Haunui Farm stallion Elusive City (USA) (Elusive Quality) will be among the leading sires by average at the 2010 Karaka Premier Yearling Sale with his three progeny selling on the first day all reaching six figures.

Little Avondale Stud were the first to hit the jackpot with Lot 155, a colt out of Shahiid (NZ) (Pentire), a full sister to New Zealand Cup-winner Pentathon (NZ), fetching $250,000 to the bid of DGR Thoroughbreds’ Duncan Rammage, the colt almost certain to race for the Bart Cummings stable.

Danny O’Brien went to $260,000 for another colt by Elusive City, this time out of the Group Two-winner Triassic (NZ) (Tights), dam of 2009 Cox Plate-winner So You Think (NZ) (High Chaparral).

One of the later lots of the day, Lot 241, an Elusive City colt out of Woodini (Aus) (Woodman), also reached the six figure mark of $100,000 and will head to Singapore.

“It is certainly great to see the likes of Danny O’Brien and Duncan Rammage prepared to pay quarter of a million dollars for a son of Elusive City,” said Mark Chitty of Haunui Farm.  “His results in Asia have been outstanding the last couple of months with horses like Brave Kid headed for the Hong Kong Derby and All Elusive heading for the Singapore Derby,” he said.  “It’s nice to see his progeny heading to the likes of Danny O’Brien and Bart Cummings as there’s no doubt those horses will get every opportunity to succeed,” said Mark.  “It is also great to see breeders getting these kinds of returns off an $8,000 service fee and with some nice Select and Festival horses to come, I’m sure there will be a few more breeders with smiles on their faces,” he said.

Karaka 2010 continues today with the second session of the Premier Sale to get underway at 11am with the Select Sale set to kick off tomorrow at the same time.  “The first day of selling was very strong and it would be nice to see the market continue to hold up well today,” said Mark.