Bloodstock agents Peter Milling and Company will stage their 40th annual Dubbo Thoroughbred Yearling Sale on Sunday.

World-renowned studs Darley in the Hunter Valley and Emirates Park at Murrurundi will send nine horses each to go under the hammer at Dubbo, one of only two country sales.

Prominent studs Bowness of Young and Guntawang of Gulgong and more than a dozen others are listed as vendors in the catalogue.

Peter Milling put a lot of work into this year’s sale, just as had done for the previous four decades.

“Everything’s spot on,” he said.

There had been strong interest in the sale and by the end of the week Mr Milling just hoped the floods would stop neither people nor horses from making the big day.

The Milling family has run sales for 100 years, first at Dunedoo and then at Dubbo.

Mr Milling had only missed one sale in the previous 39 and was looking forward to the excitement of Sunday.

During the past four decades the event had transformed from a sale for the yearlings of station sires to one that dealt with the racing industry’s big names, he said.

“From almost coming in with burrs in their tails to now . . . they’re shiny, fat and precocious,” he said.

A crowd is expected at the sale where “everyone has a different opinion” about the horses.

Mr Milling, who worked with horses since he was a child during World War II, advised prospective buyers that appearance was not everything.

Horses raced in all shapes and sizes, he said.

“The one thing you can’t tell when you look at a horse is how big his heart is, because that’s very important,” he said.

“One of mine was very good as a young horse but he decided he didn’t want to be a race horse,” he said.

The sale will start at midday on Sunday at the Dubbo Showground.

A special mare sale will follow the yearling sale.