NZB National Weanling Sale at Karanka sees surging prices with Valachi Downs dispersal horses and Tarzino progeny attracting top prices
88 per cent clearance rate for one-day sale as international buyers return
Buyers took advantage of the Valachi Downs dispersal at the New Zealand Bloodstock National Weanling Sale yesterday, with two foals bred by Kevin and Jo Hickman topping the one-day Karaka auction, as pinhookers also threw their support by rising sire Tarzino (Tavistock).
Demonstrating that the industry, and the country, was beginning to recover from the effects of the pandemic, a colt by New Zealand’s champion sire Savabeel (Zabeel) was sold to Te Akau racing for $360,000 and a filly by U S Navy Flag (War Front) fetched $160,000 to set the tone for the foal sale.
Last year’s sale was conducted to almost a solely domestic marketplace. So, as expected, this year’s sale – and the addition of the Valachi draft – saw a surge in prices, with the aggregate up 92 per cent to $3.486 million, the average climbing 50 per cent to $33,200 and the median increasing by $5,000 year-on-year to $16,000.
The sale-topping Savabeel colt was the standout of auction, labelled as such by many industry figures during the inspections, and it was Te Akau principal David Ellis who had the final say, as he has on so many occasions at Karaka in the past.
Ellis opened the bidding at $200,000 before the price went up in $25,000 lots before switching to $10,000 bids. His competition bowed out when he returned with a $360,000 bid.
“I thought it was a great opportunity to buy from Valachi,” Ellis said.
“These are the best foals that they bred that year. They are here for a really genuine sale. I love the pedigree. We have got three Savabeel colts that are now at stud – Noverre, Embellish and Cool Aza Beel.
“I thought this is a Group 1 colt in the making if ever I have seen one. We are thrilled to have him for Te Akau Racing.”
The sale-topping Savabeel colt is the fourth foal out of the 2015 The Roses (Gr 2, 2020m) winner Bohemian Lily (O’Reilly), herself a sister to Australian Derby (Gr 1, 2400m) and Australian Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) winner Shamrocker, who is a broodmare in Japan.
Group 3 winner Vernanme, another sister to Bohemian Lily, is also a Group 3-winning, Group 1-placed mare, while Rock Diva (Lucky Unicorn), an Auckland Cup (Gr 1, 3200m) winner, is a half-sister.
A rising 11-year-old mare, Bohemian Lily is the dam of two foals to race, led by the Group 2-placed winner Lily’s Lady (Contributer), while her unraced two-year-old Scotter’s Legacy (Vespa) is in work with Victorian trainer Danny O’Brien, who also prepared Shamrocker.
Bohemian Lily, who is in foal to Savabeel on an October 20 cover, will be one of the standout mares to be offered through Gavelhouse later this month to finalise the Valachi Downs dispersal.
Lily’s Lady will also be offered in the online auction, as will Honfleur (Fastnet Rock), another half-sister to Bohemian Lily, whose weanling filly by U S Navy Flag made $160,000 later in the session to the bid of agent Michael Hughes, acting on behalf of owner Verne Trillo, a retired horse dentist.
Catalogued as Lot 1013, the November 5-born filly is Honfleur’s second foal, her first finding favour at Karaka in March, that yearling colt selling for $340,000 to Lance O’Sullivan and Andrew Scott’s Wexford Stables.
“She is out of a family who I have been heavily involved in. She’s a late foal, but she will develop into something. The family is always a little bit slower [to develop] but I couldn’t let her go,” said an emotional Trillo, a long-time friend of Valachi Downs founder Kevin Hickman.
General manager Gareth Downey revealed Trillo had been Valachi Downs’ only outside client.
“Valachi Downs has been a private farm with one outside client, which is Vern,” he said.
“Kevin and Vern have had a very close relationship and we have felt honoured to be a part of Vern’s family, and we do think of it as Vern’s family.
“We have had a couple of members of it at Valachi and it felt like that filly went to the right home with Vern. He had to be very strong to get her and she is a gorgeous filly.
“He was very strong and he was determined to get her back, so he got her back.”
Carlaw Park will look after the U S Navy Flag filly for Trillo.
“I have got three [racehorses] in Australia in Scone and two here,” he said.
“I race Vernanme with Kevin [Hickman] and I have got a Vadamos out of Irish Blues that will go to the sale as well.
“I will put this filly back into the sale and see what comes along.”
NZB’s Mike Kneebone was pleased with the competition at Karaka yesterday, not only in the Valachi draft which opened the sale, but throughout the day.
“One of the big positives of the sale was that there were a lot of great judges present on the grounds right throughout the week. To see them so active in the sale ring is really encouraging,” Kneebone said.
“It is also positive when you see those good judges bidding on so many horses and in many cases missing out.
“All of our key sale indicators were up significantly, with the clearance rate topping 88 per cent. We saw a good balance of end-users and pinhookers.”
The Valachi Downs draft of 20 weanlings grossed $1.312 million at an average of $65,600.
