Daughter of Satono Aladdin Tops NZB Weanling Sale

Well-known New Zealand owner Gary Harding's investment in the Australasian foal market continued at New Zealand Bloodstock's National Weanling Sale June 20 with the acquisition of a NZ$170,000 (US$104,150, NZ$1=US$0.61) daughter of Satono Aladdin .

Coming just a week after Harding outlaid AU$525,000 for a weanling filly by Frankel   at the Inglis Great Southern Sale in Melbourne, the owner took home NZB's highest-priced lot at its one-day sale at the Karaka sales complex.

Offered by Brighthill Farm and cataloged as Lot 25, the sale-topping Satono Aladdin filly surpassed the NZ$150,000 price paid for last year's top-priced colt by Per Incanto . She also set a new record weanling price for Rich Hill Stud's high-flying shuttle stallion, surpassing the AU$145,000 price tag for a filly in Melbourne just last week.

Thursday's headline-grabbing filly is the second foal out of the Rip Van Winkle  mare Henley Road, who placed on the racetrack and is a half sister to the multiple group 1-winning Karaka weanling graduate Callsign Mav.

Bloodstock agent John Cameron withstood a spirited bidding battle to secure the filly, who will be retained by Harding to race in his familiar white and orange colors.

"She's a very nice filly. We also bought a weanling filly in Australia the previous week, so I thought we should pick out a mate for her from this sale as well," Harding said. "We had a good look at quite a few of the weanlings in this catalog, and she's the one that ticked the boxes for us. She's the one that we wanted.

"She's a lovely filly with a good walk and a bit of presence about her, and she's by a stallion that's doing a good job, so she has a bit going for her.

"We'll be keeping her and taking her through to race. Hopefully she'll come up well. Buying weanlings is a higher-risk venture than yearlings, so we'll just have to wait and see. But she was the one we particularly wanted today and I'm pleased that we've got her."

Brighthill Farm sold the sale-topping filly on behalf of Laura Day, who bought Henley Road for just NZ$1,850 on Gavelhouse.com.

A total of nine weanlings sold for NZ$100,000 or more at Karaka. NZB bloodstock sales manager Kane Jones said the sale mirrored what had occurred at the recent Australian weanling sales where buyers focused on quality lots. That market sentiment made clearing horses difficult, with 77 of the 133 offered finding new homes at a clearance rate of 58% compared to 70% in 2023. 

As a consequence of the smaller catalog and subdued trade, the aggregate of NZ$2,485,000 (US$1,522,423) was down almost 5% with the average of NZ$32,273 (US$19,772) up 40% and the median up 50% from NZ$12,000 to NZ$18,000 (US$11,028) year on year. 

"There's no shying away from the fact that it was pretty hard going in the middle and towards the lower end, but we saw spirited bidding and great results for those quality horses on offer," Jones told ANZ Bloodstock News.

"When a nice horse walked into the ring, so did everybody else and there were fireworks on those quality lots."