Entries Tagged 'News' ↓
November 26th, 2017 — Breeding Theory, News, Winners
That was impressive. Racing three wide for a good part of the journey and carrying 60kg against a useful field was not enough to stop the son of Fully Fledged from scoring his first black-type success in yesterday’s Counties Bowl. In doing so, he became Cloughmore’s 27th individual black-type winner and gave us our 60th stakes race victory.
Thinking back to when I advised successful breeder Kaye Sanders to send her Maroof mare Keshava to Fully Fledged, I recall that she told me that her mare was a one-paced but handy sprinter and we agreed that finding a stallion to impart a degree of class was clearly a priority. I had recently seen Fully Fledged (Align) at Fairdale Stud and had been impressed by his physique and his temperament. Racegoers will recall that as a 2YO he ran through the Trentham running rail and I suspect that many breeders remembered that incident and had doubts about using him as a stallion. The old prejudice against chestnuts also came to the fore, I’d imagine, together with the thought that possibly Align wasn’t entirely desirable as a sire of sires.
Anyway, I always had a soft spot for Align, having been associated with Donna Logan’s selection of the impressive but ill-fated Align to Infinity, and I had long-since developed a theory about breeding sprinters. As long as the dam was quick and came from a speedy family and provided that you didn’t lose that speed by selecting a stallion with significant and dominant stamina influences, you had a decent chance of producing a fast racehorse. How much class it had was another matter but, as always in breeding, you have to give yourself a chance.
Apart from the Northern Dancer duplications, the only significant cross which features in Fully Funded’s pedigree is the Grey Sovereign x Crepello nick, but it’s a cross for which I have a deep affection. As time has rolled on, these two stallions occur increasingly further back in pedigrees (obvious statement of the year), but when they turn up in the same pedigree page it always adds to the appeal of the animal concerned.
Let’s hope Fully Funded makes it to the Group 1 Railway Handicap on New Year’s Day and that he gets a decent draw.
November 18th, 2017 — News
One of the great things about racing and breeding is that life is never boring. At times a sequence of disasters can test the most strong-minded of us, but we can seldom complain that nothing is happening.
Yesterday was the final day of the New Zealand Cup Carnival at Riccarton. Readers of this site will be well aware that our pride and joy, La Nouvelle Vague, had been targeted at the 3200 staying test and will also be aware that the dreams of owners and trainers had been dashed by a tendon injury. The fact that the classy Maybe Miami had not lined up in Wednesday’s Coupland’s Mile for a similar reason did little to raise the mood. To be honest, I was strongly tempted to miss the plane for Christchurch, but as I had contracted to take a couple of friends to Riccarton for the day it just wouldn’t have been the right thing to do.
Anyway, it turned out to be not a bad day, even allowing for the easterly breeze and the bar prices. Sure, Dee and Gee’s victory in the R85 2500 was bitter-sweet (you might like to check out my earlier story about our Darci Brahma mare), but an each-way investment covered the day’s expenses and inspired my friends to invest on Gobstopper in the Cup.
The challenge we all face is to get these second-time racegoers involved more deeply in racing. The crowd at Riccarton was evidence that racing doesn’t just appeal to those of us who can remember the Holyoake years. The twentysomethings were out in force and clearly having a good time, but the really challenging market is the 30-40 age group; from my observation, they were almost totally absent. It’s understandable, of course, that if you’ve got small children and a mortgage, there isn’t going to be much discretionary income to invest in horseflesh.
So, here’s a challenge to those of us who describe ourselves as mature (at least in terms of age). Why don’t we select someone we know in our target demographic and just GIVE them a small share of something equine.
A Christmas present which requires zero wrapping and no expensive postage.
October 23rd, 2017 — Breeding Theory, News
It’s always difficult to design a headline for an article with multiple purposes, so apologies for the above.
One of the good news items relates to the RTR catalogue. It seems to offer a range of well bred-types with attractive pedigrees; I had real difficulty sorting out my feature lots as the overall quality was impressive. I was especially taken by some of the fillies. As always, the Analysis is available for sale in its totality and also via commentaries on individual lots.
Under the heading of “Thank Goodness They Are Starting To Show Something” is the news on the recent form of the stock of Super Easy. We all know that Prom Queen is a freak but the support acts have been well hidden until the last few days. Last weekend Easy Does It won nicely in Singapore, the day after the very smart Easy Beast was again successful, this time in Adelaide. Yesterday Easy Eddie cruised home as a red-hot favourite at Wyong and Lisdoonvarna won a Class 1 event at Nowra treating her rivals with disdain. Easing down, she recorded just a tick over 1.09 for the 1200. On a personal note, Tuscany Rose foaled a stunning filly by Super Easy during the week so that cheered me a up not a little.
