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Pakistan Star is just one reason why Richards relishes his International Sale role

10/03/2017

By David Morgan

Mark Richards could do nothing but cringe when the Shamardal youngster he had placed his faith in decided to play monkey at last year’s Hong Kong International Sale (HKIS) breeze-up.

“I nearly died when he did that!” he says.

Just a week before the brown gelding’s date in the auction ring, and in full view of prospective buyers watching attentively from the Sha Tin grandstand, the obstinate three-year-old refused to muster more than a walk. After several minutes of stop-start, the German-bred, purchased out of the 2014 Arqana Deauville Yearling Sale for €180,000, relented to canter and away he went.

One year on, that recalcitrant is known as Pakistan Star, the poster boy of the Hong Kong International Sale. Since Kerm Din raised his hand and paid HK$6 million, the Shamardal has earned a cult following with his surging deep runs, breath-taking wins and exasperating defeats. And, on Sunday 19 March, he will line up as a leading chance in the race every Hong Kong owner wants to win, the BMW Hong Kong Derby. 

“Pakistan Star,” Richards says, “in the six years I’ve been doing this job, he’s a standout. And for all the reasons that have been mentioned many times before now: how he turned up late for the sale, the unprepared way that he looked at the sale, that refusal to breeze and then everything he’s done since. He and Bullish Friend, they are the two.

“We bought Bullish Friend at Magic Millions in January 2011, my first sale after taking over from Mark Player,” he recalls. “He was by Court Command, a first-season sire, which isn’t something we commonly do, but like many other horses we’ve been successful with, there was Hong Kong success on the page - it’s an easier horse to sell on if it’s the right type.”

That A$170,000 purchase was sold on at the March, 2012 HKIS for HK$4 million. He would win seven times for trainer Tony Cruz and placed a half-length fifth behind champion sprinter Lucky Nine in the Chairman’s Sprint Prize.

An expert team
Richards, a Cheltenham Festival-winning former jockey and television pundit, is the Hong Kong Jockey Club’s Executive Manager, International Sale. He is the man tasked with overseeing the workings of the Hong Kong International Sale - first staged in 1995. World champion miler Good Ba Ba is chief among its several notable graduates.

This year’s sale will take place at the Sha Tin Parade Ring on Friday, 17 March, two days before the BMW Hong Kong Derby. It is a little different to most other thoroughbred auctions, and not just because of its cocktail party glitz. It is exclusive to members of the Hong Kong Jockey Club, and, even then, only to those with permission to own a racehorse; all horses are offered by the Jockey Club, which purchases them from the world’s top auction houses and prepares them for re-sale - the idea being that the Club can provide some quality control to its members, as well as offer the thrill of the sale ring.

Richards manages the process: from the point at which suitable yearlings are identified at farms and sales houses to the moment the hammer falls at Sha Tin. But he is quick to emphasise the “we” over the “I” in all of this.

“The Club has a great team of people involved in the sourcing and preparation,” he says. “In the southern hemisphere, Ric Wylie does a lot of the early leg work, he’s the short-lister, and Bruce Harvey does a great job preparing the horses pre-import.

“In the northern hemisphere, Malcolm Bastard gets them ready for us; and we have Crispin de Moubray in France and Germany, and Badgers Bloodstock - Grant and Tom Pritchard-Gordon - in the UK and Ireland short-listing horses. They do a lot of the early work so that we don’t have to go and look at every colt at the sales.”

The “we” here is Richards and Nick Columb, the Jockey Club’s Senior International Racing Consultant. Richards and Columb traverse the globe; in and out of Hong Kong throughout the year, to and from the major bloodstock auctions. The pair returned recently from the Inglis Melbourne Premier Yearling Sale, having spent A$1.31 million on four youngsters. Next stop is the Inglis Easter Sale in Sydney, and then on to the Doncaster Breeze-Up. 

“For our first get-together before a sale, Nick and I try to look at as many horses as we can,” Richards says. “For example, you need to see the first-season sires to know the sort of horses they’re producing. I generally try to see as many as possible.”

Once the yearlings are bought, Harvey and Bastard take the reins for a spell. New Zealander Harvey is based close to Cambridge, Waikato, while Bastard’s English operation is outside Marlborough, Wiltshire. The yearlings head to those respective bases and are conditioned over the next year or two of their lives in preparation for the International Sale and a racing career on Hong Kong’s tough circuit.

“Both Bruce and Malcolm are probably the best at what they do in each other’s hemisphere,” Richards affirms. “Their credentials are second to none, and with Malcolm we’re very lucky to have him because he has so much work for the Queen, John Gosden, Michael Stoute; he’s highly sought after. But, likewise, he enjoys being part of the Hong Kong International Sales team.

“Bruce has been part of the team from the very first sale and has never let his standards drop at any stage. Because of that, and his great consistency, we know exactly what we’re getting. The one thing you don’t like in this business is surprises. And we don’t get those, to a large extent. Pleasant surprises are ok!”

