Karaka’s sales revolution

BY AIDAN RODLEY

The New Zealand thoroughbred is back in fashion.

Not that it really ever went out of vogue  it's just that the Aussies have found a new appreciation for the New Zealand breed, no doubt influenced by the incredible success of New Zealand-bred gallopers and New Zealand-based sires in Australia in recent years.

Statistics  showing New Zealand-breds making up under six per cent of the horse population in Australia last season but winning almost 27 per cent of the Gr I races have sparked a change of mindset in the perception and reputation of the New Zealand racehorse which for several years in the mid-1990s took a battering.

Now racehorses like Monaco Consul and So You Think, who dominated the headlines in Australia in the spring, are continuing to be flagbearers for the New Zealand-bred and the Australians are wanting some of the action.

At Karaka this week, sale results were explosive, a remarkably buoyant market despite an economy yet to recover  from recession led by an Australian-dominated swing for demand of the New Zealand product.

Sir Patrick Hogan, whose Cambridge Stud was one of the chief beneficiaries of the market revival, predicted the New Zealand-bred revolution to only gather momentum in the wake of the sale.

''I would say record numbers of yearlings have gone to Australia. All are good types and when they get out there racing as three and four-year-olds, it's going to be fantastic because many of them will do the business,'' Sir Patrick said.

''The stakes for races like the Derbies, Oaks, Caulfield and Melbourne Cups and Cox Plate are enormous. New Zealand is very good at breeding a classic, weight-for-age horse and they are the horses that are winning the Cups.

''The staying plodder doesn't win them any more, they need to have more high-speed and class and that's the type of horse they are chasing here.''

Windsor Park Stud general manger Steve Till said the reason for the resurgence of Australian demand for Karaka yearlings was simple.
''Our product. That's it in a nutshell. In simple terms it's our product but it's the recognition too of the fact that we've done so well in their better races. That's what gets bums on seats.''

Ask around the saleground and most of the studmasters are singing off the same song sheet.

Hamilton's Curraghmore Stud had a bumper sale,  their aggregate second only to Cambridge Stud, and studmaster Gordon Cunningham attributed that to the buyers going back to the source.

''Where you strike oil once you come back,'' he said.

''If you buy good fish and chips, you go back to the same shop. The dynamics are the same it's driven by results and there's a big acceptance that New Zealand-breds are doing well in the best middle distance races in Hong Kong and Australia.''

Te Akau's David Ellis has led the buyers' list for last few years but this year he said he kept getting ''blown out of the water'' on coveted yearlings by Australian buyers hell-bent on acquiring their lot.

Gai Waterhouse has been a regular visitor to Karaka over the years but she was a lot more active as a buyer   this week.

She told the vendors not to bother showing her any yearlings born in Australia or by Australian sires because she could get those at home.

''Studs want to show us their yearlings by Encosta De Lago and Redoute's Choice and they ask why when we say we don't want to see them,'' Waterhouse said soon after paying $650,000 for a Pins filly out of Procure out of the draft of Cambridge's Whakanui Stud.

''But I told them I've come here to buy horses for Derbies, Oaks and Cups. We come to New Zealand to buy staying horses and for any staying race, you look for the New Zealand suffix.

''The New Zealand breeders are prepared to say we've got a great product and we're here to buy it.''

Windsor Park studmaster Nelson Schick admired Waterhouse's approach and said it was indicative of the mindset of the Australian buyers at Karaka this week.

''They are coming back to the traditional-type horses staying horses.

Gai said it best when she said I'm not here to buy Australian horses so don't show me any Australian horses. We had a good sale because they were paying good money for proven New Zealand sires.''

Cambridge Stud supersire Zabeel has long been a lure for international buyers at Karaka but the demand for the progeny of fellow New Zealand-based sires like Pins, Pentire and O'Reilly was unprecedented.

Waikato Stud boss Garry Chittick was delighted with not only the demand for stock of his stallions Pins and O'Reilly but also for the acceptance that New Zealand-based sires were producing desirable international racing commodities.

He said the demand was not just for the staying horses New Zealand had historically been famous for breeding but for 1400m-1600m horses as well.

''I came here hopeful the market would hold up to last year but I'm very pleasantly surprised. It was strong but selective and the great thing was everyone got a bit,'' Chittick said.

