Entries Tagged 'News' ↓
July 9th, 2011 — Horse Racing, News
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.
May 8th, 2011 — Horse Racing, News
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.
April 13th, 2011 — News, Value For Money
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.
February 20th, 2011 — News
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.
January 19th, 2011 — News
As the New Zealand Bloodstock Yearling Sales Series nears it’s time to remind buyers of our buyers’ guides. The guides are designed to help identify those yearlings which offer excellent value for money in terms of their pedigrees: we specialize in finding yearlings with pedigrees that are better than a casual reader of catalogues might suppose.
Clients purchasing our guides in the past have used them to help select SWs Focal Point, Star Affair, Superjet, Brown Eyed Grace and SP Shamabelle, Outtatimitz and Align to Infinity – to list only our black type performers.
All the indications are that the 2011 sales are going to provide excellent returns for breeders in general. Apparently there has been strong interest in yearling parades with some vendors reporting record numbers of attendees. However, the Select fillies and the whole Festival catalogue seem to offer considerable opportunities for domestic buyers. In particular, the progeny of stallions which have not set Australia on fire but which have achieved quite respectable results in Godzone might well offer outstanding value.
2010 produced record results for Cloughmore. 27 horses linked to our business in some way won 48 races worldwide and gathered stakes of over NZ$2.06 million, the star performers being Race Ahead, Tinseltown and Showcause. It was particularly pleasing that one third of our winners were either SW (4) or SP (5). The majority of these winners were the result of our mating recommendations, with 8 winners of 14 races being chosen by clients using our buyers’ guides.
On a somewhat different subject, I had the opportunity to inspect Roc de Cambes at The Oaks yesterday. Wow!
January 1st, 2011 — News
2010 was a record year in many ways for Cloughmore Pedigrees but the win that was most rewarding was Showcause’s triumph in the Group 3 New Zealand Cup. It was a great thrill therefore to see the Giant’s Causeway gelding score a brave victory in today’s City of Auckland Cup, especially as he showed a turn of foot not previously evident in his racing style.
Showcause is a special horse as he’s a great grandson of the immortal Show Gate, my racing idol back in the 1970’s. I’ve always admired toughness and versatility in thoroughbreds and Show Gate’s treble of the Stewards Handicap (1200), Canterbury Gold Cup (2000) and Churchill Stakes (1600) at the NZ Cup meeting of 1973 is imprinted in my memory. Showcause may not be a champion – although I do suspect that there’s further improvement in him – but he does possess Show Gate’s indomitable will to win.
It’s a long way from Ellerslie to Waikouaiti but today also marked the debut of another Cloughmore recommended mating – the Choisir filly Sourire. It might have been just a lowly 1250 maiden and the filly might only have finished fourth but I have seldom seen a first starter make up so much ground in the final stages of a race. Check out the last 600 on www.nzracing.co.nz and you’ll see what I mean.
January 1 also marks the day when my Buyers’ Guides for the forthcoming Karaka yearling sales have been finalised. This year, in addition to the usual analyses of each of the three sales, I have written a special guide for the progeny of Iffraaj: he’s made an outstanding beginning to his stud career in the Northern hemisphere so I’ve analysed the pedigrees of his most successful progeny to date and rated his progeny in the sales catalogues accordingly.
This year there are 12 lots which are the result of Cloughmore mating recommendations, 4 in each sale.
Premier Sale: O’Reilly – Star Affair colt, Street Sense – Surprize Surprize colt, Pentire – Tinsel colt, Choisir – Diva In Red colt.
Select Sale: Oratorio – Lady Cherokee filly, Any Suggestion – Mi Signora filly, Pins – Porotene Express colt, Keeper – Prangelica colt.
Festival Sale: Shinko King – Tio Zinnia colt, Any Suggestion – Centalla colt, Falkirk – Golden Lights filly, Spartacus – Ngahiiti colt.
Finally, to all readers – my best wishes for a successful and rewarding 2011.
September 27th, 2010 — News
Observant readers of this site will notice a sudden mini-surge of winners listed on the sidebar – and another SW on the tally.
The explanation lies in the work I did for Stoney Bridge back in 2006 and for a short time in 2007. If you had contacted the stud back then and asked for pedigree advice it is highly probable that the advice would have come directly from me. Clearly, as I was contracted to Stoney Bridge, the vast majority of queries related to the stud’s stallions so I have decided to annotate winners resulting from such advice as “Stoney Bridge Recommendation”.
To date two winners have come from my work for the stud: the Castletown Stakes winner Extra Explosive (Ekraar – Explosive) and the Korean import Donggwangilchul (Postponed – Vettori Tycoon). The former looks especially promising.
A milestone of a different sort has been the retirement of our homebred Sunshine One (Chinese Gold – Sult by Creese). The veteran of 136 Macau starts, the gelding was successful on 15 occasions from 1300m to 1600m and was notable for having only one spell necessitated by injury.
It was a real thrill to watch his career on the net.
