Confidence High Ahead Of Karaka

The Australasian yearling sale circuit moves across the Tasman this week for the six-day New Zealand Bloodstock yearling sale series at Karaka. Selling begins on Monday with the two-day Premier Sale, followed by the three-day Select Sale Feb. 1 to 3. The Festival Sale wraps up proceedings on Feb. 5 after a one-day break from selling. A total of 1347 yearlings are catalogued for the week.

Last year's yearling sale series returned positive results across all levels of the market. The Premier Sale kicked off proceedings with increases for all figures; the average and median were both up 17% (NZ$176,226 and NZ$140,000) while the clearance rate improved to 78%. The first Frankel (GB) yearling to be offered in the Southern Hemisphere featured as the top lot when a colt by the sire was knocked down to a global partnership including BBA Ireland, Tom Magnier, Sheikh Mohammed bin Khalifa Al Maktoum, the Niarchos Family and Apollo Ng.

The Festival Sale showed the most marked increases. With 65 more horses sold, the average climbed 23% to NZ$57,734, just NZ$1,975 shy of the sale's record. The median was up 36% at NZ$35,000 and the clearance rate up to 79%. The Festival Sale returned the same 79% clearance rate, and the average and median were up 10% and 20%, respectively.

Andrew Seabrook, Managing Director of New Zealand Bloodstock, said the high performance level of New Zealand-breds across Australasia has helped fuel the growth of the sale.

“It has become a real international sale,” Seabrook noted. “I think the statistic that stands out is that in Australia, New Zealand horses make up just over 5% of the racing population, and last season those horses won 25% of the Group 1 races. That's the statistic we like to tell people.”

This is not a new trend. Over the last six seasons, 32% of Australian Group 1 races have been won by New Zealand-bred or -sold 3-year-olds. Eight of the last 10 Australian Derbies have been won by New Zealand-bred or -sold horses. At The Championships, Sydney's premier race meeting inaugurated two years ago, half of all the Group 1 races have been won by New Zealand-bred or -sold horses, and New Zealand horses have won four of the last five runnings of the G1 Queen Elizabeth S., including last year's winner Lucia Valentina (NZ) (Savabeel {Aus}), an NZB graduate. New Zealand Bloodstock has sold more Group 1 winners at The Championships than any other sale company. Across the country in Melbourne, New Zealand-bred or -sold horses won 38% of Group 1 races during the Caulfield Cup and Melbourne Cup carnivals.

The success isn't coming just in Australia, however.

“Australia is our biggest market, and also Hong Kong and Singapore,” Seabrook said. “Last week was the Singapore racing awards and New Zealand-breds took out nine of the 11 awards. The champion galloper of Hong Kong last season was a New Zealand horse as well [champion middle-distance horse Werther].”

It isn't all about exportation, however. Plenty of Asian buyers are also leaving their purchases in New Zealand and Australia to race.

“What we've seen down this part of the world in the last three or four years has been the Chinese buyers coming down here mainly to race in New Zealand and Australia,” said Seabrook. “Some of them will go back to China, but Chinese buying is increasing all the time.”

This year's catalogues look sure to attract an international audience to Karaka. The Premier Sale will once again feature a Frankel colt in the form of lot 181, an Australian-bred son of German Group 3 winner Give Me Five (Ger) (Monsun {Ger}), and therefore a half-brother to British champion stayer and G1 Gold Cup winner Colour Vision (Fr) (Rainbow Quest).

“He's a very nice colt,” said Gordon Cunningham, owner and manager of Curraghmore. “He's a profile colt on pedigree and looks and he justifiably headlines our draft. He's got an absolutely great physique and athleticism. His looks certainly live up to the fact that he's by Frankel. There's a lot of interest in him and we're looking forward to selling him.”

Also catalogued is a full-brother to Lucia Valentina (lot 429), whose Group 1 haul also includes the G1 Turnbull S. and G1 Vinery Stud S. Seabrook said he expects the Savabeel yearlings–there are 62 in the Premier sale–to be popular.

“Savabeel is going to be a highlight of the sale,” he said. “Buyers from Australia are keen to come to New Zealand to buy our middle-distance and staying horses–that's what New Zealand-bred horses are known for–so they'll be coming to buy our Savabeels, our Tavistocks, and horses like that.”

Dundeel (NZ) (High Chaparral {Ire}) is one of the better-known New Zealand-bred runners of recent years, collecting six Group 1 wins, and 10 of his first-crop yearlings will be offered at Karaka. A close relative to the Arrowfield sire is also catalogued as lot 135: he is by High Chaparral out of a half-sister to Dundeel's dam. Another potential standout by High Chaparral–a prolific shuttler to New Zealand before his untimely death in 2014–is lot 130, a full-sister to Group 2 winner Forever Loved (NZ) and a half to three other stakes horses.