“I think that as strong as the sale was, people will look back and recognise that there was some really good buying amongst the catalogue, which goes to show what great value Karaka has, considering the quality of the horses,” Kneebone said.
“We were thrilled to have had such a strong start to the sale with the Valachi Downs horses. Their stock truly lived up to expectation, which created good momentum throughout the rest of the sale.”
The Hickmans have sold their 600-acre property to Lib and Katrina Petagna’s Elsdon Park, while the training business was sold to the Matamata Racing Club.
The Petagnas were shareholders in rival farm Blandford Lodge, but the farm’s co-owners, the Bax family, have bought out their partners.
“This will be the last time Valachi will ever sell at a public auction,” Downey said.
“Valachi have been such big supporters of New Zealand, and particularly New Zealand Bloodstock. It is great to be here with the final draft. It is very bittersweet, we would love to be carrying on for many more years, but it felt important to go out on a high note to honour Kevin, and it feels like that is what we have done.
“It is great to see the product honoured the way it was and the team effort was absolutely phenomenal. We are so lucky to have the team of people that we have at Valachi.”
A draft of 51 Valachi-owned mares will be sold through Gavelhouse before 52 racehorses are offered online. Another 21 horses owned by Valachi will be offered through Gavelhouse in late July, a sale which will bring down the curtain on the Hickmans’ racing and breeding interests.
Tarzino weanlings popular
Meanwhile, the fourth crop by Westbury Stud’s Tarzino (Tavistock) also captured the market’s attention yesterday, with three weanlings by the stallion changing hands at Karaka for $150,000, $110,000 and $90,000 respectively.
The most expensive of those was Highline Thoroughbreds’ filly, bought by New Zealand agent Phill Cataldo on behalf of an Australian client who is yet to determine whether the filly will re-enter the sales arena next year or be retained to race.
Fellow agent Ric Whylie was the under-bidder on the filly. Cataldo went home with a haul of eight horses.
Catalogued as Lot 72, the $150,000 filly is the first living foal out of Nightingale Island (Viking Ruler), a half-sister to Singapore Horse of the Year, Infantry (Tavistock), and the stakes-placed Night Nurse (Tavistock), whose three foals to race have all won races.
Highline Thoroughbreds’ Cam Heron said: “I’m rapt with the result and the filly was bought by a good judge.
“I like to get them on the market early and get people bidding and she was on the market quite early. Phill has bought a nice filly.”
Landsdowne Park’s Dave Duley bought the other two Tarzino weanlings, both colts. The $110,000 colt from Jamieson Park, who was catalogued as Lot 25, is the seventh foal out of Coyote Miss (Commands), a Sydney-placed mare, while Lot 6 was the eighth foal out of European juvenile winner Walk On Water (Exceed And Excel), the dam of four winners so far.
“That’s two Tarzinos now and we will bring them back here in January,” Duley said.
“Tarzino has done something quite rare, having two Group 1 winners in his first crop, so hope to take advantage of this, opening the doors to the Australian buyers.
“Tarzino fits our operation perfectly. The Walk On Water colt has plenty of scope and will only grow and improve in the meantime.”
Tarzino, whose yearlings sold up to $300,000 at the recent Magic Millions Gold Coast National Yearling Sale, is the sire of South Australian Derby (Gr 1, 2500m) winner Jungle Magnate and Queensland Oaks (Gr 1, 2200m) winner Gypsy Goddess.
Westbury Stud’s Russell Warwick said: “It looks like we will have around a dozen Tarzinos for Karaka, four or five for the Magic Millions [in January] and we will save a few for the Ready to Run sale.”
Another young New Zealand sire whose eldest crop are three-year-olds is Waikato Stud’s Tivaci (High Chaparral) and he had a weanling colt from the Curraghmore draft sell for $125,000 yesterday to David Goldsbury.
Understandably, Beckham Equine’s Goldsbury was keen to stick with the progeny of the Group 1-producing stallion having sold a filly by the same sire at the Karaka in March for $250,000, the Book 2 sales topper, to trainers Roger James and Robert Wellwood and agents Andrew Williams and Bevan Smith.
Yesterday’s addition to the Beckham Equine portfolio, who was offered as Lot 73, is the fourth live foal out of O’Me O’My (O’Reilly), a half-sister to the Listed winner Single (High Chaparral) and the European stakes-placed Ghayth (Sadler’s Wells) and Ego (Green Desert).
“He’s a strong colt with plenty of length and good size with a good page. I only saw him this morning, but I have done my homework and I am a big fan of O’Reilly, his damsire,” Goldsbury said.
“Ironically, the colt was just three miles down the road from me until recently, but I had come all the way to Karaka to buy him.
“He will be back here in January as part of our draft. We had seven but now eight. I had some success selling a Tivaci for good money last year.”
Sale statistics
2022 2021
Catalogued 132 120
Offered 120 100
Sold 105 (88%) 82 (82%)
Aggregate $3.486 million (+92%) $1.82 million
Average $33,200 (+50%) $22,195
Median $16,000 (+45%) $11,000
Top Lot $360,000 $145,000