A quality offering at next Thursday’s National Weanling Sale“We’ve staged parades at farms around the North Island and the three days I attended last week in the Auckland/Waikato area gave an excellent insight to the quality that will go through the Karaka ring.”
New Zealand Bloodstock’s annual National Weanling Sale is well recognised as a source of genuine pinhooking opportunity and quality racehorses, and next Thursday’s 2024 edition offers a catalogue with the depth to live up to that reputation.
Stallions represented in the 150-strong offering include the well proven Savabeel, Proisir, Per Incanto, Satono Aladdin, Sweynesse, Darci Brahma, Reliable Man, Ocean Park and Shocking, along with emerging sires such as Almanzor, Super Seth, Ardrossan, Ribchester and U S Navy Flag, while the catalogue also features first-crop progeny of Armory, Noverre, Sword Of State and The Chosen One.
“Stallion quality is as strong as it’s ever been for this sale,” New Zealand Bloodstock’s sales manager Kane Jones commented. “This year’s catalogue is well represented by good commercial, proven sires as well as those younger horses beginning to make their name and the new draft of freshman sires.
“There’s plenty of depth as well on the pedigree pages and no doubt there will be some great pinhooking opportunities as well as those weanlings to suit buyers intending to develop them longer term for racing and trading.
“We’ve staged parades at farms around the North Island and the three days I attended last week in the Auckland/Waikato area gave an excellent insight to the quality that will go through the Karaka ring.”
Jones is well aware of the additional incentives that have made investment in young bloodstock so attractive, in particular that all weanlings on offer at next week’s sale will be eligible for the Karaka Millions Series as well as the recently announced Mega Maiden Series (see Page 9).
“The Karaka Millions Series has gone from strength to strength and it’s great to think you can invest in a weanling now with the bonus of being eligible for the series. With all that’s happened from the time the Karaka Million races were conceived through to the major boosts we’ve seen more recently, there really is no better time to invest in our future racehorses.”
Amongst those putting the finishing touches to their 2024 weanling draft is Curraghmore’s Gordon Cunningham, who will offer 11 lots, all of them colts.
“This is a draft that collectively and without exception will stand scrutiny for next January,” Cunnigham told RaceForm. “I’ve got complete confidence that they can all go forward to become viable pinhookers.”
The Curraghmore draft includes a colt by Savabeel from the unraced Medaglia d’Oro mare Miss Maya, whose dam Silently, a Listed winner in Sydney, is a half-sister by Anabaa to the outstanding gallopers Criterion, Comin’ Through and Varenna Miss.
Early in the same draft, leading freshman sire Super Seth is represented by a close relation to high-profile Curraghmore graduate First Seal, who downed the subsequently unbeatable Winx in her Gr. 1 Flight Stakes win.
First-crop sire Sword Of State has three lots, including a colt from the stakes-placed Per Incanto mare Bella Court, indicating the faith that Curraghmore and clients have placed in the Group One-winning son of Snitzel.
Other first-season sires represented in the draft include Savabeel’s Group One-winning son Noverre with a colt out of the leading three-year-old filly Alagant Satin, and star European gallopers Circus Maximus and St Mark’s Basilica with one lot apiece.
Proven sires Proisir and Contributor are also in the Curraghmore line-up, the former from the illustrious family of Yorkshire Oaks winner Helenic and the latter a three-quarter-brother to Randwick Guineas winner Lion’s Roar.
Other National Weanling Sale drafts worthy of mention in this brief overview include Brighthill Farm and Highline Thoroughbreds. Brighthill’s 14-strong offering contains colts by Ardrossan, Satono Aladdin, Sweynesse, and Sword Of State, along with fillies by Proisir and Sweynesse the latter a close relation of notable Karaka weanling graduate Callsign Mav.
The Highline draft of 11 includes a filly by Proisir, and both colts and fillies by Satono Aladdin, Noverre and Sword Of State. Lot 70, the Satono Aladdin colt from the O’Reilly mare Penny Whistle, is a half-brother to the Listed Oaks Prelude winner She’s A Treasure as well as being closely related to the major winners Mo’unga, Chenille and Chintz.
Gordon Cunningham speaks for all vendors when he describes the advances the National Weanling Sales has made as a reputable source of future stars.
“From barn to barn, this sale over the years has stood the test of time as a producer of good racehorses,” he says.
“In yesteryear we might have approached the sale as a means of maintaining the 12-month trade cycle for ourselves and our clients, but much like New Zealand Bloodstock’s Ready to Run Sale, it has evolved into a specific market that can stand on its reputation.”
