NZB pushes case for Karaka hotel to be used as bubble for Australian buyers
New Zealand Bloodstock has put a proposal to the government which would allow Australian buyers to attend next year’s Karaka Yearling Sale by effectively completing their isolation period in a bubble at the company’s soon-to-be opened on-site hotel.
Andrew Seabrook, the company’s managing director, yesterday outlined a plan which had been put to New Zealand deputy prime minister Grant Robertson, who is also the country’s racing minister, whereby Australian agents and trainers could participate in the 2022 National Sale.
Under the current plan, outlined by the New Zealand government last week, fully vaccinated Kiwis would be able to return home from Australia, and numerous other countries, from mid-January without hotel quarantine, but will instead have to undertake seven days of home isolation.
Fully vaccinated foreigners, however, will not be allowed to travel to New Zealand until April 30 under the plan.
Seabrook, who last week confirmed the Karaka sale would be remaining in its already pushed back dates of March 7 to 12, confirmed yesterday that approaches had been made to the government about using its DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel, which opens on February 22.
The hotel is on land at the entrance to the Karaka sales complex.
Seabrook said, under the plan, up to 122 fully vaccinated Australian buyers would be picked up from the airport by NZB staff and transported to the hotel. They would be allowed onto the spacious complex to inspect horses prior to the sale and, if required, be effectively provided with their own “buyer bubble” during the auction.
The Australian buyers would also not mix with local buyers, nor would they leave the complex to interact in the Auckland community.
Seabrook believes the proposal has merit and is modelled on what many domestic and international sporting teams and competitions have endured during the pandemic.
“We are still waiting for a response (from the government), but we believe we have put a very viable and risk-free proposal to the government whereby we’d pick the Australians up from the airport, take them to our hotel, which would be closed to the public,” Seabrook told ANZ Bloodstock News yesterday.
“They wouldn’t need to leave the site for anything. Viewing horses from a social distancing point of view is easy here on the complex and then we deliver them back to the airport at the end of the sales.”
Some expatriate agents and trainers, such as Melbourne-based Mike Moroney, have already indicated that they would be prepared to complete seven days of home isolation upon their return to New Zealand in order to attend the Karaka sale.
The catalogue for the NZB Karaka Yearling Sale, which is traditionally staged in the last week of January, is expected to be released in the near future.