Patinack busy buying at Inglis

Nathan Tinkler's newly established Patinack Farm, which made a big splash at

Karaka as leading buyer, continued the theme on the first day of the Inglis

Premier Yearling Sale in Melbourne Sunday. Patinack picked up 12 yearlings for

A$1,895,000, helping push the average up by 25 percent and the median by 40

percent.

Among six fillies purchased by Patinack was a much-admired daughter of

Encosta de Lago out of Group 3 winner Royal Sash (Royal Academy). Offered by

Three Bridges Farm, Hip No. 147 brought a co-session topping A$380,000.

"We saw her as an outstanding filly," said Tinkler's agent, Roger Langley.

"We are keen to develop a broodmare band from good quality black type families,

and this a lovely filly -- a great walker with good residual. We think she is a

cracking type. If we assumed this filly was going to either Magic Millions or

Easter, I think we have bought particularly well on that basis."

Patinack also gave A$230,000 for Hip 27, a Flying Spur filly from the Willow

Park Stud consignment.

"This filly was also accepted for Easter, but we kept her in our Premier

draft because we sort of chose to be bigger fish in a smaller pond, and we are

very happy with the result," said Willow Park's Glenn Burrows.

Tinkler, 31, a former electrician who recently sold his Queensland mining

company, purchased Alanbridge Farm in the Hunter Valley and Riverslea Farm, near

Darley Australia in the Segenhoe Valley.

Patinack has also acquired four stallions for stud duty, including Group 1

winners Husson, Teranaba and Wonderful World.

First-time consignor Monterey Stud's Matt Brown was in a celebratory mood

after his Exceed and Excel colt, Hip 58, was snapped up by trainer Gai

Waterhouse for co-session topping A$380,000 early in the day.

"He is a lovely loose colt with a lovely intelligent face and beautiful

markings," Waterhouse said. "I saw him and all of a sudden I thought, 'There is

the jewel.''"

Brown had previously consigned 12 yearlings through his uncle's Kilora Farm,

and that draft has yielded no fewer than 10 winners, including five city winners

and two stakes performers. The consignor confessed he'd had a sales-eve

nightmare that he missed the auction ring appearance of his star colt. The

sales-day reality was potentially worse -- the laid-back colt,

uncharacteristically aggressive during a pre-sales inspection less than an hour

before he went into the ring, set about attacking trainer Lee Freedman.

"The horse had just been bitten by a wasp, and he was kicking and trying to

bite Lee," Brown explained. "I thought, 'There goes Lee,' but I understand he

was underbidder.

"After selling under my uncle's banner, we decided this year, with six

yearlings, to do it ourselves and stay in Melbourne, and they say fortune favors

the brave."

The colt's dam Oubladee (Sir Laurence) was Brown's first mare purchase, a

A$35,000 buy.

Newcastle-based trainer Paul Perry went to A$210,000 to secure Hip 15, an

elegant gray filly by Swettenham Stud sire Dash For Cash for A$210,000. The

filly is a half-sibling to Saturday's Premier Race winner Carnero (Carnegie).

Anthony Mithen, from Rosemont Farm, said the filly had been extremely popular

even before Carnero's success Saturday.

"She is a lovely filly," Mithen said. "She was out a lot, and then all of a

sudden she became something extra special -- they say timing is everything. She

has a brilliant temperament, but she is a tired girl tonight. I don't think

anyone here at the sales has not asked to see her and she has been sensational,

she just hasn't put a foot wrong."

Inglis Melbourne Director Peter Heagney commented on the opening session.

"This is a really good start, but we have a long way to go with two more

sessions, so we won't be counting our chickens yet," Heagney said. "We were very

pleased with our catalog this year, but we do have 180 more horses and that, in

itself, could have meant that results were a little more diluted. We were not

overly confident, but we were somewhat buoyed by the strength of the New Zealand

sale. However, they had a few advantages over us -- no EI, no disruption to

their racing, and a strong international market, which we weren't confident we

could have here. I think I can definitely say now the market has no qualms about

horses that have had EI. Horses that have had EI are back racing, and racing

really well, in Sydney, they are highly competitive against horses that did not

have EI, so it doesn't seem as if it makes any difference."