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February (Early) sees 204 lots sell for $2,688,050

Operative (Written Tycoon) was the most expensive lot sold in the Inglis Digital February (Early) Online Sale on Wednesday when bought for $230,000 by Hong Kong-based Ben Kwan. 

Trained by Chris Waller for Coolmore and partners, Operative was one of 204 lots sold, with the sale grossing $2,688,050. The average finished at $13,177 and the median was $4,000. 57 lots were passed in. 

A son of Written Tycoon (Iglesia), Operative has raced five times for two wins, breaking his maiden over 1200 metres at Newcastle last October before scoring at Rosehill the following month over the same trip. 

Kwan is yet to decide whether Operative will remain in Australia or be flown immediately to Hong Kong to continue his racing.

"I need to talk to some other people involved first so we will make some decisions likely on Friday,'' Kwan said.

"I enjoy Inglis Digital a lot. It's getting very popular here in Hong Kong, you must look at every catalogue.

"This horse Operative looks very promising, he's won two of his five starts and it's exciting to be able to buy him.''

Coolmore's Charlie Spicer-Jenkins added: "Operative is a progressive, lightly raced colt and we believe he has plenty of upside to offer his new owners.

"He demonstrated excellent potential when backing up his maiden win with a second impressive win over six furlongs at Rosehill.

"On behalf of the partners, we would like to thank the team at Inglis for facilitating the sale and for providing a platform in which we continue to place a high degree of trust. We wish the new connections the very best of luck with Operative.''

The second-top lot was Bend The Knee (Snitzel), who was offered by John O'Shea Racing and the ownership group headed by Carl Holt. The four-year-old gelding has won two of his 16 career starts and placed in another five. 

Wyong trainer Kim Waugh purchased him for $165,000.

"He's a lovely horse, he's got very solid form around some very good horses and while he lost a bit of form at one stage, his last couple of runs have been really good again,'' Waugh said.

"I spoke to John [O'Shea] and he gave the green light to buy the horse, he's sound and ready to go and there's so many options with a horse like him, be it the Midways or the Provincial Championships or if we can get him back to his best form, it will be Stakes races again.

"We've had a lot of luck buying these tried horses through Inglis Digital, (recent Saturday city winner) Garrison is a great example, it's a really good option for people who don't want to wait 18 months to get a horse to the races and want some often instant fun.''

Another significant result in today's auction was a 5 per cent share in Group 2 winner Old Flame (Invincible Spirit), which sold to Yulong for $70,000, valuing the Peter and Paul Snowden-trained entire at $1.4m.

The European-bred five-year-old, who was bought by Snowden Racing and Will Johnson Bloodstock for 250,000gns at the 2021 Tattersalls Autumn Horses In Training Sale won the Group 2 Linlithgow Stakes (1400m) at Flemington last October.