Vendors put pandemic aside by backing Ready 2 Race Sale with large catalogue
Numbers and quality on increase for Sydney two-year-old sale as Inglis to set platform
Stakeholders are banking on the continued demand from Asia, and primarily Hong Kong, as well as the underlying strength of the Australian racing industry to underpin this year’s two-year-old sales, which threaten to be the most coronavirus-affected segment of the thoroughbred sales market.
Inglis gets the chance to set the benchmark for this year’s Australasian two-year-old market with its Ready 2 Race Sale scheduled for Tuesday, October 20, which again coincides with Sydney’s The Everest carnival the previous Saturday.
Magic Millions, which in the past has been the first to hold its two-year-old sale with an early October date, has elected to push its auction back to November 9 and 10 while the New Zealand Bloodstock version will be held on November 18 and 19 to maintain its traditional slot as the last company to conduct the juvenile sale each year.
Inglis will this morning officially release the 226-lot catalogue for its 2020 Ready 2 Race Sale, which has jumped in numbers and quality on the back of a robust 2019 Riverside Stables marketplace, according to bloodstock sales and marketing manager Sebastian Hutch.
Progeny of stallions such as Fastnet Rock (Danehill), Sebring (More Than Ready), Not A Single Doubt (Redoute’s Choice), Pierro (Lonhro), Zoustar (Northern Meteor), Written Tycoon (Iglesia), Deep Field (Northern Meteor), Vancouver (Medaglia d’Oro), Lonhro (Octagonal), Nicconi (Bianconi), Dundeel (High Chaparral) and Hinchinbrook (Fastnet Rock) are all represented in the Ready 2 Race catalogue.
Brazen Beau (I Am Invincible), the sire of Saturday’s brilliant Up And Coming Stakes (Gr 3, 1300m) winner North Pacific, Choisir (Danehill Dancer), Ocean Park (Thorn Park) and All Too Hard (Casino Prince) also have two-year-olds catalogued, while two colts by champion US sire Into Mischief (Harlan’s Holiday) and a filly by top-class European sire Siyouni (Pivotal) will also go under the hammer.
Hutch is unperturbed about Inglis “opening the batting” this year despite warranted trepidation.
“We are looking at it from an optimistic perspective. That’s our mandate as an auction house and, irrespective of when we are going to be selling the horses, we’re confident that we can do an outstanding job for our vendors and help our buyers find the right horses,” Hutch said yesterday.
“There are pros and cons to going first: you get first crack at the money but, by the same token, you set the market and traditionally people are a bit more circumspect early on, so there’s a balance to be struck with it.
“However, we certainly feel that the first steps in having a successful sale have been taken by having a fantastic catalogue of horses and, most importantly, we’re dealing with people who are recognised as being fantastic horse people and that’s a massive part of the breeze-up format – the relationship buyers have with the horse people presenting the horses.”
Vendors with a growing reputation for preparing and selling well-credentialled racehorses are again supporting the Riverside Stables sale, with Blake Ryan (20 lots), Hannover Lodge (19), and Damian Lane’s Glenvale Park (five) among them.
New Zealand consignors Ohukia Lodge (19), Cheltenham Stables (three), Kiltannon Stables (ten), Prima Park (ten) and Riversley Park (four) will also send horses across the Tasman for the Ready 2 Race Sale.
Prima Park sold the top-priced lot, a Deep Field gelding who made $340,000 to the bid of George Moore, and a Headwater (Exceed And Excel) gelding who made $210,000 for agent Bevan Smith and Singapore trainer Michael Clements, at last year’s sale.
Kelly Van Dyk, who is also preparing a draft of 25 for the NZB sale under the Prima Park banner, told ANZ Bloodstock News yesterday that the Kiwi operation had been buoyed by its success at the 2019 sale.
This year, they are preparing a select draft including colts by Zoustar, Tivaci (High Chaparral) and Extreme Choice (Not A Single Doubt) as well as a gelding by Ocean Park, the sire of last season’s Epsom Handicap (Gr 1, 1600m) and Golden Eagle (1500m) winner Kolding, among others.
“We have identified horses that we think would suit the Australian market. Obviously, Tivaci is an up-and-coming sire and the two we’ve selected to go over there are very nice horses and we’re quite excited about them. They’re very good movers and the early word has been very good on the Tivacis,” Van Dyk said.
“The Zoustar was bought in Melbourne to come back to the Inglis sale and he’s a standout. He’s a beautiful horse and physically and mentally he’s a very good two-year-old type. They are the sort of horses we think are going to get up and be ready in October.”
The closure of the international borders into Australia and the current state border closures of Queensland and Victoria because of coronavirus will no doubt impact the market, but Van Dyk remains positive about two-year-old vendors’ prospects this year.
“We’re going to be relying on the bloodstock agents for those (Asian) markets and it’s going to be hard without Hong Kong there (on the ground), which is a big player for us in the ready to run market, but (people like agent) Bevan Smith has gone over to Australia and done all the hard work with quarantine and basing himself there,” she said.
“We just have to have faith in those agents being able to get the deals done with their clients up in Asia.
“The trial market has also been very strong. We just sold a Sebring colt up to Hong Kong last week off a one-win trial and they have been very prominent and they are definitely still wanting horses … and hopefully that can lead into the ready to run market as well.”
Prominent Hong Kong trader Upper Bloodstock was active at the Magic Millions National Yearling Sale, relying on videos, photos and feedback from agents on the ground to buy, and it is hoped that the willingness to trust on-the-ground advice and the advancing technology can translate to an active international buying bench at the Ready 2 Race Sale.
“The breeze-up sale is arguably a sale where there’s more information available on the stock on offer than any other sale format,” Hutch said.
“This is a sale where you can see the horses gallop under saddle and follow their trajectory as developing racehorses and get a line through the breeze and the time they are running, etc, as to where you think they might end up. The volume of information that is available is as great as any other auction and I think that is conducive to attracting people to participate.”
There has been anecdotal evidence that, despite the economic havoc caused by Covid-19, that many trainers and syndicators have experienced renewed interest from owners in investing in new horses.
The strength of the domestic market, which has been a slow burn for the auction houses conducting the southern hemisphere breeze-up sales, will also be pivotal to the success or otherwise of this year’s ready to run auctions.
“What (racing continuing) has done is given people a window into our sport who otherwise might not necessarily have been observers before the pandemic and it’s been a great sell for the sport and hopefully we can sustain that momentum,” Hutch said.
“It’s been great to hear … syndicators, trainers and agents expressing a positive interest in stock. Certainly, we found at our breeze-up sale last year, that there was really strong domestic interest in the sale and we’ve worked very hard to canvass that. Again, a lot of it is borne out of the confidence that investors have in people presenting the horses which is why we were so keen to try and deal with as many established participants as possible.
“We hope that continues into the 2020 sale and certainly the early indications are that that is the case.”
The Inglis Ready 2 Race breeze-ups will be conducted in NSW, Queensland, Victoria and New Zealand in September with a last-minute session scheduled at Warwick Farm on Friday, October 16, five days out from the sale.
Inglis Ready 2 Race schedule
Friday, September 11 – Seymour breeze-up (Victoria)
Tuesday, September 15 – Eagle Farm breeze-up (Queensland)
Friday, September 18 – Warwick Farm breeze-up (NSW)
Monday, September 21 – Taupo breeze-up (New Zealand)
Friday, October 16 – inspections at Riverside, alternate Warwick Farm breeze-up
Sunday, October 18 – Veuve Clicquot champagne brunch and parade of two-year-olds
Tuesday, October 20 – Inglis Ready 2 Race Sale, starting at 10am