If that sounds a little emotional, we all know that racing is a story of highs and lows. Maybe we’re all manic-depressives to some extent. Anyway, the bad news is that La Nouvelle Vague broke down during the running of the Winton Cup; best case scenario is that he’s a mere 12 months away from his next start but, to be realistic, tendon injuries are never good news. Hm. Many of my fellow owners have been here before and we really feel for the Eade family who have spent so much time and effort getting our horse to black type level.
In the bitter-sweet success category was the win of our now leased out Darci Brahma mare in the R65 2100 event at Ashburton. I referred to the Dee and Gee narrative in my 16 September article, “A Cautionary Tale”, but I really didn’t think she was capable of winning a $22,500 event so easily. Oh well, at least we owners can congratulate ourselves on selecting a decent horse while we repeat to ourselves, “If your horse was foaled in December, you do have to give it time to show what it can do.”
October 11th, 2017 — Horse Racing, News
All in all, last week didn’t go too badly, the star Cloughmore performer being Maybe Miami, the dominant victor in the Open 1400 event at Riccarton. He’s now the second equal top-rated entrant for the Group 2 Coupland’s Mile, programed for 15 November, the middle day of the Cup Carnival. On current ratings, both Nashville and La Diosa will also comfortably make the field.
Pins filly Hot Fuss fought gamely to be narrowly beaten by the impressive Fastnet Rock colt Age of Fire in the Inglewood Stud Guineas Trial. She’s now gained a 65 rating and should be able to gain a place in the $300,000 Group 1 1000 Guineas field. Although she may lack the finishing speed of some of her rivals, her front-running style will keep her in contention for a long way in the 18 November feature.
On the subject of 18 November, the next three days see a range of candidates for the Group 3 New Zealand Cup further their preparations. The highly regarded Bloodstream (92) runs in the Open 1600 event at Friday’s South Canterbury meeting. It’s hard to avoid the conclusion that he’s been very cleverly placed to minimise the risk of gaining too many more rating points. Saturday’s Egmont Cup at Hawera features Blathwayt (92), Sampson (91), Wait A Sec (91), Zentangle (89) and Gobstopper (80). The Hawera track is currently rated a Slow 9 and is notorious for being difficult to handle by otherwise highly reliable gallopers; I suspect that the form coming out of this event may not be overly reliable in terms of predicting Riccarton success, but it’s nonetheless going to be interesting to see how these Cup contenders perform.
Finally, we have the Winton meeting on Sunday. Top-weight in the small but select field is our homebred La Nouvelle Vague, with perennial big race contender Sureasyouwereborn also in the field. As there is likely to be a strong pace, both horses should get a good hit-out.
The excitement is building!
October 11th, 2017 — News
We all know that breeding thoroughbreds is an exercise in ongoing conjecture but it’s always an especially interesting time when stallions have their first-crop 3YOs in action.
Readers of this site will have been well aware of my enthusiasm for Highly Recommended but there are a couple of other stallions in this year-group which are also looking distinctly promising – Reliable Man and Burgundy.
Purchasers of this year’s edition of my Karaka Yearling Sales Buyers’ Guide will certainly have noticed my endorsement of Reliable Man – several of his yearlings rated very highly indeed and one, the grey filly ex Run To The Bank, was purchased by long-term client, Christchurch trainer Kevin Hughes who outlaid what now appears to be a bargain $40,000 for the upstanding youngster. Reliable Man has two live VRC Derby prospects – SW Main Stage (ex Kiri, a stakes winning Prized mare with a strong affection for wet tracks) and SP Sully, already Group 1 placed in the STC Spring Champion Stakes and out of a mare bred on the Casual Lies – Kaapstad cross.
The stallion I didn’t see coming was Burgundy. By Redoute’s Choice and thus a three-quarter brother to the highly successful racehorse and sire Darci Brahma, he always looked attractive on paper but I’ll admit that he just didn’t grab me. He tried hard in his races but always seemed to struggle against top-class opposition. Anyway, at the moment he has the equal-top rating colt in November’s 2000 Guineas (Hard Merchandize) and the second top-rating filly in the 1000 Guineas (Dijon Bleu). Whatever happens from here on in, that’s quite an achievement.
The current top-rating Guineas filly is the freakish Prom Queen and I must admit that I would be a much happier man if her sire, Super Easy, had a few more top-liners up and running. As you’ll imagine, I’m talking through my pocket as I have a share in a Super Easy 2YO and am the outright owner of a yearling and an about to be born foal by the same stallion.
Anyway, it’s still early days
October 5th, 2017 — Horse Racing, News
In this article, I am trying something a little different – previewing races which are highly likely to clarify various horses’ chances for the upcoming NZ Cup Carnival at Riccarton next month. I’ll be focusing mainly on horses I have had a connection with and will include some pedigree comments that I haven’t already made elsewhere on this site.
