David Hayes buys the top two lots on day 1 of NZ Ready To Run Sale.
David Hayes made an impression at Wednesday's first day of this year's New Zealand Bloodstock's Ready To Run Sale, purchasing the two highest-priced lots of the day on behalf of a new client.
The Australian Hall of Famer, who is now based in Hong Kong, paid NZ$750,000 for a colt by Per Incanto, having earlier gone to $675,000 for a Satono Aladdin colt.
The youngsters were bought on behalf of Sanxiong Gao and Hayes is excited about seeing what they achieve.
"He asked if I could come down and pick a few horses out that would be suitable for Hong Kong," Hayes said of Gao.
"He's got deep pockets and said, just try and find the ones you want, don't worry about the budget''. That's music to a trainer's ears."
"With the help of Dean Hawthorne, Josh Rix and JD (Hayes), Dean found about 30 horses for us to have a look at and these two were our favourites.
"These horses will go back to Lindsay Park, as Ka Ying Rising did from New Zealand, and be assessed with the most suitable one going to Hong Kong. The other one will race in Australia with the boys."
The Per Incanto colt, who is part of the Kiltannon Stakes draft, is out of the Fastnet Rock mare Aleria, who is out of Group 1 Sangster Stakes placegetter Impressive Eagle, who is a half-sister to Queensland Derby winner Eagle Way.
Hayes' other big buy is from Shezdelicious, a daughter of Atlante, who is a half-sister to dual Kiwi Group 1 winner Madison County and well-performed Aussie miler Detonator Jack.
The Lindsay Park pair were among four lots to sell for at least $500,000. Bevan Laming paid exactly that amount for a colt by Sword Of State, while Patella Bloodstock stumped up $525,000 for a Snitzel colt out of the former WA mare Samovare.
Day 1 delivered strong results across the board with the aggregate reaching $19,232,000 for 119 lots sold, and the median climbing 33 percent to an impressive $120,000.
NZB's Managing Director Andrew Seabrook was pleased with the opening session.
"The key statistic from today is the median being up from $90,000 to $120,000, which suggests the middle market is as strong as ever."
"It is fantastic to see all of the major markets off to a strong start, particularly the Australian spend which is ahead of last year at this stage, and mainland China, which is a great result for the wider industry."
"It was also great to see New Zealand stallions siring the two top lots today, which will give pinhookers more confidence to have a crack at some of those yearlings here in January."
Day 2 of the sale will be held on Thursday, with bidding to commence from 10am local time.
