‘Quality’ National Broodmare Sale begins as NZB suggest live return next year
New Zealand Bloodstock has hinted that the National Broodmare Sale could hold a permanent place on the calendar and return as a live auction at Karaka from 2023, as this year’s online sale gets under way today on Gavelhouse Plus.
The 81-lot catalogue, which includes stallion shares offered in Reliable Man (Dalakhani) and Shocking (Street Cry), is open for bidding today from 11am (NZST) and will countdown on Wednesday, July 20.
However, the positive response from vendors in consigning a high-quality group of race fillies and mares – and the opening up of international borders following the Covid-19 pandemic – has prompted thoughts of having buyers and sellers meet at a physical auction in Auckland, with the broodmares sold alongside the National Weanling Sale, which was also held online this year in April.
New Zealand Bloodstock last held a combined weanling and broodmare sale in 2019 at the Karaka May Sale, an auction which attracted a collection of 62 broodmares, selling to a high of $55,000.
“With the numbers we’ve got, and depending on how the sale pans out over the next week, we may look to go back to a physical type of sale at Karaka in conjunction with the weanlings, because that sale was really good as well,” New Zealand Bloodstock’s director of business development Mike Kneebone told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“Going by the quality that’s been put forward for the sale, there’s clearly room for us to look at going back to a physical sale for it.”
New Zealand Bloodstock is happy to once again put its confidence in online sales platform Gavelhouse to deliver strong results. The operation sparked a frenzy of one-off online auctions for mares, with the sale of Spanish Whisper (Lope De Vega) for $1,202,500 breaking records in October 2020, then in September last year, nine-time Group 1 winner Avantage (Fastnet Rock) topped that by selling for $4.1 million to Coolmore.
The recent Valachi Downs dispersal auction, held online on Gavelhouse Plus, also produced strong results, with the $1.75 million sale of Tofane’s (Ocean Park) dam Baggy Green (Galileo) to Yulong.
“Our online system has probably been tested more than anyone else’s and we’re really confident with it and we want to make it an integral part of our sales,” Kneebone said.
“We just thought with the numbers this year we’d go online. Even though New Zealand has now opened up, it’s been a fairly slowly-run affair. There’s still a lot of resistance to travel, including from Australia, and I think that will continue to be the case right the way through to the Ready to Run sale in November. The logical way to go was for an online broodmare sale this year.”
Among the 79 broodmares on offer is Group 1 winner Il Quello Veloce (Captain Rio), who is in foal to U S Navy Flag (War Front), and Group 2 winner and Group 1 placegetter Floria (Savabeel), who has already produced the Group 2-performed Captain Corelli (Tavistock). She is offered by Haunui Farm as Lot 31 to dissolve a partnership. Haunui will also offer Kate Cross (Cape Cross), the dam of Group 1 winner Consensus (Postponed).
Young mares offered in foal to prominent stallions include the unraced Abit Iffey (Iffraaj), a half-sister to Group 3 winner Tavarnelle (Savabeel) and carrying a positive scan to leading sire Per Incanto (Street Cry), while mares in foal to up-and-coming sires Vadamos (Monsun), Time Test (Dubawi), Ribchester (Iffraaj), Super Seth (Dundeel) and Almanzor (Wootton Bassett) will also form attractive propositions for buyers.
A rare collectors’ item could be Patromonium, who is a daughter of Green Desert (Danzig), and a half-sister to Listed winner Rockatella (Rock Of Gibraltar). She is offered in foal to Almanzor as Lot 63.
“I think there’s something for everyone. We’ve seen that buyers are really craving quality and the cream will rise to the top, just like it does in every other sale,” Kneebone said.
“Those mares in foal to Per Incanto, he’s the leading sire (by winners) in Hong Kong and has done a fantastic job this year, they’ll be well sought after. And Lot 18, the Commands’ mare Commentate, has a valuable cover to Shocking inside of her and Shocking just continues to go from strength to strength in Australia. He had a couple of really strong winners yesterday in Hezashocka and Horrifying. There’s a stallion share in Shocking available as well.”
New Zealand Bloodstock last year held a 37-lot Autumn Broodmare Sale on Gavelhouse Plus, which, despite seeing Group 2 winner Yearn (Savabeel) realise $195,000, had 20 of the lots on offer pass in.
However, Kneebone is confident that with the higher-quality selection of mares on offer and a strong on-ground presence at the farms from agents, a powerful and international buying bench will be assembled to engage in a dynamic bidding war.
“The professionalism of the stud farms and bloodstock agents that are operating in the market at the moment, they really leave no stone unturned when it comes to looking through catalogues, no matter if they’re online or a physical sale. But all the big farms, they track down families, pedigrees, types and then they buy them. They really do a good job of it,” he said.
“We’ve gone about this sale in the usual way and a lot of the work has been done by our agents Kane Jones and Regan Donnison, who have gone around and had a look at all this stock that’s going online and that does take a lot of time.
“At the end of the day, you’ve got expert eyes cast over the stock and we can then feed back to our clients. It’s a tried and tested method that we’re using, and I think it’s going to be very beneficial to people as they can easily find out about the horses through our agents and other agents in New Zealand for the online system.
“We’ll once again see how it pans out this year, but we’re very happy with the quality and confident that the online system will produce some good sales.”