Written by Paul Vettise
New Zealand Bloodstock Managing Director Andrew Seabrook is confident his team has done all it possibly can to ensure a successful sale at Karaka this week with no stone left unturned to assemble a buying bench comprising of all the usual suspects and new faces.
Every effort had been made to entice purchasers and that, in part, had been made easier by the quality of yearlings on offer and with the added attraction of a proliferation of first season sires in Books 1 and 2.
Yearlings from New Zealand-based and Australian-based sires will be represented
They include representatives of New Zealand-based stallions Belardo (Ire), Preferment (NZ), Prince Of Brooklyn, Puccini (NZ) Rageese, Tarzino (NZ), Telperion, Tivaci, Turn Me Loose (NZ), Vadamos (Fr), Vanbrugh, Verdi (NZ) and Wrote (Ire).
Youngsters by permanent Australian-based stallions represented include Air Force Blue (USA), American Pharoah (USA), Astern, Capitalist, Divine Prophet, Extreme Choice, Flying Artie, Frosted (USA), Furnaces, Maurice (Jpn), Mikki Isle (Jpn), Territories (Ire), The Last Lion (Ire), Winning Rupert and Xtravagant (NZ).
“The quality is excellent and this time last year we were lacking a bit of stallion strength,” Seabrook said. “Some of our proven horses are going well and we had a good spring on the track in Australia.”
Outstanding success rate
Graduates of this sale have combined to win 50 Group 1 races in the last three seasons alone and the proven stallions and complemented by an exciting array of newcomers.
“We haven’t seen this many first season sires before and it’s added a terrific amount of interest,” Seabrook said. “We saw a couple of weeks ago at the Gold Coast how keen buyers were to look at the freshman sires.
“It gives a nice flavour and I’m very happy with the quality of catalogue overall so the scene is set for a really good week.”
Andrew Seabrook
Seabrook said he was much more bullish about the coming week that he was approaching the 2019 sale.
“I’m happy with where we sit and I’m more confident now than I was 12 months ago. We’ve got a big Australian buying bench here and we’ve made a concerted effort to try and increase the Australian participation and very happy with the numbers here.”
“I’m happy with where we sit and I’m more confident now than I was 12 months ago.” – Andrew Seabrook
A couple of factors beyond New Zealand Bloodstock’s control are potential minuses, but Seabrook reinforced every effort had been made by his staff to compensate.
“It remains to be seen what the Chinese New Year and the political situation in Hong Kong will do to the Hong Kong market,” he said. “We could possibly see that come back a bit.
“We’ve done our best to assemble the best bench of buyers we can. There were still a few to come in on Saturday and I’m happy with who we have been able to get here.”
Danny Rolston has been helping to court buyers from the United States to Karaka
One area that has come in for more serious attention in recent times has been courting buyers from the United States.
“Danny Rolston has been going up there for a few years now and our agent up there, Joe Miller, has been doing a really good job in spreading the word and promoting the New Zealand product,” Seabrook said.
“We had a handful of American buyers active at last year’s sale and the same will apply again. It’s really good to see them here. All we’re pretty happy with our preparation and the team has worked hard and done an excellent job.”
