Strong Competition at NZB Ready to Run Sale

Day 1 of New Zealand Bloodstock’s 2013 Ready to Run Sale of 2YOs concluded today at Karaka, with some hot competition over the course of the day reflected in a strong average and median for the 107 horses sold.

With 30 more lots catalogued than last year, Day 1 featured 220 of this year’s 437 entries, with 107 sold for $8,787,500, compared with 111 sold for $8,063,000 on Day 1 last year.

That represented an average of $82,126 today, tracking 13% ahead of last year’s record Sale average of $72,865, with a median of $55,000, also significantly ahead of last year’s record of $48,000.

The top price of the day came late in proceedings with Anton Koolman’s Fraternity Thoroughbreds signing for Lot 201 for $320,000, the Holy Roman Emperor colt from Rule the Waves (King’s Best) offered by Lyndhurst Farm.

Sydney-based Koolman and wife Margaret were back buying at Karaka for the first time in several years, with Fraternity Thoroughbreds purchasing two horses today for a total of $560,000. Earlier in the day, they secured the fourth top price of the day Lot 155 the Exceed and Excel colt bought for $240,000 from Mana Park.

“I’m not a committed breeze up sale guy and I haven’t bought here for a while but we have found a few we like,” commented Anton.

“I liked [Lot 201]’s type and Holy Roman Emperor is going well in Hong Kong and Singapore so, although he was a lot of money, we wanted him and were prepared for that. He’ll go to Australia and then on to Hong Kong to be trained by Paul O’Sullivan.”

Also returning to Karaka after a lengthy absence was Macau’s seven-time champion trainer Gary Moore, who announced his return by securing the third-top priced lot of the day, the colt at Lot 167 bought for $270,000 from Diamond Lodge.

The sole entry in the Sale by Northern Meteor, the youngster provided one of the eye-catching Breeze Ups, breezing in a time of 10.30 seconds.

“Northern Meteor has been well publicised as a fantastic sire and I liked this horse from the moment I saw him. I’m very pleased to have got him as I bought him for a very good client of mine in Macau,” commented Moore.

“I have looked at the statistics from this Sale over the past few years and I think the quality of horses here is very high and they have been beautifully prepared by the consignors.”

“I’ve been to a number of horses-in-training sales looking for the right horse and it is this Sale that has come out on top. I’m delighted to be back here in New Zealand and I’m sure I’ll be back in the future, hopefully with my brother John.”

Lot 122 provided an early highlight with the Bernardini gelding from the Danehill mare Miguelita bought for $300,000 by Willie Leung’s Magus Equine for Hong Kong from Lyndhurst Farm.  

“I love Bernardini and paid a bit more than I expected to for this horse but Bernardini is doing very well in Australia and America at the moment. This horse is a big, strong mover and I know he’ll take a little bit more time to strengthen up so I will leave him in New Zealand for more education before sending him up to Hong Kong,” said Leung.

“The New Zealand Ready to Run Sale always brings me a bit of luck so I always enjoy coming here to buy.”

Mark & Shelley Treweek’s Lyndhurst Farm looks all but certain to hold onto its position as the leading vendor at this Sale for the seventh year in a row, providing four of the top six lots of the day. Seven of their 21 entries have sold for $1,381,000 at an average of $197,286, well ahead of their Day 1 average last year of just over $142,000. Lyndhurst will open proceedings tomorrow with Lot 221, with a total of 11 catalogued for tomorrow.

After Fraternity Thoroughbreds, the next leading buyer for the day was New Zealand’s David Ellis of Te Akau Racing, with five horses bought for $360,000. Ellis’ top price was $150,000 paid at the end of the day for the Murtajil colt at Lot 218 from Bradbury Park.

Ellis was the only local buyer in today’s top ten, with Australia, Singapore, Macau, China, and Hong Kong also represented, showing the diversity of the buying bench.

NZB Co-Managing Director Petrea Vela commented on the day’s proceedings.

“We are very pleased with the strong and diverse international buying bench we’ve got here at Karaka, as strong as we’ve ever seen. There’s very good competition on a number of the horses on offer which has been reflected in the average and median far exceeding last year’s records. 

“This is the second biggest Ready to Run catalogue we’ve had here in over 10 years and, with the increased numbers, matching last year’s clearance rate was always going to be a challenge and that has proven the case. After some quiet patches early on it picked up over the afternoon and hopefully we can see some strengthening to the clearance again tomorrow.”

With over 100 individual sires represented, there were a diverse range of stallions featuring prominently and it was New Zealand-based sires Savabeel and Mastercraftsman that ended the day on top of the leading sires table based on average with three or more horses sold.

Selling will continue at Karaka tomorrow with Lots 221 to 437 from 11am. The Sale will also be streamed live online at www.nzb.co.nz.

2013 Ready to Run Sale Statistics

Top Lots

Leading Purchasers by Aggregate

Leading Vendors by Aggregate

Leading Vendors by Average (three or more sold)

Leading Sires by Average (three or more sold)

ENDS

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