As I’ve mentioned before, I rate durability and consistency very highly on my list of thoroughbred virtues and there’s a stallion out there that is beginning to impress me quite a lot in this respect. He’s Handsome Ransom. After a quiet start he’s beginning to leave winners all over the Southern Hemisphere: if you check out his recent performance on www.arion.co.nz you’ll see what I mean. At $4000 +GST he’s great value – and you get half the fee back if your mare produces a filly!
September 12th, 2010 — News
Aussieaussieaussie’s game win in today’s Geraldine Cup took the gallant grey’s stakeswinnings to over NZ$100,000 and made him Cloughmore’s twentieth representative to achieve this feat.
2010 has so far been notable for our second $1 million winner – Race Ahead joining All In Fun in this category – but in this business consistency is just as important as producing stars. $100,000 in stakes is the measure of an above average galloper; with stakes the way they are, a horse needs to stay sound and competitive to be able to attain a six figure income.
Aussieaussieaussie has often been remarked on for the races he should have won but hasn’t, so it was great to see Kylie Williams take the D’Cash gelding to the lead, rate him nicely and then push him on strongly to defeat the race favourite, the classy Don’t Say Clang.
The Geraldine Cup winner is out of the useful sprinter Tio Iris. Mating this mare with D’Cash produces a pedigree with many positive factors: Aussie’s full sister Udiditagain was a SW as a 2YO and was Group 2 placed at that age. It will be very interesting to follow the progress of the third sibling, Bad News Browne – now a 3YO and also in the Kevin Hughes stable. In a handful of 2YO starts he seemed to be a more settled individual than his relatives; hopefully he will strengthen up to be another good winner from the family.
This season’s recommendation was for Tio Iris to visit boom sire Keeper.
July 11th, 2010 — News
Aided by a top class ride by Opie Bosson, Race Ahead capped off an unforgettable weekend for Cloughmore Pedigrees with a courageous win in yesterday’s Singapore Derby.
The previous weekend had been one of frustration, with Galileo’s Galaxy recording another Group 1 second in the Clairwood Champions Cup and Tinseltown having no luck at all in the Caloundra Cup (LR).
However, this time luck went our way with Race Ahead (Al Akbar – Mertie Love by Spectacular Love) jumping well, taking a prominent position and being far too strong for his opposition down the long Kranji straight. The win was his ninth from 20 Singapore starts and took his prizemoney to over S$1.1 million.
Sunday’s Singapore win was certainly exciting but the previous day had also brought a real thrill. The Marton JC meeting at Awapuni is a long way from the prestige of one of Singapore’s major racing days, but Rising Tide’s victory in a 1600 maiden was also memorable. The Shinko King – Ballina Wave three year old barged through a narrow gap to win going away and marked another milestone for his dam in the process. Now retired from breeding, Ballina Wave has now achieved a 100% record with her male progeny, the star being Bodie, winner of the 2003 Auckland Cup. Bodie was bred by Kevin Mischefski as a Cloughmore recommended mating but Rising Tide is even closer to home, being the result of a breeding partnership put together by Cloughmore.
Whilst on the subject of Shinko King, his success as a sire is a timely reminder for New Zealand breeders of the strength of Japanese racing and breeding. I have been especially impressed by the credentials of the freshman sire, Roc de Cambes. A top class competitor in Japan, this son of Red Ransom distinguished himself in a career cut short by a racing accident by his ability to accelerate off a strong pace – something I always look for as a predictor of stallion success. He stands at The Oaks at a very reasonable $7000 +GST; this year’s group of first – season sires appears to be exceptionally promising but Roc de Cambes does seem to represent outstanding value.
May 15th, 2010 — News
The breeding season is still over three months away but there certainly seems to be considerable confidence out there as to the health and well-being of the thoroughbred industry.
In particular, the importation of some highly-credentialled stallion prospects – all of which will be standing at very reasonable fees – is a great boost for breeders looking to improve the quality of their stock and their profitability. Four stallions which have caught my eye are Eagle Mountain, Red Giant, Swiss Ace and TheWayYouAre. All were top class on the track and all have rock-solid pedigrees. Moreover, it’s not difficult to see that compatibility with the local broodmare band is unlikely to be an issue.
Another indicator of confidence is the May Weanling and Broodmare Sale. Traditionally, it has been very much a bargain basement sale but this year seems to have been quite different. For example, I had a client with some $30,000 to spend and together we identified two mares that appeared to be buyable for around $8000 and $15-20,000 respectively. They sold for slightly under $50,000 in total. We did manage to find a passed-in lot with some minor question marks but it certainly wasn’t a simple process since this mare was also being sought after by other interests.
On the home front, results from horses Cloughmore has been involved with are most encouraging. Our flag-bearer to date this year is Race Ahead (4g Al Akbar – Mertie Love by Spectacular Love). Unbeaten in his current four-start campaign in Singapore, he was recently successful in the Group 2 Queen Elizabeth II Cup and plans are for him to contest the Four Year Old Triple Crown which culminates in the Singapore Derby (Group 1). Other black type performers include Galileo’s Galaxy, four times Group placed in South Africa, Tinseltown, All In Tempo and Professional Man. In total we have been associated with 15 individual winners of 23 races worldwide since the beginning of January.
