Australia-Bloodstock 2009 yearling sales next week.

AUSTRALIA.

BLOODSTOCK SALES.

The famous Magic Millions yearling sales, begin in Australia next week and prices are expected to be down by 30%, which with the devaluation of the dollar at a further 30%, there will be some very cheap stock sold, out of the 1,300 yearlings on offer.

Australia boasts some of the worlds finest bloodstock, since the introduction of the Stallion Shuttle service, where the best sires from the Northern Hemisphere are brought down to Australia in July, for the first day of spring in August, in keeping with the horses birthdays all being on the same day.

In Canada some excellent broad mares and horses in training, have been going for horse meat. The Canadian horse meat industry handles 100,000 horses a year for human consumption. Argentina, Australia and Canada have a large horse meat industry.

To keep a horse in work at a good trainer, costs around CA$2,000 a month and since the economic downturn, many owners have taken CA$400 from the butcher for trotting horses and race horses.

Since the ban on horse slaughter in the United States, the Canadian industry has flourished with weekly imported horses from the United States. The horse meat is exported to Norway, Iceland, Finland, Russia and many Eastern European countries.

Belgium and France, who were the main eaters of horse meat in Europe, have a very limited trade today, as diets change when economies grow