Chad Ormsby has enjoyed numerous successes on the racetrack this year with Pinhooks that he was unable to sell at the Ready to Run Sale, but the multi-talented rider had a very different result with the standout member of his 2024 Riverrock Farm Draft in Karaka Thursday.
Ormsby trained 2022 Ready to Run lots Pulchritudinous and Outovstock and won this year's Gr.1 Up-to-date Zealand Oaks (2400m) and Gr.3 Manawatu Classic (2000m) respectively, with Pulchritudinous subsequently selling to Australian-based powerhouse Yulong Investments became.
Chad Ormsby of Rivverock Farm, photo: Trish Dunell
On Thursday, Ormsby found what he was looking for in a different role. He secured the highest price on the second day of the Ready to Run Sale with the sale of Lot 288 worth $775,000, a colt by Churchill out of the unraced Pierro mare Bagitol. Ormsby had paid just A$25,000 to buy the colt at the Inglis Melbourne Premier Yearling Sale in March.
“We honestly couldn’t believe we got such a high quality colt for this price in Melbourne earlier this year,” Ormsby said. “We rated him so highly from the moment we first saw him and he has developed exactly as we had hoped. There are so many times in this business where things can go wrong, but throughout his preparation he has continued to evolve. He really has become the horse we always expected.”
The colt won a test at Waipa on October 1, after which Ormsby took a gigantic risk and turned down a significant offer to buy him privately. Lot 288 impressed in his Breeze-Up at Te Rapa later that month, where he clocked 10.42 seconds.
“He performed really well before the opening games and after that performance we knew we had a very special individual,” Ormsby said. “We turned down good money after this process. It was a lot of money and it wasn't simple to say no, especially for a petite operation like ours with only about 10 horses a year.
“But we wanted to promote ourselves and our brand and thought the best way to do that was to take the risk, decline the offer and proceed with the sale. This ready-to-run sale is also our home, it is our local sale and we believe it is the best sale of its kind, so we wanted to support the sale too.”
While Ormsby went into Thursday with high hopes of a prize of over $500,000, he admits he was blown away by the final price of $775,000. The colt was sold to Patella Bloodstock and is destined for Hong Kong.
“It's an amazing result and it's just a credit to the horse, it's an absolute weapon of an animal,” Ormsby said.
