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Group 1 winner became the third-most expensive horse to sell online in Australia this year

The 2019 Group 1 Queensland Oaks (2200m) winner Winning Ways (Declaration Of War) became the third-most expensive horse to sell online in Australia this year after realising $700,000 in the Inglis Digital August (Late) Sale that concluded on Wednesday evening.

Offered by Ridgmont Farm, the seven-year-old mare will head to Victoria after being purchased by the Lucky Vega Syndicate and she will most likely visit Yulong stallion Tagaloa (Lord Kanaloa) this season.

There were four individual bidders at $600,000 or above on Winning Ways and Yulong's Sam Fairgray believes Winning Ways will be an ideal match for Tagaloa.

"She's a really nice mare for him, his pedigree and her pedigree will work well together,'' Fairgray said.

"She was a high-class race mare and was just another mare [Yulong owner] Mr Zhang wanted to get to support Tagaloa so he's very happy.

"When he sees mares he thinks are worthwhile for him and the broodmare band, we'll keep trying to buy them, we'll keep looking at what becomes available and this time of year you also get some nice fillies off the track going to these sales so we'll keep an eye on those as well.

"We had to stretch a little to get to the $700,000. It was around the price I thought we'd need to get to, probably a touch more than we thought though.''

Only Sierra Sue ($1.55m) and Wandabaa ($800,000) have sold for more than Winning Ways' $700,000 price tag at a digital sale this year – all three have sold through the Inglis Digital platform.

There were four individual buyers active at $600,000 and above on Winning Ways and the sale took the number of fillies or mares to have sold for $200,000 or more through Inglis Digital this year to 36 and these have been purchased by 27 different buyers.

The August (Late) Sale grossed $4,765,000, making it the sixth consecutive regular Inglis online sale to gross $4 million or more. The average finished at $21,659 and the clearance rate was 78 per cent. 

The second-top lot of today's sale was five-year-old mare Incredulous Dream (Press Statement). Offered by Ciaron Maher Racing, the mare was purchased by James Bester for $465,000.

"When I knew the horse was going to be offered for sale I put together a group of friends and partners and when it came to the bidding, we'd basically reached our limit of what we could pay for her, she certainly stretched the budget,'' Bester said.

"The plan now is to put her in foal and then depending what date she goes in foal, that could leave us the option of racing her for another 90 days and giving her a Queensland campaign over summer to see if we can enjoy some racetrack success with her before we get to meet what will no doubt be her gorgeous foals.

"She's suitable for such a wide range of stallions, it would really depend on what my partners in her want to do with the budget. I mean she could go from a Home Affairs at $100,000 service fee to a Farnan at a $50,000 service fee or to a horse like Wild Ruler with a $35,000 service fee.''

Maher was delighted with the result.

"She's been a quality mare for the stable who's been great to train and won over $250,000 in earnings and I'm sure she'll make a great broodmare for James and her new connections,'' he said.

"She's a beautiful type so I'm sure she'll prove to be a successful broodmare as well.

"Inglis Digital is great to use and this is just another example of the big results you can get.''

The third-top lot was the Swettenham Stud-offered five-year-old mare Quintello (Intello), which sold to John Wheeler for $295,000.

Wheeler has been actively purchasing mares at recent Inglis Digital sales to send to exciting young Widden-based stallion Russian Camelot (Camelot), of which Wheeler is the largest shareholder, and that's where Quintello will likely eventually end up.

"But she might race on yet, probably will actually, I'll give her a spell now and see if she wants to race again likely in the new year and then maybe go to stud next year,'' Wheeler said.

"On paper she is a perfect match for Russian Camelot so that's the plan at this stage but I'm in no rush with her.

"I obviously paid for too much for her, compared to what I expected I would have to but again, with these good mares you just have to go the extra mile or three to get them.''

A delighted Sam Matthews of Swettenham added: "Exceptional. What a result! She's a nice mare and will continue to make a nice racing prospect or develop into a beautiful broodmare, whatever John decides to do with her, but that result was well beyond expectations.''