A Northern Hemisphere bred Starspangledbanner gelding returned the highest price at the 2024 Hong Kong International Sale (HKIS) at Sha Tin on Friday evening after attracting a bid of HK$5.4 million.
Lot 20 was purchased by Cheung Kwok Wing and is from the Zoffany mare Wowcha. Starspangledbanner has had plenty of of success in Hong Kong with his star progeny including Group I winners California Spangle, Beauty Eternal and the five-time winning Nordic Dragon, a recent graduate of the HKIS.
So Wing Keung bought Lot 7 for HK$4.2 million, the second highest-priced purchase, a Kiwi bred son of Savabeel from Kona that was sourced from Karaka Book 1 where he made $290,000 for Waikato stud when bought by the HKJC.
The next highest priced horse was Lot 12 an Australian bred son of Deep Field that made HK$3.8 million and is out of Onemorezeta. He was a $500,000 Magic Millions purchase from Attunga Stud for HKJC.
Mr Danny Rolston, The Hong Kong Jockey Club’s Executive Manager, International Sale/Owners Advisory Services, said: “We have a lot of confidence in the horses that we have offered and what we’re probably seeing is that when we bought these horses two years ago is that we were operating in a very intense yearling market, so we’ve bought these horses at the very top of the market and we’re seeing a softening in horse sales around the world, which we’ve seen tonight, we’ve also seen a softening in our wagering turnover and also in the local stock market.
“I think the story of the night is that the sale has seen a bit of a drop in average, but with that comes an opportunity that we were able to give forward to our permit holders with some really nice horses.”
The average of the sale was HK$3.307 million, the median priced was HK$3.2 million, while the total sale returned HK$46.3 million.
