Despite the ravages of the merciless Cape winter weather, the inaugural CRS Mixed Winter Sale at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth on the Youth Day public holiday on Friday produced satisfactory results with recent Hollywoodbets Durban July supplementary entry Trip Of Fortune’s dam topping the charts.
The sale incorporated the Mare & Weanling Sale, which was originally planned for 12 June, and the Cape Winter Yearling Sale into a varietal, prioritised one-day auction.
With heavy winter rains battering the fairest Cape, the Cape Racing Sales team leaned heavily on a busy Zoom platform to accommodate those who preferred to stay and it seems that the technology which was forced on us during covid-19 has proven a vital component of any sale.
Five-times graded stakes winner Trip Of Fortune’s late Hollywoodbets Durban July call-up earlier this week evoked plenty of surprise and it was his dam Louvre (Doowaley) who was the top-seller. Catalogued as lot 51, she sold in foal to What A Winter for R900 000 and was purchased by Philaris Ltd.
The top- priced yearling was Blue Ribbon Day (#72) a son of The United States out from the same family as current unbeaten two-year-old Lucky Lad. Jonathan Snaith paid R500 000 for the good-looking colt.
In the final summary, 162 of the originally catalogued 177 lots were offered, with 129 selling for an aggregate of R12 470 000 at an average of R96 667 and a media of R60 000.
Varsfontein topped the vendor averages with their 2 lots selling for R720 000 at an average of R360 000.
Many buyers bought just a single lot, but Jonathan Snaith acquired a quartet for R1 310 000 at an average of R327 500.
Racing Operations and Bloodstock Executive for Cape Racing, Justin Vermaak told the Sporting Post that the team was happy with the outcome, given the testing weather conditions.
“Mixing the yearlings and mares does distort the stats to a degree. Some of the mares, particularly the older ladies found it tough and brought the average down. On their own, the yearlings averaged about R105 000 which compares favourable with the Klawervlei Farm Sales’ R80 000 average of last year,” observed Vermaak.
When asked whether the unique Cape Racing Sales pinhooking programme had attracted interest, he said that it had.
“A couple of the buyers managed pinhooks, but interestingly other pinhookers found it a bit too expensive in instances – which is good news for the breeders and they were happy.”
The CRS Pinhooking Programme saw the introduction of a pinhooking ‘assistance’ incentive intended to help drive the June and October RTR sales.
The programme affords approved applicants the opportunity to get an authorised budget from CRS. This made it possible for the pinhookers to ‘purchase’ a horse/s on Friday, while only paying for them after selling at the RTR sale in October.
See all the Winter Mixed Sale prices here.
- Images by Troy Finch
