Racing: Records smashed at Karaka

Mark Purdon snapped up this Bettors Delight colt for $200,000 yesterday. Photo / Trish Dunell

The money at the top end yesterday was like nothing ever seen in New Zealand before.

The standardbred yearling sales finally grew up at Karaka yesterday.

On a day when the record book was torn up and a new one printed, the average sale price of $41,549 was almost 20 per cent higher than any previous average for a harness racing sale in the Southern Hemisphere.

Seven lots sold for $100,000 or more, including the $200,000 paid by Mark Purdon for a Bettors Delight colt (Lot 8) out of Abide With Me, from the Adore Me, Christen Me family that dominated a dramatic day.

He topped the sale just from his Bettors Delight close relation, the actual brother to Adore Me who went for $180,000 also to join Purdon's stable.

With sales of $165,000 for a filly, $150,000 and $120,000 for other colts the money at the top end was like nothing ever seen in New Zealand before, with the very first lot through the ring at the usually slow-starting sale knocked down for $100,000.

But it was in the $50,000 to $75,000 range that the sale really held its own, with a good spread of local and overseas buyers for high quality colts.

The vendors to profit most were Woodlands Stud and its principal Charles Roberts, but the overall standard of yearling presentation was the highest seen at a local sale, with less equine driftwood from poor maternal families.

With yesterday's catalogue crammed with the hottest blood in Australasian pacing, breeding numbers down but demand for stock to race at tracks like Menangle and Alexandra Park high, yesterday was harness racing's perfect storm.

It was also the blueprint for how this sale can consolidate as one of the best in the world, an elite catalogue of current commercial families prepared by professionals.

"We were expecting something big but we are blown away by what happened," said PGG Wrightson spokesman Bruce Barlass.

"It was a very special day and will give a lot of breeders and vendors confidence."

The next two days of sales in Canterbury are likely to be more realistic.

But a line was drawn in the sand yesterday for what future Karaka sales should look like.

Purdon was thrilled to get both the top lots, with the $200,000 colt the looker of the sale to him with hot bloodlines and purchased for the Dunfords who race Sires' Stakes winner Have Faith In Me.

He has yet to determine the owners of Adore Me's $180,000 brother, suggesting he will probably be syndicated.

In all 112 lots were sold with a clearance rate of 84.85 per cent for an aggregate of $4,653,500.

Magnificent Seven: Karaka'S $100,000 plus lots

$200,000 Bettors Delight-Abide With Me colt, buyer Mark Purdon.

$180,000 Bettors Delight-Scuse Me colt, M Purdon.

$165,000 Bettors Delight-Temepara Cullen filly, Emilio Rosati.

$150,000 American Ideal-Sky Beauty colt, Lincoln Farms.

$120,000 Bettors Delight-Splendid Dreams colt, Barry Purdon.

$107,500 Art Major-Thebestamancanget colt, Lincoln Farms.

$100,000 Bettors Delight-Veste colt, Maurice McKendry (as agent).