Yearling sale makes a huge jump
If you had offered the Bloodstock SA team a 10% increase in aggregate ahead of last week’s National Yearling Sale in Germiston, it would have snapped your hand off. The outcome was even better, with an aggregate of R140.2m representing a 25% increase on 2017.
“A triumph for the industry as a whole, the sale was a resounding success,” said Bloodstock SA’s Gary Grant after the hammer came down on the last of the 526 lots.
Grant said last week he believed buyers had “kept their powder dry” for the three-day annual sale. And so it proved. Turnover was the highest since 2010 and there was a record price when Form Bloodstock bid R5.2m for a son of Dynasty.
A son of Captain Al — responsible for four of the top six lots sold — made R4.75m on the first session, with Form Bloodstock also the buyer for a Captain Al colt from Mauritzfontein who will join the stable of Dean Kannemeyer.
Commenting on the top yearling, Track Attack, Kannemeyer said: “Breeders Varsfontein Stud produce champions every year and the quality is there for the world to see. He’s another terrific yearling who ticked all the right boxes.”
Track Attack is the seventh produce of the mare Little Indian and is a half-brother to the 2014 Equus Champion Older Male, Yorker, who won three grade 1 races. His purchase contributed to Form Bloodstock emerging as the top buyer with its final tally being 37 yearlings acquired for customers for R22m. Mauritzfontein was the leading vendor with its draft grossing R13.6m.
In the sires department, deceased former champion Captain Al reigned supreme with 15 of his progeny grossing R21.6m. One of his daughters, Cousin Liz, was the top filly on the sale with this well-related yearling from Riverton Stud being knocked down to Kerry Jack Bloodstock for R2.9m.
Turffontein hosts an eightrace programme on Tuesday and one of Captain Al’s sons, Ghost Rider, will be one of the leading fancies in the first leg of the jackpot. The progeny of Querari were popular at last week’s sale and one of his sons, Money Matters, the mount of Piere Strydom, could be the right horse to couple in the swinger with Ghost Rider.
Ormond Ferraris, who saddled a double at the Vaal last Tuesday, also runs a son of Querari in the fifth race. The four-year-old has been knocking on the door for his fourth win. However, Ferraris’s runner could be fully extended by Lucky Houdalakis’s Australian import Huyssteen.
Earlier in the meeting, the
small stable of Johan van Eck could strike with three-year-old filly Our Biscuit. The daughter of Warm White Night will have most to fear from the consistent Diva Faustina.