The WA Sales Classic will again be held in April next season.
BOTRA expressed their opinion to Gloucester Standardbreds, Gloucester Park and RWWA and applaud Gloucester Standardbreds and Gloucester Park for coming to this decision.
Gloucester Park have also agreed to run two 3yo races restricted to Gloucester Standardbreds graduates on the Friday before the sale which is a great initiative.
BOTRA’s view on the WA Sales Classics can be viewed below:
BOTRA wishes to reiterate its position that the WA Sales Classics should be run later in the season than February, as it was this season.
This season we saw the Classics run in late April and we saw near full heats of horses with exposed form (many with winning form). The finals were also very competitive races.
The heats and finals were in fact a great advertisement for the yearling sale because of their depth and competitiveness.
We also understand that the vendors have been consulted in this and the majority would like to see them run later in the season than February, which is an extremely valid point when considering the date of the Sales Classic.
The many owners and trainers we have spoken to are also in favour of the Classics being run later in the season as it gives their horses more chance to mature and gives more horses an opportunity to race in the Classics without being pushed to do so.
While we can understand the opinion that the Sales Classics should be run before the Annual Yearling sale for promotional purposes, we believe that the Yearling Sale can be promoted in other ways and in reality the state of the industry and the quality of the catalogue are much bigger factors in the success of the Yearling Sale.
It is also worth noting that the two major standardbred yearling sale companies, Australian Pacing Gold and PGG Wrightson, do not have their Sales Classics before their yearling sales and they achieve prices which we can only dream about in Western Australia.
By keeping the Sales Classics later in the season we believe that it is a better outcome for all concerned especially the horses.
