‘A massive over-subscription for permits’ – Record owner interest fuels Hong Kong International Sale optimism

Sixteen months ago, the Hong Kong Jockey Club ordered an extensive review into its floundering International Sale.

The long-running International Sale, a Jockey Club-run auction to assist its owners to source horses who had already landed in Hong Kong and galloped up the Sha Tin straight, had just been held in early March and it had lost money.

That was not the problem, but the interest – or, more precisely, the lack thereof – from the Jockey Club’s permit holders to participate in its annual sale had caused chief executive Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges concern.

Fifteen horses, sourced from Europe, Australia and New Zealand, had sold for a total of A$9.194 million at an average of $612,967 and a median of $530,861.

All metrics were down on the previous year.

It’s unclear exactly what was uncovered in the review as reasons for its underperformance of the International Sale, first held in 1995, but since that auction expatriate Australian Stuart Boman of Blandford Bloodstock had been drafted in as the Jockey Club’s northern hemisphere representative agent.

Boman joined southern hemisphere agent Craig Rounsefell of Boomer Bloodstock as part of the buying team as the replacement for Michael Kinane, the man who helped select the International Sale’s current pin-up horse Romantic Warrior. 

The UK-based Boman’s influence, however, won’t be felt until the 2027 sale when his European-sourced horses are offered to Hong Kong permit holders.

More than a year on from the unsatisfactory 2025 sale, the Jockey Club’s executive manager of international sales and owners advisory services Danny Rolston is optimistic about the level of demand from permit holders ahead of Friday’s sale.

“Largely, we’ve been in a better place with the Hong Kong economy than what we were 12 months ago or 18 months ago,” Rolston told The Straight. 

“Wagering figures have been on a positive increase over the last season, whereas when we went into the sale last year, weekly we were down a few percentage points on each race meeting, whereas it seems to be the other way this year. 

“The economy’s on a bit of a climb, and the wagering’s positive.”

Twenty-two horses have been sourced from Australasia, Europe and, for the first time in many years, South Africa for Friday evening’s sale.

At considerable cost, they have also been put through an extensive education process, have met the criteria imposed on them, have been imported to Hong Kong, and are ready to be placed with their respective trainers.

Whether the Jockey Club makes a profit on its investment will be secondary to the reception it receives from its permit holders.

“It’s certainly not a profit-making exercise. In fact, more often than not, it’s a loss leader,” says Rolston, who is preparing for his fifth International Sale since joining the Jockey Club.

“But what it does do is it provides a service to our customers. Not everybody has a bloodstock agent or a trainer to help them source horses. 

“So, if we can put the horses in front of them and sell them, and the next day they’re in the trainer’s stable, then there is a cost to us doing that. 

“But it’s a vision that Winfried’s had for a number of years to offer that service to our customers and just try and increase the quality population of horses here at the same time.”

The introduction of private purchase bonuses and lucrative Premier Series incentives for four-year-olds appears to have been well received by Hong Kong owners.

Whether there is a direct correlation between the prize money available or not, the Jockey Club received more applications for owners’ permits this year, with 792 going into the ballot for the 460 available permits distributed in 2026.

More pleasing from an International Sale perspective is that this year’s glitzy event will attract up to 800 owners and their guests, an increase from the 550 who attended last year.

Such was the influx of enquiries, the Jockey Club closed RSVPs for sale attendees 10 days early.

“Whether it transitions to bidding or not, time will only tell, but we’re certainly going to have a record turnout in as much as per the holders registered for the sale and their guests,” Rolston says.

That’s not to say that everything has been smooth sailing in the lead-up to this year’s sale. A quarantine issue forced the Jockey Club to abandon its usual March date and move it to the hotter month of July.

The setback has led to at least one upshot for organisers, with two-year-olds sons of I Am Invincible (Lot 19) and Toronado (Lot 22) added to the catalogue.

“When I was down for the Easter yearling sales, Boomer (agent Craig Rounsefell) and I went out to Limitless Lodge where the horses are all trained (by Tim Boland),” Rolston said. 

“We went through all the three-year-olds that were in quarantine, getting ready to come up here and, just as a matter of course, we went and inspected the full crop for next year. 

“We’re so thick on quality next year with the sale being later and the horses, the two-year-olds themselves about to turn three, we just thought it was a great opportunity to advance a couple.

“So, we strategically took the most forward horses that we felt mentally and physically were up to coming in that year earlier and time will tell if we’ve got that recipe right but we’ve certainly got a couple of nice horses that don’t look a year behind.”

The 22 horses breezed up over 200m at Sha Tin on June 20, with a Savabeel brother to Trent Busuttin and Natalie Young’s Group winner Forgot You (Lot 4) running the fastest at 10.91 seconds.

He was fractionally faster than Lot 1, a Per Incanto gelding, while a final crop Deep Field gelding out of Hussterical (Lot 2) caught the eye in 11.16 seconds.

A European-sourced Mehmas gelding out of Arctic Ocean (Lot 8) is also expected to sell well on Friday after running 11.68 seconds.

“The brief for the riders was we didn’t need to see how fast they could go for 200 metres, so they were all thereabouts around the 11 seconds,” Rolston said.

Magic Millions auctioneer Clint Donovan, with bidspotters brought in from around the world, will be on the rostrum for the sale.

The offering of the South African-bred yearlings is a point of difference for this year’s sale.

“I’ve been working with (former Hong Kong trainer) Tony Millard, actually. He’s been on the ground for us in South Africa,” Rolston said.

“We’ve been to the yearling sales there for the last few years and this is the first group that we’ve got through to the sale.”

Rolston revealed the geldings – by What A Winter, Fire Away and Gimmethegreenlight – began their education in South Africa.

“We’ve got a nice program there that then transitions them through to the UK for their final preparation with our Irish and English horses,” he said. 

“So, we’re looking forward to bringing what we think are suitable horses that are good value on an international scale, making them available to our permit holders.”

The reintroduction of South African-bred horses coincides with what Rolston believes is a renewed zest for racing in Hong Kong, which the Jockey Club has assisted by introducing a range of prize money and bonuses to encourage ownership participation.

“In the last ballot, the applications were slowly getting back to numbers that we used to see in the early years with a massive over-subscription for permits,” he said. 

“Horse ownership here is something that everybody wants to have a piece of. Prize money’s climbing and I think the sport’s in a really, really good place here in Hong Kong.”