‘You’ve always got to be grateful to owners for putting money into the game’
Even the uber wealthy racehorse owners of Hong Kong are feeling the pinch when it comes to the cost of paying for their prized racecourse stars.
It’s well-documented that the horse population in Hong Kong is below the numbers desired by the Jockey Club as the difficulty of sourcing suitable horses at a reasonable price, particularly those owners with a private purchase permit, proves increasingly elusive.
The costs of training horses at Sha Tin and at the mainland China Conghua centre isn’t cheap, either, with one agent indicating it costs somewhere between HK$65,000 (AU$12,650) and HK$75,000 (AU$14,596) a month to have a horse in training. Of course, veterinary, travel and other associated costs can be on top of those figures.
Hong Kong-based Australian David Price, a professional punter and trader with a large number of horses in training in Australia earmarked for Asia, was at the Inglis Premier sale with his agents John Foote and Merrick Staunton restocking with his latest crop bound for Sha Tin.
“Ownership costs are probably a little bit of a role, so there seems to be a little bit of pressure on numbers,” Price told us when asked about fewer horses being in training in Hong Kong than in the past.
“You’ve always got to be grateful to owners for putting money into the game because, as we know, it’s more of a passion than a bluechip investment.”
He says the dramatic increase in Australian prize-money levels over the past decade and the growing popularity of syndication has also made it harder to buy horses from Australia.
“I think everyone knows it’s getting harder because the prize-money down here has taken such a significant leap, and also so many horses are owned by a large number of people, so to get a consensus of ‘let’s sell when we’ve got a good horse’ [is hard to overcome],” Price says.
“I tell a lot of Hong Kong owners that Australian owners have the same dreams. They want to have a good horse, too.
“Some people have waited a lifetime for a good horse and then they can get a good offer from Hong Kong, but it’s like, ‘I’ve waited forever for this moment.”
Price and his wife Jenny Chapman play a significant role in the buying and selling of suitable horses specifically suited for the demands of the claustrophobic environment of Hong Kong racing.
There was no real secret to their horse trading success, other than it’s often more art than science and that scale plays a key role in their “20 to 30-year obsession”.
“The demand is definitely there for winners, it’s just a case of doing a job and hopefully getting enough winners every year,” he said.
“We seem to be able to do that on a fairly consistent basis.”
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Had a vote to oust five Racing Victoria board members at last week’s Special General Meeting achieved a majority in favour, that could have been enough to carry the motions.
It was said that a two-thirds majority, or 24 votes, was required to force change, but Rowe View understands that untested readings of the Commonwealth Corporations Act suggests that it trumps the constitution of Racing Victoria, a not-for-profit unlisted public company.
If proven right, it would have meant that 18 votes (or 51 per cent) was all that was required to overthrow the RV board.
As it turned out only three votes – those of the Thoroughbred Racehorse Owners Association led by outspoken figurehead Jonathan Munz – were in favour of the motion. There were 15 abstentions and 17 votes against to dismiss RV board members.
But had the abstentions instead been votes in favour of removing the soon-to-retire acting RV chair Mike Hirst, Kate Joel, Paul Guerra, Ross Lanyon and Tim Eddy, along with TROA’s three votes, the quintet could have been forced to exit their positions.
It is believed that Munz, at the very least, was aware of this advice and may have been willing to act on it had the vote gone a different way.
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The Victoria Racing Club wouldn’t say anything yesterday about the future of its two juvenile feature races traditionally run during its famous four-day spring Cup week carnival.
However, with the moving of the $500,000 Inglis Banner (RL, 1000m) from Cox Plate day and Moonee Valley, it’s not hard to deduce that the Maribyrnong Plate (Gr 3, 1000m) and Ottawa Stakes (Gr 3, 1000m) won’t be run at the Melbourne Cup Carnival in 2024.
It’d cannibalise the number of two-year-olds ready to race so early in the season, numbers which have been historically small in recent seasons.
Reading between the lines, one or both of the Maribyrnong Plate (first run in 1871) and the Ottawa Stakes (first run in 1978) – each worth $300,000 less in 2023 compared to what the Inglis Banner is – will shift dates away from Cup week.
The Ottawa, won by Karavas (Alabama Express) last year, had seven runners and the Maribyrnong attracted a field of eight. That colts and geldings’ race was quinellaed by the Tony and Calvin McEvoy-trained pair Dublin Down (Exceedance) and Blue Stratum (Blue Point).
So, just where could the VRC and Racing Victoria shift those two important Group 3 races on what is a jam-packed calendar?
