Cape Winter sale yields a warm set of results

Vendors and buyers were warmly hosted while icy cold weather persisted at Friday’s Cape Racing Winter and Mixed Sale at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth. Their enthusiasm reflected in some spirited bidding at the calls of auctioneers Andrew Miller and Tom Hodgson.

The Sale’s R12,47-million aggregate was nicely spread among a variety of buyers for its impressive offering of yearlings, weanlings and broodmares. They included Jono Snaith, who topped the buyers list with R1,31-million for four Lots including Louvre (Doowaley), the dam of G1 winner Trip Of Fortune, acquired for an international client.

Snaith also bought Lot 72 Blue Ribbon Bay, a colt by the United States, for R500,000 and Lot 168, a Gimmethegreenlight colt out of the well-performed Sabina Park, for R450,000.

Said Snaith: “This sale showed a resurgence in the buyers bench. I saw a few old faces coming from the woodwork. It was encouraging and I believe the interest was revived as a result of Cape Racing’s latest incentives. The venue was beautifully renovated, the atmosphere was good and we enjoyed ourselves. This is the way of the future for bloodstock auction sales, and Cape Town remains the ideal city to host them.”

Anton Shepherd of Beaumont Stud shared Snaith’s views and said: “I was massively surprised by the turnout considering the timing of the Sale, which showed that Cape Racing delivered what buyers wanted. We are truly pleased with the way it was organised and with our results achieved.” Beaumont sold seven lots for R870,000, averaging R124,286 per lot. They included a R180,000 VAR filly (Lot 19) purchased by trainer Paul Reeves. Greg Ennion, Paddy Kruyer and Eric Sands were others active in bidding on selected lots.

There was a lot of interest in Lot 110, Ntinga, a Dynasty broodmare from the potent Viva Maria family, sold for R500,000 in foal to Rafeef, and secured for Boland Stud by Eugene Freeman.

A good number of mares were snapped up below value. Katerina Riley of Gauteng’s Heversham Park, who secured six mares and two weanlings for just R120,000, commented: “We got more or less exactly what we came for, including mares by Trippi and Jet Master. We are very excited as we have been planning to boost our broodmare band for our new resident stallion, Capetown Noir, also for Jackson and Moofeed. This was a lovely sale with wonderful hospitality.”

Justin Vermaak, Racing and Bloodstock Executive for Cape Racing, commented: “Yearlings at the sale average R105,000 with an R80,000 median, up on last year’s average of around R80,000. Things were obviously tougher on the mare side which brought the overall average down to under R100,000, but vendors and buyers achieved satisfactory outcomes.”

In overview, 129 lots of 169 offered were sold at an average of R96,667, with a median of R60,000.

Vermaak concluded: “We’re committed to make the sales experience even better and we look forward to our next auction, the Ready To Run and Unbroken and Horses-In-Training Sale on Sunday, 22 October, at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth.