Momentum Carries Into Karaka for NZB Ready To Run Sale

A deep and quality catalog of around 370 2-year-olds are on the market for this year's New Zealand Bloodstock Ready To Run Sale, with the two-day auction beginning at the Karaka Sales Center Nov. 12. NZB bloodstock sales manager Kane Jones told ANZ News that he was delighted with the buyers on site ahead of the sale, which will attempt to continue its strong upward trajectory from recent years. "I think the record of the sale speaks for itself and you can see that in the number of people that are here and showing interest again this year, it just continues to go from strength to strength," he said. The sale concluded with an aggregate of NZ$38.59 million ($22.04 million, NZ$1=US$0.566) last year—a remarkable 10% increase on the 2023 record edition—and a clearance rate of 78%, while the average and record-equaling median were in line with the previous year. NZB also set a Southern Hemisphere record in 2024 when Te Akau Racing went to NZ$1.65 million for the I Am Invincible (AUS) colt out of group 1 winner Shillelagh, now named Hostility, who is already group 1-placed and one of a plethora of stakes-performing graduates across the last season, 12 of them winners with ten at group 1 level. Those include the likes of Australian Guineas (G1) winner Feroce (NZ), Doomben Cup (G1) winner Antino (NZ), and Stradbroke Handicap (G1) scorer War Machine (NZ)—while fellow graduates Gringotts (NZ) and Ceolwulf (NZ) were timely respective winners of the Big Dance and Champions Mile (G1) last week. Those horses continue a legacy of elite graduates of the sale, including Hong Kong superstars Lucky Sweynesse (Sweynesse) and Golden Sixty (Medaglia d'Oro). "The graduates out of the sale, Lucky Sweynesse and Golden Sixty up in Hong Kong, but more recently, right throughout Australia, we've had just remarkable results," Jones said. "We had Ceolwulf winning the Champions Mile on the weekend, that was beautiful timing heading into this week—a great example of the type of horse that you can buy out of this sale. "The last couple of years have been quite remarkable; we set all the records two years ago and didn't think we could replicate that last year, and it turns out we did, so it was even bigger last year. "We're certainly not resting on our laurels; we're all working hard. The whole team's working particularly hard to try to garner the best buying bench we possibly can and maintain the last few years. And look, to exceed the last few years would be a dream, but we're certainly trying to at least maintain the figures from the last few years." The top vendor at this sale by aggregate for all of the last seven years, Sam Beatson's Riversley Park looms as a major player again this week with a 39-strong draft after withdrawals set to go through the ring. In 2017 the operation sold ten-time group 1 star Golden Sixty for NZ$300,000 before he went on to break Hong Kong's all-time prize money record, earning HK$167 million (NZ$34 million) in 31 starts. The Beatsons also sold Ceolwulf at the 2022 sale, the now four-time group 1-winning miler being bought for NZ$170,000 by his trainer Joe Pride and part-owner Leighton Howl.