Harding snaps up sale-topping daughter of Satono Aladdin
Well-known New Zealand owner Gary Harding’s investment in the Australasian foal market continued at New Zealand Bloodstock’s National Weanling Sale on Thursday with the acquisition of a NZ$170,000 daughter of Satono Aladdin (Deep Impact).
Coming just a week after Harding outlaid $525,000 for a weanling filly by Frankel (Galileo) at the Inglis Great Southern Sale in Melbourne, the owner took home NZB’s highest-priced lot at its 2024 one-day sale.
The first hour provided spirited competition for the most sought after lots, with three weanlings selling for NZ$140,000 or more.
Offered by Brighthill Farm and catalogued as Lot 25, the sale-topping Satono Aladdin filly surpassed the $150,000 price paid for last year’s top-priced colt by Per Incanto (Street Cry). She also set a new record weanling price for Rich Hill Stud’s high-flying shuttle stallion, surpassing the AU$145,000 price tag for a filly in Melbourne just last week.
Thursday’s headline-grabbing filly is the second foal out of the Rip Van Winkle (Galileo) mare Henley Road, who placed on the racetrack and is a half-sister to the multiple Group 1-winning Karaka weanling graduate Callsign Mav (Atlante).
Bloodstock agent John Cameron withstood a spirited bidding battle to secure the filly, who will be retained by Harding to race in his familiar white and orange colours.
“There were a few things that drew me to her today, just not so much the price,” Harding said.
“She’s a very nice filly. We also bought a weanling filly in Australia the previous week, so I thought we should pick out a mate for her from this sale as well.
“We had a good look at quite a few of the weanlings in this catalogue, and she’s the one that ticked the boxes for us. She’s the one that we wanted.
“She’s a lovely filly with a good walk and a bit of presence about her, and she’s by a stallion that’s doing a good job, so she has a bit going for her.
“We’ll be keeping her and taking her through to race. Hopefully she’ll come up well. Buying weanlings is a higher-risk venture than yearlings, so we’ll just have to wait and see. But she was the one we particularly wanted today and I’m pleased that we’ve got her.”
Brighthill Farm sold the sale-topping filly on behalf of Laura Day, who bought Henley Road for just NZ$1,850 on Gavelhouse.com.
A total of nine weanlings sold for NZ$100,000 or more at Karaka on Thursday. The first of them came only a few minutes after the 11am start time, with Lot 3 bought by GTS Bloodstock for $140,000.
Offered by Curraghmore, the colt is by this season’s outstanding first-season two-year-old sire Super Seth (Dundeel) and is out of well-related Drama Series (Pierro). Herself the dam of talented three-year-old filly Raptylight (Written By), who finished fourth in stakes company this season, Drama Series is out of a half-sister to the Group 1 winner First Seal (Fastnet Rock).
That NZ$140,000 price was later matched by Lot 36, a Proisir (Choisir) colt from the Curraghmore draft. Renowned pinhookers Riversley Park secured the colt, whose unraced dam descends from a top-class European family featuring Group 1 stars Hellenic (Darshaan), Islington (Sadler’s Wells), Greek Dance (Sadler’s Wells), Mountain High (Danehill) and Melbourne Cup (Gr 1, 3200m) winner Fiorente (Monsun).
That was the first of four six-figure yearlings for Proisir, who later had fillies sell for NZ$130,000 and NZ$105,000 and a colt for NZ$110,000.
Fledgling syndicators and traders Raptors Thoroughbreds, which first emerged at the 2022 NZB National Yearling Sale, made an impact at Karaka, buying five weanlings for a combined NZ$390,000, including the NZ$130,000 Proisir filly and a first crop colt by Noverre (Savabeel) for NZ$100,000.
“We’re very happy with the five horses that we bought today,” Raptors Thoroughbred’s Jessica Yang said.
“Those were the weanlings that we came here wanting to buy, so we got everything that we had on our list.
“We haven’t decided yet which ones we will pinhook and take to the two-year-old sale, and which ones we might keep to race ourselves.
“We bought a very nice filly by Proisir for $130,000 just before the end of the sale, and we were also happy to go up to $100,000 to buy a son of Noverre.
“That horse was highly recommended by our bloodstock team, so we had no problem with taking that risk on a first-season sire.”
NZB bloodstock sales manager Kane Jones said Thursday’s weanling sale mirrored what had occurred at the recent Australian weanling sales where buyers focused on quality lots.
That market sentiment made clearing horses difficult, with 77 of the 133 offered finding new homes at a clearance rate of 58 per cent compared to 70 per cent in 2023.
As a consequence of the smaller catalogue and subdued trade, the aggregate of $2,485,000 was down almost five per cent with the average of $32,273 up 40 per cent and the median up from $12,000 to $18,000 year-on-year.
“There’s no shying away from the fact that it was pretty hard going in the middle and towards the lower end, but we saw spirited bidding and great results for those quality horses on offer,” Jones told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“When a nice horse walked into the ring, so did everybody else and there were fireworks on those quality lots.”
Sale statistics
2024 2023
Catalogued 150 183
Offered 133 161
Sold 77 (58%) 113 (70%)
Aggregate $2,485,000 (- 4.75%) $2,609,100
Average $32,273 (+39.77%) $23,089
Median $18,000 (+50%) $12,000
Top Lot $170,000 $150,000