Kiwi Rolston to join Hong Kong Jockey Club in International Sale and owners role
New Zealand Bloodstock will not be rushed into finding director of sales replacement at Karaka complex
Long-serving New Zealand Bloodstock employee Danny Rolston will join the Hong Kong Jockey Club in a new position overseeing the International Sale while also liaising with the organisation’s influential cohort of racehorse owners.
Rolston has been appointed as the HKJC’s executive manager of international sales and owners advisory services, a role which was officially confirmed by the HKJC via an internal memo yesterday, bringing to an end Rolston’s almost 20-year association with New Zealand Bloodstock.
Importantly, Rolston is familiar with Hong Kong and the International Sale, having ridden breeze-ups at Sha Tin prior to transitioning into becoming a bid spotter at the sale from 2010 until Covid prevented him attending in recent years.
“I feel that I have got the experience and the skillset to fulfil this role very well. I have had quite a long association with the International Sale, dating back to the early 2000s … and I feel like I’ve got quite a good understanding of Hong Kong, the Hong Kong market and I do think that my experience will hold me in good stead to fulfil my responsibilities,” Rolston told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“The luxury they have is not having two and early three-year-old racing, so you are allowing horses to fully mature and their facilities are world class.
“There is a certain type of horse and particular bloodlines seem to work up there and I think I’ve got a pretty good handle on what’s required.”
Contracted HKJC agents Craig Rounsefell of Boomer Bloodstock and former champion Irish jockey Mick Kinane, who source horses for the International Sale in the southern and northern hemispheres respectively, will answer to Rolston.
Gold Coast-based Rounsefell took over the buying of yearlings in the southern hemisphere for the HKJC in late 2019 following the departure of long-time employee Mark Richards earlier that year.
Kinane, who bought this year’s Hong Kong Derby (Listed, 2000m) winner Romantic Warrior (Acclamation) for 300,000gns at the 2019 Tattersalls October Yearling Sale, also came on board around the same time. Romantic Warrior, who is trained by Danny Shum, was resold at the 2021 Hong Kong International Sale for HK$4.8 million (A$877,872) to owner Peter Lau Pak Fai.
Rolston, 44, sees his move to Hong Kong as somewhat bittersweet, believing the New Zealand industry was heading in a positive direction after a difficult period, exacerbated by the pandemic, and emphasised that he is forever grateful for the opportunities that NZB provided him over nearly two decades.
“I started in 2004 as an insurance assistant and, ultimately, I progressed through to become a director of the company, so I am very grateful for the opportunities afforded to me by Sir Peter Vela, Andrew Seabrook and the whole Vela family,” he said.
“It is a great company and, after 18 years there, the staff and I have become very close and I feel like I am leaving NZB in a really strong position.
“I am very positive about the direction of the New Zealand racing and breeding industries. We have had a massive turning point in both areas and I am confident that the Ready to Run Sale and the Karaka sale in 2023 are going to be immense.”
NZB managing director Andrew Seabrook said Rolston had been a wonderful contributor to the company and the wider New Zealand thoroughbred sector.
“Danny has done a wonderful job for NZB for over 18 years. We wish him all the best in Hong Kong,” Seabrook told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“The HKJC is extremely lucky to be getting Danny and I am sure he will do an outstanding job and represent New Zealand very well up there and we wish him all the best for the future.”
Rolston officially finished up with NZB on June 3, but such was his attachment and dedication to the company he was at Karaka for last week’s National Weanling Sale providing assistance throughout the one-day auction.
The void left by Rolston’s departure from NZB is not lost on Seabrook, but the experienced managing director stressed the company would not be rushed into filling the critical director of sales role.
Sydney-based Mike Kneebone, NZB’s director of business development, was auctioneering at Friday’s National Weanling Sale and he will also spend an extended period in New Zealand to work alongside his fellow NZB bloodstock team members, Kane Jones, Regan Donnison and Cam Bray, in the absence of Rolston.
“Our focus for the immediate future is putting the (2023 Karaka) catalogue together and inspecting all the horses. Thankfully, we’ve got Mike Kneebone who is going to come back for four to six weeks and do the inspections around the farms with the other boys,” Seabrook revealed.
“We felt that was the safest way to go in the meantime. We are in no rush to replace Danny at the moment.
“We’re going to get through the winter, get the catalogue together and when the appropriate person comes along we’ll go forth, whether that’s internally or externally.
“We feel we’re well covered at the moment with Mike Kneebone coming back to help put the catalogue together, which is such an important job, through August and September.”
The recruitment of Rolston comes after Racing Victoria’s executive general manager of racing Greg Carpenter last week resigned after more than 17 years with the racing regulator to join the HKJC in a senior role with the organisation later this year.
Rolston, who departs New Zealand on Friday, will undertake seven days of hotel quarantine in Hong Kong and be out in time to attend the breeze-up session at Sha Tin on Saturday, July 2, which takes place a week prior to the 2022 Hong Kong International Sale.
“On a personal level I am really excited about the professional challenge. I am really proud to be appointed to work for such a world leader in our industry in the HKJC and I am really excited about the cultural opportunities for my whole family who are going to join me later in the year,” Rolston said.
“Culturally, it is just coming at an awesome time for my family to savour the challenge of living somewhere different.”
Rolston’s wife Sharon and their two children, Jake and Adam, will join him in Hong Kong at the completion of the New Zealand school year in December.
He will report to Andrew Harding, the Club’s executive director of racing.
The addition of Carpenter and Rolston to the management team in Hong Kong continues a somewhat of a changing of the guard in the Asian racing mecca, with champion Kiwi trainer Jamie Richards set to have his first runners in the new season, while fellow expatriate Paul O’Sullivan recently announced he would retire at the end of the current season after almost 20 years based in Hong Kong.