Too Darn Hot Filly Tops Second Day at Inglis

Longtime Scone breeders Fred and Mary Moses achieved the biggest sale ring result of their long Thoroughbred industry careers, selling the Too Darn Hot  half sister to elite sprinter In Her Time for AU$600,000 (US$391,800; AU$1=US$0.65) Feb. 12 on Day 2 of the Inglis Classic Yearling Sale.

The Moses’ milestone came months after they sold their Kanangra stud to Mick Malone and Pauline Alix, who prepared the valuable filly under their rebranded North banner on their behalf.

The most expensive yearling sold at a Classic sale in two years and the highest-priced filly ever to change hands at Inglis’ season-opening auction, she was bought by YLP Racing, an offshoot of Chinese billionaire Zhang Yuesheng’s racing and breeding empire Yulong.

One of 35 yearlings to sell for AU$200,000 ($130,000) or more over the past two days, the Classic topper’s sibling Flame Of Hestia won a Wyong barrier trial by 4.4 lengths Jan. 31, while Zhang Yuesheng also owns her illustrious dual group 1-winning half sister In Her Time.

“We’re well invested in the family in a lot of respects and we liked her as much, if not better than the full sister. It was an obvious play for us, but we probably had to dig a little deeper than we anticipated,” said YLP Racing’s Vin Cox, who crossed from Godolphin last December.

“I think she has a little bit more scope than the sister, and that’s not being critical of the sister, who looks like she’s pretty smart.”

The 15th foal out of grand producer Hell It’s Hot, she cost more than twice the AU$280,000 Yulong paid for her talented 2-year-old sister at the Magic Millions 13 months ago.

Fred Moses has been the custodian of Hell It’s Hot on behalf of the late John and Denise Cobcroft, and the proceeds of the yearlings out of the top producer have generated at least AU$500,000 in donations to the National Jockeys Trust.

The significance of Flame Of Hestia’s appearance just 14 days ago, albeit at a barrier trial, was not lost on Moses.

“I was pretty pleased to see that because I thought it would help us, and she’s always been a nice filly in any case,” Moses told ANZ Bloodstock News.

“In the paddock she has just been the calmest, just standout filly whichever way you look at it all her life, and she’s not dissimilar to her full sister, who is a bit smaller than her.

“If she can gallop, this one will certainly be able to gallop, providing nothing goes wrong.”

Later, YLP Racing paid AU$320,000 ($208,000) for a son of resident stallion Pierata out of Just No Kissing, an unraced half sister to top-producing mare Abscond.

Inglis Bloodstock chief executive Sebastian Hutch was pleased with the day’s results.

“It felt like a healthy day’s trade again,” Hutch said. “We didn’t necessarily feel like there was any particular bias in the catalog in terms of where better horses would fall.”

The average sits at AU$97,338 ($63,270) and the median is AU$80,000 ($52,000), the same as 2023, while 396 horses have changed hands at a total cost of AU$38.546 million ($25.055 million).

“It was very evident there was strong competition on the good horses, clearance felt pretty good,” Hutch said. “Day 1 clearance is up to 86%, today is at 80 and still rising.

“We wanted to continue the momentum from the first day into today and it felt like that happened.”

The final of three sessions starts at 10 a.m. local time Feb. 13.