Hutch, Moore And Field united on Ready2Race quality but divided by market realities

Sebastian Hutch isn’t short on confidence ahead of Thursday’s Inglis Ready2Race Sale but even he concedes there could be slow patches throughout the day’s trade.

A string of high-class horses, including Group 1-winning colt Tron Bolt and Hard Kick, have emerged from last year’s sale, providing vendors and the auction house cause for optimism about the prospects of the two-year-old sale at Riverside Stables in Sydney on Thursday.

Last year’s success led to a larger catalogue of horses and Hutch, who last week was announced as the successor to long-term Inglis managing director Mark Webster, is adamant this year’s edition is the best compilation of horses put to market in Australia. 

Hutch, a master at talking up or playing down expectations depending on the circumstances, offered the “cautiously optimistic” line.

“Expectation management is always an interesting exercise at sale time. We have some very basic objectives in that we want to try and create a scenario where as many vendors can sell their horses, and sell their horses for what they consider to be a fair sum, or a profitable sum,” Hutch said. 

“At the same time we try to create an environment where as many buyers can go home having filled their orders or feel compelled to buy. 

“So, we’re cautiously optimistic about the sale, I’d be reluctant to be anything more than that because the groundswell of enthusiasm that can manifest itself in the days prior to a sale, there are practical realities to bear in mind.”

Balancing that caution is Hutch’s belief in the horses who will be offered to the market on Thursday.

“We are in a challenging economic climate, but we have assembled, with the support of our vendors, a catalogue of horses that I think is going to make unparalleled appeal, not just in the context of Australian two-year-old sales, but in the context of Australasian two-year-old sales for the season,” he said. 

“This is the best catalogue of horses ever being presented for a two-year-old sale in Australia.

“That’s my opinion, but I think that’s an opinion shared by everybody in our bloodstock team and most people who I’ve spoken to around the complex.”

Retired champion Hong Kong trainer John Moore, who was at Riverside Stables on Wednesday, echoed Hutch’s sentiments about the quality of horses at the complex.

However, he warned that Hong Kong’s wealthy owners hadn’t escaped the prevailing global economic conditions and that may reduce the budgets of this pivotal buying contingent.

“Businesses aren’t doing that well, so the Chinese buyers are watching their purse strings very, very closely,” Moore said.

“Their budgets are a lot less … but they will buy because I think half Hong Kong’s trainers are down here at the moment. 

“And all their agents are here, so I believe that there will be a major force with respect to this sale as purchasers.”

Newgate Farm’s Henry Field is consigning two-year-olds under his own banner at the Ready2Race Sale for the first time and he admits it has been a learning curve.

Regardless of Newgate’s results on Thursday, where the Hunter Valley breeder will offer five two-year-olds at Riverside Stables, Field is prepared to take a long-term approach to the breeze-up auctions.

“I’m confident that we’ve got a couple of horses that will sell out in this draft that will be really high-quality racehorses,” Field told The Straight.

“Whether we get paid for them, I’m not certain, but that’s OK because the whole purpose of what we’re trying to do at this sale is to learn and be better and really understand how the market works and how we can try and be the best we can be at it. 

“We’re enjoying the process, and hopefully we can get through the sale and live to participate again next year.”

“What we’re trying to do at this sale is to learn and be better and really understand how the market works” – Henry Field

Field believes the breeze-up market in Australia will become an increasingly important segment for the industry to sell its bloodstock and he would like to see the process evolve to better help buyers.

“I talked to my peers in North America and Europe, and the common difference, I think, between what we do here and what they do up there is that they’re all breezing on the same track on the same day in the same conditions. There’s also minimal weight variance between riders,” the Newgate boss said.

“Every horse is being asked to go at top speed (in the northern hemisphere), whereas here there’s so many more variances, different tracks, conditions, some horses breeze in pairs, some breeze on the rail, some breeze on the outside of the course with cones. 

“The variances are so great that it’s probably a lot harder to sift the wheat from the chaff in this marketplace.

“But I think that as the sale progresses and gets more mature, the format of the breezes will be better, which will allow people to confidently assess horses more accurately and I think that that’s going to be the making of this marketplace.”

The Ready2Race Sale starts at 11am (AEDT).