The ten top-prices at the 2011 Emperor’s Palace Ready To Run Sale, held at the TBA complex last Sunday, were achieved by stock from sires standing abroad.
Top price of R1.5 million was for a Royal Academy colt, who’d been imported in utero from Australia early in 2009. His dam, who ran three times without success in UK, had been bought at the 2006 Tattersall sale for 20.000 guineas and was subsequently shipped down under. The colt, who was knocked own to Form Bloodstock, is her second foal.
Also from Australia was the second highest lot, a Rock Of Gibraltar colt who went for a million, and made a handsome return on his A$17.500 Melbourne Premier Sale purchase earlier this year. Form Bloodstock signed the slip.
Rock Of Gibraltar appears again as the sire of the joint-third top priced lot, a filly out of a 4-time winning US-bred mare, bought earlier this year for A$50k at the Melbourne Premier Sale. She went for R900k here, Geoff Woodruff the buyer. The other two joint-third lots were both fillies by former US Champion sire El Prado, shipped to South Africa from Argentina.
The next two highest lots (at R850k) were a Rock Of Gibraltar colt, bought earlier this year in Australia for A$40k, and a colt from the first crop of US-sire Street Sense, conceived in Australia and bought for A$35k as a weanling in 2010.
The R190k sale average was up from last year’s R150k average, but on a par with the 2009 average of R189k. Split by sex, the colts averaged R202k (vs 181k last year and 197k in 2009), while the filly-price recoved dramatically from last year’s dip – R176k, vs. 114k last year, and 183k in 2009 (Igugu’s year).
The Ready To Run sale’s average of R190k made it the third best sale in 2011, after the Cape Sale (410k) and the National Sale (244k).
Interestingly, median prices changed little. Overall median was up to 100k from 95k last year. Colts went to 110k from 100k last year.
The fillies, whose average seemed so pathetic last year, had a median price of 90k then – the same figure as this year! Median price seems is a better indicator of what happens than a straight average.
Interesting to note what happened to the selections of the experts at the gallops prior to the sale, where each had been allowed to pick three colts and three fillies. Sean Tarry got one of his filly-picks a Mullins Bay (#107) for 130k, Dean Kannemeyer one of his colts, by Kahal, for 100k (#184). The De Kock/Malherbe team (they are coupled on the Tote) clearly followed up on what they’d seen and voted for – or perhaps it was the euphoria of having picked the winner of the Ready To Run race two years in a row. They got the sale-topping Royal Academy (#35), the 900k Rock Of Gibraltar colt (#180), a Danehill Dancer filly for 800k (#17), and a Tiger Ridge colt for 500k (#143).
