Lot 47, a stunning looking Drakenstein Stud-bred colt by Vercingetorix (Picture: Candiese Lenferna)
There have been rumours flying around for a week or two that Lot 47 at the BSA August Sale, which started today (Thursday), would challenge South African auction records and although he did not even get halfway to the SA record auction price of R9 million the bidding was swift and reached a huge R4 million before beng knocked down to Jonathan Snaith.
The Drakenstein Stud-bred Vercingetorix colt is beautifully conformed and is out of the twice Gr 1 Majorca Stakes-winner Clouds Unfold, who is by What A Winter.
Clouds Unfold, trained by Candice Bass-Robinson, won nine times and besides her two Majorca wins she also won two Gr 2s and a Gr 3 as a two-year-old.
Vercingetorix had four lots on this year’s BSA August Sale, all sold on day one, and averaged R1,431,250, which was similar to his BSA National Yearling Sale average of 1,435,000.
The top lot, who is called Le Soleil, is a November foal so that might have been why he did not appear at the Race Coast Sales March Day 1 Sale or the BSA Nationals.
There were five seven figure lots, two of them by Vercingetorix and three of them by Rafeef.
Rafeef had the highest aggregate of R8,900,000 and his 13 lots sold out of 17 available averaged 684,615.
The second highest lot at the Sale was a Wilgerbosdrift-bred Rafeef filly out of the Gr 1 SA Fillies Classic-winning Fort Wood mare Athina and she fetched R1.7 million.
The Sale confirmed the current bullishness in SA racing as the average was up to R324,125 from R280,156 last year and the Median was up from R160,000 to R260,000, although there is still a day to go in the Sale.
Jonathan Snaith was the leading buyer and Wilgerbosdrift Stud were the leading vendor.