The Hong Kong type
“Hong Kong type” is a commonly-uttered term in these parts. Horseracing in the city is ultra-competitive; the tracks generally ride fast, at both Sha Tin and its tight, turning, undulating sister track Happy Valley - speed and balance are vital commodities. Horses that race beyond 1800m are considered to be stayers and, on that note, the calendar has only three mile-and-a-half races each season, and two of those are Group 1 standard.

“There are instant scratchings when we go to the sales, horses that we don’t need to see,” Richards says. “We wouldn’t go and look at an Authorized or a Galileo, purely because, on page, they’re not going to be the sorts of horses that suit Hong Kong racing.

“I think we do buy an athletic type of horse,” he says. “They’re rather more uniform in their overall appearance; it shows that the same people are buying them. People tell me that we tend to by a horse that is well-put-together and balanced, and that’s what I think makes an ideal Hong Kong racehorse.

“The agents we have, they look at all these horses and if there does happen to be something that’s against the grain they alert us to it. So we don’t miss any opportunity. So much of it is checking, re-checking and making sure you don’t miss opportunities,” he continues.

“Our budget allows us to buy a good racehorse but it’s very hard for us to compete on those good-paged horses because there are so many syndicators now working the sales and they’re constantly on the lookout for stallion potential. That area of the market is very competitive.”

Looking to the future

The HKIS sale team is always looking towards improvement and that means some tweaks here and there. Regular vet checks for the youngsters pre-import have been introduced in recent times, reducing the potential for unwanted shocks. The Club has also shifted policy, so that horses are now heading to the sale at age three, rather than two. Richards views this as a positive move.

“It became very obvious when John Size came here that he was very successful with four-year-olds making debuts, which was something that hadn’t really happened previously,” he observes. “But when you think about it, the more time you can give a horse to mature in natural surroundings, the better for the horse long-term. So over the course of the last six years we’ve leaned towards bringing in more three-year-olds than two-year-olds, and this year is the first that all the horses are three.

“We’re putting the horses’ interests first and doing what is best by each individual,” he continues. “I think it’s very hard for two-year-olds to fit into the system here, and we’re trying to ensure horses have longevity as well as being able to perform. Because of that, one area where we are able to buy horses is the late foals. They’re less attractive to trainers and owners that want two-year-old runners. It’s not as important to us because of the time we can give them.” 

Hands on
Richards has spent a lifetime obsessing about racehorses. At age three he told his parents he would be “the Lester Piggott of jump racing”; on his 10th birthday, he had his first riding lesson; he forged a good career as a jump jockey, “I rode my winners but I was never top ten”, and a second career as a TV pundit - first in the UK and then, from August, 1999, in Hong Kong. But after a decade in the city, Richards was itching to get “hands on” again.

“I retired from riding in June, 1999, so up until I started this job in 2011, that was the longest I’d ever gone without being in daily contact with horses,” he says. “Doing this now has given me more happiness than anything else - being back with the yearlings - because I’m with the horses. I can pat a horse on the neck and feed it carrots.

“It’s being involved; it’s running your hand down a horse’s legs,” he says. “I do that with the yearlings because I want to feel what its legs are like: the differences between the suspensory, the tendon, the cannon bone. In my own mind I know what I want to feel. If I don’t like the feel, that will affect my decision because my experience will tell me that this sort of horse is good and this sort isn’t. It is proper hands on.”

Richards has a soft spot for all the horses he has been involved with in the past six years. In that time there have been successes and failures, and failures that turned into successes.

“Supreme Profit!” he says. “I couldn’t believe it when he was in Class 5. I genuinely believed he was a good horse and I was mortified that he had to drop to Class 5 to win a race. But, hey-ho, it’s all come right in the end.”

Supreme Profit was almost two years in Hong Kong before he broke his maiden at start eight. Two and a half years on from that breakthrough, the Encosta De Lago six-year-old has won nine from 37, including this season’s Group 3 Centenary Vase Handicap.

“You remember all of them,” Richards says. “At the end of the day, you bought them all because you liked them. But as they progress some give you reasons to remember them more.”

Last year’s graduates have already given him plenty of good memories: 75% of those that have raced have made the first four; nine are individual winners, including Pakistan Star who has three wins and three seconds on the board.

“A win in any company is enjoyable but when they’re climbing to the top of the tree and performing well, it gives you a real buzz,” Richards declares.

It would be some buzz for him and his dedicated team if Pakistan Star were to become the Hong Kong International Sale’s first Derby winner.

Mark Richards, the Jockey Club��s Executive Manager, International Sale, is happiest when he is working closely with the HKIS youngsters.
Photo 1:
Mark Richards, the Jockey Club��s Executive Manager, International Sale, is happiest when he is working closely with the HKIS youngsters.

Pakistan Star, last year��s Hong Kong International Sale graduate, makes a winning debut in Hong Kong last season.
Photo 2:
Pakistan Star, last year��s Hong Kong International Sale graduate, makes a winning debut in Hong Kong last season.

Bullish Friend, a 2012 HKIS graduate, won seven races including this in Class 2.
Photo 3:
Bullish Friend, a 2012 HKIS graduate, won seven races including this in Class 2.

 

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