Thoroughbreds go for a song at dispersal sale

Scott Bros expected they would be in for a hard time at their dispersal sale in Nottingham Road on Tuesday, but perhaps not quite to the extent it happened.

In what can be described as an “almost free for all”, buyers smiled as dozens of thoroughbreds sold for R5,000 or less.

The outgoing veteran breeders stuck to their promise, selling without reserve, and yielded a turnover of R1.31m for 102 lots sold from the 145-strong catalogue presented.

The average price per lot was R12,891 — last seen at horse auctions in the 1970s — and Robin Scott remarked: “In our 50 years as breeders we’ve seen down cycles like these come and go, but this time things are bad. It’s linked to the economic climate, but history promises we’ll see good times again.”

There were a few highlights. The top seller was the mare Sahara, who is in foal to Clifton Stud stallion Crusade. Sahara’s previous foals include the smart grade 1 performer Matador Man. She was knocked down to Gary and Colleen de Klerk’s Summerview Stud for R170,000.

The family was in demand, with Sahara’s unnamed weanling filly, a full-sister to Matador Man (Toreador), selling to

Robinson Racing for R125,000. A weanling, Mogok, half-sister to Talktothestars was knocked down to Coenie de Beer for just R80,000.

There are two more sales in the next few weeks: Central Route Tradings’ mixed sale of horses in training on July 26 at Durbanville and Bloodstock SA’s big national two-year-old sale on August 16.

The best bet of the day at Thursday’s meeting at the Vaal is Randall Simons’s mount, Glamorous Scandal, who will contest race 8 over 1,800m. She has a good draw and all the makings of an exotic banker.