Like the rest of her owners, I was thrilled with Candle In The Wind’s close second in yesterday’s $200,000 City of Auckland Cup. It was her first Group placing and a tribute to the training skills of Donna Logan and Chris Gibbs and the horsemanship of Cameron Lammas. She has now won over $200,000 – not a bad return for the little filly costing a mere $2500 at the Select Sale of her year.
Values have moved ahead in the last five years, with this year’s Weanling Sale being a case in point, but having just completed my annual analysis of all three catalogues, I seriously doubt whether this year’s Karaka event will continue the trend.
I would go so far as to say that this is the weakest Premier catalogue that I can recall reading. It is clear that many breeders are either retaining their stock or selling them somewhere offshore. This is bad news for NZ Bloodstock and bad news for many vendors as it is hard to imagine high levels of enthusiasm on the buying benches. K1 colts not meeting the expectations of their vendors can be recycled into Ready to Run 2YOs but fillies tend to sell poorly in November so I am anticipating some comparative bargains amongst this year’s K1 fillies.
The Select catalogue is big, very big. Many lots clearly deserve their place but when you read some pedigree pages you have to say, “Really?” Accordingly, I am predicting some more “Candle” opportunities for astute buyers. Buying yearlings is very much akin to long-distance running; the longer the race the harder it is to concentrate and there are times in any sale with a hefty catalogue when buyers long for a cool drink rather than check out that yearling in a faraway box. This is especially true when sale hits a flat patch and it seems likely that there will be several of these in the 2017 Select Sale.
And, once again, the Festival is where the bargains are. I had more trouble ranking the lots in this sale than in the other two. There are some very clever matings in the slim Festival catalogue but I seriously doubt whether this sale will maintain its upward trend – especially as far as fillies are concerned. I suspect that this catalogue is where the physically backward yearlings have found their place. As we all know, time equates to money and so these yearlings need a special type of buyer – people with experience, patience and a significant level of disposable income. From a breeders’ point of view, let’s hope I’m wrong.
