September 22nd, 2018 — Horse Racing, Winners
One of the joys of doing what I do is to be involved with winning a significant race on more than one occasion.
Recommended matings All In Fun, Bodie and Tinseltown all won the Rotorua Cup and I was hoping that today’s edition of the Listed Canterbury Belle Stakes would produce a third success in the race for Cloughmore. Brown Eyed Grace had been successful in 2009 and La Diosa in 2016; this year Emily Margaret (Pins-Seven Schillings) faced the starter and, after her effortless victory a fortnight ago, those hopes were high.
However, as befits a black type event, today’s field was much stronger. It featured impressive Showcasing filly Wekaforce and a number of other winners. Equally daunting was the fact that Emily Margaret had drawn the ace – never an advantage if you’re a back-runner in a capacity field.
I need not have worried. Jasmine Fawcett kicked the Kevin Hughes – trained filly out of the gates. Soon Wekaforce was outside her and the two three-year olds measured strides. At the top of the straight it appeared that Wekaforce was travelling more easily but when the pressure went on it was the Pins filly that finished the stronger to record a half-length victory.
Emily Margaret is clearly anything but a one-dimensional racehorse and appears likely to be well suited by the rigours of the 1600 metres of the Group 1 1000 Guineas. You’d suspect that she’d be happier settling back and saving energy before unleashing her powerful finishing burst, but it’s a relief to know that if she has to race on-pace (and how often do on-pace runners win Guineas races at Riccarton?) she is well capable of doing just that.
Let’s hope that she can emulate La Diosa and give her trainer that elusive Group 1 prize.
September 9th, 2018 — Horse Racing, News
It’s been a quiet year to date but recent victories by La Diosa at Caulfield, Siam Blue Vanda at Kranji and Emily Margaret at Riccarton have all been top class performances.
The deeds of La Diosa are well documented and after a quiet 4YO season she resumed with a barnstorming victory over 1100 last month. She appears to have regained that brilliant finishing burst which characterised her classic year.
Siam Blue Vanda is a gelded 3YO son of Echoes of Heaven and the Lahib mare I’m A Wag. He made the headlines last month with an effortless maiden victory at his first start and looks to have a bright future.
Yesterday, long-time client Kevin Hughes was extremely bullish about the chances of his grey Pins filly Emily Margaret in the 3YO event at Riccarton. His confidence proved to be entirely justified as she came from the back of a useful field to win by a widening two lengths. A $55,000 Select Sale purchase, she had strongly appealed to me when I analysed that catalogue. She was an obvious choice, being by a highly successful stallion out of a Group 3 winning O’Reilly mare from a speedy and consistent family. Her grey colouring comes from one of my favourite horses, the under-rated Three Legs stallion, Shannon.
Don’t be surprised if Emily Margaret is a factor in the forthcoming Canterbury Belle Stakes – won by La Diosa a couple of years ago.
Hold the phone. Siam Blue Vanda has just won a Novice 1200 at Kranji. Starting at New Zealand odds of $2.00 in a strong field he was handy all the way, hit the front with 300 to go and just lasted. It will be interesting to read Glen Boss’ comments but it does look as if 1200 is already too short a distance for him. From a pedigree point of view he’s an interesting individual as he comes from the female family of the super-tough Istidaad and is inbred to Best In Show.
March 11th, 2018 — Horse Racing, News, Winners
Well, that was a pleasant surprise! If anyone had suggested a few months ago that our Tavistock mare would win two $50,000 1200 events on successive Saturdays at Ellerslie, I would have recommended a reality check.
We had never backed her up before but she looked better yesterday than she did seven days previously, so warmest congratulations are due to the Logan – Gibbs team for their skill in managing this considerable achievement.
