Frankel colt fetches R4-m

AVERAGE DOWN: THE AVERAGE PRICE AT THE CTS PREMIER YEARLING SALE DROPS 25.68%

John Freeman was the leading buyer at time of going to press.

There was a general sense of satisfaction from both vendors and buyers at 2018 Cape Premier Sale which took place this weekend at the Cape Town Convention Centre.

With this being the first sale at which the CTS’ biggest customer, Mayfair Speculators, would not be bidding, many people did not know what to expect. However, there were still – at the time of writing – 15 horses sold for R1 million or more.

Top price of R4 million was paid by John Freeman for an unnamed son of superstar Frankel (Lot 94).

There was also once again good support for progeny of Silvano, Dynasty and Captain Al, who died last year.

What has dropped so far is the average price.

That was R699,211 last year and this year it was R519,656, which equates to a dip of around 25.68%.

Perhaps trainer Mike Azzie said it best.

“There was some outstanding stock on this sale and good horses went for big prices. The rest of the prices were lower but that’s the way it should be.”

Four lots were sold for R3 million. Lot 59 was an unnamed son of Silvano bought by Maine Chance Farms owner Andreas Jacobs, while Lot 86 was a Dynasty colt out of One Fine Day named Pinkerton, who was knocked down to John Ferguson.

The third R3-million buy was a son of Captain Al, who went also went to Freeman.

Patrick Shaw, who trained in Singapore for a number of years, laid out R3 million for a daughter of Frankel (Lot 172) yesterday.

There was another daughter of Frankel, sold on Saturday night. She looked a tiny thing but still went for R1.5 million.

At time of going to press Freeman was the biggest buyer, spending R13,775,000 on 10 lots while the next largest buyer was the Hong Kong Jockey Club, which purchased four horses for a total of R6.1 million.

They spent R2.5 million on a son of Dynasty out of Happy Archer, who was trained by Sean Tarry.

They also bought Happy Hour, a colt by Silvano, for R1.1 million, I Am The Secret, who is by Captain Al out of Secret Of Victoria, for R1.8 million and Baltic Mission, a Captain Al colt out of Baltic Beauty, for R700,000.