‘New Zealand continues to punch above its weight’
In many ways, people view New Zealand as the poor cousin to Australia, hamstrung by sparse human habitation and an even smaller thoroughbred broodmare population, but the country’s equine industry continues to punch above its weight.
As last week’s New Zealand Bloodstock Ready to Run Sale proved, unquestionably the strongest in Australasia this year.
Reputation has a bit to do with that and the fact the Kiwis are natural born sellers, necessitated by a weaker-than-ideal domestic racing industry, but NZB also must take plenty of credit.
Faced with the competition and big budgets of Inglis and Magic Millions, particularly for the yearling segment of the market, it was clear NZB went out of its way to ensure its two-year-old sale remained as the clear leader.
NZB’s Mike Kneebone and New Zealand Thoroughbred Marketing’s Andrew Birch spent near-on two weeks in Asia wining and dining owners and trainers extolling the virtues of the Ready to Run Sale (someone’s gotta do it, I guess) and whatever they said, it clearly worked.
The investment in time and money would have been significant as participants from Singapore, Malaysia and, in particular, Hong Kong attended in droves,
Importantly, NZB paid for many Hong Kong owners and trainers to fly to Auckland to attend Karaka, many for the first time. The cohort contributed almost NZ$16.7 million or 47.5 per cent of the total spend across the two days of the sale, justifying the investment made by NZB.
Hong Kong’s Yeung Kin Man bought 12 horses alone; the smartphone billionaire absolutely enthralled by the Karaka sales experience. If he had been absent but bidding online or on the phone to one of his trainers, such as Manfred Man, while sitting at his desk in Hong Kong, there is no doubt that the competitive juices wouldn’t have flown quite as freely and his willingness to bid so strongly across all segments of the market would have been subdued.
The New Zealand vendors who also sell at the Australian two-year-old sales are, in the short-term at least, thinking twice about doing so again – and some had already taken the decision that they’d focus squarely on their home sale in 2024 even before last week’s auction – due to the depth of the buying bench that NZB was able to put together.
The toll for Asian buyers taking three long haul return flights to Australia and New Zealand in six weeks to attend the three sales is also a factor for many buyers who decided to make Karaka either their sole or main source of new stock.
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While NZB undoubtedly went all-out to attract the Hong Kong buyers, those owners’ willingness to spend was also an encouraging sign for the wider Australasian market as the participants aim to replenish their racing stocks trained out of Sha Tin and Conghua.
Hong Kong is said to be about 100 horses down on where the Jockey Club would like the equine population to be (it’s currently sitting at about 1200), but the NZB Ready to Run Sale was a step in the right direction to rectifying the issue.
Inglis and Magic Millions also spend significant time and money in Asia in a bid to gain the attention of owners and trainers and some may choose to spend at the 2024 yearling sales, starting at the Gold Coast in January.
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Joe O’Neill is in a prime position to potentially land a stakes double at Caulfield tomorrow, demonstrating patience can pay off.
The Prime Thoroughbreds syndicator has three-year-old Power Of The Brave (Brave Smash) contesting the Sandown Guineas (Gr 2, 1600m), and promising Yes Yes Yes (Rubick) two-year-old Flattered will have her first start in the Merson Cooper Stakes (Listed, 1000m).
Both were purchased as weanlings for $80,000 and $130,000 respectively by O’Neill from the 2021 and 2022 Magic Millions National Weanling sales.
For O’Neill, there was an obvious attraction to the Patrick Payne-trained Flattered, who has impressed in two barrier trials and a jump out, having raced her mother Zizzis (Sizzling) and her half-sisters, the Group 2 winner Rubisaki (Rubick) and Husson’s Kiss (Husson), herself the dam of 2022 Tasmanian Derby (Listed, 2200m) winner The Nephew (Wordsmith).
He also did the mating for Flattered before selling Zizzis in foal to The Everest (1200m)–winning stallion for $230,000 in 2021.
“Everything out of that family can run, particularly the fillies, and I loved her [Flattered] when I saw her as a weanling,” O’Neill told us.
“When I bought her, I said to a lot of people that I’d like to resell her as a yearling because she’s such a lovely filly, but some of the owners who raced Zizzis wanted to go into her. They’ve been pretty loyal, so I elected to retain her.
“I haven’t seen another Yes Yes Yes filly who is as nice as her. She is sound, has a lovely conformation and a great attitude, which the fillies in that family have got. Rubisaki was the easiest horse they ever had to ride; Zizzis was very easy to do anything with.”
Flattered is a $9.50 chance in early markets for the Merson Cooper, while the Kris Lees-trained Power Of The Brave is $6 second favourite for the Guineas.
Power Of The Brave has won twice from six starts and placed at his past three starts in Sydney, his past two against older horses.
“I think he’ll handle the wet track as he’s out of a More Than Ready mare. Kris Lees’ galloped him the other way of going and as soon as the noms came out, Kris got a heap of text messages from jockeys including Damian Lane who wanted to ride him,” O’Neill said.
“He’s the second highest-rated horse in the race. He could have easily won his past two and if had won those, he wouldn’t have been [a handicap rating of] 68.
“It could be a good day for us.”
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There appeared to be a plethora of Aussies at the Japan Cup (Gr 1, 2400m) – won in startling fashion by the now retired Equinox (Kitasan Black) – and among the crowd was Tasmanian breeder Mandy Gunn.
The Motree Thoroughbreds principal was in Tokyo courtesy of Victorian stud farm Leneva Park, having won a free trip to Japan after sending a mare to three-time Melbourne Group 1 winner Fierce Impact, the son of the late, great Deep Impact.
“That [Japan Cup] was an amazing experience, the crowd was just incredible, the amount of people. It has been a fantastic experience,” Gunn said.
Gunn, who is based in Tasmania’s north, also took the time out to visit a meat processing plant in Japan where beef produced in her home state is sent.
“We’ve been supplying beef to Japan, well, me for nearly 30 years and my husband’s family continuously for 50 years,” she said.
“We went [on Monday] to the processing plant. It may have been our beef, it may not, but it’s a brand our beef is in that is being processed for the Japanese supermarkets.”
The Japanese own the AEON feedlot in Tasmania.
“They set it up in 1974 and they have been providing our Tasmanian beef to the Japanese customer ever since. I don’t think they get the recognition that they should,” she said.
“That is a really long time as a supply partner.”