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It’s been a steady start to 2012 but Ellerslie provided a spectacular boost to the Cloughmore fortunes today with both The Jungle Boy and Durham Town recording impressive victories.

Homebred The Jungle Boy trialled encouragingly for Wednesday’s Group 1 Auckland Cup, showing impressive acceleration from the back to the field to narrowly defeat a game Titch and the favourite Shez Sinsational in the Nathans Memorial Handicap. The Cup field will also feature Single Minded and Blood Brotha, to name but two well-credentialled rivals, so it will be anything but a walk in the park next week for the Jungle Pocket 6YO. Nevertheless, there’s certainly cause for hope.

The absence of Nash Rawiller indicated that Durham Town had every chance of success in the Group 3 Darley Plate over 1200 metres – and so it proved. This horse is one serious sprinter: he’s got good gate speed, the ability to relax and a devastating turn of foot, even on tracks that don’t really suit him. In my opinion, he still has room for improvement and you wouldn’t be surprised if ultimately he was competitive in Australia.

As readers are well aware, the Falkirk gelding was bought by Donna Logan out of the Festival Sale of 2009, Cloughmore providing pedigree advice in support of the purchase. This year’s sales resulted in six lots ending up in the ownership of Cloughmore clients: fillies by Sir Percy – Devant (Zabeel), Elvstroem – Evana (Entrepreneur), Keeper – Giuliana (Zabeel), Sakhee’s Secret – Louders (Danasinga), Thorn Park – Lyric (Grosvenor) and a colt by Any Suggestion – Diaga (Kinjite). Although Premier Sale vendors found the going difficult, it was not easy to buy a quality individual at either the Select or Festival levels.

Talking of quality individuals, I was much impressed by the stock of Mettre En Jeu in the Festival Sale. The colts I saw all looked very much the same and, as Mettre En Jeu looks very much like Montjeu, this has to be good news. On following up my observations with studmaster Nigel Auret, he commented that Letham has some yearling fillies available at a reasonable price. Given the increased advantages enjoyed by fillies through the revamped handicapping system, buying a nice filly is becoming an interesting investment option.

I mentioned in my last article that there were 12 lots with a Cloughmore connection in the 2012 catalogues and promised to give readers some details about them. So here we go.

The Premier Sale includes two recommended matings, both colts. One is by Darci Brahma ex Showileo and the other a son of O’Reilly out of the Group 2 winner Star Affair. The Darci Brahma colt is a standout in terms of athleticism and I’m thrilled by the recent progress of the Danehill – Sadler’s Wells cross, Frankel being the star. The O’Reilly comes from another rock-solid family; he is a good type with an outstanding temperament. Star Way mares are always something of a challenge to mate but this one has already produced a colt and a filly by O’Reilly which have been well received in the sale ring and are showing promise in the early stages of their careers.

The Select Sale features colts by Falkirk – Baci, Bachelor Duke – Lady Cherokee, Magic Albert – Quiet Please, Strategic – Sotela and Iffraaj – Straight Lake.

The Falkirk mating had a significant conformation aspect to it; Baci is a chunky mare and Falkirk was suggested as a stallion which should provide more scope whilst retaining the mare’s speed.

Lady Cherokee is by Cherokee Run from a superb family. Cherokee Run has had mixed success as a broodmare sire but he crosses well with two stallions in particular – Seattle Slew and Mr.Prospector; Bachelor Duke has both these influences close up.

The Magic Albert and Strategic colts were in utero when their dams were purchased by clients; in both cases I felt that the unborn foals contributed significantly to the value of the packages.

As regards Iffraaj, there seems to be a very strong likelihood that his stock will represent good value. Last year his yearlings brought ridiculous prices; now that his second NH crop has not done as well as his first, the market will no doubt over-react. Buyers should remember that Iffraaj was a much better racehorse as a 4YO and a 5YO than he was in his younger days.

The Select fillies are by Pentire ex Eyes Light Up, Thorn Park – Lady Cavalier and Pins – Sheza Gem.

The Pentire is bred on the highly successful Tudor Minstrel – Star Kingdom nick with some strong Djebel influences thrown in. This is a consistent family which has produced some smart fillies over the years.

Consistency is also a major attraction of the Thorn Park filly’s family. The dam was only narrowly beaten at Group 1 level and the sire was selected to inject just a little more class into the pedigree.

The Pins mating for Sheza Gem was an obvious way of reinforcing the key Star Kingdom and Northern Dancer elements of her pedigree. It never pays to ignore the obvious.

