By Brian Sheerin
Graduates Knights Order (Ire) (So You Think {NZ}) and Zaaki (GB) (Leroidesanimaux {BRZ}) have amassed four wins at the highest level in Australia between themselves while Hong Kong Harry (Ire) (Es Que Love {Ire}) paid another compliment to the Autumn Horses in Training Sale at Newmarket by winning a Group 2 in America just last month.
That may go some way to explaining why buyers were braving the elements on a day made for ducks on the eve of this sale at Park Paddocks on Sunday.
The 85,000gns that Boomer Bloodstock paid for Hong Kong Harry 12 months ago is working out at a snip and leading bloodstock agent Caig Rounsefell is back in search of his next high class runner.
He said, “It's been a great sale for me down through the years. Hong Kong Harry has turned out to be a great buy and it looks like he's getting better and better. I enjoy this sale because you don't have to buy the best horse on offer, you just have to buy the one that is going to be best suited to the conditions where they are being bought for.
“If you can find those ones, say for California, they can really thrive and improve. It's always a bit of a treasure hunt. Watching lots of videos and checking the physicals and it's all packed into four days. It's good fun.”
Rounsefell added, “We do quite a bit of background work leading into this sale but I'm mainly looking at horses for California. Conformation is pretty critical when you're buying horses for California with the firm tracks and having to train on the dirt every day. I don't know why but, every year, the first day is always quiet for me and it looks that way again this year.”
Coolmore's High Definition (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) and Waterville (Ire) (Camelot {GB}), along with Group 3-winning juvenile Eddie's Boy (GB) (Havana Grey {GB}), are just a selection of the offerings that are expected to fetch quacking sums this week as the four-day sale kicks off on Monday morning at 9.30am.
After withdrawals, a total of 305 winners and winners in waiting will walk through the ring in the opening session, with George Boughey's Royal Ascot winner Inver Park (GB) (Pivotal {GB}) one of the highlights.
Another former graduate of the sale, Pied Piper (GB) (New Approach {Ire}), confirmed himself a possible Champion Hurdle contender when winning on his seasonal reappearance at Cheltenham in impressive fashion on Saturday and Gordon Elliott was in attendance at Newmarket on Sunday as he searched for the next star recruit to the jumping game.
Pied Piper, a Grade 2 winner over hurdles last season and now just 16-1 to win next year's Champion Hurdle, was knocked down to Joey Logan on behalf of Andrew and Gemma Brown of Caldwell Construction for 225,000gns 12 months ago.
Sydney Cup winner Knights Order was snapped up here by McKeever Bloodstock and Gai Waterhouse in 2018 for 250,000gns while Zaaki, the triple Group 1 winner down under, made 150,000gns to Blandford Bloodstock and Annabel Neasham two years ago.
It's the Aidan O'Brien-trained 2020 G2 Beresford S. winner and this year's narrow G1 Tattersalls Gold Cup runner-up High Definition [lot 754A] and Irish Cesarewtich scorer and potential Cup horse Waterville [275 ] who are expected to take highest rank this week.
Both horses are just the types to drive foreign interest, of which there was a strong presence on Sunday, particularly with Middle Eastern buyers out in force. All told, a whopping 1,189 horses will go through the ring at Tattersalls this week.
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