A strong but steady sale would appear to be a pass mark for Australasia’s most elite harness racing yearling sale at Karaka on Sunday.
The northern sale as usual kicks off four days for New Zealand Bloodstock Standardbred, with three to follow at Christchurch with just under 400 horses to go under the hammer.
The key indicators for sales week are strong: very strong catalogues, good Australian interest, many of the key domestic buyers from recent seasons still likely to buy and a good crop of young trainers coming through, hopefully bringing a younger owner base with them.
But as recent thoroughbred sales have shown some of the post-Covid economic challenges are starting to bite, most importantly the enormous rise in interest rates that may see casual buyers think twice about buying a yearling with money that they could have taken out of the mortgage and only paid around 2 per cent interest this time last year but now comes as a higher cost.
Those sort of factors have seen recent thoroughbred sales still strong at the top end, where those who don’t worry about things like interest rates shop, but a softening in the middle and lower markets, especially domestically where racing faces some challenges.