Horse racing: Auckland Cup moves a day to accommodate sales

As the thoroughbred sales industry gets set for a new challenge this week the code has worked together to give itself the best chance of a normal Karaka yearling sale in March. Photo / File.

As the thoroughbred sales industry gets set for a new challenge this week the code has worked together to give itself the best chance of a normal Karaka yearling sale in March.

And that will mean the famous Auckland Cup meeting at Ellerslie will be held on a Sunday, March 13 next year before the track is shut down for a major refurbishment.

The iconic raceday has been pushed back a day to enable the yearling sales at Karaka to be staged from the previous Monday, March 7 till Saturday the 12th, which was to originally been Cup day.

The yearling sales are usually held in January but have been delayed next year in the hope the borders may be open without quarantine by March so overseas trainers, buyers and agents can attend.

That could be crucial to boosting sales prices, which took a hit this year when visitors were unable to attend, but with major meetings in both Melbourne and Sydney on the Saturday before, New Zealand Bloodstock wanted to put the sale back to the Monday to enable buyers to travel and then inspect yearlings before the first day of selling.

With six days of selling across Book 1 and Book 2 that meant Ellerslie and NZTR had to be open to moving Cup Day to avoid a clash and the industry has worked together to create a blockbuster week of racing starting with Derby Day, through the sales and onto to Cup Day.

The Karaka Million meeting which usually opens sales week will remain on January 22.

Vendors are pleased by the later yearling sale as it means yearling have more time to develop and not be rushed and there isn't a seller heading to Karaka who doesn't want the maximum number of overseas visitors on the sale grounds that week.

That won't be the case this week though as the Ready To Run sale, a crucial economic engine for the industry, will be staged without horses at Te Rapa on Wednesday and Thursday.

The hugely popular sale, which has produced the winners of 20 group one races in the last six years, was always going to struggle to have overseas buyers attend once Auckland went into lockdown and as that dragged on it has become impossible to hold at Karaka because of the Covid border.

So it will now be held as a unique virtual sale over two days at Te Rapa with buyers who pre-register with NZB allowed to attend along with agents and a limited number of vendor representatives, all under the same Level 3 protocols used for race meetings.

There will be a live auction onsite starting at 1pm every day but no horses, so pre-sale research will have to have been done in advance.

"This sale has produced its own set of challenges but we have seen vendors really step up with the amount of information they have made available to potential buyers," says NZB's Danny Rolston.

"So much information is available online now from the usual breeze up footage to breeze day parades, all the veterinary information and we have seen a lot more agents and trainers than usual at the parades of the horses on the farms.

"And our online budding platform is world class and has been such a great addition to the way we sell horses in the last year that we have total confidence in it and so to buyers.

"So we expect the sale to be good and people comfortable with the format but one of the key factors is for buyers who want to attend and/or bid online to pre-register, that is crucial so they shouldn't wait to sales day."