I’ve written before (9 December) that at the end of her first campaign I had thought that she was just a horse, but it’s nice to be proven wrong. None of our Cloughmore Racing Partnership horses have ever shown sprinting ability until now, but this mare has wheels in abundance. She has a high cruising speed but also possesses the ability to accelerate over the final stages of her races. Last weekend she ran her final 600 in a slick 33.43; yesterday she returned 33.79 over the same distance, although she was wide and had to shift sideways twice.
Although by Tavistock, RTT (no, I still am not a fan of that name) is out of a Volksraad mare and does throw to that successful speed stallion. She’s bred on the same cross as four-time Group 1 winner Volkstok’N’Barrell and has a similar action to that remarkable galloper. Her second dam is by Zabeel, and if there’s one cross that constitutes a licence to print money at the moment it’s Tavistock x Zabeel.
So where to from here? RTT does lack size, if not heart, so if she’s going to win some black type it makes sense to get her into a nice race at the minimum weight. However, racing teaches all of us not to get ahead of ourselves so let’s just enjoy the moment.
I’m off to watch the video again.
January 11th, 2018 — News
It’s going to be really interesting to see how NZB’s new catalogue structure is going to pan out. What appears to have happened is that Book 1 has become even more attractive for the sort of buyers who constitute the major part of my client base – trainers who are keen to find value for money yearlings for their owners. However, I do suspect that yearlings which appear in Books 2 and 3 are going to struggle and that passings may well be quite high. Let’s hope I’m wrong.
Making selections from Book 1 was the most challenging task I have had since beginning these analyses in 1997. As always, there is a range of lots which you quickly label as “too expensive for New Zealand racing”, but there are hundreds of yearlings with strong pedigrees which are very difficult to discriminate between.
For those of you who haven’t bought an analysis before, I rank yearlings on a value for money basis. A+ yearlings are those with pedigrees which, in my opinion, are significantly better than a quick perusal of the catalogue page would indicate; however, to be an A+, the yearling must also have a reasonable chance of being buyable for a sensible sum. This year there are three A+ Book 1 colts and seven fillies (a record number). If you’re looking for a filly with a strong chance of acquiring significant residual value, this is the year to buy.
Yearlings which gain an A rating are those whose pedigrees aren’t quite as impressive to my way of thinking, or which could possibly bring more money than they are worth. (Yes, there’s an awful lot of opinion involved here and valuing yearlings without actually seeing them is a challenging task). This year I have found 12 A colts and 15 A fillies.
As you’ll have got the point by now, you’ll understand how I select yearlings which I label B+. In the Book 1 catalogue, I’ve found 14 B+ colts and 23 B+ fillies. It’s also worth mentioning that I deliberately do not go to www.nzb.co.nz to see what the yearlings I have chosen actually look like and also that I exclude yearlings for which I have done the matings myself. This year there are three such Book 1 yearlings: Lots 568, 569 and 581.
I charge $450+GST for each of the Book 1 colts and fillies, $200 +GST for each of the Book 2 selections and $150+GST for each of the Book 3. Discounts are available for multiple purchases. Buyers of any analysis are entitled to any further advice they may want on that section of the sale. There’s no charge for such additional advice
January 2nd, 2018 — News, Winners
It may only have a six-horse maiden event at the Waiarapa New Year picnic meeting but the way he dispatched his rivals indicated that the son of Rip Van Winkle and the Don Eduardo mare All In Black has potential considerably above average.
Times never tell the whole story but All In Mana’s 1:22.61 compared very favourably with the slightly slower time returned by Maltese Ruby when she was successful in the following event, a R75 contest. It’s also worth noting that the mare carried 4.5kg less than did All In Mana and that he spent most of the 1400 journey traveling three wide without cover.
All In Mana is nominated for both the Levin Classic and the NZ Derby in March. He may struggle to gain a start in the former event but he is a horse to keep in mind for the Ellerslie Group 1 contest – especially if the track is rain-affected. My theory is that whatever he achieves on a firm track, he has a strong chance of surpassing it on rain-affected going. Have a look at his trial wins and you will see what I mean.
