Mark Webster CEO

Why did we help the O'Shea family and how much was raised?

Many people have been asking why is Inglis and other industry participants helping the O'Shea family to raise funds to cover legal fees. The short answer is that John did not have adequate protection under the insurance scheme managed by the NSW Trainers Association, and was left high and dry. His many friends have rallied to help raise funds to help him legal costs and keep his training business alive. By helping John we are in NO WAY making any comment on the court case or the judgement. I am not saying John was right or wrong, or making my own judgement on whether he should have won the case. The good news is that $290,000 was raised at the function tonight thanks to several hundred good hearted people. The goal was the raise $175,000 to top up the insurance shortfall, so the organizers have agreed to allocate the excess $115,000 to other worthy racing industry causes. The allocation will be decided in the coming days, I will keep you informed.

So how did the first super select broodmare session go?

Today was our first attempt at conducting a Super Select session of fillies and broodmares, with entries selected and graded by Inglis Staff. It's fair to say that we were able to attract plenty of good mares, and in some ways it was easier to sell a mare for half a million in this session than one for $50,000 which is encouraging. The problem is there are not enough top notch mares to fill an entire day, so you still end up with a few that bring down the average or are overlooked by buyers and add to the pass in rate. I was thrilled to achieve a session average of $135,000, and sell 2 mares over a million and 8 over half a million, including Sharp Susan for $1.05m to Badgers Bloodstock for a leading South African stud. It was no real surprise that older mares are still hard to sell, and that some breeders are still over mating mares, or that service fees for some stallions are too high. This is obviously impacting on clearance rates, as vendors are under pressure to recover their costs when setting reserves. The lack of pass in commission is also a problem, as it encourages some vendors to set unrealistically high reserves which is off putting for all involved and lowers the tone of the sale. The future for our industry is looking brighter with increases in prizemoney on the horizon, but it will still take time to recruit new investors, new breeders and new owners to stimulate the breeding sector - so until then we need to keep production costs down and give existing participants an opportunity to re-build their businesses post GFC.

An Easter Sale to remember

The 96th Easter Yearling Sale has generated more media interest than any other I can recall. Media interviews started at 630am and were constant throughout the day - all the free to air TV networks, ABC radio and publishers were represented on the grounds. Although much of the interest centred around the half sister to Black Caviar being offered by Makybe Stud, the racing and breeding industry has gained enormous exposure, which will hopefully help us to recruit new investors - both owners and breeders in the future. The story of Helsinge selling as a broodmare for $115k and then generating massive returns for her owners is a very positive story. I congratulate and thank Rick Jamieson for giving Inglis the opportunity to sell his filly at auction - in doing so he has helped put racing and breeding on the front page and created wonderful memories for all involved. For those of us lucky enough to be in the sale ring at the time, we will never forget the electric atmosphere as the bidding opened at $1m, jumped to $1.5m within a heartbeat and then climbed in $100k increments to $2.6m in a fierce bidding dual. I congratulate and thank Bill Vlahos and the BC3 team for purchasing the filly, and Satomi Oka and Mr Shirai from Japan for their contributions as underbidders. They have all added a little more colour to history of Inglis - making Easter 2012 one to remember. 

The 8 year old boy who may have bought the bargain filly of the Easter Sale!! You have to read this.

Something very unusual happened two hours into the sale yesterday. A chinese family from Hong Kong who had pre-registered for online bidding were sitting in the sale ring enjoying the atmosphere of the sale. The family were keen to buy a horse or two during their visit. As lot 59 came into the ring, an 8 year old boy had control of the family iPad and accidently bid using the online service - securing lot 59 for $50,000. Whether the young lad was enticed to bid by the filly's family, which includes HK Group 1 winner Inspiration and other recent HK Group 2 winner Admiration - or whether the young lad clicked the bid button because he liked what her saw in the ring is unknown. What we do know is that the 8 year old boy loves horses racing, studies pedigrees and has some knowledge of Australian racing. His father is happy to keep the filly, and has followed his son's advice and given her to Peter Moody to train - as the young boy has been impressed with how well Peter has trained Black Caviar. Lets hope she is a star of the track - what a great story.

