While the champion gallopers of the future go under the hammer over the next six days at Karaka, today a man with a true love affair for the New Zealand thoroughbred sales stole the show.
Bart Cummings has been signing up for thoroughbred yearlings in New Zealand since 1958, after doing a bit of research when he first started training.
“When I was first training… I noticed 60 percent of the group one winners came from New Zealand,” he says.
Today the popular Australian was inducted as an honorary member of the New Zealand Racing Hall Of Fame.
However, the real reason for his visit is to pick another winner of the race he's almost made his own, the Melbourne Cup.
Cummings has won a few – 12 Melbourne Cups, with seven Kiwi-bred winners – and says the prize money is the attraction. He had back-to-back wins with Think Big in the 1970s.
The master trainer is now hoping he can get the right mix of sales business and pleasure at Karaka.
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