Racehorse TALK

DD I heard it and I thought maybe he will ask if they have chinese restaurants in HK 

saint or sinner. ??????????

The sale where money changes pockets rather than hands
Email Printer friendly version Normal font Large font John Schell
January 12, 2009

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WELCOME to "Rortsville", better known as the Magic Millions sale. An extravaganza where million-dollar babies make headlines. But does money really change hands?

"This is a good walking colt," screams the auctioneer as a juvenile enters the ring.

Good walker. Please. Aren't thoroughbreds supposed to run?

At $2 million for the sale-topping Encosta De Lago colt you'd want a really fast horse. Or would you?

"This colt has a real stallion's pedigree," is another catchcry. "You've bought yourself a nice colt there."

Over the past five days, 885 yearlings were catalogued for sale at the Gold Coast.

Gai Waterhouse will train the $2m colt as well as a $1m Redoute's Choice colt. A $1.2m Redoute's Choice-Kapchat colt will go to the stables of David Hayes while he will also train a $1.1m colt by the same super stallion.

Those high prices look great in the sale statistics. They bump up the average and tell us what a success it's been despite the global economic crisis.

Great things happen at Rortsville.

And just who will race the $2m baby that is a brother to champion Sydneysider Racing To Win? Surely not worldwide breeding giant Coolmore Stud, which offered the colt for sale?

Of course it will. The Coolmore crew indicated it would keep part of the colt to race then breed with him. The remaining shares, however many, will be on-sold at the inflated sale price of $2m.

Take a look at the $1m Redoute's Choice-Strawberry Girl colt. Another with "a stallion's pedigree".

He was sold on account of Strawberry Hill Stud. That is the stud of advertising boss John Singleton, who is a part-owner of Magic Millions.

Singo has always been a great supporter of his own sale. Sells plenty of horses but buys plenty back. Don't be surprised if this one graces the track under the ownership of John Singleton and friends. He could even win next year's Magic Millions Classic sporting Singo's silks.

What about Hayes's $1.2m purchase. What a lovely looking colt he was. Well worth the money. What money?

The horse, offered by Widden Stud, was purchased as a weanling for around $620,000 by Peter Devitt and Les Gordon. After Hayes was announced as its trainer, who do you think he said he would prepare it for? Peter Devitt and Les Gordon. Yet another buy back.

There's nothing illegal or wrong with buying a horse back that you've offered for sale. But to most people the practice may seem to be aimed at obtaining the greatest benefit while remaining inside the law - Rortsville. Just be open about it.

There's no doubt buy-backs are going to continue to occur, especially at Rortsville where to be eligible for the Magic Millions races a horse has to be sold at a MM sale.

Pay the commission to MM, then fork out a nomination fee to be included in the Magic Millions race series. Seems a cheap way to qualify for a potentially lucrative payday.

MM managing director David Chester was wary before the sale that it might be slow given the tough financial times. He rated day one as "a six out of 10" with the clearance rate at 70 per cent.

But by the end of the main sale he was satisfied with the results, and so he should be.

Not all horses sold at Rortsville are pre-sale deals done to appease breeders and sale operators.

Lot 531 fetched $750,000 and was purchased for a Hong Kong owner. And there was also yearlings that Ron Croghan bought to race with Newcastle trainer Kris Lees, among them a Redoute's Choice colt for $620,000. No rort there, just cash from a wealthy man.

The same man who bought champion filly Samantha Miss from the Sydney Easter sale for $1.5m. She's already won that back, and some more, and Croghan's putting the money back into racing.

No doubt MM appreciates his support. Come back to Rortsville soon.

Grumpy

Based on Schell's info, what is your gut feel on how far down the real prices were.  MM are claiming 16%.  Anyone know what the passed in figure was?

Does anyone know if the rort is an indistry wide thing or just a Magic Millions quirk because of the sales related races downstream.  Maybe we need integrity services for the breeding / sales industries.  Gee, and to think people claimed Betfair was naughty.

The mob in the Sunday papers are the laziest & worst in the game.

Unless you spanking the monkey because you've backed the winner theres no point in reading any articles in the Sunday papers.
You never get told about the race, how it was run, who was unlucky.

Just some froth and bubble gushing about the winner or connection.......who cares

Wily

I gave away buying the Sunday papers years ago, about when they started printing them on Saturday morning.

This is a good article by Schell. It certainly beats some of the other fluff written by hacks at the sales on a junket. Hopefully he follows through with it and continues to report this sort of stuff.

A sales code of practice has been mooted so that these buy backs are declared and other dodgy practices are banned (such as 'bungs' from vendors to buyers). But they're so ingrained that no one really wants to give them up it seems. Unless a code of practice was linked to real penalties it would be just fluff anyway.