Thoughts on day 1 of Easter Yearling Sale

Buyers were quick out of the blocks this morning, with the first two hours being quite strong. We also finished off the sale well, but there were a few patches in the middle. Where type met pedigree the results exceeded vendor expectations, which shows there is still good money for the right product - but it's still very much a buyers market and they can afford to be selective. 7 of the top 10 lots today were fillies, very different to others select sales so far this year. The top colt was by Fastnet Rock, purchased by Coolmore. The top filly by Encosta x Amelia's Dream was purchased by James Harron for the Batemans. It was great to see the HKJC back on the buyers sheet. The South African's were very strong underbidders on a number of top fillies. Many of the buyers in attendance have not spent anywhere near their budgets yet so I expect big improvement in clearance rates tomorrow. The day will get off to a great start with the Helsinge going through the ring around 1115am.

Who does this filly in the photo remind you of? Look at the strength in her hind quarter.

Lot 200 - Redoute's Choice x Helsinge filly - half sister to Black Caviar and All Too Hard was paraded for the media today and she had everyone talking. She is a big strong filly with plenty of presence. A real star attraction. 

If you can't attend the Fools and Horses function this Sunday night please consider buying a raffle ticket online to support Catwalk - great prizes

Thankyou to everyone who has supported the Fools and Horses team to ensure a REAL difference is made to Spinal Cord Injury research, especially those who have donated incredible auction prizes and others who are attending on the evening. Catriona Williams from Catwalk has put so much work into planning this event to raise funds for Spinal Cord Injury research - she is a truely inspiring lady with a big heart and a great love of horses - she deserves our support.

The Catwalk team have put together a very special 500 Each Way Raffle...only 100 tickets @ $500 and 2 amazing prizes (HK trip and jewellery - click on link below for details). ALL the money raised goes directly to SCI Research and is issued with a tax deductible receipt. The link to the raffle page is here http://www.catwalk.org.nz/content/500-each-way It is available to everyone even those unable to join us for the evening. Please support if you can. Inglis has thrown it's support behind this event, and I look forward to attending on Sunday evening.

So what does The High Court judgement on Friday mean for the racing and breeding industry?

The decision to be handed down at 10am this Friday by the High Court is of critical importance to the Australian and New Zealand racing and breeding industries, but we will not fall off a cliff if the NSW Race Fields Legislation is not upheld. The NSW government and Racing NSW have been very determined in their fight for what is right for the racing industry and the particpants who put on the events. The basic principal that the owner of a product should be able to charge an appropriate fee for it's product is a basic business principal which was supported by a full bench of the Federal Court, and should be upheld by the High Court. The turnover based model is a simple and fair model, used by other racing jurisdictaions and similar to many other sectors that charge royalties or licence fees based on a % of turnover. If the NSW Race Fields Legislation is upheld the racing and breeding industries will see the benefits almost immediately - with increased confidence amongst particpants especially racehorse owners who effectively bankroll the industry at present. Punters are important of course - but without owners making significant investements in buying horses and paying training bills punters would not have a product to bet on. We all know current prizemoney levels are not sufficient to cover training costs for the majority of racehorses. Racing NSW have already indictated there will be significant increases in prizemoney should we win. So what happens if we lose? It's not the end of the earth and I'd predict the status quo for a few years whilst the industry tries to find new ways of generating income, such as from media rights and pooling with Asian racing jurisdications. Of course there is nothing to stop the NSW government from looking at other ways to make users of the racing product pay - such as copyright royalties from wagering operators. There are plenty of smart people with Racing NSW and in the O'Farrell Government - but it will take some time to get these new revenue streams in place. So my message is, no need to panic. Whichever way it goes, I commend Peter V'Landys from Racing NSW for taking up the fight on behalf of the industry and being so determined to enforce a simple business principal - user pays. I'm sure Phillip Esplin is looking down from above with great interest, he too was a fighter and should be commended for his contribution to protect our industry from opportunists.

Welcome to my blog

As CEO of Inglis I get to visit some interesting places and meet some colourful characters. We also like to think of ourselves as an innovative company, regularly introducing new products and ways of doing business. If you'd like to hear the news first, please follow me on this blog or twitter @markwebsterceo

 

Classy mares Night War and Jersey Lily suppos for Inglis Easter Broodmare Sale - entries close April 2

Two new stakewinning mares coming off the track have been entered for the Easter Broodmare Sale. Night War is a 3YO half sister to the unbeaten slipper favourite Samaready. She was a talented two year old in her own right winning the G2 Karrakatta Plate - and she is now being offered for sale in the supplementary catalogue for Broodmare Sale to be held in Sydney from April 17-19. She has been joined by Jersey Lily, winner of the Wiggle and 2nd in last years G1 Coolmore. Entries for the supplementary catalogue close Monday April 2. Remember - Samantha Miss was a suppo entry and made $3.85m!!