Woodside Park's online dispersal a sign of changing times

Images courtesy of Woodside Park Stud

With the growing maturity of the online sales market, Woodside Park decided at the end of the last breeding season that some of the mares it would look to move on in 2020 would be offered via the digital platform.

Given the current uncertainty in the global market caused by coronavirus and the enforcement of restrictions on public gatherings, the progress of the traditional breeding sales season in May and June is uncertain.

It may make Woodside's decision to disperse through the online method in what is an unreserved sale look prescient, but General Manager Commercial, James Price, said the move to online selling was always going to be part of their sales strategy moving forward.

"It was a decision we made pre-Christmas, following the season, on which mares we needed to move on. We came up with the plan to give them a mini-prep. As people will see from the vision, the mares and foals are looking their best and they have been well-fed," he said.

"All the foals have been handled to a standard where potential buyers can get a great look at them. We have taken the online vision to another level to try and give buyers a better picture of the horse they are potentially buying. We have front on shots, behind shots and walking shots."

Woodside Park will also conduct an open house across two sessions at its Tylden base, 80km north of Melbourne, from 2pm-4pm on Sunday (March 22) and Monday (March 23).

"I dare say when the catalogue is released, they can choose the lots they are interested in, come on Sunday and Monday and then bid away on Wednesday," Price said.

The format of holding prior inspections and then bidding online may become common place during the current season, with the Federal Government restricting outdoor gatherings to 500 people and indoor gatherings to fewer than 100 people.

Inglis will press on with its Australian Easter Yearling Sale next month at the Riverside Stables on an invite-only basis, with strict protocols and a strong reliance on technology to facilitate the Sale.

Price pointed out that the success of online sales has grown in the past two years to a point where the market was mature enough to make them perfectly viable for dispersal sales like it is conducting, allowing greater flexibility for vendors.

"I think the online sale is now becoming a very mature buying bench. For the level of horse we are offering, I see them making no less than what they would if they went through a public auction at a complex," he said.

"We have tried to take it to another level, by using videos and an open house, any information that anyone wants, we are willing to be contacted and give that information out, It's a very mature market and it can work very successfully if vendors are open and honest to buyers.

"In terms of being able to manage our labour force and our facilities, and this is a very labour orientated industry, it allows us to get these mares moved now, instead of giving them a full preparation and taking them to one of the sales in May or June.

"We have the opportunity to get staff away for holidays and it allows us more flexibility. The 2020 breeding season will be on us very soon."

The draft

Of the 18 mares, nine are offered in foal, two are offered with foals at foot, and four are '3-in-1' packages', offered both in foal and with a foal at foot.

Asked to select a couple of highlights, Price picked out a mare called Reeh (Sebring), who is from the Redoute's Choice mare Sponsored, the half-sister to stakes-winners Order Of The Sun (Encosta De Lago) and Get To Work (Snippets).

"She's in foal to Rich Enuff and the resultant foal will be a three-quarter to Dusty Tycoon, that Robert Heathcote has. He's an exciting 2-year-old and she had a September cover to Rich Enuff," he said.

Price said Regal Gleam (Alfred Nobel {Ire}) was another mare which would be ideal for those looking to breed to race.

"She might not have the big pedigree, but she has been compatibility matched to Cable Bay, who she is in foal to. The Cable Bay foal filly on her is a very nice type, as she is herself," he said.

Regal Gleam's first colt, a Cable Bay (Ire) yearling, is catalogued as Lot 126 of the 2020 Inglis Melbourne Gold Yearling Sale under Woodside Park's draft.

Other mares on offer include stakes-placed Anelene (Written Tycoon), Baroness Gabriella (Kempinsky), the half-sister to Group 1 winner Volkstock'n'Barrell (NZ) (Tavistock {NZ}), Brambling (Redoute's Choice), who is out of Group 1 winner Bramble Rose (NZ) (Shinko King {Ire}) and Helping Hand (Fusaichi Pegasus {USA}), the half-sister to Group 1 winner No Evidence Needed (Shamardal {USA}).

Gallery: Some of the Lots of offer by Woodside Park Stud

The full draft will be online when the Inglis Sale begins on Friday, with the auction to close next Wednesday.

Price said that while there is risk in offering stock through an unreserved sale, he is confident they will find their mark.

"With any unreserved sale, there is always a degree of hesitation that horses will make their money. It’s a different story to your more high-profile sales where people are putting down bigger money," he said.

"We're happy to move them on and give them a wonderful opportunity for someone else to have them in their paddock. Where that sits, they will be unreserved and the market can decide what they are worth."

Trope joins Digital Sale

Trope is the other significant addition to the March (Late) Online Sale, as a racing and stallion proposition.

A one-time $500,000 yearling, he is out of Personify (Galileo {Ire}), the daughter of blue hen producer Procrastinate (Jade Hunter {USA}).

“As a yearling, Trope stood out to me physically in a great line-up of Easter colts and he was the one horse that I absolutely had to come away with,” Bell said.

He has won one of his nine starts but has been placed on four occasions, including a second in in the G2 Theo Marks S.

“His racing career has been defined by what might have been," Bell said.

“Very early on, the Hawkes stable identified him as their Slipper colt and had him ready to go in October, only for him to damage his hoof wall so thoroughly he missed his 2-year-old autumn entirely.

“Finally making his debut as a 3-year-old, Trope won his first start in spectacular fashion at Randwick, coming from a seemingly impossible rearward position to flash home in an exceptional last 600 metres.

“Dazzling sectionals then came to typify his racing pattern and define his career.

“I have raced sprinters with ultimately more storied career records, but none with greater promise or more able to routinely break 33 seconds home in top class races.”