by W.P. Howey

HTBA Scone Yearling Sales

HTBA Scone Yearling Sales

Featured Image: 1995 Scone Yearling Sale Catalogue front cover.

See: https://sconevetdynasty.com.au/hvbhba-first-annual-scone-sale-1979/

See also: https://sconevetdynasty.com.au/htba-yearling-sale-40-years-on/

See also: https://sconevetdynasty.com.au/bold-scone-venture/

See also: https://sconevetdynasty.com.au/hunter-thoroughbred-breeders-association-scone-history/

See also: https://sconevetdynasty.com.au/has-the-horse-bolted/

The front cover of the 1995 Scone Yearling Sale Catalogue is the best thing about it! With the knowledge of hindsight, the ‘horse has indeed bolted’. I’ve just rediscovered this dog-eared issue in the pocket of my discarded ‘Drizabone’. It must have been a wet day?

It’s a litany of failure. I barely remember/recall the names of the 1st Season Sires listed: Bao Lack USA (Emirates Park), Bureaucracy NZ (Yarraman Park), Greenline Express USA (Wakefield Stud), Monongahela USA (Yarraman Park), Orient Way NZ (Kanangra Park), Rising Rhythm (Kia Ora), Snaadee USA (Emirates Park), White Bridle USA (Middlebrook Valley Lodge) and Yonder USA (Widden Stud). All were abject catastrophes consigned to the scrap heap of memory. (I owned a share in one of them – Greenline Express).

The 156 yearlings catalogued were by 80 different sires representing 68 vendors, some from prominent studs. Champion Sire ‘Marscay’ had one entry, but it was withdrawn. With one or two exceptions the other sires represented shared one thing in common: statistical (i. e. ’commercial’) failure. It was the historic story of the sale which nonetheless had produced a few good city winners. It presents a marketing dilemma exploited elsewhere. Agents promote their sales by subtly presenting their ‘auctions as making the horses’. It’s the converse. The horses make the sales.

The quality of the 156 yearlings drafted in the catalogue proved to be of equivalent measure. The reality was we were attempting to market an inferior product. Ultimately racetrack performance (consistent ‘winners’)  will decide the outcome. The sale at its Scone location no longer exists.

The lofty ambitions of the founding fathers’ (and mothers’) cadre were never implemented.

Postscript:

Noted racing historian and author of online ‘The Kings of the Turf’ Ian Ibbett writes in his classic gem on ‘Bonecrusher’:

(See: https://www.kingsoftheturf.com/1986-frank-ritchie-gary-stewart-bonecrusher/

“The Annual Dinner of the N.S.W. Bloodstock Breeders’ Association took place at the Regent Hotel in George St on Derby night (Friday 28th. March 1986) and I was fortunate enough to be in attendance. Arnold Kirkpatrick, a past president of the Kentucky Jockey Club and a former publisher of the U. S. Thoroughbred Record was the guest speaker. During his address, he observed”:

“There is a serious decline [in breeding standards] at home. I think we are getting back to reality. There has been too much greed, chasing the almighty dollar and the industry has suffered. We are there to raise better horses. We have defied the laws of nature for years. Too many yearlings and mediocre stallions. A false security developed. It has gone bust now.” Kirkpatrick warned of the dangers of owner/breeder bonus incentives. “Danger lies in the subsidising of mediocrity. Breeding programs and incentives tend to do that.”