A record total investment of over $60 million across Australasia’s three breeze-up sales has lifted the average price of a horse sold at the three sales in Sydney, Gold Coast and Karaka to $137,455.
That average mark is also a new high and represents a 13 per cent rise on last year and 166 per cent jump on where that market was a decade ago.
Significantly the number of horses purchased through the three breeze-up sales rose to 454, the highest since 2019. The sales are traditionally confined to two-year-olds, although this year’s Magic Millions Horses in Training Sale did see eight three-year-olds sell.
Assuming parity for the New Zealand dollar for the sake of statistical consistency, the overall amount spent was $62.4 million, 20 per cent more than last year, with only 6 per cent more horses sold.
Last year was the first time since 2016 that the Australasian breeze-up market had exceeded $50 million since 2016 and powered by a surge in Australian and Hong Kong investment, it ascended to an even greater level in 2024.
Total market for Australasian breeze-up sales:
*assumes NZD/AUD parity
That level of investment must give the sales companies confidence heading into the yearling sales season, with Australian investors in particular happy to ramp up their prices.
In fact, Australian-registered buyers ended up with the same number of horses they did in 2023 with 171 but spent an additional $6 million across the trio of sales. Accordingly, the average price paid by an Australian leapt from $103,000 to $138,000.
Tim Rowe
In the most significant example of this trend, the Inglis Ready 2 Race Sale saw Australian buyers spend $2.1 million more, but purchase nine fewer horses than 2023.
That investment was led by Yulong, who spent $2.035 million across four horses, having not been active the previous year. Among their purchases was the $1 million sale-topping filly by Written Tycoon.
Yulong also purchased the top lot at the Magic Millions Horses In Training Sale, a $700,000 Justify colt, while it was also active at the top end at Karaka, buying an I Am Invincible colt for $675,000.
But it wasn’t just the Yulong impact when it came to Australian buyers. The likes of Queensland trainer Paul Shailer spent over $1 million on four horses at Karaka and two on the Gold Coast, while Mick Price and Michael Kent spent $1.1 million across five horses over the breeze-up sales.
The key was the spread of buyers. There were 45 individual Australian buyers at Inglis, 37 on the Gold Coast and 46 at Karaka.
Hong Kong buyers were also much more willing to spend, increasing their overall aggregate from $22.7 million to $26 million across the three sales, while also securing an additional 14 horses.
At the season-opening Inglis sale in October, Hong Kong buyers spent $7.2 million across 29 different lots, including four above $500,000. In 2023, it was 26 purchases with not one in that $500,000-plus range and a total spend of $4.5 million.
Buyers from Hong Kong also upped their investment at the Magic Millions sale from $730,000 to $1.09 million, and at the NZB sale at Karaka, increasing from $17.1 million to $18.1 million.
Tim Rowe
Bearing in mind publicly available buyer information can be unreliable, especially with the Hong Kong market, which tends to utilise agents, the number of horses attributed to Hong Kong buyers at Karaka grew from 76 to 89.
New Zealand buyers don’t tend to shop at the Australian two-year-old sales, which is understandable given the opportunity to buy on home soil at Karaka. Interestingly, according to the publicly available buyer data, the Kiwis purchased 63 horses at Karaka last week - the same number as last year.
They did lift their spend by $1.04 million to $7.8 million.
Te Akau’s David Ellis carried a major part of that investment with $3.165 million in purchases, across 10 horses, including an Australasian record $1.65 million for a colt by I Am Invincible.
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In terms of the other international market, the gap left by the end of racing in Singapore and Macau has been somewhat bridged by much greater participation from Malaysia.
Malaysian-registered buyers purchased 12 horses for a combined $330,000 across the two Australian sales but they ramped their investment up significantly at Karaka, taking home 36 horses for a combined $1.59 million.
The total $1.92 million spent across 48 horses is a big jump from the $1.17 million spent across 26 horses across the 2023’s breeze-up sales.
Buyer location data across Inglis, Magic Millions and NZB breeze-up sales
