The 2026 NZB Ready to Run Sale will be the fourth appearance for Barry Donoghue’s BMD Bloodstock and is shaping up to be the biggest one yet.
A multi-talented horseman, Donoghue was a successful jumps jockey and later bred the Group One winner Globe (NZ) (Charm Spirit).
Sold by Cambria Park as a yearling at Karaka 2020 for $22,000, Globe has won six races and more than $1.2m, headed by last year’s Group One Might And Power Stakes (2000m) on Caulfield Guineas Day.
Donoghue subsequently launched his own business, and BMD Bloodstock made its sale-ring debut at the 2023 Ready to Run Sale at Karaka. There were 11 horses in that draft and all 11 of them were sold, fetching a total of $1,190,000 and an average price of $108,181. The top price was $290,000.
Things have been on an upward trajectory since then, with BMD Bloodstock taking up a position among the top six vendors by aggregate and average over the last two years.
At the 2024 Ready to Run Sale, BMD Bloodstock sold 10 horses for $2,120,000. The average price was $212,000, and the draft’s top lot fetched $625,000.
Last year those numbers grew again, with 15 horses selling for $2,845,000 at an average of $189,667. The top price hit $700,000.
Multiple winners have come out of those drafts, such as the three-race winner Kosta (NZ) (War Decree) and the promising Chisora (NZ) (Belardo), who was sold to Hong Kong following a smart maiden win at New Plymouth on New Year’s Eve in 2024. Renamed Nezha, the gelding has since been a winner in Hong Kong.
Another graduate, Mindgames (Maurice), has had three starts for two wins and a placing and will contest Saturday’s A$2m Group One Spring Champion Stakes (2000m) in Sydney for the O'Shea & Charlton Racing team in the OTI Racing colours.
“We’ve done alright through our first few years of doing this,” Donoghue said. “We’ve been quite lucky and have been very pleased with the results.
“We’ll be selling 18 horses this time around, and I think it’s another really nice draft. Whether or not they’ll be headline horses remains to be seen, but I’m very happy with them and there’s a lovely and diverse range of stallions represented.
“Some of them are horses that we pinhooked ourselves, and we’ve brought in some new investors with us this year, so hopefully we’ll get some good results for them.
“The Ghaiyyath might be the highest-profile one in our draft at this stage, but we’ll see what happens once we get to Karaka next month. I’m happy to let the horses do the talking.”
The Ghaiyyath colt is catalogued as Lot 139 and was bought for A$70,000 as a yearling in Australia. He is out of All Enfield (Red Ransom), a full-sister to Group One winner All American (Red Ransom) and half-sister to the multiple Group Two winner and Group One-placed More Strawberries (More Than Ready). All Enfield is already the dam of four winners from five foals to race.
The BMD Bloodstock consignment also includes progeny of State of Rest, King of Comedy, Bivouac, Proisir, Contributer, Santos, Tagaloa, All Too Hard, Savabeel, Alabama Express, Anders, Cool Aza Beel, Pride of Dubai, Strasbourg and Shocking.
Donoghue’s enthusiasm for his draft only increased following the Breeze-Ups at Te Rapa last week.
“I was very happy with the way they all breezed up,” he said. “They all ran between 10.4 and 11.2, so they were nice and even, and I was really proud of the way they all handled themselves. They couldn’t have done any better.”
The 2026 edition of the Ready to Run Sale will take place at the Karaka Sales Centre from 11am (NZT) on 18 & 19 November.
