Don Eduardo Tops Final Day of Festival Sale

New Zealand Bloodstock's 85th National Yearling Sales Series concluded with the final session of the two-day Festival Sale today at Karaka, with local sire Don Eduardo providing the highlight of the day.

The top price came at Lot 1575 with the colt by Don Eduardo (Zabeel) being knocked down to New Zealand Bloodstock as agent for $60,000, matching the top price achieved on Day 1. By the Group 1 Australian Derby winner, the colt from Haunui Farm is a half to three winners from four to race for the True Style mare, On the Breeze.

Yesterday's top price was paid by Roger James for the son of Gallant Guru at Lot 1319.

The leading buyer of the Festival Sale has been Wexford Stables with nine yearlings bought for $218,000 at an average of $24,278. Amongst them was a top price of $52,000 paid yesterday for Lot 1294, the Don Eduardo colt from Angel of Harlem (Sudurka) offered by Hallmark Stud.

This brings Wexford's tally of purchases to 14 for the week, with an additional five purchases made at the Select Sale, including a top price of $75,000 paid for the Librettist (Danzig) filly at Lot 584 from the family of top Hong Kong performer Fairy King Prawn, offered by Cambridge Stud.

Lance O'Sullivan says the Wexford team didn't set out to target the Festival session but the strength of the Premier and Select sessions earlier in the week impacted on their plans.

"We didn't deliberately target the Festival Sale as we made five purchases in the Select Sale as well but due to the strength of the Premier and Select Sales, with the Australian buyers staying on, the Festival Sale became the most viable option."

"My highlight of the Sale was the number of very good horses that we were able to purchase for extremely good value. Horses that were selling at the Festival Sale last year for $50,000 - $60,000 were selling this year for $15,000 - $20,000 which enabled us to make a number of purchases that we are very happy with."

"We think we're going to have very happy clients with the quality horses that we will be able to offer them."

With the local buyers featuring far more prominently over the past few days than earlier in the week, Stephen McKee, Brett McDonald, Graham Richardson, Peter Walker, Roger James, Donna Logan and Leo Molloy's M Racing were amongst those at the top of the buyers' tables for the session.

After 492 catalogued Festival lots, 253 were sold for $3,054,250 (compared with $4,916,400 for 429 sold last year), representing an average of $12,072 (down from $14,943) and a median of $8,500 (down from $10,000). The clearance rate increased from yesterday to finish up at 62%.

With the top price of the day, the leading vendor of the Festival Sale has been Ron & Mark Chitty's Haunui Farm with 11 of their 23 entries sold for $229,000 at an average of $20,818. With a large representation at the Select Sale, Haunui was also the leading vendor by aggregate at that session with 29 yearlings sold for $1,614,000 at an average of $55,655.

The leading Festival Sale vendor by average is Marc & Sarah Devcich's Henley Park, with their four entries averaging $23,750. This included a top price of $44,000 paid by Paul Moroney for their Al Samer colt at Lot 1368.

Henley Park was also represented by five entries in the Select Sale, with a top price of $120,000 paid by John Foote for the Thorn Park colt from Dosh at Lot 800.

The leading sire by average has been Zabeel's sire son, Don Eduardo - himself still the highest priced yearling be sold in the southern hemisphere when knocked down for $3.6m at Karaka 2000. His seven Festival Sale entries that have sold through the ring have fetched $188,000 at an average of $26,857.

The past week at Karaka has seen 1622 horses catalogued across seven days of selling, with 1049 yearlings finding new homes for a combined turnover of $88,084,250 (down 6% on 2010).

With 80 more horses sold last year, turnover was $93,567,400 for the week - the second highest aggregate on record - while this year's result exceeds the aggregate posted the year before when 1199 horses were sold for $74,867,700. This year's turnover reflects an 18% increase on the 2009 result.

A full Premier, Select and Festival Sale combined summary will be published tomorrow (Tuesday 8 February). Click here for Passed Lots from the 2011 Festival Sale.

ENDS

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