To begin with, this Saturday’s Riccarton meeting features several horses taking the next steps in their preparation for the November Carnival.
Race 3 sees the 2YO filly Anne make her racecourse debut in the five-runner juvenile event. She’s one of my selections from this year’s Karaka yearling sale catalogue and has run promisingly in both her trials. Unfortunately both trial winners are also in the field so on the surface of it she will have a difficult task. On the bright side, she will have a heap of improvement in her. She doesn’t have her second birthday until 11 November so she’ll certainly improve with age. Her trainer tells me that she’s got a great attitude; nothing fazes her. I have to say that his is somewhat atypical for the stock of Super Easy. Another plus is that she has an impressive pedigree: she’s inbred to Danzig and is closely related to the impressive Kermadec, winner of close to A$3 million.
Race 5 is headed by Pat In Brackets, a recommended mating. I strongly suspect that this is a heartbreak horse as he seems to please himself as to when he puts in maximum effort. He’s down in grade and is ridden by the stable apprentice who has won on him before so if he feels like trying, he just might do so.
Race 6 is the Guineas Trial. The nine – horse field includes Hot Fuss, a recommended purchase from the Karaka Festival Sale a couple of years ago. As a $10,000 yearling she’s already a bargain, not least because she turned out to be a half-sister to the brilliant but ill-fated First Serve. Last start she was second in the Listed Canterbury Belle Stakes and it’s going to be very interesting to see how she performs on what will hopefully be a decent track. She’s bred on the same Pins- Kaapstad cross which produced the freakish Aerovelocity, so she just might turn out to be a very useful animal.
Race 7 at features both Maybe Miami and La Diosa in the Coupland’s Mile Prelude. Maybe Miami is undoubtedly one of the best 1400 sprinters in New Zealand, especially on rain-affected tracks, but he is going to have his work cut out for him on Saturday. Even with his rider’s apprentice allowance he’s going to have to concede 5.5kg to the brilliant La Diosa. Although this will be her first start for the season, she has had a couple of quiet trials and is highly likely to be too classy for what is not at all a bad field.
All in all, quite an interesting day.
Race 8 is the open stayers’ race and includes some of LNV’s likely rivals in the NZ Cup. Imperium is highly likely to win. He ran third in the Cup last year but desperately needs rating points to be sure of making this year’s field. As a son of Melbourne Cup winner Ethereal, there’s nothing wrong with his pedigre
September 30th, 2017 — Breeding Theory, News
That was one tough performance. Carrying top weight on a Heavy 10 track and failing to settle in what is generally a slowly-run race did not prevent the gelded son of Handsome Ransom and the Istidaad mare Itsa Belt scoring a meritorious victory in yesterday’s Fasttrack Insurance 3210 at New Plymouth.
When Kevin Gray asked me to make some mating recommendations for his mares back in 2008, I well remember looking at Itsallbelt’s pedigree and thinking that this was going to be something of a challenge. As a racemare, she had failed to earn even a very small cheque in seven starts and her dam was by one of my least favourite stallions, Stylish Century. She did trace to the wonderful Flight family, but that was pretty much it.
One factor that I always have in mind is that I never encourage clients to spend their hard-earned on mares which could charitably be described as marginal. So that restricted my choice of stallion for Itsa Belt and also led me to start my search close to home. At the time Handsome Ransom had his first crop of 2YOs in action and they had attracted much favourable comment. He did have a weakness or two in his pedigree but at $4000 seemed to be a relatively low risk option; in addition, as a grandson of Roberto there was some chance that some of those desirable genes would end up in Itsa Belt’s offspring as Istidaad was out of a Roberto mare.
To be entirely honest, I had no idea that Itsallbelt would turn out to be a slow-maturing stayer that he is. Essentially, the Handsome Ransom mating was supposed to inject some speed into what was a very slow mare and to produce a reasonably compact physical type. I suppose that Itsallbelt has much more base speed than he dam did and maybe the Roberto duplication has helped in producing one tough animal who doesn’t like stopping, but this wasn’t one of those matings which makes you say – yes, I got that so right!
As I’ve said before, you’ve got to have luck on your side in this business.
September 23rd, 2017 — Breeding Theory, Horse Racing, News, Winners
Maybe Miami is becoming one of my all-time favourite gallopers. The son of Iffraaj and the Waikiki Star mare Miami was one of my selections for long-time client Kevin Hughes at the 2013 NZB Ready to Run Sale and I have followed his progress with more than usual interest. Yesterday’s win in the Open 1200 event at Riccarton was his ninth success from 28 starts and took his stakes winnings over the $200,000 mark. His success is also a timely reminder that you don’t have to pay a fortune at this sale to become the owner of a decent horse.
