NZB delighted as internationals pounce on day one of Ready to Run Sale
There was an air of confidence in the lead-up to day one of the New Zealand Bloodstock Ready to Run Sale but company figureheads were reluctant to make it public in case the optimism failed to eventuate but the international market’s appetite for stock was certainly evident in yesterday’s opening session of the two-year-old auction.
The platform for the day’s trade was set with the first two lots through the ring – a NZ$320,000 Not A Single Doubt (Redoute’s Choice) colt and a son of Savabeel (Zabeel) who made NZ$400,000 – in a market where the key international buying benches of Australia and Hong Kong lived up to their pre-sale interest in the auction.
Later in the 160-lot session a son of the late Waikato Stud-based stallion Sacred Falls (O’Reilly), the sire of this month’s New Zealand 2000 Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) winner Aegon and VRC Oaks (Gr 1, 2500m) runner-up Salto Angel, made NZ$525,000.
The NZ$80,000 Karaka yearling led the session in which ten two-year-olds made more than NZ$200,000 and another 15 made NZ$100,000 or more.
Last night, with a number of talented horses set to go through the ring today, the average was at NZ$92,872, the median was NZ$51,250 and the aggregate was NZ$7,615,500.
The clearance rate was also 60 per cent.
The figures were still down on the same session at the 2019 sale, but NZB sales manager Danny Rolston was delighted with how the day panned out.
“If you handed us these results on a plate a week ago I think we would have been doing handstands,” Rolston said.
“We had a great run of horses in that first ten lots and it was really important, because sometimes you can have a really nice horse in amongst them, and it is hard to get the buyer confidence to bid early, but we certainly saw the opposite today and that really got us kicked off and in good shape.”
With a number of leading buyers unable to attend the sale in person, it was left to trusted New Zealand agents and trainers to inspect and bid on their clients’ behalf, with Group 1-winning trainer Graham Richardson buying the Sacred Falls colt and a son of Headwater (Exceed And Excel) for NZ$300,000 for a “loyal but private client from Hong Kong”.
“He (Sacred Falls) is flying. It is sad that he has passed. Most of them just need a bit of time, but they are nice, athletic horses,” Richardson said.
“I am absolutely chuffed for New Zealand Bloodstock and the vendors here because it is a nervous time, and money goes around and we all need each other.
“I love buying horses at this sale. I have for years and have had a lot of luck.”
Out of Savabeel Star (Savabeel), who is a half-sister to New Zealand Group 3 winner Stardane (Soviet Star), the Sacred Falls colt is a half-brother to Listed winner Stella Di Paco (Paco Boy) and two other winners including Shining On (O’Reilly) and the former Leahy-trained Viva Chef. He was catalogued as Lot 54 and he breezed up in 10.77 seconds.
It was a big pinhooking result for former jumps jockey-turned-trainer Finbarr Leahy who bought the colt from the Cambridge Stud draft for NZ$80,000 at the NZB Karaka Yearling Sale earlier this year.
The colt was offered through Sam Beatson’s Riversley Park draft, who Leahy usually partners with along with Ben Foote in pinhooking horses.
“It is going to take a while to sink in, but it’s fantastic,” Leahy said.
“The year 2020 has been lucky for me at the moment, but for my wife and kids it is going to be life changing for them, it’s fantastic.
“You always hope, you always have dreams, and today they have been fulfilled.
“He has been popular. He has been in and out of his box more times than any other horse on the complex, so that is always a good sign.”
It was his experience with Viva Chef which led Leahy to backing his judgment in buying the colt.
“I was lucky enough to have the full-brother (Viva Chef) and it was kind of Gary Carvell to send him to me to train,” he said.
“I won a trial with him and I thought this horse has gears. Luckily he won in Hong Kong the other night.
“You take a chance and if you like a horse you sometimes have to go with your gut feeling. Luckily enough this time it has paid off. A couple of times it hasn’t but this time it has, so we are delighted.”
Cambridge Stud will offer the colt’s half-brother by shuttler Almanzor (Wootton Bassett) at next year’s NZB Karaka Yearling Sale.
Richardson also bought the NZ$300,000 Headwater colt for the same Hong Kong client from Shane Crawford and Kara Waters’ Regal Farm in another successful pinhook result having sold a son of Deep Field (Northern Meteor) for $610,000 at the Inglis Ready 2 Race Sale last month.
“I am surprised and not surprised and he is definitely a lovely colt,” Crawford said.
“He’s full of quality and we had him on the market at $160,000, so it was great for us having such a small draft.”
