NZB hits the road to promote newly-released Ready to Run Sale catalogue

New Zealand Bloodstock representatives are this week being dispatched to all parts of Asia armed with promotional material for the company’s 2026 Ready to Run Sale.

Auction house representatives will over the next 10 days make appearances in mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia in an attempt to garner support for November’s two-day sale.

The catalogue for this year’s Ready to Run Sale was released on Monday, with the composition of the 460-Lot catalogue featuring horses by Proisir, Savabeel, Per Incanto, Shamexpress and Super Seth. 

The progeny of Wrote, Satono Aladdin, Ocean Park, Sweynesse, Sword Of State, The Autumn Sun, Street Boss, Hellbent, Written Tycoon, Toronado, Capitalist and Home Affairs are also represented.

NZB director of business development Mike Kneebone, who will be in Malaysia and Singapore this weekend, says the company’s long-term graduate success holds them in good stead.

“I’ve found that the buyers that are coming back this year seem to me to be very regular now,” Kneebone told The Straight. 

“We’re getting a lot of new investment, but a lot of the clients that have been coming regularly keep coming back. They’ve had great results and they know where to find a nice horse and their trainers have been coming for a very long time. 

“It’s such a well-established sale that we just have to keep that momentum rolling really.”

The promotional material and the spiel given by NZB to potential buyers will include the fact the Ready to Run Sale has produced the winners of 33 Group 1 races and 15 stakes races.

Last racing season, 26 graduates won stakes races including Hong Kong Derby winner Invincible Ibis and established Group 1 horses Ceolwulf, Mr Brightside and Gingotts. 

This year’s sale will be held on November 18 and 19 at Karaka with NZB the last of the three Australasian auction houses to release its catalogue.

Overall, 47 more horses have been catalogued across the three Australasian two-year-old sales, with NZB maintaining its two-day format.

Inglis has 321 horses catalogued for its Ready to Race Sale on October 15 while Magic Millions has a catalogue of 153 two-year-olds.

The NZB breeze-up session at Te Rapa will be held on October 12 and 13, clashing with the Magic Millions’ sale on the Gold Coast on October 12 and inspections at Inglis’ Riverside Stables complex in Sydney.

Thirty-six different vendors will consign horses at the NZB sale and Kneebone believes that breezing up all the horses on one track was another selling point for the New Zealand sale.

“I think another big factor this year will be the Kiwi dollar, the strength of it against other currencies, and for the Aussies in particular,” he said.

“They should be able to come over and have a field day. It’s been a very, very big market for us over the last sort of 10 years really, the Australian market. 

“It’s a market that’s increased a lot, we’ve put a lot of work into it, and our team spends a lot of time on it, so I think the Australians are going to be very strong again.”