Perfecting the sales pitch after 30 years
ANY livestock sale is about buyers and breeders, but a once unlikely duo may just steal some of the spotlight this week.
When lot 514 walks out of the ring on Wednesday, following a marathon three days of selling at the PGG Wrightson Standardbred sales, Bruce Barlass and Peter Lagan will have completed three decades of service.
Around 150 lots will go under the hammer at the Australasian Classic Yearling Sale at Karaka on Monday with the remaining 364 yearlings passing through the ring at the New Zealand Premier Yearling Sales held at the Riding for the Disabled arena in Christchurch on Tuesday and Wednesday.
It’s been 30 years since Barlass, then a junior office clerk and Lagan, a young pedigree writer, came together to run the PGG Wrightson Standardbred division.
In their time at the helm, more than 20,000 horses have been catalogued and sold.
‘‘It wasn’t what either of us would have picked but it handed us an opportunity that we took and we’ve never changed in 30 years,’’ Barlass said.
Barlass had spent five years working at a stud farm and Lagan had raced and had hands-on experience in the harness industry.
‘‘We were both absolutely keen on the standardbreds,’’ Barlass said. The sales is always a busy time, in just three days, 90 per cent of the standardbred division’s annual turnover is generated, but Lagan said the pair had mastered the art of staying calm.
‘‘I honestly don’t think we’ve had an argument in 30 years, that’s not bad is it?’’
The glossy Sale of the Stars catalogue, lined with pictures of successful sales graduates, is a far cry from the late 1980s, as is the advertising billboards that line the walls of the sales arena at both Karaka and Christchurch.
The first sales were held at the now defunct Addington saleyards. The sales ring was indoors, but that is where the luxuries finished.
‘‘People wouldn’t put up with that nowadays,’’ Lagan quipped.
Changing to a computerised pedigree database system, that was eight years in the making, has revolutionised the process.
‘‘We used to hand write all the pedigrees, send them off to the typist and then Bruce and I would take a few home each night to proof read,’’ Lagan said.
Much as changed since those early days but some things have not.
Both Lagan and Barlass put the success of the operation down to integrity and honesty plus having an established company name behind them from day one.
So what yearling will bring the highest price in 2017?
Even with three decades of experience, Barlass and Lagan agree it is almost impossible to pick what lots will attract the highest bids.
Sure there are the obvious ones, which in recent times have been the Charlie Roberts breed, but it only takes two or three strong willed buyers to be keen on a horse and the price quickly escalates.
Rising breeding and land costs have made breeding a less affordable option for many smaller operators so buying at the sales is now a more attractive option.
‘‘People really like the yearling sales and the weanling sales because they can buy something that they can put their hand on,’’ Barlass said.