Catalogued as Lot 32, the colt was an $80,000 purchase by Thoroughbred Union from the Vinery Stud draft at this year’s Inglis Classic Yearling Sale. He breezed up in 11.07 seconds.
Agent Dean Hawthorne was under bidder.
Yiu active at Karaka
Soon after missing out on the Headwater juvenile, Hawthorne struck for a colt by No Nay Never (Scat Daddy) who made NZ$220,000 on behalf of champion Hong Kong trainer Ricky Yiu.
Active at both the Inglis and Magic Millions two-year-old sales, Yiu added to his Australian haul by securing the colt via New Zealand agent Hawthorne.
Offered by Riversley Park as Lot 38, the colt breezed up in 10.51 seconds. He was a successful pinhook for Riversley Park and Woburn Farm who paid $55,000 for him at the 2019 Magic Millions National Weanling Sale. Out of winning Danzero (Danehill) mare Renounceable, he is a half-sister to two Australian winners and from the same family as Group 1 winner Vouvray (Zabeel) and Group 2 winner Real Success (Success Express).
Riversley Park’s Sam Beatson said: “It’s a terrific result. The No Nay Nevers can run and we bought him at the weanling sale on the Gold Coast.
“We bypassed the yearling sale and kept him specifically for the Ready to Run sale, having done the same thing with several Tavistocks a few years back and with some success.”
Busuttin and Young busy on day one
The second highest-priced lot sold yesterday at NZ$400,000, a Savabeel colt offered by Sam Beatson’s cousin Jamie under his Ohukia Lodge banner, will head to Australia to be trained by expatriate New Zealanders Trent Busuttin and Natalie Young who ended up with two-year-olds on day one.
“We would rather be there than not, but it is what it is. I don’t think we are too far away from hopefully Jacinda (Ardern, New Zealand Prime Minister) opening up the borders,” Busuttin said.
“We have been using it (online bidding platform) for the last few sales now, it’s pretty straight forward and very good.”
“I thought his breeze-up was very good and the feedback I had from the people who looked at him in New Zealand for me was that they thought he was the best horse on the sales ground on type. He ticked all the boxes,” Busuttin said.
“There are plenty of good people over there looking at them, so maybe that is the way of the future.
“There is nothing like being there yourself but we were confident in the people who were looking at him for us.”
Catalogued as Lot 3 and the second horse through the ring, the colt is out of the unraced On Broadway (Pins) who is a sister to the stakes-placed Pins On Parade and Dower, herself the dam of Listed-winning, Group 1-placed mare Dowager Queen (Savabeel).
“I thought I might have to go that high, I was hoping not,” he said. “We thought we would have to pay between $300,000 and $400,000. That was our last bid, we wouldn’t have gone much more than that.
“We have got a good relationship with Ohukia Lodge. They break in a lot of our horses in New Zealand. Jamie gave this horse a big rap in particular, and you have full confidence that they know what a good horse is.”
“We have got a good client, Ben Kwok, he races a nice two-year-old with us in Australia and he has gone in again for a significant share. It’s good to have him onboard.
“The colt will make a nice 1600 to 2000-metre middle distance horse. We will get him over to Australia and give him a month off. A three-year-old campaign will be his go.”
The colt was sold for NZ$220,000 by Waikato Stud to Ohukia Lodge at the NZB Karaka Yearling Sale last January before being educated by Jamie Beatson for the ready to run sale. He breezed up in 10.52 seconds at Te Rapa.
“It was a bit of a surprise but we had an inkling he would sell well,” Jamie Beatson said.
“We are really happy that he has gone to such a good judge and a great stable. Trent and Natalie know what they are doing.
“It is a great start to the sale for us. I hope it stays that way.”
Busuttin and Young, who also spent $740,000 at last month’s Inglis Ready 2 Race Sale, including the purchase of two colts by Savabeel for $330,000 and $310,000 respectively, also bought another Savabeel colt for NZ$120,000 and a Charm Spirit (Invincible Spirit) gelding for NZ$52,500 from Riverrock Farm.
The couple also paid NZ$220,000 for a Dundeel colt, catalogued as Lot 95, from Ohukia Lodge which was another successful pinhook result for Beatson.
“Sam (Beatson) and I, before we went our separate ways, broke in Dundeel, so I have always had a soft spot for the Dundeels,” Jamie said.
“He was a bit small and quite weak as a yearling but he has done incredibly well.
