Decision imminent for Magic Millions Perth Yearling Sale as NZB commits to live auction
Western Australia auction likely to be delayed by no more than a fortnight and buyers will be on site at Karaka
Magic Millions is set to confirm a date for the Perth Yearling Sale early next week, but vendors and buyers can almost certainly expect it to be held within a fortnight of its originally scheduled mid-February two-day timeslot.
Meanwhile across the Tasman, New Zealand Bloodstock’s Karaka Yearling Sale has also been impacted by border closures, but managing director Andrew Seabrook reaffirmed yesterday the company still plans to hold a live auction in early March.
Seabrook’s Magic Millions counterpart Barry Bowditch yesterday allayed fears the Perth sale could be delayed indefinitely, instead indicating that a final decision on when the 2022 edition would take place was imminent.
It is currently scheduled for February 14 and 15, but when Western Australia Premier Mark McGowan recently reneged on the reopening of the state’s border, which was slated for February 5, it immediately stopped people from being able travel to the state without quarantining.
Magic Millions WA manager David Houston and Perth-based auctioneer Grant Burns, key personnel required to conduct the Perth sale, are currently in NSW and Queensland respectively, having worked at the company’s Gold Coast sale, and they are awaiting a government exemption allowing them to return home.
“We understand the importance of the Perth sale to our WA stakeholders and that it needs to be conducted as close to the gazetted dates as possible,” Bowditch said yesterday.
“We are working hard in the background as we speak and we plan to provide certainty in the coming days.”
If the Perth sale is delayed, as expected, it could be held in the days after the February 21 Magic Million Tasmanian Yearling Sale and prior to the February 27 Inglis Premier Yearling Sale. If that comes around too soon, due to travel restrictions, the WA sale could be conducted in the same week as the three-day Melbourne sale, which ends on March 1.
It would leave a three-day opening from March 2 to 4 which would allow the Perth sale to be slotted in prior to the following week’s six-day NZB Karaka sale, to begin on Monday, March 7.
Managing director Seabrook informed vendors yesterday of NZB’s plans for the 2022 sale under the government’s red alert traffic light system.
“Since January 23 we’ve been coming up with a contingency plan and one that we’re confident is going to work well,” Seabrook told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“The sale will definitely be going ahead and we’ll be able to get all the New Zealand buyers there. As I said last week, one of the positives was that Prime Minister Ardern came out and said that there will be no closures to internal borders, so that means we’re going to get the horses here regardless and people as well.”
Seabrook cited the successful running of the Karaka Million meeting at Ellerslie and the upcoming women’s cricket World Cup as examples of where the pod system had and will be used.
“A precedent has been set here in New Zealand by a few organisations including the Auckland Thoroughbred Racing, the Wellington Racing Club (today) with its Cup meeting and the women’s cricket World Cup, which is being played here in March, whereby they are operating under the pod system where you can get 100 in a pod,” he said.
“The advantage we have here at Karaka is that we are on 40 acres, we’ve got a big footprint here and we can make it work. We ran our plans past a few people (on Thursday), including the president of the NZ Thoroughbred Breeders Association John Thompson, and from their point of view, they’re very happy with what we’ve come up with.
“We have communicated with our vendors (yesterday) and feedback we’ve received so far has been positive. We’ve just got to get on with it and it’s all systems go now.”
As has been the case throughout bloodstock markets during the pandemic, NZB – and will Magic Millions and rival Inglis for their respective upcoming sales – will be relying upon agents and trainers who are able to attend the auction to inspect horses on behalf of international buyers.
Karaka vendors, Seabrook said, would continue to increase the quality of videos showcasing their drafts and a new level of transparency to help interested parties make informed decisions.
The next auction on the Australasian calendar is the Inglis Classic Yearling Sale with inspections at Riverside Stables starting on Tuesday ahead of day one on February 6.