Do these "buy-backs" distort the sale averages by that much?

I'd think by only the premium that the buy-back bid was in excess of the top third-party bid.

The more distorting practice is the exclusion of the passed-in lots.

A better percentage to examine to determine the interest generated by a Sale would be the total of the top bids for all lots divided by the number of lots offered, whether sold or passed in.

What did Disraeli say?

Lies, damned lies, and statistics?

   I don't reckon Singo has ever been concerned about his reputation.

Self regulation might work ok in some industries, but there are some where it's a shambles as well. If you were to ask breeders across the country whether there should be controls in place, most would answer yes, particularly smaller ones who would benefit most from greater transparency.

Below article from the Ken Callender. Why are the media suddenly turning on Hong kong after so much positive stories. Is it because it is bigger than australian racing at times with more o/s horses racing in their cups.

Why the support for our Hong Kong rivalsArticle from: Font size: Decrease Increase Email article: Email Print article: Print Submit comment: Submit comment By Ken Callander

January 14, 2009 12:00am

WHEN Ross McDonald outlined plans for Weekend Hussler at Rosehill last Saturday there were three races in Melbourne in his program, one in Dubai and one in Hong Kong.

Sydney did not rate a mention.

Yet you still find some media men and administrators who trip over themselves to stay sweet with Hong Kong.

Wouldn't it have been nice to see The Hussler set for the Ryder Stakes, the Doncaster or the All Aged Stakes?

Hong Kong is one of our racing rivals. Those in power in Honkers don't worry about us and we shouldn't worry about them.

There has been talk during the week that Hong Kong buyers may not be active at the Inglis sale at Easter, because of the Chris Munce affair. This followed the Hong Kong Jockey Club representative Mark Player being more active than usual at the Magic Millions at the Gold Coast, where he spent $3.41 million on 19 yearlings.

If Player wants to buy at the second best sale and boycott the premier sale that is his prerogative. As a former employee of the VRC he would know the breeding industry does not run the Australian racing industry.

I KNOW Gary Portelli's Redoute's Choice colt Lighthorseman flopped at his only start when a short-priced favourite at Rosehill in August, but you should have seen him trial on Friday morning. He won't be flopping this time in.

THERE is definitely a dearth of topline stayers in Sydney and Melbourne.

The Australian Cup, the Caulfield Stakes (the Yalumba), the Cox Plate, the Mackinnon Stakes, the Chipping Norton, the Ranvet, the BMW and the Queen Elizabeth Stakes are Australia's top middle distance races.

With no Lonhro, Makybe Diva, Eremein or Desert War around, how many can name who won the eight races in 2008?

The answer is Sirmione (Australian Cup), Douro Valley (Yalumba), Maldivian (Cox Plate), Theseo (Mackinnon), Casino Prince (Chipping Norton), Tuesday Joy (Ranvet and BMW) and Sarrera (Queen Elizabeth).

They are not really a group to get your pulse racing, are they?

IT is great to see the new board of Racing NSW is not sitting on its hands and held a meeting on Monday with all sections of the industry in relation to programming and the size of Sydney's fields.

IN a coincidence, as of yesterday morning, the Warwick Farm twins, Nathan and Tommy Berry, had each ridden 35 winners this season to sit at the top of the state apprentices' title.

Tommy has been on the sidelines in the past few weeks due to suspension, but he will be back in business at Wyong today and ready to fire.

The two 17-year-olds are rare talents and extremely popular with Farm trainers, not just because of their ability, but because of their work ethic and their eagerness to ride work.

KATHY O'Hara is the leading female rider in the state this season with 35 wins ahead of Leanne Henry, 26, and Jessie Whipp, 19.

Thanks to turf statistician Gowan Williams I can tell you 44 female riders have won races in NSW since August 1 and another 23 have had mounts.

Watch out fellas, the girls are catching up.

MARK Wallace, the 35-year-old Irishman who is setting up stables at Warwick Farm, is a former assistant to Aidan O'Brien.

Since taking out his own licence based at Newmarket in England, Wallace has had good success, including winning a Group One race at Longchamps on Arc day in 2007.

My UK contacts tell me Wallace is an excellent 'money' trainer.

In a recent article the young trainer told Alan Lee of The Times: "People might wonder why I'm leaving when things are going well here, but this is a chance to do something that's never been done before."

MY midweek tip is Foxy One (Race 2) at Canterbury on Thursday night.

...... We, NSW racing, told the rest of the racing world to GoFuTh over the Chrissy Muncey affair and now we wonder why we are being snubbed ........

Grow up NSW racing ...... you deserve no part of the REAL RACING WORLD ... you made it clear by giving Munce a licence to ride that you did not want to be part of the rest of the racing world. You chose to stand alone .... and alone you will be ......