“We bought him from Hallmark Stud (for NZ$15,000) and Mark Baker told us he was there for sale, he was owned by some Australian owners who were keen to sell.”
No doubt about first lot through the ring
The horse to get the sale off to a bang was the Jamieson Park homebred colt by Not A Single Doubt who was bought by well-known New Zealand owner Gary Harding, who also raced Group 1 winner Bounding (Lonhro).
The only lot in the sale for Jamieson Park’s Sam Munro, who passed the colt in at the virtual Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale when the New Zealand-consigned horses could not make it to Australia due to coronavirus restrictions.
Breezing up in 10.49 seconds, the colt is the first foal out of O’Naturelle (O’Reilly), a Listed-placed winner who is a half-sister to the Group 2-placed Orutan (Pins). He was catalogued as Lot 2.
“I loved the colt, but I didn’t like the price,” Harding said.
“Originally, I wasn’t going to attend the sale but I started to get itchy feet and as my stocks were getting a bit depleted I decided to get here.
“We’ve bought a lot of yearlings here but this is my first ever Ready to Run purchase. We only came here to get this one colt.
“I love the sire and the mare had some talent, according to Sam Munro (of Jamieson Park).
“He is very well balanced and the page is good. We will try him here (New Zealand) first and if he shows us anything we will look at Australia.”
Te Akau’s David Ellis, sitting in his customary seat at Karaka alongside trainer Jamie Richards, was the under bidder.
“We bred him from a mare we raced. She showed us some real ability so was worth the outlay of Not A Single Doubt’s service fee,” Munro said.
“He was to go to Sydney, but we know what happened about that. His breeze up was excellent and he is a natural athlete.”
Harding later also purchased the Reliable Man (Dalakhani) filly out of Zuzela (Redoute’s Choice) from the Westbury Stud draft for NZ$270,000. Catalogued as Lot 125, she is closely related to recent Geelong Classic (Listed, 2200m) winner Confrontational (Redoute’s Choice).
Windfall for Harveys
Another two-year-old by Reliable Man also provided Ascot Farm’s Bruce and Maureen Harvey and their son Glen with a significant return on their meagre investment when the NZ$5,100 purchase returned NZ$230,000 yesterday.
Originally bought through the Gavelhouse online portal, he was consigned under Glen Harvey’s Roysyn Stables banner as Lot 120 and it was Hong Kong trainer Francis Lui who was prepared to outlay the sum to secure the horse.
“He was sold by Cambridge Stud and he had a pedigree that we knew quite well,” Glen Harvey said.
“We had a horse out of Shalt Not (second dam) before for the Hong Kong sale. Amelia’s Dream (dam’s half-sister) was a pretty freakish race horse that we never really got to see the best of.
“We had bought another Reliable Man earlier that night for $3,500, so we thought that this guy definitely had the better pedigree.
“It was no risk buying two horses for $9,000 when the service fee was $15,000. It was the law of averages and he kept thriving the whole time.”
The gelding is the first foal out of Ziffel (Zabeel), an unplaced half-sister to Richard Pegum’s former star filly Amelia’s Dream (Redoute’s Choice) who won the Silver Slipper Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) before injury ended her race career.
Harvey had been pleased with the gelding’s development and felt he could handle a Ready To Run preparation.
“We always thought we could do quite well, especially from the reports when he was broken in,” Harvey said.
“He had that confidence and toughness about him that he could handle the preparation for a Ready To Run.
“It’s a good family occasion and nice for Mum and Dad to get a result like that. They have put a lot of money into the industry over the years and it is nice to see them getting rewarded.”
The focus of NZB’s Rolston, meanwhile, was last night on ensuring the momentum of the sale flowed through to today and he is confident that it will.
“There are some big lots, but quite honestly, they will take care of themselves with the level inquiry we’ve had,” he said.
“While we are paying a lot of attention to them, it is really important from our team’s point of view to make sure the bulk of the catalogue gets taken care of.
“We’re working tirelessly to market those horses who might fall outside that obvious bracket and I think what we saw today was a culmination of everyone’s efforts, the technology working and great New Zealand results firing all around the world.
“It’s come to fruition today.”
Day two starts at 1pm New Zealand time.
Sale Statistics – Day One
2020 – 2019
Catalogued: 160 – 210
Offered: 119 – 179
Sold: 82 (69%) – 112 (63%)
Aggregate: $7,615,500 – NZ$10,789,500
Average: NZ$92,872 – NZ$96,335
Median: $51,250 – NZ$60,000
Top Lot: NZ$525,000 – NZ$500,000