The highly anticipated Inglis Chairman’s Sale in Sydney on Thursday night showcased a galaxy of star mares, but the two highest priced were sired by Yarraman Park’s champion sire I Am Invincible and his son Hellbent.

The last lot of the night was always tipped to top as an extremely rare offering with Chayan being an elite current season two year-old filly by I Am Invincible.

The Annabel and Ron Archibald trained filly started favourite in the Golden Slipper following a scintillating win in the Group II ATC Reisling Stakes, so is a filly packed with potential, but nobody saw coming what ultimately unfolded.

Consigned by Newgate on behalf of her owner Eric Koh, Chayan paraded like a true professional at Riverside Stable before a packed crowd as Coolmore and Yulong settled in for a bidding duel for the ages.

Tom Magnier was surrounded by team Coolmore while Yulong bid online through the ‘green screen’ as bidding escalated beyond $2million, then $3million and $4million before Tom Magnier finally won with a final bid of $5.6million making her the most expensive horse in training ever sold by Inglis.

Magnier confirmed Chayan would remain in the stables of her existing trainers Rob and Annabel Archibald.

“When there’s a filly as highly rated and highly thought of as she is, you expect to have all the top people on her and that’s clearly how things played out,’’ Magnier said.

“I’m delighted for Eric, he’s a really good guy and he’s done very well out of her. Yulong are always very strong and that was some duel.

“Rob and Annabel have been calling me all week about this filly and in fairness, they do a great job. Rob was our racing manager once upon a time so I said ‘we’ll give this filly back to you if we buy her’.

“Hopefully she’s lucky on the track and keeps going but at the end of her racing days, I think she’d suit a stallion like Super Seth but there’s a lot of racing upside there yet, it’s over to Rob and Annabel now.”

A $2.4million earning Group I winning sprinter by Hellbent, Benedetta always loomed as one of the prime offerings this year and she duly hit the target when selling for $1.9million.

Consigned in the Widden Stud draft as a racing and breeding proposition she was secured by Yulong Investments and will be retired to stud this spring.

“She’s obviously one of the better mares that’s raced over the past 24 months, and we already own a little share in her, so it’s great to be able to get the remainder of her, and she’ll join the Yulong broodmare band this spring,” said Sam Fairgray of Yulong Stud.

“With our new acquisition up in the Hunter Valley and standing stallions there, it’s likely that she’ll head up to Segenhoe and we’ll let her down and get her ready for the breeding season.

“When we go around and look at these mares, we obviously look at the physical and their performance, and we try and think which stallions would be suitable for them and jot down a couple that they’re likely to go to. 

“With this mare, I’m sure Devil Night would love to see in his first year at stud.”

Benedetta is the second Group I winning Hellbent mare to head to Yulong as they also secured his dual Group I winner Magic Time last year.