Vendors savour record-breaking Ready to Run Sale

[Wandering Eyes]

The snowballing success of the New Zealand Bloodstock Ready to Run Sale has been built on the internationally renowned skills of its vendors, whose efforts were rewarded with outstanding results at Karaka on Wednesday and Thursday.

Sam and Hana Beatson’s Riversley Park claimed the title of leading vendor by aggregate for the ninth Ready to Run Sale in a row. They sold 34 horses for a total of $6.525 million, averaging $191,912 and with a top price of $675,000 for a Satono Aladdin colt out of Shezdelicious.

“We had our ups and downs, but most of the horses we passed in were getting sold outside the ring and I’d say our clearance rate would be up around 90 percent, which is very pleasing,” Sam Beatson said.

“It’s a big effort by everyone involved, such as my wife and all of our staff. We’d probably have over 20 staff here, with all the grooms and leaders, and it’s a big operation with the number of horses that we’re selling. With it being such a compact sale, you’ve got two days of parading and you can be doing up to seven parades at a time for most of the day.

“We also put a lot of effort into travelling around Australasia looking for suitable horses and pinhooks, and then there’s plenty of work that goes into all of these horses leading into the breeze ups and the sales. That work has been rewarded with a very good sale.

“It seems to have been a successful sale for most of the vendors that I’ve talked to around the complex. They all seem to be happy, they’re all getting horses sold for good results, so it’s been spread around quite well.”

Beatson noted the continued Hong Kong influence on the Ready to Run Sale buying bench, along with a new contingent from mainland China. Riversley Park sold 14 horses to Hong Kong this week and two to China.

“It’s a great thing they’ve got going on there with the mainland Chinese racing horses in Hong Kong,” Beatson said. “They’re sourcing them here and racing them there, because obviously the money in Hong Kong is unbelievable.”

Kit Brooks of KB Bloodstock with Lot 84 who sold to Patella Blo
Photo: Angelique Bridson

Kit Brooks’ KB Bloodstock sold 13 horses for a total of $3.46 million at an average price of $266,154. That included the sale-topping Lot 374, a colt by Zoustar out of Hijack Hussy, who was purchased by leading buyer Mr KM Yeung for $825,000.

“We had a really good couple of days across the board,” Brooks said. “We came into this week reasonably confident that we had a good-quality draft of horses. It’s all about offering the best horses that you can and then just hoping for the best, and we’re really happy with how it went.

“Selling the sale-topper was really exciting. He’s an outstanding colt that I’ve always liked and I was hoping the buyers would like him as much as I did. We expected that he’d be reasonably popular, but you never know how popular until the time comes. To see him top the sale was a big thrill.

“I was also proud of the way the Snitzel sold (Lot 84, a Snitzel colt out of Samovare, bought by Patella Bloodstock for $525,000), and a couple of lovely Proisir fillies probably exceeded my expectations a little bit as well. It was a rewarding couple of days.”

Landsdowne Park is generally more renowned for selling yearlings, but made their mark at this year’s Ready to Run Sale and finished as leading vendor by average. They sold four horses for an average of $277,500, headed by a $480,000 Ghaiyyath gelding.

“Yearlings are usually more our focus, but it worked out that we had a few to offer at the Ready to Run Sale this year,” Dave Duley said. “Whether that’s something we’ll continue to do, we’ll wait and see and play it by ear.

“These horses sold well and it’s a good result to come out as top vendor by average. It’s a nice little boost for us with the yearling sales just around the corner. The preparations are well underway for that now and it’s a really exciting time of year.”

Time-honoured and respected nursery Trelawney Stud had their best-ever Ready to Run Sale, securing an average price of $232,500 across four horses sold. That included a $700,000 colt by Per Incanto out of the winning Rock ‘N’ Pop mare Joan’s A Jett.

“We were really pleased with how our small but select draft performed,” Brent and Cherry Taylor commented. “It’s always rewarding to see the horses we’ve prepared find good homes with trusted buyers here in New Zealand and internationally. The Per Incanto colt was a real highlight, and we’re delighted with the overall result.

“We’d also like to thank the NZB team for once again staging a world-class Ready to Run Sale – it continues to attract a fantastic buying bench and deliver outstanding results on racetracks around the world.”

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