You really couldn’t make this stuff up.
On the very day the New Zealand thoroughbred
industry marks its 100th National Yearling Sale, a NZ-bred horse will be the focus of the racing world.
The NZ Bloodstock yearling sale kicks off at 10am at Karaka on Sunday, complete with a ceremony to recognise the centenary, record support from local vendors and more than a few hangovers after the Karaka Millions the night before.
But not long after the first day of selling is completed, Ka Ying Rising will almost certainly jog home to win a Group 1 at Sha Tin in Hong Kong.
It caps a week when Timeform named him Horse of the Year, while he was third on the Longines ratings and their best sprinter.
It matters not that he wasn’t actually sold at a yearling sale, instead bought privately after winning a trial.
This equine monster truck fitted with a Ferrari motor is all Kiwi and the new poster boy for what Kiwi-bred horses can do.
Add that to Australian-trained stars like Mr Brightside, Ceolwulf, Antino, Pride Of Jenni and plenty of others, and you can be sure many of those inspecting yearlings at Karaka this week needed passports to get there.
But Ka Ying Rising stands supreme.
New Zealand has had horses rated the best at this or that over the years, but the big boy ended any argument over who is the fastest sprinter in the world when he won the A$20 million ($20.3m) Everest at Randwick in October.
You could go to any sales ground in the world but Karaka is the only one where vendors get to say “and don’t forget the fastest horse in the world was bred here” and nobody gets to argue.
“It is quite remarkable Ka Ying Rising is racing in a Group 1 the same day we start the 100th National Yearling sale,” says NZB managing director Andrew Seabrook.
“He will be, hopefully, a wonderful exclamation mark on a special day and part of a week that means so much to so many people here.”
NZB have plane-loads of potential buyers coming in from Australia and Asia, as well as visitors from further afield and no shortage of quality yearlings to sell them.
The sale has moved its three biggest days to Sunday, Monday and Tuesday to allow more yearlings to be sold in front of visiting trainers before some will need to head home for Wednesday racing.
With many of the vendors recognising the importance of this occasion, they have kept their best, or in some cases all, of their commercial yearlings for this sale.
The catalogue is strong and most importantly boasts greater stallion depth than at any sale here for well over a decade.
The undoubted King of Karaka sales in Savabeel is joined by the likes of Super Seth, the rightly-hyped Sword Of State, Hong Kong favourite Per Incanto, and consistent Group 1 performers like Proisir.
While Satono Aladdin, Hello Youmzain, Ardrossan and a resurgent Almanzor are just some of the stallions on many shopping lists.
There is a strong spread of stock by the best Australian stallions too but this 100th sale feels very much like a NZ sale, stacked with elite level NZ families.
They are what most buyers come to Karaka to buy: tough, sound horses with the added bonus of a favourable exchange rate.
The industry is in for a big week, with the perfect ambassador to fly its flag on Sunday night.
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.
