“The atmosphere on the grounds has been amazing, like a family reunion,” says New Zealand Bloodstock spokesman Kane Jones.
“To have so many of our international visitors back is amazing and there is a lot of handshaking going on.
“The hotel here [DoubleTree by Hilton on the Karaka grounds] is full and a lot of the right people, the people the vendors want to see here, are here and still more to come.”
But the feelgood will be put to one side starting at 11am today as the first of 257 lots to be spread over two days enters the ring.
That smaller than usual catalogue coupled with a seemingly endless global demand for bloodstock plus having overseas buyers on the grounds where they are always more likely to purchase a horse, should make for a strong sale.
“All the metrics are there for a good sale and the vendors say they are busy and happy, which is always a really good barometer,” says Jones.
Many of the big Australian players see the Ready To Run sale as the place to buy Derby and Oaks contenders but with top-class milers who have performed in Australia like Mr Brightside and Te Akau Shark having come through the sale in recent years it has broader appeal.
It has also had a spring of important Australian updates with a three-year-old star in Sharp N Smart being offered at this sale last year, while Victoria Derby winner Manzoice has a Shooting To Win half-sister for sale as Lot 57 today.
The Hong Kong trainers and agents also have the dual appeal of New Zealand horses being so regularly successful up there but this year’s catalogue has a solid smattering of Australian-bred horses purchased at sales there and prepared here, injecting some Australian speed-dominated bloodlines into the next two days.
That was a recipe that produced the Ready To Run’s greatest recent advertisement in Hong Kong hero Golden Sixty, who was purchased at Karaka for $300,000 and has gone on to top of the world’s best horse rankings in the last year.
Predicting the top lots at a Ready To Run sale is never easy because for some buyers the breeze ups (200m gallops which are videoed) conducted on a soft 5 track at Te Rapa last month are the crucial component, while others place more emphasis on breeding or how the horses, now far more developed than they were as yearlings, look.
Coverage of the sale starts at 10.45am each day on Sky Pop Up Channel 263, Freeview 200 as well as the New Zealand Bloodstock website and Facebook page.
