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Seabrook 'cautiously optimistic’ ahead of Karaka two-year-old auction
The New Zealand Bloodstock Ready To Run Sale Of Two-year-Olds gets underway at Karka on Wednesday and, despite the difficulties surrounding the coronavirus pandemic, managing director Andrew Seabrook is feeling ‘cautiously optimistic’ ahead of the auction.
There is no doubting the success of the two-year-old sale, with the graduates of the sale having claimed 20 Group 1 accolades and 135 stakes wins in the last six seasons.
The roll of honour is an impressive one, with multiple Group 1 winner Beat The Clock (Hinchinbrook), Te Akau Shark (Rip Van Winkle), who won the Chipping Norton Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) and Waikato Sprint (Gr 1, 1400m), multiple top-flight winners Mongolian Khan (Holy Roman Emperor) and Turn Me Loose (Iffraaj) among the star graduates of the sale.
With overseas travel restrictions still in place in New Zealand, there is no doubt this year’s auction will have a very different atmosphere, with no foreign buyers, trainers or agents able to attend the two-day event because of COVID restrictions on travel.
However, despite the demanding situation, the auction house has worked tirelessly to ensure the people unable to get to the complex will still be able to get their names on the buyers list.
Wednesday signals the dawning of a brand new era for New Zealand Bloodstock as they will launch their new online bidding facility which will be used for the first time at a Karaka sale and Seabrook told Racing & Sports Bloodstock he was confident the buyers will be impressed with the new platform.
“We have built our own in-house platform, so it is a bespoke platform which is very user friendly and I think buyers are going to be very happy with it when they see it,” said Seabrook.
“The registrations are good and we have been pleasantly surprised with the number of overseas registrations, particularly for the online bidding, which will be the first time we have used that platform for a sale here at Karaka.
“I guess you could say we are cautiously optimistic.
“We have been in the digital space for quite a few years with Gavelhouse, which has always gone well. But how the online bidding at all the sales has gone round the world this year, certainly gives us confidence going forward.”
With the fewer people able to make it on to the complex, it has meant vendors have had to explore alternative avenues to reach potential buyers and Seabrook was ebullient in his praise for how the farms have embraced new technology to make buying a horse from afar as easy as possible.
“The vendors seem fairly happy with how things are progressing and they are reporting good interest, but it is still a big unknown,” said Seabrook.
“Our vendors are always great at preparing horses for this sale, but this year they have really stepped up to the plate this year with the extra mileage they have gone to in terms of producing videos, vet reports, heights and weights and all that sort of valuable information and that certainly is going to help make it the most transparent sale we have ever had.
“The New Zealand Bloodstock Agents Federation has been very active and looking at horses and getting engaged with vendors and other agents around the world, which has been great.
“Also, our own bloodstock agents we have here have been busy receiving calls, so that’s been good, everyone is pulling in the same direction.”
Despite this being one of the most difficult years the industry has ever faced, Seabrook said it has brought all global sales forward in terms of the information provided on every horse.
“What COVID has done is brought forward how you get all that information, with the increased transparency and having it available online,” said Seabrook.
“Selling horses online is just going to get bigger and I think that is great. The more information that can be available to buyers before they buy a horse can only be a good thing and I think we will see more of it in the future.”
The two-day sale begins at 1pm (NZT).
