A Savabeel colt from Mana Park (Lot 23) fetches $300,000 at Karaka yesterday. Picture / Trish Dunell
The changing face of Karaka was on show yesterday as the Ready To Run sale opened. Thoroughbred sales will never be the same.
Asians were buying the horses and out back Sir Patrick Hogan was turning his world upside down inspecting horses rather than trying to sell them to buyers.
Rider Horse China chairman Lang Lin, from Inner Mongolia, brought his Mongolian Khan chequebook to Karaka and wasted no time.
Directly behind him in seat No 90 on the southern end of the selling ring was his managing employee, former Cambridge trainer Graeme Forbes.
"This is the seat I was in when I bought Mongolian Khan last year," said Forbes. "I'm superstitious."
Being as Irish as Paddy's pig, Sir Patrick Hogan could also well be superstitious, but that's not why he turned himself into a horse inspector rather than a horse seller.
Sitting outside the horse boxes in Barn C, Sir Patrick said: "For years I would ring topline trainers and ask, a year or so later, why they hadn't bought a certain good horse I had sold.
"Most came up with the excuse they were underbidders on the horse. I thought to be fair to everyone I'd take notes on a lot of horses from this sale, look back at my catalogue a couple of years later and see how good a judge I am on being on the buyers' bench instead of the sellers' bench."
Hogan displayed the catalogue with extremely intricate notes on a large number of horses."
With Sir Tristram now just a memory and Zabeel heading down the same path, Hogan has his interest taken up with the spectacular success of Cambridge Stud's latest star Tavistock.
While many of us are staggered by the speed at which Tavistock captured the headlines, Hogan has a slightly different read on it.
"What surprises me is that he has left the quality horses out of the mares he had in his first two years, which are not, overall, the same quality mares he has had in the last two seasons.
"He has left very good horses to Zabeel mares [including Victoria Derby winner Tarzino], but Zabeel mares will leave winners to anything. Tavistock has also had good winners from average mares."
?Mana Park made the early running at Karaka yesterday.
They were given a strong pre-auction message that the second of their Savabeel colts (Lot 23) was going to come in for some serious attention in the ring and that transpired with the two-year-old selling for $300,000.
"He's going to Hong Kong to be trained by Chris So," Mana Park's Maryanne Simon said.
"He's been a very, very busy colt -- in and out all the time and he was hardly ever in his box. The sale reserve on him was $200,000 so it's been exciting to see him go well above that, but he is a top colt."
A half-brother to two winners, the youngster is out of the Rock Of Gibraltar mare Quatro, who is a half-sister to the group one Toorak Handicap winner Shot of Thunder with their dam the group one AJC Oaks winner My Brilliant Star.
The first of the Savabeels (Lot 4) through the ring for Mana Park, who sold the recent Emirates Stakes winner Turn Me Loose through their 2013 draft, also surpassed expectations.
He was signed for by agent Phill Cataldo for $200,000 on behalf of Sydney trainer Gai Waterhouse.
"We had thought he would make around $120,000 so that was a really pleasant surprise," Simon said.
The colt is a son of the Prized mare Pare, the dam of two winners, who is from the family of the group one winners Cure (New Zealand 1000 Guineas), Shindig (Coolmore Classic) and Shinzig (Orr Stakes).
"He breezed up really well and he's got a lovely action," Waterhouse's racing manager Adrian Bott said. "We're looking for Derby prospects and he fits the bill perfectly."
A son of Savabeel (Lot 61) also took the eye of Hong Kong trainer Manfred Man.
He went to $220,000 to secure Riversley Park's colt out of Sotela, a half-sister to the dual group one Oakleigh Plate and Lightning Stakes winner Sports.
NZ Racing Desk.