While it was off the highs of the past two years, Sunday’s BSA Emperors Palace Ready To Run Sale stood up well given the present economic climate and the inevitable toxic fallout from recent stakes cuts.
The Springboks’ thrilling World Cup victory 24 hours earlier certainly buoyed the vibe and ensured that most present were smiling.
A handsome Futura colt, named Castle On The Hill, fetched more than double the second highest priced lot when the hammer fell at R1,3 million to the bid of EIB.
Topseller Castle On The Hill (Pic – Candiese Marnewick)
Mark Greene of Ndoro Stud bred Castle On The Hill. The colt is from the first crop produced on their farm at Agter-Groenberg in Wellington – near the old Arc En Ciel.
The topseller’s sire Futura is often regarded as the best son of Dynasty.
He was trained first by Brett Crawford and then by Justin Snaith, and won nine of only 18 outings while banking an impressive total of R4 337 575.The versatile star, who won from 1200-2000m, collected four Gr1 wins during his career, winning all of the Gr1 J&B Met, Gr1 L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate and back to back runnings of the Gr1 Champions Cup.
He lifted three Equus Awards in 2014/15, when he was named South Africa’s Horse Of The Year, Champion Older Horse and Champion Middle Distance Horse.
Catalogued as #91, the 2yo half-brother to two winners is closely inbred to Western Winter and is out of an own sister to Gr2 performer Full Mast. His dam is also a half-sister to stakes winner Grandalea, from the family of champion racehorse and rising young sire, Capetown Noir(Western Winter).
Interestingly, he was catalogued as # 463 at the 2019 National Sale – was unsold there with a listed reserve price of R75 000.
The sale aggregate, with 24 more lots sold this year was R14 350 000 – down 12,5% on last year’s R16 675 000.
112 of the 145 catalogued lots were sold on Sunday at an average of R128 125 (down 32% year on year) and a median of R80 000 (down 38,5% year on year).
Boosted by his top lot, Drakenstein stallion Futura, selling his second crop, topped the sires averages and aggregate with 3 of his 4 lots selling for a gross R1 610 000 at an average of R536 667.
Top purchaser on aggregate was EIB whose 5 lots cost R1 565 000 at an average of R313 000.
Summerhill sold 40 of 57 catalogued lots for an aggregate of R3 755 000 at an average of R93 875.
