Records blown away in remarkable Ready to Run Sale

A popular saying goes that success breeds success, and an incredible Ready to Run Sale at Karaka last week backed that up in no uncertain terms.
Racetrack results across Australasia and Asia in recent years have given New Zealand Bloodstock the best advertising they could ever have wished for. The Ready to Run Sale boasts an honour roll that towers over other two-year-old sales of its kind, producing Group One standouts such as Mr Brightside, Te Akau Shark, Turn Me Loose, Mongolian Khan, Gingernuts and Sharp ‘N’ Smart, not forgetting the crucial addition of Hong Kong’s current pin-ups Golden Sixty and Lucky Sweynesse.
That graduates’ record was all the incentive buyers needed to flock to Karaka last Wednesday and Thursday and blow all previous Ready to Run Sale records out of the water. The end-of-sale aggregate was $35.1 million, representing an increase of 39 per cent over the previous edition of the sale.
The average price was $156,031, which in fact exceeded the average of the Book 1 session at the NZB National Yearling Sale earlier this year, while the median reached $90,000 and the clearance rate ended up at 73 per cent.
“I’m gobsmacked,” New Zealand Bloodstock’s managing director Andrew Seabrook said. “These results are just unheard of. I’m so thrilled for the vendors and very proud of our team at NZB who have been building relationships with some of these buyers over several years.
“I’ve never seen so many Hong Kong trainers here, and it was great they had their owners here, which made a huge difference.”
No fewer than 12 lots sold for $500,000 or more across the two days. Day One delivered an all-time Ready to Run Sale record price of $800,000 for a colt by Harry Angel out of the Zacinto mare Monrecour, and that record was equalled or bettered by another two horses within the next 24 hours.
A son of All Too Hard and the Mossman mare Tuscany Lady was also knocked down for $800,0000, while KB Bloodstock now holds the Ready to Run Sale record after selling their Star Turn colt out of the Foxwedge mare Commonwealth for $825,000.
“We’re ecstatic, I can’t believe it,” KB Bloodstock’s Kit Brooks said of the colt that had been on various watchlists following an impressive breeze-up. “It’s great for the team after the work they’ve put in. I knew he was a nice horse, but you couldn’t dream of that sort of result.”
All three horses that hit the $800,000 barrier were snapped up by Hong Kong buyers, who dominated the buying bench across the two days of the sale. They spent a total of $16.7 million to buy 70 lots at an average price in excess of $238,000, representing almost half the sale turnover and close to a third of all horses purchased.
The leading individual buyer was Hong Kong smartphone billionaire Yeung Kim Man, a first-time attendee who secured 12 horses for a total spend of $2.46 million. That included the All Too Hard gelding he bought from the draft of Sam Beatson’s Riversley Park for $800,000.
Riversley Park, whose Ready to Run graduates include champion Hong Kong galloper Golden Sixty, ended up as leading vendor for the seventh straight year, selling 26 lots for $5.335 million.
“I wasn’t keeping track of the stats, but after seeing some of the exceptional results, we weren’t expecting to come out on top,” Beatson said. “It’s not a competition, we all do the same thing and support one another. It’s good we can get these results, so we can all go again at the yearling sales.”
Beatson’s cousin Jamie, who operates Ohukia Lodge with his wife Chanel, was second on the vendors’ table with 22 lots selling for $5.133 million, headed by the Deep Field-Criquette colt at $750,000.
Long-time supporters Eion and Megan Kemp of Kilgravin Lodge took third place with total sales of $4,812,500 for 16 lots, which topped the averages table at $300,781. Their offering included Kilgravin’s best ever Ready to Run prices, the $800,000 Harry Angel-Monrecour colt, the $725,000 Written Tycoon-Fromparis Withlove colt and the $700,000 Super Seth-Vitesse filly.
Zoustar, Capitalist, Hellbent, Justify and Savabeel topped the sires’ standings with averages ranging from Zoustar’s $466,667 to Savabeel’s $300,000. There was also strong support for up-and-coming Kiwi-based sires such as Ardrossan (an average of $288,333), Super Seth ($286,875) and U S Navy Flag ($166,667), while last season’s newly-crowned champion Proisir averaged $185,714.
The Ready to Run Sale fireworks reflect a buoyant mood in the industry and have whet the appetite for the National Yearlings Sales Series, now only eight weeks away. New Zealand Bloodstock has quickly turned the page and launched the countdown to its flagship event, releasing high-quality catalogues of 682 yearlings in Book 1 and 442 in Book 2.