Finally, in the Festival catalogue there are the Don Eduardo – Prangelica and the Perfectly Ready – Superbly Bred colts, both very strong matings. The former pedigree imitates that of the classy stayer All In Black; the latter is a mirror pedigree featuring some of the leading stallions and female families of thoroughbred breeding.

Incidentally, photos of the Magic Albert, Don Eduardo, Perfectly Ready and Pins yearlings can be viewed on the Totara Park Stud website.

Please feel free to contact me if you’d like further information on the above yearlings.

One of the difficulties of advising clients about mating their mares is keeping a track of their eventual decisions and the results of those decisions.

In yesterday’s edition of the Manawatu Standard there was a short article about the impressive Awapuni winner, Nashville. The writer referred to the gelding being by Darci Brahma out of the Royal Academy mare Royal Kiss. That sounded familiar so I went to the filing system and it all came back to me.

I also remembered many interesting conversations I had with the late Bob Tait on the subject of breeding thoroughbreds. One such conversation involved Bob’s determination to send a mare to the first-season sire Darci Brahma. Should he send Royal Kiss or Key of Future? On analysing their pedigrees it became apparent that both mares would suit the son of Danehill very well indeed; I wrote to Bob and commented that “both appear to be excellent matings”. The Royal Kiss mating could “produce a racehorse with real brilliance”.

I am normally quite conservative in the way I phrase recommendations but this mating did appear to be somewhat special as it contained what I regarded as at least four major nicks. There certainly was a degree of inbreeding but the nicks were the key point I raised in my letter. It is going to be very interesting indeed to follow Nashville’s progress: if he turns out as good as I suspect him to be, he’ll be a very handy point of reference for future recommendations. I’ve long been doubtful about the wisdom of slavish devotion to inbreeding; identfying successful crosses which work well with other successful crosses seems to make much more sense.

Very much on the same theory one of my own mares, Mi Minnie, had been sent to D’Cash. Her second foal by him contracted a virus in his first few months of life and when I went to inspect my colt he was so unimpressive that I decided that as soon as he was weaned I would give him away. He wasn’t worth the expense of entering him in a sale. One had to be realistic.

Well, Lucario has yet to run out of the money. The recipients of the gift horse did a great job of making him the best he could be and after three consecutive placings sold him to clients of top Australian trainer Mark Kavanagh. After a placing and a spell Lucario was entered for a 1400 metre maiden at Ballarat on Sunday. As you’ll imagine, I watched the race with mixed feelings. Still no oil painting, he nonetheless was one of those horses which you’d describe as “big enough if he’s good enough”. On this occasion he was clearly good enough and beat his nearest rival, an expensive Encosta de Lago colt, convincingly.

Hm!

It might have been only a modest R68 event at provincial Moe but Firejet’s impressive win today was a real milestone for Cloughmore.

The product of a recommended mating, the Tale of the Cat gelding showed impressive acceleration over the final 150m to score a facile victory. He’s a son of SW Superjet and, although he has the challenging temperament typical of the mare’s progeny, he clearly has the ability to win races in much better company.

I’ve always liked the Tale of the Cat – Sir Tristram cross and it’s encouraging to see that other examples of the cross are also showing considerable ability. A case in point is the highly promising sprinter Durham Town (Falkirk – Durham Walk by Marju out of a Sir Tristram mare). On the subject of Falkirk, isn’t he doing well? He’s got three really good ones in Hong Kong – plus some progressive types at home.

Getting back to the headline, it’s always pleasing to surpass previous achievements. October was a record month, producing ten winners, but narrowly missing a couple of black-type victories has served to keep the feet on the ground. Rising Tide finished a game second in his first start in open company, the listed Feilding Cup, and his half-brother The Jungle Boy almost won the race that, as a breeder, I’d like to win more than anything else – the Group 3 New Zealand Cup. This was just three days after Comanche Gold’s chapter of accidents in the Coupland’s Mile (Group 2). Let’s hope he used up all his bad luck in the process!

On the subject of hope, the recent results of the Horses In Training Sale are a great confidence booster. It’s particularly encouraging that the sale is producing more consistent results across the whole catalogue; it’s a significant boost to breeders to be presented with another viable means of marketing their stock.

Four wins in the last four days have brought our total of 2011 winners to 48, equalling last year’s record. However, of more significance than mere numbers has been the degree of promise shown by Comanche Gold, Rising Tide, The Jungle Boy and Showcause.

Certainly, Showcause – last season’s Mercedes Stayer of the Year – is a proven galloper but his run in The Bart Cummings last weekend held real promise for his Australian campaign. He appears to have been thrown into the Melbourne Cup with just 50.5 kg, but the downside of that is that he’s going to have to win something significant between now and the first Tuesday in November. If he can get a firm track he must have a serious chance of a win and that vital re-handicap.

