Record price paid for Tasmanian yearling

Grenville Stud at Whitemore has set a new record for a price paid for a Tasmanian yearling.

Its colt by Too Darn Hot out of La Magique sold for $1.3 million at the Inglis Sydney Easter Sale on Sunday, smashing the previous state record, also held by Grenville Stud, of $900,000.

The highest price paid at the Easter Sale was for a colt by Extreme Choice out of Pretty Brazen which was sold by the Huddy family for $3 million on the first day of the sale.

On day two another Too Darn Hot colt out of Enbiharr sold for $2.2 million.

It’s the first time that stud owners Graeme and Bart McCulloch have taken horses to the Easter sale, with Graeme saying it only attracts the best of the best.

“We’ve never been before because we didn’t think we had anything good enough but this year we had four good horses that we considered could make the grade,” he said.

“The agents agreed and the results we achieved proves that we can on-grow weanlings as well as anywhere in the country.

“I had so many people come up and say how good they looked.”

All four Grenville Stud offerings achieved outstanding results, with the average price of $820,000 the third best at the sale.

Lot 374 achieved the Tasmanian record price, paid by new owners E.A and W.A. Huglin from Victoria on the back of the popularity of the Andrew Lloyd-Weber-owned stallion Two Darned Hot, which came out from England to stand at Darley stud in NSW some years ago.

His progency have performed so well the stud fees jumped from $40,000 to $275,000 last year and there hasn’t been many offspring about.

The McCullochs picked up the beautiful bay as a weanling in Melbourne about nine months ago for $335,000 and another of their top sellers from the Gold Coast for $220,000.

In what is known as pen-hooking they were brought back to Tasmania and put on good pasture to grow out.

Aside from basic education so that they could be led at the sale, the horses had no special preparation.

Their other three offering were:

Lot 34, a bay colt by Wootton Bassett out of Queen la Diva sold for $380,000 to Dean Hawthorne Bloodstock in New Zealand.

Lot 239, a chestnut colt by Stay Inside out of Bring Me Showers sold to Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott in New South Wales for $300,000.

Lot 394, a bay cold by Zoustar out of Lomandra sold to Mathland Pty Ltd in NSW for $900,000.

2026 EASTER YEARLING SALE STATISTICS (2025 in brackets)

Offered: 415 (387)

Sold: 314 (332)

Clearance: 76% (86%)

Average: $464,108 ($451,913)

Median: $350,000 ($360,000)

Gross: $145,730,000 ($150,035,000)