Yiu digs deep for quality colts

[Wandering Eyes]

Hong Kong trainer Ricky Yiu and New Zealand-based bloodstock agent Dean Hawthorne have teamed up once again to secure a couple of colts at New Zealand Bloodstock’s Ready to Run Sale at Te Rapa this week.

On Wednesday, the opening day of the sale, the pair went to $320,000 to secure lot 103, the Capitalist colt out of Kilgravin Lodge’s draft, while a day later they went to $400,000 to purchase lot 238, the Deep Field colt out of Riversley Park’s draft.

Hong Kong trainer Ricky Yiu.
Photo: HKJC

Hawthorne said he has done a fair amount of business with Yiu over the last few years, with the Hong Kong horseman unable to be in New Zealand, and he said the two colts will follow their established system in New Zealand before heading to Hong Kong.

“We have done a fair bit of work for Ricky over the last couple of years, particularly as he can’t get down here,” Hawthorne said.

New Zealand-based bloodstock agent Dean Hawthorne.
Photo: Trish Dunell

“They will stay around for a while, they go to Ken Kelso and Ken does all the prep work and trials them and jumps them out.

“When Ricky is ready for them to go up, they go up.

“It is a good system and it has been working well for the last few years.”

Hawthorne was pleased with his purchases for Yiu, and said they meet the quality of individual required to make it in the competitive Hong Kong market.

“The standard of horse in Hong Kong is very high because they pay big money for them to get them there in the first place,” Hawthorne said.

“You have got to have a quality horse that has got good action.”

Hawthorne said lot 238’s sire was also a big selling factor.

“Deep Field is on a sire wave (in Hong Kong), he is currently going very well up there. The permit holders are happy to get those sires,” he said.

Hawthorne said the strength of the top-end of the market was a little bit surprising.

“It is very strong for the good horses. It has surprised me,” he said.

“When everyone is back in New Zealand (when the borders open), and you have got 150 people looking over them (horses), the middle market will strengthen, so it will only get better.”

Hawthorne was also full of praise for the vendors, particularly the pinhookers like Riversley Park, who initially purchased the Deep Field colt for A$150,000 as a yearling on the Gold Coast earlier this year.

“It is great to see the pinhookers going well,” Hawthorne said.

“The thing that holds this sale up is the pinhookers that do this for a living. They are very good at it. They produce good horses and that is why the top-end of this sale will always hold up.”

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