Shopping In New Zealand

I'll probably have a more detailed look at the NZ yearling sales in a later post but although you must deduct a percentage from the sales figures for the usual "bullshit factor" the sales were healthy to say the least.

It's been going on since the dawn of time but the yearling sales figures proudly broadcast afterwards in the PR releases are exaggerations of where the true market is at. You have to make allowance for the retained percentages, buy-backs, sold-but-not-solds, some blatantly manufactured prices and all the customary smoke-and-mirrors which go on.

My shopping over there, with a modest budget as the sale unfolded, was confined to finding two potential middle distance colts. Eventually heading to a Melbourne stable is Lot 190, High Chaparral-Kaapentyne, by Kaapstad (NZ$260,000; his half-sister won a stakes earlier this week) whilst destined for Sydney is Lot 625, Golan-Double Owe, by Oregon (NZ$60,000). Don't expect to see either of these before they turn three.

It's now two years since I left behind the heady Waterhouse days when we not only bought a pile of good ones but for a variety of reasons also didn't buy a number we had clearly identified as superior. You never forget those! Since then, as a freelancer, I've bought only a small number of yearlings because I only have a small number of clients, which is the way I prefer it. My service to some clients is purely advisory rather than standing in the bidding for them. One such client spent $1.7 million on two 'approved' yearlings in 2007 (now 2YOs).

The oldest purchases are three-year-olds whose careers in the main have been stalled by the EI outbreak. Two who have recently got back to the track are Gently Bentley (Flying Spur-Tambara, by Thunder Gulch - Magic Millions 2006) and Scouting Wide (Zabeel-Gardd, by Sheikh Albadou - Karaka 2006) who should have won on debut at Randwick yesterday.

I also selected for a Melbourne client the Snowland filly Absolut Glam ($150,000 Magic Millions 2006), a smart filly which won first-up in black-type company in Melbourne in late January. To relate here the story of why the client is not racing that filly today would probably put me in jeopardy of the libel laws, but suffice to say she is not, nor has she bought a horse since.

I've had a fairly ordinary run so far with a group of fillies I bought, but those I have been underbidder on have done great!! I need a bit of luck, like in 1986 when I purchased future topline racemare Courtalista for just NZ$5,500, or I need Patinack Farm Mk II.

Anybody else do any shopping at Karaka?