The Darley stalwarts Exceed And Excel and Lonhro took up their usual places among the top-selling stallions on a most unusual day-one of the Inglis Australian Easter Sale in Sydney on Tuesday, 7 April.
Exceed And Excel finished the opening session as leading sire by average with three or more sold, the best of his three to sell, a colt from the More Than Ready mare Serious Satire making $760,000.
His long-time companion at Kelvinside, Lonhro, had his usual admirers, the best of his three to sell, a colt from the Redoute’s Choice mare Mining Tycoon fetching $460,000 on a day when the average settled at $307,000.
With COVID-19 restrictions in force, Australia’s longest-running bloodstock auction took place as a virtual event with most vendors and all horses and grooms at home on their farms and with buyers scattered around the world.
While the auctioneers delivered their well-practised lines to a largely on-line audience, buyers registered their bids electronically or by phone.
One such buyer was the Hong Kong Jockey Club which bid the $760,000 for Lot 191, the Exceed And Excel colt out of Serious Satire offered by Willow Park Stud.
The colt is his dam’s first foal and a member of a strong New Zealand family that includes New Zealand champion sprinter Star Satire and her daughter Zarzuela, a three-time Stakes winner.
Exceed And Excel’s next best was Lot 116 from the Sledmere Stud draft, a filly from Ocean Tears, a half-sister to multiple stakeswinner Hips Don’t Lie, the dam of Stakes winners Ennis Hill and Lake Geneva, who sold to bloodstock agent Dean Hawthorne for $600,000.
