Summerhill Associates top New Zealand sale

Peter Yip and Sam Williams (nztm)

In a Broodmare sale conducted by New Zealand Bloodstock at their Karaka complex this week, in which turnover was up a staggering 81%, the dominant buyer was the Summerhill-associate Hong Kong Breeders Club.  Peter Yip’s organisation was the buyer of the second top priced mare (by Sadlers Wells) at NZ$210,000, (R1.4  million) among five in total in which the Breeders Club was the biggest buyer on the day.  

It’s a remarkable statement on the bloodstock industry, that in a world in which economists and bankers have become the “whistl blowers”, virtually every sale world-wide this year has moved strongly in a bullish direction.  Perhaps horses are an exception, for the fact that racing is now a universal business in which the western hemisphere is no longer the only dominant player.

The Hong Kong Breeders Club, which has interests in a number of stallions world-wide, have obviously adopted the strategic view of investing in sons of the world’s most dominant stallions of our era, DANEHILL, in a country in which there is a singular dearth of quality representatives.  We speak of course, of our own beloved South Africa, where breeders have pretty much missed the DANEHILL boat, save for Summerhill, where we have three Graded Stakes winning sons, and in two of which (WAY WEST and STRONGHOLD) the Hong Kong Breeders Club have a meaningful interest.

And they don’t only invest in stallions, because they know good mares make good stallions. In acquiring fifteen choice broodmares last season, they put their money where their mouths are.