Sitting in their kitchen on a damp Sunday afternoon, putting together promotional videos for the eleven members of their 2022 New Zealand Bloodstock National Yearling sale draft at Karaka in March, Inglewood Stud owners Gus and Bianca Wigley are hard at work.

The pair are excited about the prospects for this year’s sale and the draft they have assembled from the property that first came into existence when founded by Wigley’s great-grandfather Ken Austin back in 1938.

Austin was one of the key figures in the history of New Zealand thoroughbred breeding. His achievements in the industry include co-founding the New Zealand Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association, breeding and racing numerous Group One winners, and standing the successful sires Sun King, Battle Song, Lucky Bag and the first really successful colonial bred stallion, Defaulter.

Austin immigrated to New Zealand from Australia in 1932 after travelling annually to New Zealand for the previous six years to conduct the Trentham Yearling Sales as auctioneer.

He played a key role in setting up the first New Zealand national yearling sales and was involved in both the recommending and selling of the two great horses of the time, Gloaming and Phar Lap. The Wigley family still holds Austin’s original Trentham Yearlings Sales catalogue containing the pedigree page of Phar Lap, with Austin’s handwritten notes a prominent feature.

The picturesque Inglewood Stud is the oldest thoroughbred stud still standing a stallion in New Zealand, with Gr.2 Goodwood Vintage Stakes (1400m) winner War Decree, the current resident stallion, featuring prominently in the Stud’s Karaka draft with four of the eleven yearlings by the son of internationally acclaimed stallion War Front.

Wigley took over the running of the farm from his father Nick in 2012 and will celebrate the ten-year anniversary of that decision this week.

“Bianca and I took over on February 9^th ten years ago, so we have a milestone to celebrate this week,.” Wigley said.

“Hopefully we will be celebrating even more after the 12^th of March when this year’s sale concludes as I’d like to think we have an excellent draft heading north with something for everyone looking to buy a good, New Zealand yearling.

“We have had an excellent growing season for the horses with heaps of grass and the mares and foals have done exceptionally well.

“The stud has a history of producing good horses and I don’t think this year will be any different.”

Inglewood will offer nine yearlings during the Book 1 sale that commences on March 7 and nominates Lot 68, a colt by first season sire Ace High and a pair of fillies by Australian-based sires Russian Revolution (Lot 436) and Lonhro (Lot 578) as ones to watch.

“Our Ace High colt is a very sensible horse with good size, height and a lovely black colour to him,” Wigley said.

“He is out of one of our good young mares in Zigwig and is from the family of multiple Australian stakes winner Mighty Lucky.

“I have a real love affair with Ace High as we bought a full sister to him from the weanling sale on the Gold Coast, who is the dam of our Lonhro filly (lot 578).

“We sent Zigwig to him, missed a season and then sent her back as soon as this colt was born as we were so impressed by him as a foal.

“We have invested heavily in our broodmare band and the filly by Russian Revolution is out of a European mare that we also bought on the Gold Coast.

“This filly is very athletic, a real running type and by a sire who has started his stud career off well.

“It has been a difficult decision to put the Lonhro filly in the sale as she is a cracker.

“We are sellers though and we do have the mare’s first foal, a colt by War Decree, in work and he is showing real promise.

“We want to give the mare the best possible chance so that’s why we have decided to sell.”

With Wigley and his wife putting the final touches on the pre-sale promotional material for their draft, they have also been putting in place procedures to ensure the impact of the current COVID pandemic and Omicron strain is minimised as much as possible.

“COVID is a big issue for us, especially as we are travelling with a considerable amount of our staff from home to be at the sale,” he said.

“If one of our staff contracts Omicron then it could badly affect how we manage our draft and the running of the stud in general.

“We are lucky that we have Kayla Milnes, who prepares our racing team and works on the Stud returning from her annual holiday just before we all leave for Karaka.

“That gives us a different bubble at home and would be a real help if we do fall foul of COVID.

“It is a nervous time but an exciting one and as we put together our promo videos and the like, it certainly gets the juices flowing.

“I’m very lucky that Bianca has a background in marketing and she does a super job with what we put out.

“The yearling videos are a fine balance of getting everything in there for those wanting to see all conformations as well as those looking for different angles about the horse.

“We certainly learnt a lot from last year, which has made it easier to know what we want in each video this time around.

“The proof will be in how we sell I guess, so we are hoping we have it right and come mid-March I will be able to tell you if we did!”

The 2022 National Yearling Sale will commence at Karaka on Monday March 7. – NZ Racing Desk