One Week to Karaka 2008
21 January 2008
There's just one week to go until selling starts at the the first yearling sale in the southern hemisphere - the 82nd National Yearling Sales Series at Karaka.
A total of 1556 yearlings have been catalogued across the Premier, Select and Festival sessions of the week-long selling extravaganza.
With the catalogues the best ever assembled at Karaka, still they keep improving with this weekend's winners providing further boosts to the selection on offer.
A glorious run by star performer Xcellent (Pentire - Excelo) in the Group 3 $100,000 Trentham Stakes proved just how good this horse really is, with a runaway victory down the centre of the track.
Sadly it marked the end of an illustrious racing career for the champion who broke down after the race, but not before he reminded racegoers of his brilliance, and heaped interest on his full-brother at Lot 100 of next week's Premier Sale.
The six-year-old Karaka Select Sale graduate ($45,000 in 2003, by co-trainer Paul Moroney) is the winner of eight of his 13 career starts and returned his connections over $1.5m in prize money.
He was Mercedes NZ Horse Of The Year twice (2004/5 and 2005/6), plus Mercedes NZ Champion Three-Year-Old (2004/5) and Mercedes NZ Champion WFA Performer and Mercedes NZ Champion Stayer (2005/6).
A race earlier, in the $100,000 Group 3 Dominion Post Wellington Stakes, it was three-year-old O'Reilly colt Alamosa who trounced the field by two lengths to shine a spotlight on his Karaka sibling.
The second highest rated two-year-old last season, Alamosa has now won seven of his 15 starts - including the Group 1 ARC Diamond Stakes (1200m) - with a further five placings. The yearling colt at Lot 226 is by Waikato Stud sire No Excuse Needed, from Centaine mare Lodore Mystic.
Also a stakes winner on the day was Fiscal Madness (Volksraad - Belle Nuite) in the Listed ZM Anniversary Handicap (1600m). Coming off the back of his Group 2 win over champion Sir Slick on New Year's Day, the six-year-old gelding made it 12 wins and 13 placings from 40 starts. He is represented at Karaka by Lot 11, a half-brother by first season sire Savabeel.
Four other winners at Trentham on Saturday have half-siblings coming up at Karaka: Indian Wells (Lot 720, filly by High Chaparral), High Priest (Lot 1005, filly by Jungle Pocket), Captain Fantastic (Lot 930, filly by Johar), and Del Toro (Lot 890, colt by Ishiguru).
Selling at the Karaka Sales is set to kick off with the Premier Sale at 11am on Monday 28 January. Horses have already started arriving at Karaka, with all Premier Sale horses in place and ready for viewing from this Thursday.
This year the standout selection is bolstered by the presence of 47 yearlings by NZ champion sire Zabeel. With four Group 1 winners last season - Efficient, Fiumicino, Gallic and Vengeance of Rain - the sire is performing as well as he ever has and interest in his progeny is sure to be high.
Added to that, with Sir Patrick Hogan pledging his entire Cambridge Stud draft to Karaka this year, the line-up has mouth-watering appeal.
Marketing Manager Petrea Vela confirmed the positive impact this has already had on interest in the Sale.
"Cambridge Stud's draft this year makes up over 10% of our catalogue. To have such a prominent and successful breeding nursery as that forming the nucleus of our catalogue gives our entire Sale enormous strength. This year on top of that we have sires such as O'Reilly and Pins proving themselves to be world class, so this year's Sale looks certain to have the strongest selection of horses we have ever had to sell."
Cambridge Stud is conducting a full yearling parade open to the public at 1:30pm tomorrow (Tuesday 22 January) at Karaka.
This year over 60 sires are represented at Karaka, including an impressive selection of 17 first season sires: Al Maher, Bachelor Duke, Charge Forward, Elvstroem, Fastnet Rock, Footstepsinthesand, High Chaparral, Johar, King's Chapel, Niello, Not a Single Doubt, One Cool Cat, Refuse to Bend, Savabeel, Scaredee Cat, Shamardal and Tiger Hill.
This year's Sales week is launched with the running of the inaugural one million dollar incentive race for graduates of New Zealand Bloodstock's 2007 Sale. This will take place at Ellerslie Racecourse on Sunday evening, 27 January.