Haunui Farm stallion Elusive City (USA) (Elusive Quality) continued his recent trend of high demand last night when at the New Zealand Racing Hall of Fame dinner, a nomination that was donated by the Elusive City Partnership, was auctioned.

Elusive City stood for a fee of $8,000 + GST in 2009 but last night’s auction saw this level surpassed relatively quickly, the package – including $3000 worth of agistment donated by Haunui Farm – eventually knocked down to the bid of Ivan Grieve for the princely sum of $21,000.  From Hawke’s Bay, Ivan has had a lifelong interest in racing with a number of horses in the stable of John Bary at the present time.  The underbidders for the service fee and agistment package were the Taranaki Jockey Club.

“It was great to see the package raise such a great amount of money for the Hall of Fame,” said Mark Chitty, General Manager of Haunui Farm.  “It is also nice to see Elusive City held in such high regard, it is certainly a pretty exciting time in his career with Brave Kid one of the favourites for the Hong Kong Derby,” he said.