Flemington has held a non black-type two-year-old race at its early to mid-January meeting, one that was won by recently announced Swettenham Stud sire Lofty Strike (Snitzel) in 2022, Veecee (Capitalist) in 2023 and Zestiman (Zoustar) this January, the latest running attracting a field of six.
Such a move, however, may create a clash of sorts with the $150,000 Geelong Diamond (1100m), which was run for the first time in 2024 and is certain to remain part of the early January calendar in Victoria. It was won by Stay Focused (Cosmic Force) who is set to contest tomorrow’s VRC Sires’ Produce Stakes (Gr 2, 1400m) at Flemington.
When asked by this column what the future may be for the Maribyrnong Plate and Ottawa Stakes, the VRC spokesperson pointed to the release, which said: “The VRC is in the process of confirming the 2024 Melbourne Cup Carnival race program and will provide an update in due course.”
The Inglis Banner was first held in 2008 at Moonee Valley with dual-hemisphere Group 1 winner Starspangledbanner (Choisir) taking out the inaugural running of the sales company restricted race. Last Saturday’s VRC Festival Stakes (Listed, 1000m) winner Bold Bastille (Brazen Beau) took out the 2023 Inglis Banner.
Could Magic Millions’ Victorian two-year-old race, which has been run on Ballarat Cup day in November and more recently December, be shifted to a metropolitan track – perhaps to Cox Plate day to replace the Banner – to give the race more mainstream prominence and standing by being held at a city racecourse?
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Inglis boss Sebastian Hutch is building up to his biggest Easter sale in his time leading the bloodstock division of the thoroughbred auction house.
And it’s not just because the only foal out of champion mare Winx (Street Cry), a filly by Pierro (Lonhro), will be offered on day two at Riverside.
“I feel a significant amount of pressure because we’ve been given what feels like a unique opportunity in the context of my time at the company with the quality of horses we have to offer on behalf of a great variety of vendors,” said Hutch, who joined Inglis in 2018 after a decade with Coolmore.
“I am really excited because there were a lot of horses that we liked a lot in the spring that I haven’t been able to see since the spring. We’ll make a trip to the Hunter Valley and the Southern Highlands the week after next to start looking at some of the horses but certainly chatting to some of the vendors here [at Premier] who are represented in the catalogue, they’re excited about their horses.
“A lot of buyers are asking about the sale and I think the William Inglis hotel is booked out already, and it’s been full for some time.”
Easter is Australasia’s highest-averaging sale each year. In 2023, 360 yearlings were sold at an average of $386,917.
“What tends to happen at any sale is a pecking order establishes itself and there might be horses where people’s expectations are at a certain level and they might not be met and there will be other people’s expectations that are far exceeded,” Hutch said.
“Each individual sale becomes its own ecosystem and so in the context of that sale it looks like a good or a disappointing result, but in the context of the year it has a different appearance and that’s part of the challenge for vendors in placing yearlings and part of the fun for us in identifying where the opportunities sit.”
The selling of the Winx filly has already, and will continue, to gain mainstream media cut-through but Hutch is adamant she isn’t the only attraction at Easter.
“Obviously the Winx filly is a factor in that, but certainly not a decisive one and I think people recognise the quality of the catalogue,” he said.
“There will be an onus on us to make sure everything is done at our end to deliver a special sale for the vendors and the buyers.”
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It was a fair day at the office for descendents of Just Cruising (Broad Reach) across Australasia on Saturday.
Antrim Coast (Roc De Cambes), out of Just Cruising’s granddaughter Coasting (Sakhee’s Secret), finished runner-up to brilliant Kiwi filly Orchestral (Savabeel) in the New Zealand Derby (Gr 1, 2400m) for his trainer Stephen Marsh and Drakaina (Ace High) won the Otago Breeders’ Stakes (Listed, 1400m) for Riverton-based trainer Ebony Turner.
The Oaks Stud-bred three-year-old Drakaina is a great granddaughter of Just Cruising, while the highest profile winner from the family on Saturday was the unbeaten Skyline Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) scorer Storm Boy (Justify).
Just Cruising produced dual New Zealand Horse of the Year Seachange (Cape Cross), while her daughter Pelican (Fastnet Rock) is the dam of the now majority Coolmore-owned Storm Boy, the short-priced favourite for the Golden Slipper (Gr 1, 1200m) and potentially Australia’s most valuable ever stallion prospect.
Thanks to Willow Park’s Glenn Burrows for the heads up about the rare feat.