The unique 2020 Inglis Easter Yearling Sale format was deemed a success by many considering the testing circumstances. 

Day two of selling was a momentous day for DGR Thoroughbred Services’ Duncan Ramage who was delighted with the sale prices fetched by yearlings out of two very special mares he purchased for clients as yearlings; First Seal and Yattarna.

To this day, Group One-winner First Seal is Duncan’s most expensive yearling purchase, costing NZ$700,000 at the 2013 NZB Karaka Yearling Sale. 

Purchased for the China Horse Club and the late Dato’ Tan Chin Nam (Think Big Stud) from Gordon Cunningham’s Curraghmore Stud, First Seal has excelled in everything she has been asked to do. She won over A$1.25 million in prizemoney and can now add producing the 2020 Inglis Easter Yearling Sale topper to her impressive list of accomplishments.

Knocked down to Coolmore Stud’s Tom Magnier for A$1.8 million, First Seal’s sale-topping colt (Lot 447) is by Champion Sire Snitzel and was offered by Sledmere Stud on behalf of the colt’s breeder China Horse Club.

“It was a fantastic result for the China Horse Club. They had an enormous amount of fun racing First Seal, and it would have been a huge thrill to sell her first foal for $1.8 million,” Duncan said.

In what can only be described as a stellar racing career, First Seal was crowned Champion Female Sprinter in Australia for the 2015-16 season. Five of her six career wins were at Group level, and she recorded major victories in the G1 Coolmore Flight Stakes, G2 Surround Stakes, G2 Tea Rose Stakes, G2 Millie Fox Stakes and G2 MRC Tristarc Stakes.

She was also runner-up in four top-tier Group One races including the G1 Spring Champion, G1 Coolmore Classic, G1 Vinery Stud Stakes and G1 Canterbury Stakes.

Group winning Exceed and Excel mare Yattarna achieved another memorable milestone in her career when her first foal, a filly by I Am Invincible (Lot 292) fetched A$400,000 to the bid of Sir Owen Glenn’s Go Bloodstock.

Duncan purchased Yattarna for A$90,000 from Kambula Stud’s 2014 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale draft on behalf of Think Big Stud and a syndicate of owners.

Yattarna won two of her nine starts and finished her racing career on a high when winning the G3 ATC James HB Carr Stakes at Royal Randwick at her very last appearance. She was subsequently sold for A$600,000 at the Inglis Chairman’s Sale in 2017 to the China Horse Club. 

In a highly successful career that has spanned over several decades, Duncan acknowledges the magnitude of due diligence that goes into selecting a great racehorse, “When I purchase yearlings for clients, there is a massive amount of work that goes into identifying individuals with the potential to develop into exceptional racehorses.”

“As a Bloodstock Agent it is very rewarding when horses go on to do just that, then take it a step further by achieving excellence in the sale ring, then hopefully going on to play a part in producing a new generation of champions,” Duncan said.

Duncan looks forward to following the career of his most recent purchase, “I was thrilled to secure a lovely Dundeel filly at this weeks Inglis Easter Sale. She has a beautiful physique and a pedigree that suggests she will develop into a nice staying type of filly,” he said.

“She’s not dissimilar to our John Sargent trained Dundeel filly Stick ‘Em Up who will run in the Australian Oaks at Randwick tomorrow”.