KEY POINTS:
Petrea Vela will be walking a lot of kilometres around the Karaka Sales Complex over the next week in her job as marketing manager for New Zealand Bloodstock.
Vela will also be busy today at Ellerslie with the inaugural running of the Karaka Million, a $1 million race for 2-year-olds, restricted to graduates of the New Zealand Bloodstock Karaka yearling sales.
Incentive races for yearling sale graduates are popular world-wide and a $1 million 2-year-old race the night before New Zealand's premier yearling sale was an ideal way to promote local thoroughbred racing.
New Zealand Bloodstock has staged a $500,000 2-year-old race for yearling sale graduates at Te Rapa for the past nine years.
"The decision to switch the race from Te Rapa to Ellerslie and increase the stake money to $1 million was heavily supported by the Waikato and Auckland Racing Clubs," said Vela. "Having this race the night before the sales begin really gives the sales week a festival feel and it's something that will grow in popularity and status in coming years."
The Karaka Million has had a direct impact on the number of starters contesting 2-year-old races in New Zealand with trainers keen to qualify their stable runners for the 1200m sprint feature.
The two-day premier sale, tomorrow and Tuesday, will bring leading buyers from the Northern and Southern Hemisphere.
"The strength in the quality of yearling entered in this sale has seen a strong overseas buying bench arrive in Auckland."
Vela said they were attracted by the good performance of New Zealand-breds in Australia and Hong Kong over the past year.
"The EI [equine influenza] outbreak in Australia means there are no yearling sales there and as a consequence the Australian buyers have arrived here looking to restock their racing stables."
The New South Wales Department of Primary Industries requires all horses to be vaccinated with ProteqFlu or Recombitek EI vaccines before entering NSW.
However, both vaccine products are genetically modified and unavailable in New Zealand. The only way NZ racehorses can enter New South Wales is to fly to Melbourne then go by road to NSW.
NZ Bloodstock will cover extra travel costs incurred by New South Wales buyers travelling their yearlings from Melbourne.
