NZB Ready to Run Sale average down 8%

The NZ Bloodstock 2YO Ready to Run Sale concluded at Karaka on Wednesday with the final session improving the overall turnover to $14.21 million.  Trade on the 257 lots to change hands was up 35% on last year.  The average of $55,312 was down 8% on a clearance rate of 59%.

“There’s been a recurring message from buyers that they’re happy with the quality of young horses that they’ve had to choose from and there’s been some good competition,” NZB Co-Managing Director Petrea Vela said.  “It seems that there just wasn’t sufficient demand to absorb the quantity of horses we had to sell.

“Australian buyers have been great supporters.  The sale owes much of its success each year to those international buyers that take the time to make the trip to Auckland and we wish them well with their purchases.”

Day 2 at Karaka was topped by an O’Reilly colt (Lot 377) that fetched $300,000 to the bid of Chris McAnulty for a Hong Kong based client.  “He is a strong, athletic colt, the right type of O’Reilly and I think the best type on the ground by far,” McAnulty claimed.  “It’s a strong catalogue with the top horses getting good prices and it has definitely been a buyers’ sale this year which has suited me.”

The leading buyer of the Sale was Queensland-based agent John Foote with 6 purchases for $895,000 for a selection of Hong Kong and Australian clients. His top purchase was $210,000 paid for the My Halo gelding from O’Reilly mare Just Polly (Lot 343).

Foote echoed the view of many buyers when he said the statistics belied the strength of the market.  “The sale was very, very good for the right horses.  There was nothing wrong with the market, there were a good number of buyers here and the quality was definitely as good as previous years, there were just too many horses.

“The nature of this sale doesn’t suit everyone so you don’t get the large buying benches that you see at yearling sales.  Nice horses sold well I just think there were too many horses for the number of buyers.”

Australians made a big impact on the results with buyers Lee Hope, Mark Casey of Surf Coast Racing, John Morrisey, Luke Campbell and Mick Kent amongst those present that contributed to a total spend by Australian buyers of $4.63 million.

Mark & Shelley Treweek’s Lyndhurst Farm has again set the standard for vendors at this Sale, selling 16 of their 22 sale entries for $2.17 million at an average of $98,636.