$220,000 Encosta Colt Tops Opening Day of NZB National Sale

Monday, May 3, 2010

It was the very last lot that provided the highlight of day one of New Zealand Bloodstock's National Weanling & Broodmare Sale today at Karaka, with the colt by Australia's champion sire, Encosta de Lago, fetching $220,000.

Offered by  Curraghmore Stud  the colt at Lot 300 from the winning Danehill mare Breeze Hill - a half-sister to Dr Devious and Shinko King - was bought by Bruce & Maureen Harvey of Ascot Farm  who have pinhooked him for the National Yearling Sales at Karaka in January.

"It's not often that you get a horse that with sort of pedigree coming up at the weanling sale here so we were eager to get him. He's a lovely horse and is a promising addition to our yearling draft." commented Bruce.

The patriarch of the New Zealand stallion ranks was also to the fore today at Karaka, with Zabeel providing the second top price of the day.

With the 23 year old sire showing no sign of fading from the spotlight with another four Group 1 winners this season, his progeny continue to be in hot demand in the sale ring as demonstrated by the filly at Lot 125 from stakes placed Danzero mare Primera Dama. Also offered by Curraghmore Stud she was knocked down for $200,000 to the bid of Marcus Corban Bloodstock.

"She's a really nice type of filly," commented Marcus. " I've purchased her for some clients so she'll come home to Cambridge Stud and we'll see how she progresses over the next couple of months before we make a plan for her."

Five broodmares by Zabeel will be offered at the broodmare session commencing at Karaka tomorrow.

Rich Hill Stud resident sire Pentire provided three of the top five lots of the day, with demand spurred by the flurry of recent success by the versatile stallion. The sire of G1 Sydney Cup winner Rangirangdoo and reigning NZ Horse of the Year, Mufhasa, currently tops the tables by average (with three or more sold) with an average of $63,200 and a top price of $130,000 for Lot 205.

Pentire is represented by just one remaining weanling to go through the ring tomorrow, at Lot 357.

The first 300 of the 463 weanlings catalogued for sale attracted mixed demand over the course of the day, with 202 sold for $2,328,800 by the close of play. The current average price for the session is $11,529, 28% ahead of last year's final weanling average of $9,018, with a median of $3,750 (up 15% from last year's $3,250), and a clearance rate of 74%.

The top two lots helped to put Gordon Cunningham Curraghmore Stud at the top of the vendor tables for the day, keeping the stud on track to be the leading weanling vendor for the fifth year in a row.

Curraghmore has another eight weanlings and four broodmares catalogued to go through the ring over the next two days.

A further 163 weanlings will be presented from 10am tomorrow, immediately followed by the first 136 of the broodmares on offer. Selling of all lots will be streamed live on the New Zealand Bloodstock website.

Day three at Karaka (Wednesday 5 May) will see the conclusion of the broodmare session, followed by yearlings, two-year-olds, unraced stock, racehorses, stallion shares and the supplementary entries.

Click here to view today's Passed Lots or the full results summary.


 

2010 National Weanling, Broodmare & Mixed Bloodstock Sale, Day 1 Statistics

	2010 Day 1	2009
Catalogued	300	336
Sold	202	267
Clearance	74%	88%
Average	$11,529	$9,018
Median	$3,750	$3,250
Aggregate	$2,328,800	$2,407,800
Top Price	$220,000	$100,000

Top Lots

Lot	Type	Breeding	Purchaser	Location	Price
300	B.C	Encosta de Lago / Breeze Hill	Ascot Farm	Cambridge	$220,000
125	B.F	Zabeel / Primera Dama	Marcus Corban Bloodstock	Cambridge	$200,000
205	B.C	Pentire / Stretto	Beamish Bloodstock	Palmerston North	$130,000
254	B.C	Pentire / Abenezra	Michael Wallace Bloodstock Limited	Cambridge	$90,000
123	B.C	Pentire / Powergame	New Zealand Bloodstock Ltd	Cambridge	$70,000
187	B.C	Darci Brahma / Soaring Spirit	Mr PA Willetts	Auckland	$60,000
229	B.C	Rock of Gibraltar / Tully Lass	Maara Grange	Cambridge	$50,000
71	B.F	Iffraaj / Muscatel	New Zealand Bloodstock Ltd	Cambridge	$40,000
106	B.C	Patapan / Panache	New Zealand Bloodstock Ltd	New South Wales	$40,000
117	C.C	Perfectly Ready / Platinum Belle	New Zealand Bloodstock Ltd	Otaki	$40,000

 

