Karaka - NZ (November 18, 2009) - New Zealand Bloodstock’s annual Ready to Run Sale of two-year-olds concluded at Karaka on Tuesday, with a colt by Rich Hill Stud shuttle stallion Bertolini (Danzig - Aquilegia by Alydar) topping the day’s trade at $400,000.
The $400,000 colt at Lot 240 from the unraced Ebony Grosve mare, Ebony Pearl, was knocked down to Hong Kong based businessman, Johnny Ng.
Speaking on behalf of the new owner, Hong Kong bloodstock agent Willie Leung was full of praise for the youngster.
“We were drawn to Lot 240 as he’s precocious and has a beautiful action. He’s also very well educated being prepared by Lyndhurst Farm. He will go to Cambridge until July or August 2010 before he goes up to race in Hong Kong.”

A strong and diverse buying bench competed for the 293 young horses on offer - the smallest catalogue at this sale since 2003. By the end of the day 175 horses had been sold for $10,511,000 (compared with $14,910,500 for 247 in 2008) at an average price of $60,063 (less than 0.5% down on last year’s $60,366 average). The clearance rate finished up 1% higher than last year at 68%.
Of particular note was the final median of $40,000 which matches the record median achieved in 2006, up 21% on last year’s median of $33,000, reflecting the depth to the middle market.
NZB Managing Director Sales & Marketing, Petrea Vela, said there was clear strength over the course of the day.
“The feeling on the salegrounds was one of a genuinely good sale, with buyers finding it challenging to secure the horses they wanted. As often happens it got stronger and stronger as the day progressed, but it was a discerning market and buyers were selective about what met their criteria.
“It’s great to have the results hold up as well as they have against last year’s sale given that we had fewer racehorses on offer and it didn’t provide quite the depth of selection as we’ve seen in previous years. But the buying bench was very strong and we’re thrilled with the level of support this sale received, particularly from our overseas markets in Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Korea.”
The leading individual buyer of the day was Hong Kong based agent Bahen Bloodstock Ltd which purchased seven two-year-olds for $515,000, including a top price of $155,000 paid for Lot 201, a gelding by Savabeel from the winning Centaine mare, Champagne Heights.
Also prominent on the buyers’ sheets were the Seoul Racehorse Owners Association and Korean Racing Authority who secured 12 and nine horses respectively all destined for Korea.
For the third year in a row Mark and Shelley Treweek’s Lyndhurst Farm was the leading vendor of the sale, responsible for the top lot of the day (Lot 240) and three of the top five lots sold.  The second top price paid was $240,000 for the Exceed and Excel colt at Lot 21, bought by New Zealand Bloodstock as agent for a Hong Kong buyer.
Specialist preparers in this market for the past decade, Lyndhurst Farm’s enviable record of success has seen their draft produce top performers St Culpe, Eclair Fantastic and San Luis.

Permalink| Nov 18, 2009

Comments are closed.