Comanche Gold’s win at Riccarton on Saturday raises the question of just how good he is. One never wants to get too far ahead of oneself in racing but I was thrilled with his win. Until now he had appeared to be a little one-dimensional, all his wins having been from the front, but his finishing burst to beat a good field of sprinters was encouraging to say the least.

The previous day, Rising Tide clearly appreciated his return to Trentham and the distance of 2100m to score a tough win against an admittedly weak field of Rating 90 gallopers. This was his third win this preparation and it’s great to see our syndicate members enjoying the ride. He will be aimed at a R90 2200 event at Trentham’s Labour Weekend meeting.

Not to be outdone, our Shinko King gelding’s older half-brother The Jungle Boy scored a strong win at Whangarei last month. I note that he is a late nomination for the New Zealand Cup; he’s certainly got the pedigree to run a strong 3200.

On the subject of pedigrees, our mares are booked to Any Suggestion (Tuscany Rose) and Duelled (Sakura Cluden). Another mare may also be bred from but this does seem to be a season to go cautiously. Some studs are really meeting the market and deserve to be supported by breeders; if you know of any good deals that can be publicised, do let me know and I’ll put together another article in a few days.

Our Hawkeye gelding capped off a very pleasing Winter carnival by again being too strong for his opposition in Saturday’s Rating 90 1600 event.

It takes a good horse to step up from Rating 75 to Rating 90 but Comanche Gold handled the class rise with aplomb – not a bad effort for a horse having only his eighth start. It will be interesting to see where Graham Eade takes him next.

The Eades have done a great job with the horse which they race on lease. They also have another of my homebreds, a four year old Mr Nancho – Antonella gelding; a big horse, he is taking time but is showing promise at this stage.

Another winner for Cloughmore at the Grand National meeting was Super Glow, an impressive winner of the maiden hurdles on the middle day. Resulting from a recommended mating, he has always looked like a jumper and I wouldn’t be surprised if he went on to show good form over the bigger obstacles.

One of the attractions of the Riccarton meeting is the excellent stakes on offer – a reminder that it can be a profitable strategy to race your own horses or lease them instead of depending on the vagaries of the yearling sales market to get a return. With the Festival Sale being a buyers’ paradise and even the Select offering breeeders an excellent chance to lose large sums of money, I suspect that broodmare owners will increasingly look at alternative means of marketing their stock.

The recently announced stakes increase from 1 March 2012 was great news and offers breeders renewed hope of gaining a return from racing. However, indications that several of our Group races may well be downgraded to bring our racing in line with international standards was anything but welcome information. Why would you deliberately downgrade your product in tough financial times?

In some sense Tinseltown’s facile win in today’s Queensland Cup raised more questions than it answered.

Several previous attempts at 3200 metres for no result had understandably produced the impression that the game Pentire gelding (a Cloughmore recommended mating) would always find the maximum distance just 800 metres too far. Moreover, he had previously struggled to cope with weights in excess of 56kg over any distance. Today’s field was by no means a strong one, but having to sprint twice under the impost of 58kg – and giving 5kg to the proven 3200 performer Smoking Chimneys – might just suggest that Tinseltown may still have some chance of adding a more prestigious two mile event to his record.

Whilst on the subject of stayers, I’ve been just as thrilled with the recent form shown by our homebred The Jungle Boy (Jungle Pocket – Ballina Wave). His second placing in the Kiwifruit Cup (LR) a couple of weeks ago was especially notable as the track was certainly too heavy for him to show what he is really capable of. Incidentally, his younger half-brother Rising Tide is also showing staying promise.

One mare that appears to have obvious potential as a producer of stamina- oriented offspring is Sakura Cluden (Yamanin Vital). This three-win sister to Wellington Cup winner Cluden Creek is part-owned by Cloughmore. She has a weanling filly by Bachelor Duke and is currently in foal to Guillotine. This season, my partners and I would like to send her to Thorn Park with a view to selling the resulting foal as a yearling. We are keen to spread the cost somewhat and would like to invite readers of this article to join a breeding partnership to produce and market the foal. There will be no charge for the use of the mare.

There’s nothing quite like the thrill of winning a good race but most wins are accompanied by an acknowledgement that sheer good fortune counts for an awful lot in this business.

After his tough win in a $10,000 maiden at Riverton on Anzac Day, I had hopes that my homebred Comanche Gold would be competitive at Riccarton yesterday. Some of his opposition were multiple winners but he again led all the way under a heady ride by Jamie Bates to record an emphatic victory. In spite of his uncommercial bloodlines (Hawkeye – Treadgold by Festal), he seems to have inherited the best aspects of both sides of his pedigree. He’s from the family of Dignity Dancer and Miss Bailey so he does boast some handy relatives.

