YEARLING LOTTERY

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 99, 21 January 1935, Page 13

YEARLING LOTTERY

Thoroughbred Youngsters on Parade NINTH NATIONAL SALE (By “The Watcher.”) The yearling colts and fillies from the breeding establishments of the Dominion were paraded at Trentham yesterday afternoon and they attracted a very large attendance of the sporting fraternity ami the general public. This year marks the ninth National sale at Trentliam and witli each year there is increasing interest in the j oung thoroughbred stock bred and nourished on the famous New Zealand pastures. By no surer medium does the fame of a country spread abroad than by its leading racehorses. The world-famous Phar Lap was sold under the hammer at Trentham as a yearling, and each year buyers eagerly seek another mighty horse from among the offerings from our leading studs. Horse breeding is one of the Dominion’s important industries, and the success that has attended our horses in other parts of the world has attracted widespread attention, in recent months horses, bred here have been sold to as widely separated parks of the globe as America. Africa, India and England, and al! at substantial prices. Australia is our greatest and most valuable customer, aud it has now become an established fact that the Commonwealth patrons, with their greater buying capacity and wider scope for winning big money, take the pick of the catalogue. But this does not necessarialy mean that New Zealand buyers are left with the “scrubbers.” There is no royal road to wealth on the turf and this applies particularly to the breeding side, and tlie purchase of a yearling. Many a high priced aud fancied yearling turns out a failure, while a comparatively cheap purchase carries off the blue rib.'tnds of the race track. Phar Lap went for less than £2OO and won over £70,00 New Zealand thoroughbreds this year have achieved important successes abroad. Theo, bred- at the Koatanui stud, won the three richest three-year-old prizes in Australia—the A.J.C. Derby, Caulfield Guineas and V.R.C. Derby. Silver Ring won the Epsom Handicap, Waikare the Metropolitan Handicap, and at the A.J.C. meeting, New Zealand bred horses won no fewer than 14 of the 27 races during the four days. In Victoria their success has also been phenomenal, and on the eve of this year’s sales come the timely and impressive victories of Homer and Maestro, sons of new and young sires having their first season, while nearer home Legatee and others have advertised another fresh importation.

Thus it was that yesterday the auctioneer, Mr. Reg. Inglis, of Sydney, was plentifully supplied with ammunition to elaborate for the benefit of the spectators the doings of the youngsters passing through the ring, many of them closely related to prominent winners. Each lot was paraded in rotation in the ring, and while its pedigree and prospects were being extolled, prospective buyers as well as those there merely for a spectacle, were able to form their impressions. The condition in which the majority were produced reflected great credit on their respective studmasters, and the auctioneers claim that with the exceptionally favourable conditions that have prevailed during the season this year’s catalogue is fully equal to the quality of the past.