October 9th, 2011 — Horse Racing, News
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.
August 14th, 2011 — News, Winners
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?
July 17th, 2011 — Value For Money, Winners
Our total of races won may be approaching 500 but never before have three of our representatives been successful on the same day.
Yesterday’s Whangarei meeting featured the Whangarei Cup and the $30,000 final of the Aussie Butcher fillies and mares series. Both were won by brave front-running performances: Ace High – a recommended purchase as a yearling – won the Cup and Highlight – the result of a recommended mating for Northland breeder Terry Archer – narrowly defeated the hot favourite Cap Eden Roc in the latter event. Incidentally, Highlight is a grand-daughter of another Cloughmore recommended yearling purchase, the SW Jetball filly, Superjet.
However, there’s nothing like one of your own horses winning at a metropolitan track. Late in the day, our homebred Shinko King gelding Rising Tide lined up in the Rating 80 1600 event at Trentham. The half-brother to Auckland Cup winner Bodie had won his previous start, a Rating 70 2100 at Awapuni but had little trouble adjusting to the rise in class and reduction in distance. Aided by an excellent ride by Buddy Lammas, Rising Tide threaded his way though the field and accelerated impressively in the last 200 metres.
Shinko King is certainly one of our most consistent sires; if you’re looking to upgrade your mare and – like most of us – are operating on a restricted budget, he’s a horse that really ought to be on your short-list, especially if you’re breeding to race. It’s especially encouraging that he’s also making a promising start as a broodmare sire: the classy 3YO filly Shez Sinsational is out of one of his mares.
As we approach the breeding season, do feel free to get in touch to discuss your plans. For once, mare owners do appear to have the tactical high ground when negotiating stud fees.
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.
November 21st, 2010 — Horse Racing
Last week it was Showcause flying the flag for Cloughmore in the Group 3 New Zealand Cup; this week brought another Group victory with a Cloughmore connection thanks to Tinseltown – also the product of one of our recommended matings – scoring an easy victory in yesterday’s Group 2 Counties Cup at Pukekohe.
The Pentire – Tinsel (by Jetball) gelding is one of New Zealand’s leading stayers, having previously won both the Avondale Cup (G2) and Rotorua Cup (G3). Tinseltown is a typical Pentire in that he is capable of a real turn of foot in his best performances; 57 kg. did not slow him down in the final stages of Saturday’s event, but one wonders how much more weight he can successfully manage in Group company. At the Cup presentation, an Australian campaign was mentioned as a possibility – following an attempt at next month’s Waikato Cup
Another parallel with last week was that another Cloughmore representative ran promisingly without winning. At Riccarton our homebred The Jungle Boy ran a meritorious second in the last race of the day; at Counties the smart 3YO filly Shamabelle – a recommended purchase as a Select yearling – finished impressively to place third in a strong Rating 70 1400 event which also concluded the day’s racing. She is a filly to keep an eye on as the filly semi-classics unfold.
