Mixed Messages
Even though I’ve never had the finances to buy at the yearling sales, I have to admit that watching the live stream became rather addictive earlier this week. The results were a bit odd, with the Auckland sale going gangbusters, the trotter’s day was, to say the least, flat, the pacers first day bounced back, and the last day plateaued. Given the state of the game and the nation, the result was better than many had expected.
The worrying sign to me was, when a cheaper horse came into the ring, the auctioneers almost inevitably asked ‘where are the speculators?’ And there we have a bit of a problem – there were very few. The big hitters bought the top lots which is great for some of the vendors, but after that the buyers were few and far between.
While there was much euphoria after the Karaka Sale, the following day the Auckland Trotting Club attracted about 70 entries for their meeting the following Friday, resulting in 7 races, three of which are trot events. The interesting point to me is that the pacing races include just 9 horses older than four years old. I have had personal experience in the past of the mentality of the Club, considering themselves too elite to worry about catering for any horses that are not considered elite, regardless of how that affects turnovers. I have no doubt that such attitudes have contributed to the financial mire that they find themselves in. Incidentally, that attitude was in force long before there were any plans for apartments, and is now coming back to bite them seriously.
A couple of years ago, they launched an initiative to attract lower grade horses to a Winter series at Alexandra Park which was surprisingly successful. Sadly, for some reason it was short lived.
Pete Cook