New Zealand Bloodstock floats Karaka back-up plan for premier sale
April date put forward if trans-Tasman travel bubble not in place for key January period
New Zealand Bloodstock is contemplating relinquishing its coveted late January slot on the calendar for its annual Karaka Yearling Sale as the auction house attempts to deal with the ongoing travel complications caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
The proposal would see New Zealand’s national yearling sale held in April after the major southern hemisphere auctions in the hope that a trans-Tasman travel bubble would be in place by then which would allow the crucial Australian agent and trainer buying bench to attend.
If the Karaka sale is rescheduled it would be held in the week of Monday, April 19, which would clash with day two of the Inglis Melbourne Gold Yearling Sale, and come a fortnight after the Australian Easter Yearling Sale.
NZB managing director Andrew Seabrook yesterday held discussions with Inglis’ Jonathan D’Arcy and Magic Millions counterpart Clint Donovan about next year’s sale dates.
“It is important that Australians are able to get here because they are our biggest buying bench and it’s looking, as days go on, increasingly unlikely that the border is going to be open in January, but hopefully it will be in April,” Seabrook told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“It could be a good move going to mid-April as our New Zealand horses perform very well in Sydney during that April period and there could be some rub off to the sale.”
As it stands, the Karaka Yearling Sale has a January 24 starting date and it would run hot on the heels of the season-opening Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling sale which is scheduled to start on January 13, a week later than what this year’s was.
In recent years, a number of high-profile Victorian breeders have pushed for the Inglis Melbourne Premier Yearling Sale to be brought forward from its early March date and encroach on, or even clash, with the Karaka sale, but Inglis resisted the move.
Seabrook was given another undertaking by D’Arcy yesterday that Inglis would not revisit the issue with the slot potentially vacated next year. NZB would most likely return to the late January dates for the 2022 Karaka sale.
“I have spoken to both Magic Millions and Inglis this morning to just tell them of our plans. They are both supportive of that,” Seabrook said.
“The April date we have in mind clashes with the Melbourne Gold Sale, but there’s just no other alternative for us. When I spoke to Jonathan D’Arcy he was understanding of that.”
Sam Williams of New Zealand’s Little Avondale Stud was pleased that NZB would make an early call on next year’s sale, which would allow vendors to plan with more certainty.
“They’re having to crystal ball gaze and so are we. We’ve just had a couple of meetings today regarding yearling staff. If you go and employ all these staff now and the sales are moved to April, you are stuck with all the staff and you can’t just sack them,” Williams said yesterday.
“The one thing they’ve done is that they’re going to put the stake in the sand at the end of August, which is fantastic, and that is going to allow trainers with Karaka Million graduates to plan and it’s also going to allow vendors to plan ahead for staffing requirements and for preparations of the horses.
“They have done a great job by pre-warning us.”
Rich Hill Stud principal John Thompson also welcomed the proposal.
“We have our customary time slot as that’s always worked well, but if an announcement with the Australaisan bubble isn’t going to happen until, say, March, then we’d definitely want them to push the sale back to April if they could,” he said.
“It wouldn’t be the ideal scenario but it would be better than not having any (Australian) buyers at the sale.”
Kiwis increasingly look to Australia as a selling option
Entries for the 2021 NZB Karaka Yearling Sale closed yesterday with some breeders and vendors exploring their options to sell more of their stock in Australia due to the impacts of Covid-19 and the general state of the local racing industry which has been in decline for a sustained period.
It has been suggested that an exodus of Kiwi-bred and owned yearlings, upwards of 150, will make their way to Australia to be auctioned in 2021, but whether the competition for select sale spots and the clout carried by major local farms would allow that to occur remains to be seen.
It is believed that the Australian companies have given assurances that they will not actively look to recruit significantly more yearlings from New Zealand than they would normally accept.
New Zealanders Mark and Shelly Treweek’s Lyndhurst Farm consigned two yearlings at the Magic Millions in January, and they also offered three at the Melbourne Premier sale and four at the virtual Australian Easter Yearling Sale in April.
Fellow Kiwi vendors Highden Park and Henley Park had two lots catalogued for the prestigious Easter sale, while Jamieson Park (six), Trelawney Stud (two) and Waikato Stud (two) were also represented in Sydney as was Woburn Farm (one).
Windsor Park Stud (six) and Woburn Farm (seven) also sold horses at Inglis’ Premier sale.
Little Avondale also offered four yearlings at the Easter sale and Williams admitted he would again look to Australia to sell some of his stock.
“I think there will be New Zealand studs like ourselves who will be targeting Australian sales if we can to give us an option. You’re going to have to spread your eggs,” he said.
“We’re very much looking at our options at the moment. I’ve been in a lot of discussions, especially in the last seven or eight days, about our draft and the way we’re selecting our draft.
“There are some race fillies that we are looking at holding and also giving ourselves an option of the (2021) Karaka Ready to Run Sale.”
‘All systems go’ for Ready to Run sale
The reshuffle of sale dates also impacted this year’s series of two-year-old auctions, with Magic Millions pushing its version back to November 9 and 10 and NZB’s Ready to Run Sale set to take place on November 18 and 19.
The Inglis Ready 2 Race Sale, normally the middle leg of the Australasian series, will be held on October 20.
Seabrook said NZB was well equipped to conduct this year’s sale, despite the likely scenario that international trainers and buyers would be unable to attend.
“I think if there’s one sale that we can have here without the international buyers being present is the breeze-up sale. A lot of the buyers, trainers and owners have seen the horses as yearlings and the most important component of the two-year-old sale is the breeze-up itself at Te Rapa,” he said.
“They will be able to see the breeze-ups and it’s a very transparent sale with x-rays online, scopes and bloods and all those sorts of things.
“It will be a normal live sale, but we will have online bidding, of course, for the internationals and those who prefer to bid that way. It’s all systems go for November.”
Williams also backed Seabrook’s assertion that this year’s Ready to Run Sale of 2YOs could prosper despite the current ban on international travel.
“At the Ready to Run sale you can get quite a bit of information from the digital platform through breeze-ups, x-rays, photos and film,” the studmaster said.
“When you’re buying a yearling and a weanling, it’s a little bit different as you need to visualise what that horse is going to look like later on as a racehorse and as a yearling when pinhooking. There’s a different feel there.”