NATIONAL YEARLINGS AUCTION Sale proposal not backed

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33819, 16 April 1975, Page 8

NATIONAL YEARLINGS AUCTION Sale proposal not backed

<A.2 Press Association) WELLINGTON. The council of the New Zealand Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association does not support the idea of an unreserved National Yearling Sale. This policy decision came after extended discussion at a council meeting in Palmerston North last Friday. The adoption of the’ unreserved method ot selling was proposed in some quarters after the National Sale last January, when passings rocketed from less than 2 per cent of the offering in 1974 to about 25 pei cent. This was a return to the! figures of more than six years ago, before the National became a selected sale. It was greeted with disappointment, because a high rate of passing slows the sale and lessens bujer confidence. Slection brought a drama-! tic drop in passings, and' two years ago a passing fee of 2 per cent of the highestbid was introduced. The result was a level of passing; which was close <o being irreducible. That coincided with a record market, but this year; Trentham followed earlier* -ales into a relative reces- i sion. While many vendors aprequire the values of 1974. buyers were not' prepared to go to such heights, and in a disturbing number of cases the gulf proved unbridgeable. Base price The unreserved sale is one in which no base price is put on a yearling. At oresent. in theurv anyway/

I the auctioneer holds a card ■ for each yearling carrying I the minimum price the venidor will accept. ; In many cases, however, no reserve card is provided. (With the vendor behind and ■ a bidder out front, the auctioneer sometimes has been forced into rather abrupt tactics to avoid becoming , the centre of a time-wasting, ’•three-way change-alley '(haggling session. I This unbusinesslike way I of selling a horse is no more ,popular with the council ’[ than the auctioneers, and to /forestall it the council will make a three-point recommendation to the auctioneers, Wrightson N.M.A. and Pyne, Gould, Guiness. •That reserve carus should ;i become mandatory in practice as well as in principle. • That the 2 per cent passing fee should be retained but that it should be assessed on the carded reserve and not, as at j present, on rhe highest bid. This latter system has led to disputes." ' That if no reserve card is I provided the yearling i will be sold to the highest bidder regardless of the price. • In this case, says the (council, the vendor ”should- | pay the full commission of 71 I per cent if he buys in his l [yearling. A motion to this effect' ■ was carried after the failure of an amendment from an Auckland representative proposing that colts and filies should automatically go on the market on reaching the average price realised by their sex at the previous! National Sale. In a debate on the matter the Waikato branch declared itself uneasy about a major change, such as the removal of reserves so soon after the National Sale which suffered a 33 per cent drop in aver-; age. This might, it felt, be no more than a panic tneas-i ure. The council will propose to the auctioneers that they change the purpose of the 2 per cent passing fee by allo-! eating half of this revenue to' the association. Soundness The council spent considerable time on the question ofi the soundness of the vear- ; lings offered at Trentham. This has been a point of criticism more than once in re-1 cent vears.

i( Several possible remedies ; I were suggested. They in(eluded the suggestion that I veterinarians should accompany the auctioneers’ reprejsentatives who inspect the I;yearlings, and that yearlings (should be subject to a second (inspection close to sale time. :l These schemes finally were mainly because they ,’were considered impracticiable. ■ The council finally decided to recommend that all year- : lings should be inspected on arrival at Trentham. While it > was recognised that this would not solve the problem of unsuitable horses occupying, boxes at the expense of others, the council felt it would strengthen buyers’ confidence in the quality of the offering. Two motions were carried as recommendations to the auctioneers. More rigorous The first proposed that the initial inspection, which is (done some months before the (sale, should be more rigorous (than at present. ( The second backed this up (with the suggestion that all I yearlings should be inspected (bv a panel, including a veterinary surgeon, after arriving) ! at Trentham. I , 1

I The council briefly disI cussed the necessity this year |to nominate for the second ;term of the Racing Authority The member who represents I both the association and the (Racing Owners’ and Trainers’ I Federation. The present representative ■ is the president of the federation (Mr J. C. Pollock) and ' the council had decided at its I February meeting to propose I its president (Mr W. E. W. (Ormond) for the seat. Representatives of the two bodies probably will meet early in May. Fees up A letter was received from the National Sale auctioneers notifying a proposal to increase the entry 7 fee for the national sale from $75 to!$100. The fee last went, up in ■ 1971, from $5O to $75. and since then, say the auctioneers, the expense of produc- j tag the catalogue has risen I more than 46 per cent and the; cost of advertising and pro-1 motion has gone up 44 per! cent. It is intended to leave the Waikato entry 7 fee at $4O. |