One of the things I really liked about Maybe Miami’s pedigree was the consistency throughout recent generations of his female family. When he went through the sale ring he was the eighth foal his dam had produced; six had raced and five had won. Most of the mare’s offspring had been by reasonably-performed but not top-class stallions and most of them had been multiple winners. To me, this sort of consistency indicates two things: such a mare can produce sound racehorses and these animals have at least reasonably adequate temperaments. The pedigree was nicely balanced, with duplications of Mr Prospector, Northern Dancer, Princequillo and Dr Fager; the last-named was a brilliant USA sprinter whose influence remains strong to this day. As an added bonus, Miami traced directly to the wonder mare La Troienne.
Clearly, there was potential here. My homework also told me that the brown colt had been sold by NZB at their Select Yearling sale earlier in 2013 for $31,000 and I therefore assumed that his value at the RTR sale would be in the $40,000 to $50,000 range. When Kevin called me and let me know that he had been the successful bidder on Lot 117 for a mere $20,000, I was as thrilled as he was.
As you will imagine, I’m looking forward to the Group 2 Couplands Mile at the CJC’s NZ Cup meeting with more than usual interest. Apart from Maybe Miami, La Diosa and Nashville have also been entered.
I’m also looking forward to this year’s edition of the Ready to Run sale.
September 16th, 2017 — Horse Racing, News
One of the first things you learn when you get involved in thoroughbred racing and breeding is that you don’t always get it right. If it’s any consolation to anyone reading this who’s a relative newcomer to the industry, you can have over 40 years’ experience and still make decisions which hindsight shows are very dumb indeed.
Few of you will have been aware of the result of Race 2, a maiden 1600 event, at Friday’s Otago RC meeting run at Oamaru. The winner was a 4YO Darci Brahma mare named Dee and Gee who jumped well, sat outside the leader, shot away at the top of the straight and held on by a narrow margin. Fairly ho-hum, you’d have to say.
Not so much, I’d reply. Dee and Gee is one of the four yearlings our Cloughmore Racing partnership bought into at the 2015 yearling sales. She was a December foal and, in spite of being by a proven stallion out of a four-win mare from a strong family, cost just $16,000. She had four starts for us but, after showing initial promise, the decision was made that she wasn’t going to be a profitable proposition. The clincher was a dismal run on a rock-hard track at Whakatane. So, understandably, we decided to either sell or lease her. Our partnership was tempted to buy out the majority owners but were unable to agree on a price and, to be entirely honest, we also had reservations about whether she could become a paying proposition. At least we had the sense to lease her.
And here we are, just nine months later, watching that very same Dee and Gee greet the judge at her first South Island start. What irks me is that she looks like a totally different horse. No longer is she a chunky little thing with a questionable and choppy action. No longer does she need a wet track. No longer is she slow out of the barriers. And no longer does she race ungenerously.
Time. That’s what it’s all about. Her former trainer got it exactly right about what she could and couldn’t do nine months ago and gave us a fair and honest assessment of her. She may still be just a racehorse who will do well to break even. However, there’s a possibility that she will turn into what her pedigree suggests she ought to be – a decent stayer.
If that happens it will prove the point that racing success isn’t just about the facts in front of us. It’s also about patience and imagination. (Note to self).
August 5th, 2017 — Breeding Theory, Horse Racing, News
It’s always a thrill to be associated with a Group winner, but it’s a special feeling when the horse concerned can win a Group event at nine years of age, giving weight to much younger rivals.
The son of Darci Brahma and the Royal Academy mare Royal Kiss was a real enigma earlier in his career, losing several major races which he could well have won, but now he seems to be much more consistent in his approach to racing. Apprentice Kate Cowan rides him superbly and showed no signs of panic when he was well out of his ground with 800 to run.
From a pedigree point of view, it’s worth nothing that he’s bred on the same Danehill – Royal Academy cross that features in the genetic make-up of the brilliant Fastnet Rock, this being an extension of the highly successful Danzig-Nijinsky nick. When I recommended the mating which produced him, I was also well aware of the affinity between Danehill and Sharpen Up (as evidenced in Danehill Dancer).
Sure, the pedigree features inbreeding to Northern Dancer, Natalma, Native Dancer, Menow, Buckpasser and Rockefella and it could be argued by linebreeding enthusiasts that it’s these duplications which make Nashville as good as he is. Nevertheless, it’s unarguable that close relatives have a greater influence on genetic make-up than do distant ones and I’ve always been a fan of not ignoring the obvious. Darci Brahma clearly passes on what we would agree are identifiable Danehill traits. When finding a stallion to suit a mare with Royal Academy and Sharpen Up close up, why would you not start with by looking for a well-credentialed son of Danehill, given the evidence we have that the Danehill – Royal Academy – Sharpen Up blend has a good chance of success.
Yes, as you will suspect, my next article on the truth and lies in thoroughbred breeding will focus on inbreeding and some of the myths that surround it.
