By MIKE DILLON
You can always rely on Graeme Rogerson for a headline, but he left his run dangerously late at Karaka last night.
Rogerson waited until the last four lots to pay the highest price of the sale so far, the $700,000 for the Zabeel-Joyfulness filly put up by Cambridge Stud, a filly he rated as world class.
"I rated her the second-best filly in the sale," said Rogerson.
For obvious reasons he was shy about declaring what he thought was the best filly, but clearly it is the Zabeel-Marquise filly, widely tipped to bring a lot of money about 1 1/2 hours into today's session.
Last night's filly was the 26th purchase at the sale by Rogerson, who has spent a little more than $3 million.
He could not remember paying more than $700,000 for a yearling at auction in New Zealand.
"I've got some ammunition left for tomorrow," he said, adding that he was "in the race," clearly referring to the Marquise filly.
"I don't think the fillies of this quality will ever be this cheap again," he said. "I rated this Zabeel filly a million-dollar filly and would have paid that for her if I'd had to.
"Two years from now we won't be able to buy fillies like this."
Rogerson said he did not have a specific owner in mind.
"I've got owners queuing up at the moment."
The filly will stay in New Zealand to be prepared by Keith Hawtin. Her future beyond her first year is still to be decided.
Rogerson has 70 horses in work in New Zealand, 55 in Sydney and Melbourne and 60 in Dubai.
He says his recently established Dubai operation is flying, and he would love to be able to increase the number of boxes in his operation from 50 to 80.
"I've had 11 winners there this season and that should be 12 after the weekend."
His two high-profile fillies are Pinctada Pearl (by Volskraad) and Just Call Me (by Blues Traveller), both of whom are aiming at the $US200,000 Moonshell.
"I think they're as good as any of the fillies in Dubai."
The average after the first two sessions is $123,196, with an aggregate of $31,415,000. The average at the same point of the sale last year was $122,000, which included the $3.6 million record-price yearling. The clearance rate yesterday was 79 per cent.
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New Zealand Bloodstock became its own best customer at Karaka yesterday, buying for the Hong Kong market.
The auction house paid the session's second-highest price of $500,000 for a brother to group one-winning mare Dantelah.
He was one of seven horses New Zealand Bloodstock executive John Cameron has bought so far to go to the sale, which runs in conjunction with the Hong Kong International racemeeting in December.
The company bought six lots on behalf of the Hong Kong Jockey Club for the sale last December, topping the sale with the Danehill-Romantic River colt which fetched a record $HK3.6 million.
"The budget went up because of the huge success of the sale in December and because the international market has gone up," said Cameron.
On Tuesday he paid $360,000 for a Danehill-Spell On You colt and $280,000 for the Maroof colt from Zonal.
Yesterday he put out $450,000 for the Danehill colt from Gimmick, widely tipped to have made a bit more, $400,000 for a Danasinga-Flying Floozie colt, $230,000 for a Danehill-Hilda Castle and $80,000 for a colt by Marscay from Funny Features.
Hong Kong-based trainer Peter Chapple-Hyam bought his own, paying $300,000 for a Danehill-Farrara colt. Sydney's Carlo La Rosa put up $210,000 for a Zabeel-Danzalota colt.
Racing: Highest bidder waits for the home straight
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