Sale figures showed the trade at the two-day premier yearling sale was up more than $10 million on last year, despite fewer horses going through the ring.

The sale average was the second highest in history at $183,119, up 26 per cent on last year's $145,710.

Three yearlings made more than $1 million, with the sale's top lot going to Cambridge Stud's Zabeel colt out of Diamond Like, which was sold to Sydney bloodstock agent James Bester for $2 million.

Bester suggested New Zealand breeders should continue to concentrate on their strengths of breeding top quality middle-distance and staying horses.

''If New Zealand is smart, it will keep producing what they are best at   their staying horses,'' he said.

''The buyers are here for the Pentires, O'Reillys and Zabeels. If New Zealanders continue to breed good Classic horses, they will get well rewarded.''

Sir Patrick Hogan said he had noticed for more than a year a shift in thinking from Australian trainers following a trend away from just buying up-and-running two-year-olds types specifically for million-dollar sales races,  Golden Slippers and Blue Diamonds.

''Those type of horses are still going to be chased but this sale has started to change the perception that this is what they want,'' Sir Patrick said.

''They really want to go back to getting some really nice Classic, weight-for-age, Cups-type horses.''

Sir Patrick said a prestigious catalogue of good black-type families combined with ''an exception crop of horses'' and a resurgence in the demand for the New Zealand-bred racehorse had meant for a buoyant sale.

''All of that built up and got the people here. My expectations coming into this sale was that if we held our own as we did in 2009, then that would be great.

''If it crept up a bit, that would be a positive, but what's happened has gone beyond all expectations. Whereas in the past we might have one or two bidders on a horse, this year we had three or four bidders and sometimes more.

''The quality was there and it's tremendous for New Zealand breeders.''

Many of the New Zealand breeders gave credit to sales company New Zealand Bloodstock and to the promotions unit New Zealand Thoroughbred Marketing for, as Brighthill Stud boss Nick King said, making international buyers ''so enthusiastic about New Zealand horses again''.

New Zealand Bloodstock's Petra Vela was  thrilled at the success of the sale.

''There are a lot of delighted vendors at Karaka who have had their expectations completely surpassed,'' she said.

''The strength of the buying bench has been thoroughly overwhelming and has demonstrated to us the hot demand there is for the product we offer here.

''We are thrilled with the outcome of the premier sale and are very grateful to both buyers and sellers for their support to post such successful results for the industry.''

Cunningham praised New Zealand Bloodstock's work. 

''The sales company has stood by the industry, maintaining existing markets and fostering new ones,'' he said.
''There's a feeling of goodwill and friendship in the buying bench and that's attributable to not only the breeders, but also NZ Bloodstook.''  

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Top 10 lots at Karaka 2010

Horse/Vendor/Buyer/Price

Lot 373 Zabeel-Diamond Like colt - Cambridge Stud - James Bester (NSW) - $2 million
Lot 431 Redoute's Choice-Grand Echezeaux colt - Pencarrow Stud - David Ellis (Te Akau) - $1.3 million
Lot 102 Fastnet Rock-Popsy colt - Esker Lodge - Jayven See (Singapore) - $1 million
Lot 111 Pins-Procure filly - Whakanui Stud - Gai Waterhouse (NSW) - $650,000
Lot 189 O'Reilly-Star Affair filly - Phoenix Park - Waikato Stud (Matamata) - $600,000
Lot 267 Pentire-Amritsar Jet colt - Rich Hill Thoroughbreds - Shigeyuki Okada (Japan) -  $600,000
Lot 40 Zabeel-Markisa colt - Wentwood Grange - Duncan Ramage (NSW) -  $575,000
Lot 15 Encosta de Lago-Liberty Walk colt - Haunui Farm - Graeme Rogerson (Hamilton) - $500,000
Lot 113 Encosta de Lago-Push A Venture colt - Curraghmore Stud - Magus Equine (Hong Kong)- $500,000
Lot 264 Encosta de Lago-Allez France filly - Curraghmore Stud - John Hawkes (NSW) - $500,000
Lot 266 Encosta de Lago-Amanusa colt - Curraghmore Stud - Apollo Ng (Hong Kong) - $500,000

- © Fairfax NZ News