Looking at the numbers from the 2018 NYS makes for interesting reading.
There has most certainly been an improvement from recent years!
The top lot fetched R 5,200,000; marginally beating the R5,000,000 record for this sale set in 2017.
The R 362,649 average still falls short of the record established in 2008 when it topped out at R391,148.
The median of R 200,000 is about average and short of the 2008 figure of R250,000.
The R140,345,000 aggregate ranks fourth after 2008, 2010 & 2009.
But all of these figures should be seen against the reality that there was no CTS sales company prior to 2012 (?) and far fewer sales in previous years; all of which have to impact on the total 'pot' available to purchase horses.
Adjust these figures for inflation and a fairly clear message comes through; the market has, to some extent, responded to rising keep costs and relatively sluggish stakes increases by capping sales totals. Yes - the 'rand' numbers are now recovering but one must calculate what a 'rand' buys compared to 10 years ago when the records were set.
A lot is being made of opening the market for export. I am not entirely sure that this will make the South African racing product itself more attractive outside of offering better prospects for breeders and horses good enough to travel.
We also seem doomed to revisit a mindset & outcome that was experimented with in the early 90's and then discarded - incentivising the racing of immature, juvenile horses. CTS revived it with RTR, $1 million races etc., and BSA seems to be imitating it with bonuses for JUVENILE maidens and the like.
As much as the ultimate dream of most owners is allegedly being a July or Met winner the commercial interests lean mostly towards producing sprinter/milers.
When viewed over the last few decades only the Oppenheimer family appears to have remained consistent in attempting to introduce blood into our pedigrees aimed at producing classic horses. And by classic I mean horses capable of winning at distances from 2000m and beyond.
This contrasts quite dramatically with how things were when I came into racing. Back then we boasted a number of stallions with proven track records in the real classics ; High Veldt being a typical example. If I am not mistaken I believe he ran 2nd in the Epsom Derby of his generation. We would be lucky to snare the runner up in this year's event for our breeding sheds.
So it looks as if we will need to remain content with perhaps starring in races of up to 1600m/1800m (if we are lucky) in Europe & the USA and perhaps more so in Asian, Arab & Chinese jurisdictions. But our bloodlines do not appear to stretch as far as Ascot, Epsom, Goodwood or the major US classics.
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