Satono Aladdin reigns again as Karaka comes to a close
Book 2 ends with an aggregate of $9,711,000 and a strong clearance rate of 78 per cent
For the second day in a row a colt by Satono Aladdin (Deep Impact) proved to be the headline act at Book 2 of the New Zealand Bloodstock Karaka National Yearling Sale, with John Foote going to $150,000 to secure the Highden Park-consigned youngster in the final minutes of the 2025 edition of the auction.
One of the last lots through the ring on Thursday, the colt comes from a renowned family built up by Glenn and Lisa Morton. He is out of High Esteem (High Chapparal), who is herself a daughter of the winning mare Black Bijou (Black Minnaloushe), a half-sister to the outstanding Prized Gem (Prized).
A Group 1 winner on both sides of the Tasman, Prized Gem made just as much impact at stud as the dam of Australian Derby (Gr 1, 2400m) winner and sire Nom Du Jeu (Montjeu), plus Group 2 winner Jeu De Cartes (Stravinsky) and the stakes performer Warp Speed (Star Witness).
Foote has been busy buying up at Book 2 and he thought a lot of the session-topper, who was the second highest-priced lot of the second book.
“I thought he was the nicest horse on the grounds,” Foote said. “He had a fair bit of High Chaparral in him, which is always a great thing. So I was pretty happy to get him for that price, actually. He comes from that very good Prized Gem family.
“He was bought for David Price and will be going to Victoria and then potentially to Hong Kong.
“John Thompson has got a good stallion on his hands with Satono Aladdin. He’s blessed, John. He’s got Proisir and Satono and Ace High doing well too, so he’s on fire.”
All in all, Foote bought eight yearlings over the last two days of the sale for a total spend of $750,000 and he was pleased with his purchases.
“It’s been a bit tough on the second day actually, we got beaten a few times earlier in the day and then we managed to buy two this afternoon,” he said.
“We also bought a Vadamos colt from Haunui for $70,000. He has a nice pedigree. He’s probably a horse you wouldn’t expect to buy for Hong Kong, but he was just a very good-looking colt and with a bit of pedigree too.”
It was just the latest in a long line of successful Karaka sales for Foote, who has been attending the sale for close to four decades.
“I’ve just been told Karaka opened in 1988, and I’ve been here since then,” he said. “Before that, I went to Trentham.
“I love Book 2. There’s some really nice horses at the right price. I think it’s a pity there aren’t more. Some of the horses that they take to Australia should be left here. I think they’d do well.”
The Mortons, the colt’s breeders, were delighted with the result and were buoyed that the youngster would be staying in New Zealand.
“There were lots of parades and lots of interest plus his x-rays and scope were A1 so we set a reserve of $120,000 on him. He’s a beautiful colt. If he remains locally and is not sent to Hong Kong we would love to keep a piece of him,” said Glenn Morton.
A few lots earlier, Satono Aladdin was the order of the day again when Universal Bloodstock purchased a colt by the sire for $140,000 from the draft of Highden Park.
The colt is the first foal out of the five-time winning mare Gerda (Denman) and Scott Eagleton of Seaton Park said he was very popular during inspections.
“He is by the right stallion – he was a really well grown colt and had a real presence about him. The mare won five on the track and was a very good racemare. He just oozed quality – he was a nice, strong and athletic colt,” he said.
“He was popular during the inspections, he was one of those colts who turned an eye and we were actually getting extra inspections from people who were walking past the barn – he was just a nice horse.
“Satono Aladdin is going well and his statistics are backing that up – his stats are out the gate. He couldn’t come back for that one year and we are already starting to see signs of him kicking on more, so there is a lot of confidence in the horse.”
Seaton Park enjoyed some good results during Book 2, headlined on the first day when they sold an Ace High (High Chapparal) filly for $145,000 and they finished with an aggregate of $608,500 having sold 17.
Eagleton enjoyed the good results, but said at times the trade was tough going.
“It’s been patchy, but we had a good sale with an Ace High filly yesterday [Wednesday] and this colt was very, very good today [Thursday]. It has been hard work, but I am very, very lucky in that my clients have met the market – that being said, it has been hard for breeders. The whole economy is tough at the moment and we’re just going to have to work through it,” he said.
Another late highlight of the Book 2 session on Thursday afternoon was a Shamexpress (O’Reilly) colt out of the winning High Chaparral (Sadler’s Wells) mare High Tail It. The colt was offered by Windsor Park Stud and was bought by Nick Kneebone’s Patella Bloodstock for $125,000.
The four yearlings by Shamexpress offered in Book 2 averaged a sale-topping $97,500 as the exciting Windsor Park Stud stallion continues to make waves, created mainly by his Hong Kong-based son Ka Ying Rising, who landed his second Group 1 in last weekend’s Centenary Sprint Cup (Gr 1, 1200m).
“He is a lovely horse and is very much in the style of Shamexpress,” Windsor Park Stud’s Rodney Schick said.
“It’s great that he was purchased by a top young horseman in Nick Kneebone, who is coming back to train in New Zealand.
“He is a great coloured horse, with lovely markings and he was a bit of a standout. Shamexpress had only a small representation, but statistically is a high-class sire and when you leave a brilliant racehorse like Ka Ying Rising it is a lot easier to sell them.”
A productive week of shopping at Karaka helped to put up-and-coming Kneebone on a path towards New Zealand’s training ranks.
