
The highest-priced colt was a son of Street Boss and Dance Card, who sold for $375,000 on Day 1.
Inglis's attention now turns to heir major Melbourne offering, Premier, which will be held from March 3-5.
"Our focus moves to Melbourne now for the Premier Sale, a sale that produced The Everest winner a couple of years ago for $70,000 so it's a sale that's going to attract significant attention from the buying bench again," Hutch said.