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6.

Adelaide sale follows trend

02/03/2002

Despite the Magic Millions Adelaide Select Yearling Sale following a similar trend to that of the Gold Coast, Karaka and Sydney — dropping eight percent on average from the previous year — Magic Millions’ new managing director, David Chester, was putting a positive slant on the result post sale.

"Our Select Session was down 7.7%, but the average for the one-day Summer Session [staged last Wednesday] increased from $13,000 to $14,000," Chester pointed out. "Our main session on the Gold Coast also dropped by four percent, as did the New Zealand Premier and the Sydney Classic. It’s a pattern.

"Adelaide has been a notable place for the Asian market and this time we were missing the regulars from Singapore and Malaysia. That was to be expected with their economies not travelling well at the moment.

"But this was the second-best Adelaide sale on record and still the third best sale — on average — in Australia."

The bottom line was that 298 lots sold at the Select Sessions for a gross of $11,041,500 and an average of $37,052. The sale topper of $135,000 was the Fuji Kiseki filly from Dancer’s Glory, a full sister to Melbourne stakes placegetter Fuji Dancer and a close relation of Gurner’s Lane and Sovereign Red.

The big worry, however, was the clearance rate of just 76.2%, although it picked up steadily on the final day.

It prompted Rob Monsma, Magic Millions’ general manager in Adelaide, to suggest that catalogues should be trimmed in future: "We are breeding a lot of horses and buyers are becoming more critical with the greater choice," Monsma told the Australian. "This was no clearer than what we saw here last week. When the really good types came in, all the good judges were on him or her and it was tough going.

"We’ve had a great run in the last four or five years and running up to our record year last year, but this downturn had to happen.

"Maybe we will have to look next year at reducing the numbers at our sale. Wed had 648 yearlings this year, 42 up on last year. Perhaps it was the wrong year to have an extra 42."

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