Bindaboo Fetches $55,000 at AOTS

A big crowd converged at Heath and Rozzie Ryan’s Heatherbrea property over the weekend for the 2010 Auction of the Stars where the leading lot of the day was the talented one-star level eventer Bindaboo.

Campaigned by Heath throughout his career the nine year old gelding’s competition record boasts numerous wins and looks to have to goods to be competitive higher up the grades justifying his $55,000 price tag.

The second highest priced lot of the day was Lot 26, Alicat, a seven year old chestnut gelding training at medium level. Auctioneer Andrew Hearn‘s festive gavel finally fell at $40,000 for the popular son of Alabaster.

Heath Ryan said of the sale “Overall I was pleased with the sale, ideally we’d be able to sell everything but with current market it was always going to be a bit harder. We’re looking at the big picture and the sale is growing in popularity year upon year which is the main thing.”

“This year we sold horses to every state in Australia expect the Northern Territory. West Australian buyers were particularly strong with six or seven heading over there”.

The current tough market was evident with only half the horses offered selling on the day. That said, there were some real bargains for astute buyers including Lot 17, Blenheim Park Sandriah, the yearling Sir Donnerhall filly who sold for $15,000. The well-conformed yearling had obviously developed a lot since she was filmed for the Sale, highlighting the importance of turning up on the day to see the horses in the flesh.

Another that flew under the radar was Lot 38, the five year old El Bundy gelding, Ribbleton Espresso who made a pretty nice shape over a fence and only fetched $7,000. El Bundy is a sire of exceptional show jumping breeding, being in the top 1% of stallions for jumping in Germany on his breeding value of 154 and looks to have passed this onto his son.

Among the passed in lots was the quality Jive Magic mare, GP Jena. Standing at 16.2hh, she is a lovely scopey mare with three good paces and a temperament to match. She too appeared to have improved a lot training wise since the filming for the auction and is currently listed on Horsezone. 

All told, 19 horses sold on the day for an average price of $22,220 and and aggregate of $384,185.

Click here for the Auction of the Stars website.