Incredible’ National Yearling Sale defies a limp economy

It was one of the best thoroughbred horse sales in South Africa – if not THE best – in many a long year.

That’s what Alistair Gordon, former trainer and now Bloodstock SA official, had to say about the 2022 National Yearling Sale this past weekend.

Along with other industries, racehorse breeding was badly hit by the pandemic, but statistics from the country’s premier sale of young horses this year tell a story of professionalism and resilience in the face of adversity – “bouncebackability”.

The sale’s total turnover was R136.75-million, just R3-million off the sale’s recent peak in 2019 – when 80 more horses were auctioned and which was before anyone had heard the word “Covid” and “lockdown” was strictly for games of Scrabble.

The NYS aggregate was nearly 30% up on 2021 and nearly40% on 2020, when the whole thing was done on computer screens and most people were preoccupied with being killed by the plague.

The 2022 median price on 382 yearlings sold was R250,000, a 25% rise on last year; while the average price of just below R358,000 was a 30% jump. The clearance rate was 90%, indicative of a very strong buying appetite – despite a feeble national economy and a febrile racing scene.

“It was an incredible sale, really,” says Gordon. “And not only on the stats side. The quality of yearlings in the draft was very high and was commented on many people who’ve been around horses for a long time.

“Jane Thomas and go around the country’s stud farms to do selecting for the sale and we thought it was an outstanding crop of yearlings, on both pedigree and confirmation. And the individuals that pitched up at the sales ring in Germiston certainly matched up to our expectations,” says Gordon.

The top price paid – R3.3-million for a colt by champion sire Silvano – was a long way off the national record of R9-million achieved in the heady days before Jacob Zuma got busy. However, Gordon points out that is no reflection on the actual quality of the youngster or his siblings.

Also, the horseflesh excellence this year was spread more evenly across the entire catalogue – which is what both breeders and buyers want.

The top lot, named Forest God, was consigned by Varsfontein Stud and bought by agents Form Bloodstock. He is a half-brother to three winners including Listed race winner Amy Johnson, being out of the Jet Master-sired Oaks Trial victress Touch The Sky. The latter is a half-sister to five graded stakes winners, notably Equus Champions Bela-Bela and Rabiya.

A total of 21 yearlings went for more than a million rand, with another four fetching R900,000.

The top-priced filly was an unnamed Vercingetorix filly consigned by Klawervlei Stud. A daughter of erstwhile champion sire Captain Al’s Grade 3 Sycamore Sprint winner Myfunnyvalentine, and from the immediate family of champion fillies Consensual and Just Sensual, the filly was knocked down to Vermaak Equine for R1.4-million.

Varsfontein ended the NYS as leading vendors by aggregate, selling 24 of their 25 yearlings offered for a gross total of R17.53-million.

Form Bloodstock were the leading buyers, aheadof Vermaak Equine, John Freeman and Greg Bortz. Form signed for 34 yearlings for a total of R22.61-million, with seven lots over a million.

While Silvano and his son Vercingetorix both enjoyed excellent results, it was South Africa’s reigning champion Gimmethegreenlight who headed the sires list by aggregate. His 37 lots sold for a total of R26.02-million, with an amazing average of  R703,243.

Vercingetorix, champion sire in-waiting for the current season, had an excellent sale with 41 yearlings fetching R25.555-million. His top lot sold was a R3-million colt named Celtic Chief who was knocked down to Sabine Plattner.

Gordon says an eminent racing man commented to him during the sale: “If we could only get the rest of the racing industry to work as well as the this, we’d be home and dry!”

All the statistics and prices for the 2022 National Yearling Sale can be viewed online at www.bsa.co.za.