Every metric rises sharply at National Yearling Sale
Garrick Knight - Raceform • February 21st, 2025 2:30 PM
The 2025 National Standardbred Yearling Sale concluded on Tuesday, and, in pleasing news, growth was recorded in every key metric.
After a 130-lot opening session catalogue had broken records at Karaka last Sunday, the second session held in Christchurch underwent a format change this year with 57 less lots going through the ring across one single day.
In spite of that, the aggregate was only a few hundred thousand less at $7,343,000 for 139 lots and the average up 17.2% to $52,287.
The median ($32,000), clearance rate (74%) and number of six-figure lots (19) were all improvements.
The top price was $270,000 paid by Cran and Chrissie Dalgety’s Kentuckiana Lodge for a Bettor’s Delight colt from the nine-time winner and successful producer Imagine Me, herself a daughter of the wonderful influence Scuse Me.
The Dalgetys were in a spending mood, taking eight home with a total spend of $823,000, behind only Stonewall Stud ($895,000 across 12 lots).
“He just looked so much like Krug, almost a replica,” noted Cran Dalgety on his sale-topping purchase, referencing the stable’s recently-retired Group One winner and now sire.
“The Scuse Me blood is the most electric bloodline in the industry at the moment.”
Captaintreacherous reaffirmed his position as the new king of the sale-ring Down Under by easily topping the Christchurch sale on average at a whopping $134,167 across 21 lots.
The leading first-season sire was King Of Swing, who had all six of his lots sell for an average of $51,250.
Three days earlier, champagne corks were popping at Karaka as the sale kicked off in brilliant fashion.
Two recording-breaking $360,000 lots sold just minutes apart to Stonewall Stud – both by Captaintreacherous and out of the champion mares Adore Me from Woodlands Stud and Bettor Twist offered by Breckon Farms.
Every metric was also well up at Karaka in what numbers-wise was a comparable sale to last year, with three more lots offered (125) for eight more sold (91).
The clearance rate was up from 68 to 73%, the average up a huge 24.7% to $62,742 and the aggregate up 22% to $5,709,500.
The number of six-figure lots doubled to 18, including an Australian-bred trotter by French stallion Face Time Bourbon that sold for $240,000 to Barry Purdon and Scott Phelan.
Stonewall Stud were again the leading buyer at Karaka, spending $1,097,000 on six lots, underpinned by the two record-setting colts.
Captaintreacherous’s numbers were even better at Karaka, averaging an eye-watering $160,833 across nine sales for easily the best aggregate too.
French trotting sire Bold Eagle had his first crop sell exceptionally well, 11 lots making a total of $645,000 across both sales for an average of $58,636.
NZ Bloodstock’s Standardbred Manager Cam Bray was understandably thrilled with the results.
“It’s been a great sale,” he said. “I didn’t think we’d be able to do that, but it just shows the positivity in the industry at the moment.
“It’s been a great week for our industry and very pleasing for our breeders, who have been rewarded.”
Bray felt shifting to a one-day sale in Christchurch with less horses perhaps meant the “balance of power had shifted – from a buyers’ market to a sellers’ market”.
Picture at the Top of the Page: Lot 70, Woodlands Stud’s colt by Captaintreacherous from champion pacer Adore Me, one of two colts sold for a record $360,000 to Stonewall Stud at Karaka last weekend. Photo: Supplied
