Lot 1 of New Zealand Bloodstock's 2011 National Yearling Sales Series got the auction off to a flying start today at Karaka, with the son of High Chaparral reaching $600,000, only to be surpassed once during the day.

The sole purchase by Mark Casey's Surf Coast Racing from Victoria, Lot 1 is the full sister to the Group 3 winning Fairy Oak, and also the first of this year's 35 High Chaparral yearlings to go under the hammer.

It took most of the day before the early highlight was overtaken, with the colt by Danehill Dancer at Lot 179 fetching $800,000 to the bid of prominent New Zealand buyer David Ellis. The half-brother to Pure Harmony (Stravinsky), offered by Cambridge Stud, is earmarked for next year's million dollar sales incentive race, the Karaka Million.

"He is a very athletic colt, the ideal type of horse for the Karaka Million and we will be aiming him at the race," confirmed David Ellis.

"It would be great to see him running in the New Zealand two-year-old Group 1 races, and if he is successful, perhaps race him in Australia as a three-year-old.

The top lot of day 1, the Danehill Dancer colt from the Zabeel mare Ballycairn at Lot 179. "He's a great colt, the real deal. He is by a hugely successful international sire out of a good Zabeel mare, a fantastic broodmare sire whose daughters are proving valuable and highly successful at stud."

The Sale settled into a steady pace for most of the day, with final figures reflecting some competitive yet selective purchasing. With 253 of the 503 Premier lots catalogued today, the sale average ended the day at $165,894, down 9% on last year's final Premier Sale average of $181,557, at a clearance rate of 76%.

The Sale median is currently tracking at $130,000, just shy of last year's $135,000. Total takings for the day are $29,861,000 for 180 horses sold so far.

David Ellis, the leading buyer on Day One with 14 horses purchased for $2,458,500, was one of the few New Zealand buyers featuring on the results sheets that were dominated by the strong Australian buying bench assembled.

"It is important to remember that we are in a recession but good horses, with good pedigrees that look the part, are selling very well," commented Ellis.

"There have been a few that we have not been able to buy and a few that went well above what we thought they would so it has been tough buying at times."

"The bottom end of the sale is not as strong which hasn't been helped by the weak domestic market."

New Zealand Bloodstock's Co-Managing Director Petrea Vela shared a similar view of the day's proceedings.

"The highlight of today has been the great international interest we've had at Karaka, with the Australian buying bench in particular probably as strong as we've ever had. But the increased Australian activity has been offset by the remarkable decrease in participation by the local buyers. Today the New Zealand spend is down 32% compared with the first day last year ($9,132,500 v $6,203,500) which has had an effect on the results.

"It was always going to be very hard to repeat the great results we had here last year, but the sale has started well and improved markedly over the course of the day. There's definitely some fire in the market - with the last two hours of selling averaging nearly $200,000 - so hopefully some of that strength can roll over into tomorrow as well."

The Hong Kong Jockey Club is currently the second leading buyer with five purchases for $1,550,000, including a top price of $440,000 paid for the Encosta de Lago colt from Bennelong Belle (Lot 193).

Leading the Australian buying bench so far is Lloyd Williams' Hudson Conway Racing, with five purchases for $1,370,000, including the Zabeel colt from champion racemare Seachange bought for $500,000.

Also amongst those featuring prominently from Australia are Bart Cummings, Connelly Bloodstock, John O'Shea and Gai Waterhouse.

With the prominence in this year's Sale of hotshot sire High Chaparral, Sir Patrick Hogan's reign as leading vendor is being challenged by Nelson & Rodney Schick's Windsor Park Stud who have sold eight yearlings by the gun sire so far. Amongst them, the curtain raiser at Lot 1 plus seven others all heading to new homes in Australia.

So far Windsor Park Stud has sold 21 entries for $3,915,000 at an average of $111,857. Cambridge Stud has sold 15 for $3,675,000 at the higher average of $145,100.

Day 2 of the Premier Sale commences tomorrow (Tuesday 1 February) at 11am, with Lots 254 to 503. The Sale will continue on Wednesday with the three-day Select Sale followed by the two-day Festival Sale.