Kneebone made eight purchases under the Patella Bloodstock banner during New Zealand Bloodstock’s National Yearling Sale.
He secured five yearlings from Book 1, including a Capitalist (Written Tycoon) colt for $460,000, a Satono Aladdin colt for $400,000 and a St Mark’s Basilica (Siyouni) colt for $360,000. He followed that up with another three Book 2 yearlings, signing off with a $125,000 colt by Shamexpress late on Thursday afternoon.
Patella Bloodstock’s total spend was $1,680,000 across the five days of the sale.
“It’s been really good,” Kneebone said. “We’ve managed to secure eight horses, seven colts and a filly, and we’re really happy with what we’ve come away with.
“The plan now is to take them down to Cambridge and get them ready, either to be traded on to overseas or to go into training here.”
That is a part of the thoroughbred world that Kneebone himself is keen to become immersed in. The 27-year-old is a son of long-time auctioneer and NZB’s director of business development Mike Kneebone, but he has also gained valuable experience in stables across the Tasman.
“I spent seven years at Randwick with John Sargent, and then had a stint with Jim and Greg Lee as well.
“I’m happy to come here now and give it a crack at a time when it looks like New Zealand racing is on the up. The prize-money increases have been great news for the industry here in recent times and I’m very keen to be a part of it.”
Kneebone’s initial target is to prepare some horses for the Ready to Run Sale at Karaka in November.
“To kick things off, I think it’s a good idea to trade a few horses,” he said. “I’ll get them ready for the Ready to Run Sale, see how that goes and then take it from there.
“I’m hoping to have a property in Cambridge locked in soon, ideally around late March, when the horses are getting broken in and we’ll be looking to start getting them up and running.”
Windsor Park’s day started off on the right foot when another colt by Shamexpress sold to Ben Kwok for $120,000.
The youngster is out of the unraced Turn Me Loose (Iffraaj) mare Blinkie, who never made it to a racetrack after being born with only one eye.
“His dam, Blinkie, is a lovely mare who never made it to the races as she was born with one eye so that is why she is named Blinkie,” Schick explained.
“He is an outstanding colt. All quality, and closely resembles his sire.
“The colt was bought by a great friend of mine, Ben Kwok of Lion Rock Racing. We have had a close association for a long time so it was especially good to have him buy the colt.”
Milan Park have been enjoying a lucrative time on the track and on Thursday they celebrated a brilliant result in the ring when their colt by Doubtland (Not A Single Doubt) was snapped up by Upper Bloodstock for $110,000.
“We own Provence and we had a great win in the Group 1 Thorndon earlier in the month. We all like to race and own a Group 1 winner and her half-sister, Damask Rose came out and won the Karaka Million 3YO Classic,” said Milan Park’s Tony Rider.
“Last Monday at Tauranga we had a nice win with Phoebe Buffay. She was rather impressive plus we have a pretty good three-year-old running around called Ridefromtheashes so we are not just breeders. We like to race as well.”
The Doutland colt is out of the Group 3-placed mare Yatima (Savabeel), whose brother sold to Game Lodge for $80,000 at last year’s sale.
“The Doubtland colt is a great type. He is quite forward and Ben Foote is already thinking of Karaka Millions 2YO,” said Rider. “On that, his owners are keen to race him in New Zealand before he ultimately goes to Hong Kong. There was considerable interest so we thought he’d make $70,000 or $80,000. We are very pleased with the final outcome.”
At the close of Book 2, New Zealand Bloodstock reported that 270 horses sold for $9,759,000 at a clearance rate of 76 per cent, which is expected to climb in the coming days. Last year’s sale closed with 265 yearlings selling for an aggregate of $11,444,000, finishing with a clearance of 70 per cent.
The average closed at $36,371, while the median was recorded at $27,500.
Leading vendor of Book 2 was Westbury Stud with a 100 per cent clearance rate and $1,174,500 in turnover, after earlier in the week announcing they would offer their yearlings unreserved.
Ardsley Stud also cleared 100 per cent, and led the average tables with $76,250 for four lots sold.
“We are particularly pleased with the clearance rate of 75 per cent, which will continue to climb and it’s up significantly in the past two to three years of selling at Book 2,” said NZB bloodstock sales manager, Kane Jones. “The average and median are down slightly, but I think the clearance rate is what we need to focus on and be proud of.
“Vendors have come to meet the market and the quality horses have really sold particularly well. While we are down slightly on 2024, we have to bear in mind that that was a record-breaking sale and it’s basically come back in line with 2023, which I think is pretty pleasing in the current economic climate.
“We were thrilled to see so many people on the grounds for Book 1 and then the Karaka Millions raceday was outstanding with really high quality racing, which kicked us off into a really solid sale. I would just like to thank everyone who attended from near and far and the vendors for bringing quality horses to the market.”
Books 1 and 2 – overall
2025 2024
Catalogued 1088 1125
Offered 941 984
Sold 742 (79%) 748 (76%)
Aggregate $86,061,500 $91,842,000
Average $115,986 $122,783
Median $80,000 $90,000
Top Lot $2.4 million $1.6 million
Book 2
2025 2024
Catalogued 427 443
Sold 270 (76%) 265 (70%)
Aggregate $9,759,000 $11,444,000
Average $36,144 $43,185
Median $26,750 $32,500
Top Lot $260,000 $220,000
*no comparisons as Book 2 was conducted in a different format