Horse racing: New Zealand Bloodstock moves to boost centenary yearling sales

Changes to next year's Karaka yearling sales are set to boost returns to the breeding industry. Photo / Trish Dunell

New Zealand Bloodstock is moving to put more horses in front of more international buyers than ever before for the 100th anniversary of national yearling sales next year.

New Zealand’s only horse racing auction house will celebrate a century of sales in this country with four days of thoroughbred sales at Karaka next January but will compress the most commercially attractive horses into three days to better suit trainers and buyers from around the world.

The Karaka sales has no problem attracting the leading Australian and Hong Kong buyers but many want to be back home for race meetings on the Wednesday, with plenty of the big names traditionally choosing to leave on the Tuesday night.

That has often meant half the horses sold at Karaka don’t really end up on the radar of foreign buyers who leave before they go under the hammer or, in some cases, before those yearlings even arrive at Karaka to become available for inspections.

Some overseas and even domestic trainers have agents or assistants still at Karaka once they leave but the more major players on the sales grounds for longer, the higher prices are going to be.

To facilitate that, New Zealand Bloodstock will increase the numbers of horses sold on the first three days of the sales next year, starting on Sunday, January 25 and Monday, January 26 for Book 1 horses while 290 horses will be offered in Book 2 on Tuesday, January 27 before many of the overseas trainers return home.

Book 1 of the yearling sales usually sees around 220 horses a day catalogued, meaning that after withdrawals around 200 yearlings would be offered each day.

That meant around 660 total horses could be catalogued in Book 1 to be sold over those three peak days, Sunday to Tuesday.

New Zealand Bloodstock (NZB) will boost those numbers for next season by cataloguing 290 lots per day for Book 1 on Sunday and Monday with another 290 for Book 2 on the Tuesday.

Crucially, all 871 yearlings catalogued for those three days can be on the salegrounds at the same time, enabling buyers who may usually miss Book 2 yearlings to inspect them as well.

“We want to get as many of those top horses in front of as many overseas buyers as we can,” says NZB managing director Andrew Seabrook.

That will make for some long days but big books and longer sales days are becoming more common right around the Australian sales industry, with Karaka the best-placed to cater for it because of its extensive hospitality offering.

The Karaka salegrounds are also a vast, green and inviting space whereas the major overseas salegrounds aren’t as comfortable for those settling in for a 10-hour day.

While the plans to put the 870 yearlings, minus withdrawals, in front of as many top-end buyers as possible should please vendors, it will still leave yearlings to be sold and they will be catered for with the new Summer Sale for 200-plus yearlings on the Thursday.

That will have more of a Book 3 feel it and while it will be targeted by those looking for value horses, Seabrook says it will come with added incentives.

“We will increase the hospitality from what would normally be available at that stage of the week and that specific sale will have some attractive sales terms and $200,000 worth of Karaka Millions bonuses for horses bought there,” says Seabrook.

“The 100-year anniversary is truly an exciting occasion. We are thrilled to be celebrating such a milestone on behalf of the wider industry and are looking forward to producing one of the best catalogues seen in New Zealand.”

SUPERSTAR FOR SALE

One of New Zealand’s star mares is being offered for sale as a breeding proposition this week.

Group 1 winner Bonny Lass goes up for sale on NZB’s Gavelhouse Plus online platform, with bidding opening on Wednesday night and closing next Thursday.

The winner of eight races and nearly $800,000 in stakes, Bonny Lass is one of only two mares in the modern history of New Zealand racing to win at Group race level every season from 2 years old to her 6-year-old season.

Her sale continues the recent trend of elite race mares being sold at the end of their careers, one that has become far more pronounced in the age of syndication as it is unfeasible for syndicates to breed from them.

Michael Guerin wrote his first nationally published racing articles while still in school and started writing about horse racing and the gambling industry for the Herald as a 20-year-old in 1990. He became the Herald‘s Racing Editor in 1995 and covers the world’s biggest horse racing carnivals.