New South Wales bloodstock agent Michael Stedman paid the top price of NZ$230,000 (US$157,000) for a colt by Waikato Stud's first-crop sire and reverse shuttle stallion No Excuse Needed Thursday during the Select Section of the New Zealand Bloodstock National Yearling Sales series at Karaka in Auckland. The colt is the sixth foal out of the Centaine mare Cymbidium.
The price was a record for a yearling sold during the Select Section sessions, eclipsing the previous highest of NZ$190,000 (U.S.$130,000) paid for a Cape Cross colt out of the Danehill mare Gardenia in 2004.
The record colt was consigned by Little Avondale Stud. His dam Cymbidium is a three-quarter sister to group II-winner Fleur de Chine (dam of group I SAJC Australasian Oaks winner Tully Thunder) and a half-sister to stakes winner I Will.
Ireland’s Demi O’Byrne, who normally leaves sales after the premier part, has stayed and paid NZ$160,000 for a colt by dual-Derby winning Coolmore sire and former Windsor Park shuttler Montjeu. Consigned by Chesterfields Ltd., the colt is the fifth foal out of the European-winning Night Shift mare Little Gem. His dam is a half-sister to Warg, the dam of Royal Ascot (Eng-II) winner Miletrian and fellow European group II winner Mr Combustible. The purchase brings to eight the number of colts by Southern Hemisphere shuttler Montjeu that O'Byrne has bought.
Cumulatively after the second session Thursday of the three-day Select Section, the aggregate already exceeded last year’s total three-day takings while the average and median prices are both well ahead of last year’s final figures. The gross was NZ$13,754,500 (U.S.$ 9,381,676). up 7% from last year's final figure of NZ$12,834,250 with 99 fewer lots sold. The cumulative average was NZ$50,755, up 46% on last year’s NZ$34,687. The NZ$42,000 cumulative median is up 40% from NZ$30,000 in 2006.
