A filly by Eliza Park sire Written Tycoon starred on Day 1 of the 2011 Inglis Melbourne Autumn yearling sale at Oaklands on Sunday.

Home base Eliza Park prepared the session-topping filly that fetched $80,000.  She is from the Bluebird mare Turtle Dove was purchased by EBA Victoria.  Her older half-brother Lords A Leaping (Zabeel) was runner-up in a Queensland Derby and he stands at Cromartry Stud in Western Australia.

Overall, 156 horses sold at a gross of $1.82 million. The average price of $11,679 was only slightly down on the $12,228 and a strong clearance rate of 81% underlined the competitive nature of the opening session.

“This has been a very strong day of selling,” Inglis Director Peter Heagney said.  “There was excellent competition on most horses and the clearance rate is indicative of vendors being satisfied with what buyers were prepared to pay.

“But most notably, we had a lot of new buyers here that we haven’t seen participate previously at Oaklands, which is a tremendous result for everybody.”

Makybe’s Nadeem colt from Thor’s Daughter was the second highest priced lot on the leaderboard bringing $62,000 to the bid of Matthew Williams.

Colts by Churchill Downs (Toolora Lodge) and Hidden Dragon (Swettenham Stud) reached $50,000.

Horses passed in during Day 1 are still available for sale via the Make an Offer Service.  The sale continues on Monday with another 249 yearlings catalogued with selling beginning at 11am.