New Zealand Bloodstock’s 2019 Karaka May Sale is set to showcase stallions at opposite ends of their careers.

 

Condensed into a single day of selling, this year’s mixed bloodstock sale will be held at Karaka on Friday.

 

On one hand, the 240-lot catalogue features first-crop weanlings by 11 new entrants to New Zealand’s stallion ranks.

 

There are eight weanlings by Haunui Farm’s Gr.1 Dewhurst Stakes (1400m) and Lockinge Stakes (1600m) winner Belardo. Four-time Group One winner Preferment, who stands at Brighthill Farm, will be represented by the same number.

 

Waikato Stud stallion Tivaci, who ended his career on a high with a Group One win in the All Aged Stakes (1400m), has five weanlings in the catalogue. So do Westbury Stud’s Gr.1 ATC Sires’ Produce Stakes (1400m) placegetter Telperion and the French Group One-winning Rich Hill Stud shuttler Vadamos.

 

Multiple Group One-winning miler Turn Me Loose, who stands at Windsor Park Stud, and Westbury’s Gr.1 Victoria Derby (2500m) winner Tarzino each have four first-crop weanlings in the catalogue.

 

Mapperley Stud’s Puccini is the sire of two weanlings in the May Sale, as does Highview Stud’s Group One-winning stallion Wrote, while the Windsor Park pair of Rageese and Vanbrugh have one each. There is also one weanling by the Australian sire Flying Artie, a brilliant winner of the Gr.1 Coolmore Stud Stakes (1200m).

 

At the other end of the spectrum, there are the final crops of stallions who have either died or ceased shuttling to this part of the world.

 

Showcasing made a huge impression in eight seasons shuttling to Haunui Farm, and a large hole was left in New Zealand’s stallion ranks when Whitsbury Manor kept him permanently in the northern hemisphere following the 2017 southern hemisphere spring.

 

The scale of that loss has been vividly illustrated by an incredible 12 individual two-year-old winners in New Zealand this season. That tally is a modern-day record.

 

The May Sale catalogue features six weanlings from Showcasing’s final New Zealand crop.

 

Another major loss from Kiwi stallion ranks has been Waikato Stud stalwart Pins, who died in April of last year. His progeny have excelled since then, 10 of them winning at black-type level including the Multiple Group One winner Madison County, Group Two winners Pinmedown and Emily Margaret, and Group Three winners Princess Kereru, Purple Sector and Residential. The May sale features one weanling from Pins’ final crop, plus five mares.

 

Pentire was another sad loss during the 2017-18 season. Rich Hill Stud’s foundation stallion produced star performers over a range of distances, from 10-time Group One-winning sprinter-miler Mufhasa to brilliant middle-distance horse Xcellent, all the way up to Gr.1 Melbourne Cup (3200m) winner Prince Of Penzance.

 

Two Pentire mares feature in the catalogue, along with two by the recently deceased Australian champion Redoute’s Choice.

 

In a varied group of vendors, Haunui Farm and Brighthill Farm will present the largest offerings of 27 and 26 horses respectively.

 

Graduates of this sale have enjoyed remarkable racetrack success in recent seasons. Triple Group One-winning cult hero Gingernuts cost just $5,000 as a weanling in 2014, while other black-type stars to come out of the sale include Group One winners I Am A Star, Ladies First, and Yourdeel, who completed New Zealand’s juvenile Group One double this season in the Sistema Stakes (1200m) and Manawatu Sires’ Produce Stakes (1400m).