THE local thoroughbred industry, which survived the global downturn in better shape than its international counterparts, is facing its own problem now as a higher Australian dollar spooks overseas buyers from buying domestically bred yearlings. The first session of the three-day Inglis Easter Yearling Sales in Sydney yesterday showed prices had returned to pre-crisis levels but buyers were still cautious. The sales topper from the first session was a brown Redoute's Choice-Schiaparelli filly that cost leading Sydney trainer Gerald Ryan $1 million. One of the main highlights of the sale was a three-quarter sister to legendary mare Makybe Diva, but the black filly with similar markings to her famous sister failed to ignite massive interest. Bidding began at $300,000 and ramped up to $725,000 but the filly was passed in with owner Tony Santic setting a $750,000 reserve. It was the first time a Makybe Diva relative has not sparked frenzied bidding. Inglis commercial director Matt Rudolph said the major international buyers were at the sale but some were dissuaded by the high Australian dollar. "We have the buyers from Hong Kong and Singapore here and we are quite happy with their activity but some of them are compromised by the dollar," Mr Rudolph said. "The Australian dollar does have an effect. The buyers have orders to fill. We saw some of it last year with the level of spending from the overseas buyers. They were bidding on the horses but they were the under-bidders. They are thinking what it will cost them in Hong Kong dollars. The other factor from them is that our local market has been very, very strong." The dollar is also reportedly prompting some Australian bloodstock figures to begin buying in the US to take advantage of the favourable currency conversion. The pass-in rate at the first session of the sales, at 24 per cent, was the highest in five years, but the average price of $248,906 was up 13 per cent on last year and the median price of $200,000 was above that of the past few years. British breeding outfit Badgers Bloodstock, BBA Ireland and Singapore trainer Michael Freedman were among the foreign buyers. Shadwell Australia, the local operations of Dubai's Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum, spent $1.82m on four horses. Local trainers were prominent but not as active as last year: champion Sydney trainer Gai Waterhouse bought just three yearlings. Turf legend Bart Cummings paid $450,000 for a colt by first-season sire Bernadini and $380,000 for a Starcraft colt. Cummings said the industry had not been damaged by the global financial crisis. "There's been no effect at all," he said. "I've just paid $380,000 for one for my friend (long-time owner Dato Tan Chin Nam). He's the luckiest man in the world and he's happy."

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