By Daithi Harvey
New Zealand Bloodstock have undertaken a review of their National Yearling Sales Series and have altered the format for 2018 in conjunction with the Karaka Million race day. Next year will see New Zealand's richest 2-year-old race brought forward a day to Saturday Jan. 27 with the opening session of the newly branded Karaka Book I to be staged the following evening when 100 yearlings will be catalogued. The Premier, Select and Festival Sale names will be dropped in favour of Book I, Book II and Book III. Book II will be reduced to approximately four hundred horses, set to be sold on the Thursday and Friday of sales week, whilst Book III will remain on the Sunday. Commenting on the new format NZB managing director Andrew Seabrook said, “I'm absolutely certain this new structure will be a success. Selling 100 horses on Sunday night gets more horses in front of buyers early in the week, and aids the troublesome transition vendors have always faced mid-week.” Seabrook and his team also plan to extend the number of horses sold in Book I to approximately 700, from Sunday evening to Wednesday afternoon, rather than finishing on Tuesday afternoon as the Premier Sale has done for the past several years. “The aim is to give the international buyers a reason to stay longer by giving them even more horses to look at on the sale ground at one time. In theory there will be at least 200 more horses being offered in front of a full overseas buying bench. It's an exciting change that we think will provide a positive boost to sales week for buyers and sellers alike,” he added.
David Ellis of Te Akau Racing has been leading buyer at Karaka for the last 12 years and he welcomed the changes commenting, “Moving the start of selling to Sunday evening will provide a huge benefit to all buyers in the lead up to the Sale. We'll be able to inspect more horses over the course of the week, that's got to be good for everyone.”
The enhanced twilight meeting at Ellerslie which now precedes the sale will benefit from an extra NZ$1m race for 3-year-olds in addition to four new group races.
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