Leading Purchasers by Aggregate

Purchaser	Bought	Aggregate	Average	Top Price
NZB as agent	19	$331,100	$17,426	$70,000
Ascot Farm	1	$220,000	$220,000	$220,000
Marcus Corban Bloodstock	1	$200,000	$200,000	$200,000
Michael Wallace Bloodstock Limited	5	$168,000	$33,600	$90,000
Beamish Bloodstock	3	$145,500	$48,500	$130,000
Maara Grange	4	$127,500	$31,875	$50,000
Mr PA Willetts	5	$124,000	$24,800	$60,000
Lyndhurst Farm	2	$60,000	$30,000	$34,000
Kambula Stud Pty Ltd	2	$44,000	$22,000	$32,000
Frontier Bloodstock	2	$43,000	$21,500	$22,000

 

Leading Vendors by Aggregate

Vendor	Sold	Aggregate	Average	Top Price
Curraghmore Stud Ltd	12	$595,750	$23,830	$220,000
Haunui Farm Ltd	10	$214,900	$9,343	$40,000
Seaton Park Ltd	8	$188,350	$20,928	$130,000
Rich Hill Thoroughbreds	7	$160,400	$17,822	$90,000
Esker Lodge Ltd	6	$124,000	$10,333	$70,000
Waikato Stud	16	$123,400	$4,746	$32,000
Brighthill Farm	9	$116,600	$6,137	$37,500
Windsor Park Stud Ltd	11	$113,900	$6,328	$28,000
Mr TE Jamison	8	$87,900	$6,762	$26,000
Blandford Lodge	3	$69,000	$13,800	$60,000

Leading Sires by Average (3 or more sold)

Sire	Sold	Average	Aggregate	Top Price
Pentire	4	$63,200	$316,000	$130,000
Iffraaj	6	$18,500	$129,500	$40,000
Dubawi	3	$11,500	$46,000	$26,000
Golan	3	$10,933	$32,800	$28,000
Perfectly Ready	5	$10,700	$139,100	$40,000

 

Please click here to take you to our weanling draft for the forthcoming New Zealand Bloodstock Broodmare & Weanling Sale 3 - 5 May 2010.

Kiwis have the pinhooking edge

  
By SHAYNE O’CASS

As depressing as it may be for locals, New Zealanders do some things better than Australians.  Playing rugby is one of them, pinhooking is another.  For those who don’t know,  pinhooking is the practice of buying a weanling and on-selling it soon after, usually at a yearling sale.  With the mammoth New Zealand Bloodstock National Weanling, Broodmare and Mixed Bloodstock Sale just two weeks away, pinhookers will again have an opportunity to cash in on an increasingly profi table slice of the market.

A sizeable proportion of weanling purchases at the 2009 National sale returned to Karaka in 2010 for either the Premier, Select or Festival yearling sales. Given that the sales series realised a 25 per cent leap in turnover, it is no wonder why New Zealand is being seen as the pinhookers’ paradise.

There is no better example than the Show A Heart – Festive Season colt who was knocked down for just $30,000 at the 2009 National (weanling) sale. Just eight months later, the colt sold for $210,000 at the New Zealand Bloodstock Select Sale.

One stallion who has been a favourite with pinhookers is former Australian galloper Perfectly Ready. The son of More Than Ready was the most successful pinhook sire spanning 2009/10.

In total, Perfectly Ready’s weanlings brought $160,500, with that figure converted to $408,000 at Karaka during the lucrative sales series.

Nick King, proprietor of Brighthill Farm, where Perfectly Ready stands, believes one of the keys behind the success of pinhooking in recent years is the structure of the yearling sales series.

“We have a great variety of markets in New Zealand as well as export markets to Hong Kong and Singapore that together offer a broader opportunity and a wide buying bench at Karaka,” King said.

“The fact that pinhookers can choose from a variety of sales helps an awful lot as well.

“Of course you can’t achieve any of that without some good stock on the ground and Perfectly Ready has got some terrific types.”

As a former brilliant juvenile himself, Perfectly Ready will no doubt be responsible for his share of pre-Christmas two-yearolds bound to liven up interest in the lead-up to Karaka 2011.

“He has been given a really good opportunity to do that, which of course would be very important to a pinhooker if they buy a weanling and come back to our sale in January and the stallion has some success early on,” King said.

“They could really be on the right foot.” King told

“The Patapan’s are terrific foals, very strong and precocious looking.



Lot 165 Patapan - Secret Seasons bay filly

“The K2 (Select) and K3 (Festival) market was very strong for good, strong, correctly conformed colts and, being a son of Stravinsky, there is a lot of confidence in him – and he was a very good racehorse as well,” King said.

“We always try to present a few nice horses to represent a stallion which hopefully gives the pinhookers a bit of an opportunity rather than just keep the best for the yearling sales.”

 

Please click here to link to the article written by Aidan Rodley in the Sports section of the Waikato Times

Click here to download Gus Wrigley's, article in The Informant on Eagle Mountain's stud career at Brighthill.