Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott were not leaving the 2025 Inglis Easter Yearling Sale without a prized colt—especially when he was the first foal of dual Group 1 winner Shout The Bar, a mare they previously trained to top-level success.

Determined to continue their connection with the champion mare, the training duo paid $3 million to secure her Home Affairs colt, the top price on Day 1 of the sale. The colt, sold as Lot 158, surpassed the $2.7 million paid earlier for Switzerland’s brother.

“We’ve been beaten a couple of times (today), but there’s just one or two horses in the sale we’ve got the asterisk next to them where we’re not wanting to get beaten and this was certainly one of them,” Bott said.

“It helped having John here and Gai was obviously very keen on this horse as well and we took all her strength into this lot.”

This result added to the incredible debut season for first-season sire Home Affairs, whose filly out of Sunlight set a new record in January, selling for $3.2 million.

The mare Shout The Bar, bought by Coolmore for $2.7 million in 2022, had already delivered on the track, winning the Empire Rose Stakes and the Vinery Stud Stakes at Group 1 level. Bott believes her son could be even sharper early in his racing career.

“We want to see him featuring early in the two-year-old races, but he looks like he’s got plenty of scope and class to keep carrying it on throughout his career,” he said.

“Obviously he was a well-credentialled lot and was always going to be well sought-after and he was on our radar for a long time.”

The final hour of trading saw a rush of big sales. Lot 155, a colt by Extreme Choice, fetched $1.7 million, while Lot 159, a filly by Maurice out of multiple Group 1 winner Shoals, sold for $1.4 million.

Day 1 of the sale closed with a gross of $63,055,000 from fewer lots than in 2024, resulting in a strong average price of $488,798—well above last year’s $373,415.