I Am Invincible filly, Shinzo colt top Inglis Weanling Sale at AU$400,000 each

Two AU$400,000 weanlings told the story at Riverside Stables: Australian buyers were not chasing volume, they were chasing class. A filly by I Am Invincible and a colt by Shinzo shared top billing on the final day of the Inglis Australian Weanling Sale in Sydney, and the result showed where the money is flowing now, into proven sire power, first-season buzz and foals with yearling and racing upside.

The sale finished with a record gross of AU$19,498,250, a sale-record average of AU$66,547 and a record median of AU$40,000. Inglis reported a 77% clearance rate from 504 catalogued lots, and 58 horses made AU$100,000 or more while 21 cleared AU$200,000. That matters because the auction did not need a bigger catalogue to get bigger numbers. Inglis offered 85 fewer weanlings than in 2025 and still beat last year’s record gross, a sign that the market concentrated harder at the top rather than spreading its spending through the book.

The I Am Invincible filly, Lot 424, went to Peter Twomey’s Wattle Bloodstock as agent for an Asia-based client. Twomey said she was his No. 1 pick of the sale, and that she would stay in Australia to race before going to Twin Hills for Chris Kent and Ollie Tait to handle. Out of Noor Sahara, winner of the 2019 Prix de Pontarmé at ParisLongchamp, she came with the kind of page that turns a weanling into a commercial weapon, especially for a buyer trying to land an Easter-quality runner without paying Easter money in the yearling ring.

The Shinzo colt matched her at AU$400,000 and gave one of the freshest names in the market a loud commercial push. Sold as Lot 412 to Cool Partners Inc. for Coolmore, he is out of My Xanadu and is the first foal from a winning half-sister to He’s Heaven, with second dam Lights Of Heaven, winner of the 2011 Australasian Oaks. Tom Moore said appetite for Shinzo was obvious during the week, and that is the point: Shinzo’s first weanlings are already being treated like future stock, not just speculative foals.

Sebastian Hutch said the sale was re-energized over the past five years, and the buyer bench backed that up with interest from the United Kingdom, Japan, Ireland, Hong Kong, New Zealand, the Philippines, South Africa and Australia. In a market that can wobble below the best-bred lots, the message from Sydney was clear: the sharp end is still strong, and the money is increasingly concentrating on pedigrees that can win now and sell again later.