The highly anticipated sale of a half brother to 2012 Sportingbet W. S. Cox Plate (Aus-I) winner Ocean Park highlighted the second and final session of New Zealand Bloodstock’s premier yearling sale, which concluded Jan. 29 with cumulative average price up by 2.2%.
Melbourne trainer Peter Moody bought the New Zealand-bred Pins colt for $775,000 ($648,109 U.S.) from the consignment of breeder Trelawney Stud. The price was the third-highest at the two-day sale at Karaka.
"I was very taken with this horse; he’s a lovely individual by a great stallion in Pins," Moody said of the bay colt, who is the sixth foal out of the winning Zabeel mare Sayyida.
"Obviously there is the attraction of Ocean Park, and he comes from a great nursery in Trelawney."
The sale's highest-price horse was a Fastnet Rock colt out of Celebria bought at the first session for $1,975,500 ($1,637,550 U.S.) by Coolmore's Tom Magnier. Moody was the underbidder on the colt, who was offered by Gordon Cunningham's Curraghmore Stud.
With 10 horses by Fastnet Rock in Cunningham's 25-horse consignment, Curraghmore Stud ended the 31-year reign of Sir Patrick Hogan's Cambridge Stud as the sale's top consignor, selling 21 horses for $7,485,000 ($6,256,758 U.S.).
"Gordon is a big asset to the industry," Sir Patrick said of Cunningham, a native of Ireland who established Curraghmore in 1994 and began offering yearlings four years later. "He does such a great job of presenting his horses, and I really hope that he kicks on and he can put himself in the position to defend his well-earned title in the coming years."
All yearlings by Coolmore's Fastnet Rock were sold, with 14 bought for an average $419,284 ($350,382), making him the sale's leading sire.
Cambridge Stud was second among consignors, with 47 horses sold for $7,055,000 ($5,898,402 U.S.), but provided the sale's leading first-crop sire in Tavistock. The New Zealand champion sprinter by Montjeu had 10 horses sell for an average price of $136,000 ($113,674 U.S.).
New Zealander David Ellis of Te Akau Stud was leading buyer with 23 horses purchased for a total of $3,810,000 ($3,184,482). His top purchase of $620,000 ($518,351 U.S.) was for a High Chaparral colt out of the Zabeel mare Our Echezeaux offered by Pencarrow Stud on the final day.
New Zealand Bloodstock reported 323 horses sold for cumualtive total receipts of $51,051,500 ($42,697,530 U.S.), down 5.7% from last year, but sales officials were pleased with the overall results, which saw a rise in average price to $158,054 ($132,109 U.S.) and a median that was unchanged from last year at $120,000 ($100,363 U.S.).
"We headed into this sale expecting some uncertainty in the market and have been very pleasantly surprised by how solid the results have been," said Petrea Vela, co-managing director of New Zealand Bloodstock. "We have definitely felt improvement on last year where the first day in particular took a lot longer to find a momentum.
"Throughout the past two days trade has been very steady, very strong in places, with a wide and varied buying bench that has been positive in its regard for the horses on offer at Karaka. Hopefully the tide is turning, and with some positive news in New Zealand around fillies racing and so on, that confidence will also filter through the local market over the course of the week ahead."
The premier sale was the kickoff to New Zealand Bloodstock seven-day national yearling sales series, which continues with a three-day select sale Jan. 30 through Feb. 1 and a two-day festival sale Feb. 3-4.
For complete sales results, visit www.nzb.co.nz
Listen to Ocean Park's jockey Glen Boss comment on him prior to the 2012 Cox Plate.
