Gordon Cunningham’s Curraghmore will offer a select draft of six weanlings through New Zealand Bloodstock’s National Weanling Sale which is set to conclude via online auction Gavelhouse Plus on Sunday from 3pm.
Cunningham was taking many positives from the new format and believes the online auction was equating to wide-spread interest.
“It’s been very refreshing and we’ve enjoyed the lead-up to the sale,” Cunningham said.
“We refer to it as an on-farm online sale. Nothing is different other than we’re not going up to Karaka, given the unique circumstances, and I feel like we’re getting enquiries from a broader base.
“It has been really encouraging to hear from people overseas and we have been able to support the enquiries with good, accurate information.
“Potential buyers can have the confidence that the horses we are offering have been well raised and prepared on the same land as many of our best graduates.”
A leading source of black-type graduates, current stakes performers from Curraghmore include Group One winning mare Tofane, multiple Group One performer Age of Chivalry and horses the ilk of Not An Option, Kinane and Germanicus.
“Our 2006 weanling draft produced Sousa, notably Galileo’s first Group One winner in the Southern Hemisphere, whilst Chris Waller’s rising star Kinane was a graduate of our 2017 draft,” Cunningham said.
“In between, there have been many good racehorses and many pinhookers have enjoyed consistent profits on their purchases from us.”
Cunningham said trading weanlings had worked well for him and his clients to maintain cash-flow and balance the books.
“This is a high-cost tough game where cash-flow is key for many businesses,” he said.
“In offering a draft over the years, we’ve been able to generate good cash-flow and keep many of our clients in business, whilst also selling a genuine product where buyers have enjoyed good success, whether that be pinhooking profits or racetrack success.”
Amongst this year’s Curraghmore offering is a Proisir half brother to Hong Kong Group Three winner Full of Beauty and last-start Anthony Cummings-trained winner Clever Man.
“He’s a mature, strong colt that would present well in any Book 1 catalogue in next year’s yearling sales season. He is a half-brother to a high-class sprinter in Full Of Beauty and a very promising horse in Sydney in Clever Man.
“We also have a half-sister to Group One winner Planet Rock, that is a very well conformed Sacred Falls filly.
“The Vadamos filly out of stakes winning mare Mill Duckie is a good type of filly and is also a half-sister to two stakes performers and there is plenty of upside with the young-stock from the mare.
“There is also an Iffraaj filly out of a Zabeel mare from a good family, so there is plenty of depth to our filly offerings.
“We have a couple of colts by Tarzino in which we’ve got good confidence and he is an exciting young sire,” Cunningham said. – NZ Racing Desk
