Emperors Palace National 2 Year Old Sale ended on Sunday. The sale, which was down 50% on the previous year after day one, ended up showing a decline of just 14% on last year’s sale. The sale’s aggregate was R25 970 000. Pleasingly, the average of R75 714 was down just 4% on last year’s average of R78 951.

The Dynasty colt, Jackson, topped the sale. Ian Longmore spent R1 million for the colt. In comparison, the top priced lot of last year was R550,000 paid for Hollywood Ridge.

The top priced yearling to sell on the final day of the sale was Need to Know. A son of champion sire Western Winter, the colt was knocked down at R950 000 to Anfield Sports. Consigned by Varsfontein Stud, the colt is out of champion Promisefrommyheart.

Anfield Sports was the leading buyer on aggregate, purchasing 13 lots for an aggregate of R3.95 million. Leading vendors by aggregate was Highlands Farm, who sold 15 lots for an aggregate of R2.1 million. Leading vendor (with three or more lots sold) by average was Varsfontein Stud, whose five offerings averaged R343 000.

The leading sire of the sale, by aggregate, was the increasingly popular Dynasty. His 11 lots to sell came to a total of R2.5 million. Western Winter was the leading sire by average, his three lots to sell averaged R440 000.

Six two-year-olds sold for R500 000 plus, whereas last year just two lots cracked the R500 000 barrier.

CEO Jan Naude said “Though the sale started slowly, being down 50% on last year after day one, it picked up momentum over the final two days. So we were pleased with the recovery, particularly as the average was down just 4%.

This year the top price of R1 million compares favourably with last year’s sale topper. It shows that good horses made decent prices, whilst the progeny of unfashionable sires struggled at the bottom end of the market. The market will continue to reject offspring of failed sires and mares, and this will continue to impact negatively on the sales prices and averages. This is reflected in the fact that 84 lots were unsold, as opposed to 28 in 2009.”