Milan Park to sell select mares ahead of The Oaks takeover
New Zealand’s Milan Park will offer 17 mares in the National Online Breeding Stock Sale on Gavelhouse Plus as the Waikato nursery continues to reshape its broodmare band following a year of significant expansion, including the sale of Provence for A$1.8 million and the purchase of neighbouring The Oaks Stud.
“Tony is always developing the Milan Park broodmare band,” stud manager Grant Bennett said. “Since the sale of Provence, he’s already gone out and reinvested in new mares from Australia and new bloodlines to replace her.
“With our purchase of The Oaks Stud, we’re also coming into a period of significant restructuring over the next 12 to 18 months.
“So you could call this a reduction sale, trying to stay on top of our broodmare numbers. But that doesn’t mean we’re only selling mares from the very bottom end.
“We’ve put some good mares on the market on gavelhouse.com in the past, such as the dam of the Group One winner Pulchritudinous and the dam of the Wellington Cup winner Manzor Blue. And this year’s draft is as strong as any we’ve offered before.
“There are some quality mares from really good families. There are mares that are in foal to top stallions, and we’re offering them either with no reserves or with reserves that are well below the stallions’ service fees. So there’s plenty of exciting opportunities for buyers among this draft.”
Among the highlights are Vitani and Real Divine, both in foal to the late Savabeel, while Cashmere and Miss Martini are carrying foals by Super Seth, who now stands at Coolmore after leaving Waikato Stud.
The 92-Lot catalogue for the 2026 National Online Breeding Stock Sale is now available to view online on Gavelhouse Plus. Bidding opens at 10am (NZT) on Friday, July 3, and closes from 6pm (NZT) on Wednesday, July 8.
