Steady Trade Concludes Bumper Offering at 2010 Karaka Ready to Run

A day of steady trade concluded the 2010 Ready to Run Sale of 2YOs today at Karaka, with good demand reflected in an improvement on yesterday's results.

In the final analysis, 257 of the 494 catalogued lots were sold for an aggregate of $14,215,250, up 35% on last year's turnover of $10,511,000 for 175 sold. The final sale average was $55,312, (down 8% from $60,063 last year) with a median of $32,000 (down 20% on $40,000 last year). The clearance rate improved to end the sale at 59%.

Yesterday's top price of $340,000* was not surpassed, with the day's top price the O'Reilly colt at Lot 377 fetching $300,000 to the bid of Chris McAnulty for his 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," commented McAnulty. 

"He'll head up to Hong Kong in June or July with the intention of having him racing in the end of season griffin races."

"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 at the Sale today, that 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.

"A big factor in how horses sold was how they worked and how they looked. If they breezed well and then had the pedigree to match they sold very well.

"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."

With 494 entries this year's catalogue was the largest since 2001, with 200 horses more than last year.

The international buying bench was out in force at Karaka over the past two days and the majority of two-year-olds are destined for new homes offshore.

Australia 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 $4,639,500  for 69 two-year-olds.

New Zealand buyers made their presence felt more on the second day, spending a total of $3,470,250 on 77 horses, with David Ellis, Graeme Rogerson, Peter Williams, Murray Baker and Kevin Myers amongst the local training stables most active.

Continuing yesterday's buying spree, buyers from Hong Kong purchased a total of 20 lots for $2,370,000 while Singapore buyers bought 38 for $1,995, 500.

Korea's Seoul Racehorse Owners Association and Korean Racing Authority remained active throughout the day securing a total of 27 purchases.

The Macau Jockey Club was in the top five buyers of the Sale with seven purchases including a top price of $150,000 paid for the Written Tycoon colt at Lot 165.

Mark & Shelley Treweek's Lyndhurst Farm has again set the standard for vendors at this Sale, selling 16 of their 22 sale entries for $2,170,000 at an average of $98,636. The leading vendor for the fourth year in a row, Lyndhurst accounted for the top price on both days, and four of the top 10 lots of the Sale.

NZB Co-Managing Director Petrea Vela says the company is satisfied with the results of the past two days.

"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. It seems that there just wasn't sufficient demand to absorb the quantity of horses we had to sell.

"It was very pleasing to see the local buyers more active today and once again Australia has been a great support to our sale. 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're grateful for their support and wish them well with their purchases."

*Note a correction to last night's sale review, $340,000 is the second top price in the past two years. Click here for a list of all time top 10 results from this Sale.

Summary Sales Statistics