Morgan Carter is a familiar face around the Karaka sales complex and is most commonly seen with a gavel in his hand, but he made his mark in a different capacity on Thursday’s second day of the 2022 New Zealand Bloodstock Ready to Run Sale.

Carter operates a bloodstock management business alongside his auctioneering role, and he put in a winning bid of $520,000 for a Justify colt from the draft of Ohukia Lodge.

Catalogued as lot 249, the colt is out of the winning Foxwedge mare Santa Clara – a half-sister to multiple Group One-winning champion New Zealand two-year-old Anabandana. 

More than a dozen other stakes winners feature on the pedigree page, including the 2010 New Zealand 1000 Guineas (1600m) heroine King’s Rose, whose dam Nureyev’s Girl is a full-sister to the second dam.

“I can tell you right now, you feel nerves when you go up on to the rostrum as an auctioneer, and that’s one thing, but this is different,” Carter said. “I thought I was pretty relaxed right up until about two lots before the horse went through.

“I was a bit nervous, but it’s my first proper order from the Ready to Run Sale for Hong Kong, and now I’m really, really excited. 

“My day-to-day role is mainly private sales off the track, so I hadn’t really given much time to buying from the sales until now, just because of the other business and my auctioneering work taking up that time as well.

“But we wanted one decent horse from the Ready to Run Sale today, and that was it.”

Carter bought the colt for a regular client of his business, Hong Kong trainer Michael Chang, and hopes to continue a recent run of success the pair have enjoyed together.

“Over the years that I’ve been forging a business in Hong Kong, Michael and I have done a bit of business together,” Carter said. “I recently got him a horse called Ching, who just came out to run a huge second the other day at Sha Tin.”

By Frosted out of the Darci Brahma mare Darci Dancer, Ching was bred by the Llanhennock Trust and won two trials in January at Cambridge and Ellerslie before relocating to Hong Kong. Fifth on debut there in July of this year, the four-year-old sprouted wings from second-last to be beaten by a nose over 1400m on November 6.

Carter sees certain similarities in Thursday’s Ready to Run Sale purchase.

“He’s made in the same shape and size as Ching,” he said. “Hopefully we’ll see him go through the ranks in Hong Kong.

“I absolutely loved this horse. He’s tough and strong. He’s got everything going for him.

“He’s not perfect in front, but you look at the whole picture, and this is the sort of horse that’ll get you a Hong Kong Derby (2000m).”