All six Premier and Select yealings mentioned in my last article have found new homes – at an average price of $226,917.
The O’Reilly – Star Affair filly led the way ($600,000), closely followed by the Redoute’s Choice – Surprize Surprize colt ($460,000). The Pentire – Sheza Gem colt ($170,000) led our Select candidates; the Pentire – Centalla filly ($47,500), the Thorn Park – Maranta Star colt ($47,000) and the Golan – Golden Lights colt ($37,000) also achieved very respectable results.
On the other side of the ledger, clients using our Buyers’ Guides made six purchases: the Gold Centre – Robinson Girl colt ($31,000),the King’s Chapel Sting Leica Bee filly ($16,000), the Thorn Park – Sunlaw filly ($40,000), the Ishiguru – Poacher’s Prize filly ($9000) and the Falkirk – Summer Nymph filly ($15,000). In addition, the Pentire – Centalla filly mentioned above was also purchased by clients.
Overall, the sale series raised some questions, the most interesting one being why was the Festival Sale so poor?
Reports suggest that there were not enough nice well-conformed colts to go round and that no-one wants to buy fillies without K2 or better pedigrees. You also have to wonder whether the growth of successful syndicates has meant that people with limited budgets would rather have a small share of expensive horse as opposed to a large share of a cheap one. Anyway, there’s no doubt that our trainers still need to on-sell stock in order to make a decent living and that fillies just don’t cut it as capital gain prospects.
In reply to queries as to what stallions I have personally supported in the last breeding season, the answer is Mr Nancho (All In Memory), Bachelor Duke (Sakura Cluden) and St Reims (Balladane). Bachelor Duke’s progress is especially heartening; he seems to throw quality and is likely to be especially effective with our traditional staying-bred families. St Reims continues to sell quite well but I suspect that many breeeders fear that he will produce numbers of one-paced plodders, a fear which may well prove unfounded, in my opinion. It’s worth remembering that his sister, Champagne, had impressive acceleration. I haven’t seen many of the progeny of Mr Nancho but he certainly complements the physique and pedigree of All In Memory very well.
On the subject of the latter mare, her close relative All In Tempo won impressively again yesterday and her own daughter Apologize found another way to get beaten at the Riccarton meeting last week. Both horses appear to have the potential to become good stayers, with All In Tempo perhaps having a touch of class about him.
