Eion Kemp - Kilgravin Lodge
How many years have you been bringing a draft to this sale for?
Our first sale was in 2003 with two horses.
Who are your most successful sale graduates?
Sangster winning the Group 1 VRC Derby would be our most successful graduate from the Ready To Run Sale, closely followed by Need I Say More from our sales program graduating from our 2019 yearling sale draft.
Is there anything in particular that you look for in a yearling that you are buying to breeze?
Type and walk. They all must have a good walk and look like athletes. Then I focus on sires - looking for stallions who will be well sought after. At the end of the day we have to have a product that we can market.
How do you think your draft this year compares to previous years?
Our draft this year would be comparable to last year where we had a tremendous sale. Over the past few years our results have spoken for themselves, the lots from our 2019 draft are just hitting the tracks now and our 2018 draft is currently running at 65 per cent winners to runners while the 2017 draft has 70 per cent winners to runners.
The system that we have in place is working, producing good sound horses that go on to perform, with our winners coming from all New Zealand’s main markets.
Of your 2020 draft which are your standouts?
It’s hard to identify individuals, there is a horse for every market and everyone sees different things that they like, but if I had to pick one stand out it would be Vancouver – Maddie de Belle colt. He is a lovely balanced horse with a great physique and action to go with it.
How do you think the sale will be affected by the current travel / COVID situation?
It will have an impact. Marketing our horses is huge this year and has been a bigger focus. New Zealand Bloodstock market the sale as a whole well but we need to get our own horses out to the people. This year we had the breeze up jockeys give their thoughts on their horse straight after they had breezed up. We have also recorded the horses gallops, so people can see the progression of each horse. These have all been placed along with other information into a e-book which can be downloaded from our website.
Have you seen any changes in the way breeze up horses are prepared in New Zealand over the past few years?
There have been changes over the last five to six years, in the past there used to be only a few vendors that did a great job now it is very competitive with six to eight vendors that do a top job. At the same time the quality of horses that are sold through the sale has risen immensely.