Good fortune was also evident in Kakapuka’s victory in the time – honoured Great Western Steeples ($25,000). Another homebred, the 7g by Kilimanjaro – Antonella (Bassenthwaite) had shown little form until today and was a clear seventh favourite in the seven horse field. His win was certainly aided by the misfortunes experienced by some of the favoured runners; on the other hand, he did jump cleanly and showed commendable determination in the closing stages of the 105th renewal of the event.

On the theme of surprises of one sort or another, the results of last week’s National Weanling and Broodmare Sale at Karaka fit nicely. Having gone through the catalogue thoroughly, I thought that there were three nice, young, middle of the road mares on offer. All multiple winners, they brought a total of $1100 – and two of them had positive tests to stallions whose combined service fees total $14,000! Sure, the market was patchy but this was ridiculous. Let’s hope the purchasers do well with their bargain buys.

There’s no doubt that both the racing and breeding industries are in a significant recession. Costs are going up and returns are travelling in the opposite direction.

Michelle Saba’s excellent article in the most recent edition of the New Zealand Thoroughbred Breeders’ Bulletin includes some graphic evidence of the financial disaster that Karaka 2011 was for many breeders. If you’re not a member of the NZTBA, it might well be worth your while to email nztba@nzthoroughbred.co.nz to see if they will forward you a copy.

However, I can’t help but think that amidst all the gloom exists a ray of hope. Whenever yearling prices decline, the perceived value of most broodmares follows suit and as the thoroughbred market always over-reacts there could well some buying opportunities in the forthcoming weanling and broodmare sale at Karaka. There’s never any point buying rubbish just because it’s cheap but if the sort of mare that would normally cost $25,000 can be purchased for half that amount – or less – then one should surely entertain the possibility of an investment.

I have some clients keen to form a partnership to buy this sort of mare; if you are also interested, please give me a call. There’s no minimum investment; the plan is to target a young mare with a strong pedigree and a respectable race record so that she will retain her value in the medium term.

On the subject of sales, the deplenishing event hosted by Grangewilliam Stud at Waitotara on Sunday was a revelation. Some 50 weanlings were offered and most found new homes but it was the quality of the stock of Thano that really took the eye. The son of Southern Halo stamps his offspring as regards type: correct, strong hindquarters, great walkers. The appearance of a stallion’s weanlings doesn’t guarantee his ultimate success but it has to be a positive indication that he’s doing something right. Incidentally, there was a stunning colt out of the Oregon mare Oioio passed in (reserve – $3000+GST): I’d really like to buy him in a partnership arrangement so do get in touch if you’d like to be involved.

After the depression engendered by the recent Karaka sale results, it’s great to have something positive to write about. Although some vendors achieved praiseworthy and encouraging results, many local trainers weren’t buying – and who can blame them given the scenario of rising costs and declining income.

The deeds of horses like Showcause are worth extolling because they remind us that in midst of doom and gloom, there is always a reason to keep going. Twelve months or so ago, the Giant’s Causeway gelding looked like just another intermediate class stayer with a strong pedigree. There’s little doubt that even the Showcause who finished strongly to secure third place in the CJC Metropolitan and thus qualify for the New Zealand Cup was many lengths inferior to yesterday’s Group 2 winner. Maybe there’s even more improvement to come.

To return to Karaka, there was certainly good – even ridiculously good – buying for local trainers with funds to spend. Two Cloughmore clients appear to have bought very well indeed. Riccarton’s Kevin Hughes purchased the Dylan Thomas – Karliyka colt (K1 – $45,000) and the Keeper – Tithe filly (K2 – $25,000) with the aid of our advice. Donna Logan purchased the colt which I thought had the cleverest pedigree in the Select Sale: by Thorn Park out of the SW Danske filly Grace Park, he fetched a mere $7500. From the same sale Donna also added the Darci Brahma – Prefer Blondes filly to her stable – for an outlay of $2500. Another yearling which appealed strongly on paper was the Thorn Park – Maidjeu colt, purchased by Donna for $34,000 from the Festival Sale.

In order to diversify my business, I have put together a racing partnership – unsurprisingly named Cloughmore Racing Syndicate – to purchase small shares in two of the above yearlings: the Thorn Park colt and the Darci Brahma filly. Hopefully, the Lucky Unicorn – Durham Walk filly, a half-sister to impressive Ellerslie winner Durham Town will also become part of the package. The plan is to set up a Facebook page so that owners and anyone else interested can keep track of our horses’ racetrack performance.