|
11.
Unborn Foal Auction - World First
|
01/07/2002 |
|
|
|
In an innovative move that has the potential for far-reaching implications for the international thoroughbred breeding and investment industry, an Australian group has launched the world's first online auction of unborn foals.
Sydney-based EquineUnited, headed by well-known thoroughbred industry figures Niall Power and Damien Antico, has entered into a partnership with major IT provider Yahoo, the online auction platform will be powered by Yahoo.
The group's inaugural unborn foal auction will take place on August 1, 2002 - official birthday for all Southern Hemisphere horses - on its www.equineunited.com Website.
Entry details for the sale are now being sent to breeders and buyers in Australia, New Zealand and Asia.
Mr Power said: "We have received enthusiastic support for the concept of unborn foal auctions from a great range of Australian and New Zealand breeders and investors in the thoroughbred industry.
"We believe it has a huge future, in Australia and around the world. Yahoo has a dominant market-share in Japan and Asia, where the thoroughbred industry is showing explosive growth.
"Selling unborn foals is an established industry practice in Japan. By setting up an online auction facility, EquineUnited and Yahoo are bringing the already proven concept to a far wider market.
"Asian traders will appreciate the greater transparency our auction system brings to the marketplace, and we think stock market share and derivative investors will see the ground-floor opportunities.
"We're opening a new market entry point for people who've previously only been yearling buyers - usually at traditional ' live' sales. Now they can become yearling sellers, with considerable profit potential on their initial unborn foal outlay.
"We expect the unborn foals we auction to bring prices, on average, around one and a half times their sires' service fees."
Between them, the two principals bring 45 years of top-level thoroughbred industry experience to their joint operating entity, EquineUnited.
Mr Antico, son of high-profile businessman and breeder-owner, Sir Tristan Antico, spent many years upgrading and developing Baramul Stud, near Scone, in the heartland of the Australian thoroughbred industry, while Mr Power's career background in Ireland and Australia includes lengthy stints with Coolmore and Wakefield Studs.
Mr Power said the unborn foal market met buyer demand for a more transparent way of doing business. They could buy an untampered-with foal at the earliest stage possible of its development, knowing as much about it as the seller.
Each unborn foal in the EquineUnited catalogue will have lengthy pedigree, family performance, mare breeding history, sales achieved, and date-of-service, pregnancy and sex-determination certification, as well as sire and dam photographs.
Mr Antico said the unborn foal auction would dramatically reduce the physical and financial costs and risks associated with traditional 'live' animal sales.
"It certainly should appeal to vendors who want improved and accelerated cash-flow, to re-invest yearling sale proceeds, or realise income from mares whose bloodlines they want to develop," he said.
"The concept is similar in many respects to buying and selling property off-the-plan."
By: Mark Smith - Thursday, 27 June 2002
|
|
|
