Canterbury breeder Susan Walker has been selling yearlings at New Zealand Bloodstock's South Island Sale for several decades and she is enjoying the sale's unique take this year.

The sale has moved online to the gavelhouse.com plus platform as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and Walker hailed New Zealand Bloodstock for the move. “I just thought thank God New Zealand Bloodstock has come up with an idea where we can part with our horses,” Walker said. “I have been selling them at the South Island sale for a long time and I have sold some up at Karaka, but this is the first time I have sold horses online.”

Walker is offering two colts in the sale, which concludes on Sunday, under her Park Hill Stables banner and she has been pleased with the interest shown in both yearlings.

The first colt on offer through Walker's draft is lot 19, the Burgundy half-brother to dual stakes performer Upscale, while she is just as impressed with her other offering, lot 22, the Zacinto colt out of Red Ransom mare Red Tulip. “They are both brilliant looking horses. They have got good bone,” she said.

Walker has been particularly taken by the Burgundy colt and rates him as one of the best she has bred. “The Burgundy is put together beautifully. I have bred a few horses and I would say he is probably the best looking one I have ever bred,” she said. “We have had a few calls from Australia from people interested in him.”

Walker has also been impressed with the development of her Zacinto colt. “He is a nice horse,” she said. “He has actually surprised me with the way he has changed through the preparation, he has really enjoyed it.”