Five-time Group 1 winner Jimmy Choux (NZ) (Thorn Park {Aus}) has a Fastnet Rock (Aus) half-brother catalogued (lot 98), and four-time Group 1 winner Sacred Falls (NZ) (O'Reilly {NZ}) has a full-brother catalogued (lot 205). He highlights the last crop of champion sire O'Reilly, who has 40 yearlings in the Premier sale.

Young Cambridge Stud sire Tavistock burst onto the scene last year with four Group 1 winners, and his 51 offerings at the Premier sale include lot 299, a half-brother to three Group 1 winners. A Tavistock half-brother to Hong Kong champion Able Friend (Aus) (Shamardal) is also on offer (lot 176), as is a Tavistock half-sister to Estelle Collection (NZ), the dam of champion sprinter Lankan Rupee (Aus) (Redoute's Choice {Aus}) (lot 42). Other Group 1 winners with siblings to be sold include Mufhasa (NZ) (Pentire {GB}), Kermadec (NZ) (Teofilo {Ire}), Whobegotyou (Aus) (Street Cry {Ire}), Shamexpress (NZ) (O'Reilly {NZ}), Costume (NZ) (Savabeel {Aus}), Suavito (NZ) (Thorn Park {Aus}), Efficient (NZ) (Zabeel {NZ}) and Tavago (NZ) (Tavistock {NZ}).

There are 21 yearlings catalogued out of Group 1-winning mares, including a Fastnet Rock (Aus) filly out of Katie Lee (NZ) (Pins {Aus}) lot 231, and a Darci Brahma (NZ) colt out of seven-time Group 1 winner and stakes producer Seachange (NZ) (Cape Cross {Ire}) (lot 392). Lot 447 is the last foal out of The Jewel (NZ) (O'Reilly {NZ}), who is a close relative to last year's G1 NZ 1000 Guineas winner La Diosa (NZ) (So You Think {NZ}), and whose four winners from four to race include three stakes horses. Popular Australian-based sires like I Am Invincible (Aus) (three yearlings), Snitzel (Aus) (nine yearlings) and Fastnet Rock (14 yearlings) are also well represented.

Sir Patrick Hogan's Cambridge Stud, which offers 45 yearlings at the Premier Sale, has been selling exclusively at Karaka for almost a decade, where it has been leading vendor 31 times. Cambridge manager Marcus Corban said, “Sir Patrick is always proud to offer his yearlings exclusively at Karaka. It's the only sale he's sold yearlings at for a number of years now. And this year, for the first time ever, he's selling every single yearling that we have on the farm. There are some absolutely standout colts and fillies available. We can't wait to get them to Karaka and in front of that buyers' bench.”

The 2017 Southern Hemisphere yearling sale season began with the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale earlier this month where, for Book 1, the average and median both improved off of double-digit growth in 2016, and the clearance rate was an excellent 87%. Seabrook said those numbers help boost confidence heading into the NZB sale series.

“It's a pretty good guide,” he said. “They had a very strong sale and I'd be delighted if we had increases like that, but I don't see that happening given how much we went up last year. I'd love to see us up a little bit, but it definitely gives us more confidence that Magic Millions was strong. And a lot of those buyers that missed out at Magic Millions that were unsure about coming to New Zealand are certainly coming now. Our accommodation bookings are quite a bit up on last year, and that's a really good guide for us.”

While the major trend of Northern Hemisphere yearling sales last year was polarisation at the top of the market, Australia continues to enjoy strength throughout all levels of the market, due in no small part to the buying contribution of the country's many syndicators. Seabrook pointed out that the syndication model is gaining strength in New Zealand, and said he expected strong trade at all price levels.

“It has become very popular,” Seabrook said of racehorse syndication in New Zealand. “The two biggest buyers in New Zealand are syndicators [David Ellis from Te Akau Racing and Albert Bosma from Go Racing]. While it's not as big as Australia it's certainly growing, and we also get all the Australian syndicators coming. They'll be pretty strong throughout the week. I think that we'll be pretty good in the middle market–we were last year.

Seabrook said a strong yearling to 2-year-old pinhooking market in New Zealand also helps boost trade at that level.

“What helps this sale is that we have a very strong 2-year-old sale, our Ready To Run Sale in November,” he explained. “We get quite a few people pinhooking horses from the yearling sale into that sale, and generally they're buying in the middle market. Buyers from Singapore and throughout New Zealand tend to operate in that lower to middle market.”

With such globally appealing yearlings and an anticipated international gathering of buyers willing to compete for them, all the elements appear to be in place for a robust week at Karaka.