Sword Of State finishes brilliant sale on a high
Cambridge Stud first season-sire Sword Of State (Snitzel) enjoyed a brilliant three days at Karaka, but on Tuesday he grabbed his strongest result of the week when Australian-based trainer Brad Widdup secured a colt by the son of Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice) for $540,000.
Sword Of State retired to Cambridge Stud and had his fee set at $15,000 (plus GST). He finished Book 1 with an aggregate of $4,030,000 after selling 20 yearlings for an average of $201,300, which is 13.42 times his service fee. The stallion signalled he could be well sought after, having come to the sale off the back of brilliant results on the Gold Coast when he had six yearlings sell for a gross of $1,445,000 at an average of $240,833.
Brendan Lindsay, who owns the historic stud alongside his wife, Jo, was blown away with the way the buying bench responded to Sword Of State’s first yearlings in both Australia and New Zealand.
“It’s just amazing because he is off of a $15,000 service fee. We’ve obviously made some money out of the horse, but most importantly all our breeders have all enjoyed some success that have supported us and supported the horse to start with,” he told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“We couldn’t have wished to get a better start – we’re a little bit dumbstruck to be perfectly honest.
“We just really do want to thank our New Zealand breeders that supported the horse when we put him to stud, and we’re very thankful that we’ve all managed to have a very good sale with him.”
Lindsay said there was a good buzz surrounding the horse in the run up to sale and he was delighted to see the hype translate to strong results in the sales ring.
“I think he is going to be an up and run two-year-old sire. Before the sale there was a lot of talk about what nice stock he’s leaving. He’s not an overly big horse, but you wouldn’t think so by looking at his progeny,” he said.
“So they say that the best stallions are small, a couple of our breeders that did actually end up going to the horse questioned whether or not he was too small, but the reality is it hasn’t shown up in the stock – so they can’t do any better than start on a basis like that. We’re in the business of breeding and selling horses, but we’re so reliant on other people getting some success so he’s given us all a good leg up.”
Eight of the sire’s yearlings that were offered at Karaka this week were bought by Australian buyers and Lindsay said he was buoyed to see them going to some of the best stables across the Tasman, as well as some top local stables throughout New Zealand.
“We want them in Australian stables. We want to show our progeny off in Australia and some good judges have bought them in Australia. We sold a few in the magic millions. If you have a dream about what sort of start you’re going to get, your dream comes true,” he said.
Widdup, who was buying on behalf of owner Mike Gregg’s Mulberry Racing, had to beat off stiff competition from the stallion’s racing owner David Ellis and the Hawkesbury-based trainer said he wasn’t expecting the colt to make as much as he did.
“He was one of the colts that we found pretty early in the sale,” he said. “We wanted to buy him. We probably didn’t think we’d have to go that high, but it was nice to secure him.
“He’s by a nice young stallion and comes off a great farm, so hopefully we can make him a racehorse.”
The colt has been paid up for the Karaka Millions series, with the Lindsays offering to host the Sword Of State colt at their Karaka property should he make the trip back across the Tasman for the Karaka Millions 2YO (RL, 1200m) next January. That property was successfully used as a base this year by fellow trans-Tasman raider Konasana (Dundeel), who won last Saturday’s Westbury Classic (Gr 2, 1400m).
“The Karaka Millions could be an option,” Widdup said. “He does actually look like a horse who will get up and run early. He looks like a real Snitzel, speed type of horse. Let’s hope he’s got the quality as well. We had to dig deep to buy him. It was a great effort by all.”
The Sword Of State colt was one of four yearlings Widdup purchased on behalf of Mulberry Racing at Karaka this week and he finished the sale having spent $1,470,000 at the auction.
Stats round up for Book 1
At the close of selling, the Book 1 aggregate reached $75,322,500, down five per cent on 12 months ago albeit from a slightly smaller offering of 588 yearlings, while the average rounded out at $164,819, a drop of two per cent, and the clearance rate was the same at 78 per cent.
The Book 1 session was one for the history books when a record-breaking $2.4 million sale of the sister to Orchestral took place on the second day, marking the most expensive filly to be purchased at Karaka and the highest–priced yearling in 25 years.
Securing his leading buyer title for another year was Te Akau Racing’s David Ellis, who purchased 26 yearlings over the last three days for a total spend of $4,497,500.
“We’re so lucky to have such a large group of owners here at the sale, it makes us determined to buy more horses,” he said.
“There are horses at all levels to purchase this week. We’ve bought some good horses out of Book 2 in the past too.”
For the first time, Karaka-based Haunui Farm took the title of leading vendor, selling 24 yearlings for $6,740,000.
“It’s an honour to be entrusted with such quality horses. We have some great clients that support us to bring their yearlings to the market, and it’s great to see them rewarded,” Haunui Farm’s managing director Mark Chitty said.
“It’s a massive team effort not only by Haunui but also by NZB to bring the buyers to Karaka to participate in a wonderful sale.”
The leading sire for Book 1 was Coolmore’s popular Wootton Bassett (Iffraaj), who sold nine yearlings for an average of $361,667, while fellow Coolmore stallion St Mark’s Basilica (Siyouni) took the honours for the freshman stallions, with seven lots sold for an average of $235,714.
“Yearlings out of Donna Marie have made $2.7 million in two years – it’s quite incredible. Hallmark is a small farm just half an hour south of here, so for them to do well is fantastic,” said New Zealand Bloodstock’s managing director Andrew Seabrook.
“The top two lots were bought by New Zealanders, which is really, really rare. In fact, this will be the first sale that New Zealanders have outspent the Australians. I can’t remember a sale ever where that’s happened.
“Even though we had more Australians on the sale grounds than we’ve seen for a number of years, they perhaps didn’t have the firepower of the last couple of years, so it was great to see the positive New Zealand racing scene resulting in a bigger New Zealand buying bench.
“That was really encouraging. So that’s what you’re putting down, even though some of those horses are going to Australia, there’s still Kiwi trainers, agents and owners that are investing in the New Zealand product.
“So for us to be down three per cent, remembering that we were up 12 per cent last year, which was the only sale to increase – so I’m happy.
“The Book 2 results aren’t actually far behind Book 1. Some really good horses have come out of Book 2. Fantastic initiative from Gerry Harvey and Russell Warwick to put all their draft up unreserved – they’ve got the biggest draft. They must have 30 or 40 horses in Book 2. So that’s a great incentive for people to go out and bid on those horses.”