Anyway, Ellerslie owes us. I really did think that another recommended mating, Fully Funded, was a huge chance in the Railway Handicap. When he drew a decent barrier, I was seriously confident. But there’s something inherently unreliable about Auckland, isn’t there? Think the perennial rugby under-achievers, the Blues (now there’s a well-named team!) – and if you need some more evidence, what about the ill-named Warriors? All that talent and zip to show for it.
Moving on to more cheerful thoughts, I can confirm that I have almost completed this year’s Karaka Yearling Sales analysis. Book One is very strong; Books Two and Three not so much. I’m clearly going to have to re-structure the pricing of the analyses. If you’re interested, do feel free to get in touch.
December 23rd, 2017 — News
There are two drivers which keep our industry going: money and optimism. Of the two, the latter is the more important because, without it, we’re never going to spend our hard-earned on the production and upkeep of animals capable of giving us the highest of highs (as well as the lowest of lows – must keep that journalistic balance).
Perhaps it’s appropriate that at this time of the year we celebrate the joys of breeding and racing. The yearling sales are coming closer and I’m sure that many of us are hard at work searching through catalogues to find THE HORSE, the animal which is going to change our lives. (Editor’s note: I’m about half-way through my annual process of analysing the pedigree of every catalogued yearling; it’s a procedure which sounds oh so boring to an industry outsider but absolutely fascinating to those who share our addiction).
Anyway, a story surfaced on Friday which gives us all a shot of hope. Highly Recommended, the Fastnet Rock stallion which has made such a strong start to his breeding career, has been relocated to Cambridge Stud. Berkley Stud will be retaining an interest in him and why wouldn’t they? It’s great to see a comparatively small operation based in the South Island make the big time and position itself to continue that success. This year Highly Recommended has covered around 140 mares: breeders and buyers of his progeny both have a chance to make a decent profit before his fee takes him out of the reach of most of us. As I’ve written before on this site, the really exciting thing about Highly Recommended’s stock is that when you look at the pedigrees of the best of his offspring, it’s not difficult to understand why they are as good as they are.
So, to quote “The Shawshank Redemption”, hope is indeed “the best of things”. You can’t achieve anything if there’s no reason to get out of bed every morning.
Best wishes to everyone for the Festive Season and the yearling sales.
December 9th, 2017 — Horse Racing, News
Before we go any further, I need to make it very clear that I had nothing whatsoever to do with naming our daughter of Tavistock and the Volksraad mare Macinally. And I have to admit that I’m also on record as saying that if there were a competition for the worst named horse in the country, the TAB would be offering prohibitive odds on her success. That’s one of the few downsides of being a minority owner – the people with the biggest shares certainly have the biggest say in the choice of name. And that’s fair enough.
However, she’s certainly looking – if not sounding – an awful lot more attractive than she was six months ago. Her 3YO career featured a win over a weak maiden field at Whangarei followed by a couple of unimpressive efforts in R65 1600 events at the same venue. Hm, I said to myself, at least she’s a winner and she’s a Tavistock; recommending her to our racing partnership wasn’t the most ridiculous idea I’ve ever had.. But, as the Dee and Gee saga has instructed us, thoroughbreds can improve dramatically given that magic ingredient – time.
To be fair, the Logan-Gibbs training combination always had faith in her and that faith has been vindicated in RTT’s most recent two starts. Firstly, there was a facile first-up victory at Ruakaka when she was three wide all the way and then ran away from her R65 rivals over 1200. And then there was yesterday. She didn’t win easily but she fought to stave off several challenges in the last 100 metres. The 1200 distance now appears to be too short for her and I have hopes that her nomination for the $80,000 Dunstan event over 1500 on Boxing Day will prove to be realistic.
So much for names. It’s also worth commenting that two of the best named horses I’ve ever had anything to do with – Red Hot Pirate and Brief Encounter – have recently proved themselves to be entirely useless.
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.”
