Black Minnaloushe Colt Tops New Zealand Sale's Select Session

• Email
• Print
• Tweet

What is going on here?

The premier session of New Zealand's Karaka yearling sale ended on Wednesday ... or at least it was supposed to. When the yearlings for Thursday's select session usually sell, the prices plummet because these are the horses that barely attract a buyer into the auditorium.

Not in 2005 however.

Lot 637 strutted into the complex looking like he was a big fish in a small pond. Tall, rangy, brown and a son of Storm Cat's dual group I-winning debut sire Black Minnaloushe and the non-winning mare Riposte (by Straight Stike), he oozed confidence and style. So much so Richard O'Gorman, here from England to look at horses, bought him for ... wait for it, NZ$140,000.

And that ignited everyone because prices from that point on for pedigrees that weren't in the same ball park as days one, two and three, went north. Whatever it is that has entered the minds of yearling buyers the world over, should be found and bottled by retailers.

To be fair, this colt was grand from all angles but his mother's story is an interesting one.

She is a mare that seems to produce improving looking foals each year. Herself a victim of a sales ring through the Ra Ora dispersal draft in 2001 while in foal to Dream Well, this 15-year-old mare went for NZ$12,000. She had left behind on the farm a weanling by Bigstone, which sold later in the year for just NZ$2,500. The mare's Dream Well colt sold in 2003 as a yearling fetching an improving NZ$25,000 then along came the Black Minnaloushe for NZ$140,000. When the Roberts Holding Group purchased Riposte at the dispersal sale, they couldn't possibly have predicted a windfall like this.

The big spend by O'Gorman seemed to imbue his fellow buyers with confidence and five more lots topped NZ$100,000, the best of them being lot 715, another brown colt by Volksraad (Green Desert -- Celtic Assembly)f rom the mare Symphony (by Kaapstad). which attracted a bid of $135,000. He went to Mary Hoggard who dug deep to buy this half-brother to the rising New Zealand star Salt (by Gold Brose).

With one day of selling over for the select session, and a full day still to go, the sale median is currently running at a staggering NZ$30,000, a 15% increase on the final sale median last year of NZ$26,000. The sale average is also 17.5% up on last year's final average, at NZ$35,640. The aggregate is currently NZ$6,237,000, a 14.5% increase on last year's aggregate (NZ$5,447,000) after the same number of lots offered (256).

Day five continues on Friday and vendors must be wondering if there is any money left out there.

• Email
• Print
• Tweet