Racing in Hong Kong may have finished in June but that hasn't slowed Towkay's growing reputation in Asia with five individual winners across Malaysia and Singapore during July. Locally the domestic season finished with Towkay's progeny a tantalizing $3,223 shy of $1 million in stake earnings and a tenth place finish in the New Zealand Sires Premiership.
The just released NZ Three-Year-Old Free Handicap has Special Mission (Towkay-Te Akau Theme) taking second top rating in the 1200 - 1600m category with 57kgs behind just the O'Reilly colt Alamosa. In fact the only female to incur a higher rating across the Handicap was the New Zealand Oaks winner and AJC Oaks runner-up Boundless who rated 58kgs in the 1601m plus category.
The focus now shifts to our heavily pregnant mares with La Grandezza (Flying Spur-Turquoise Sea) and Foxtrot about to move into the foaling paddock. The Carter family owned La Grandezza is in foal to Towkay while Foxtrot carries a three-quarter relation to last seasons stakes placed Melbourne two-year-old Pachanga courtesy of a positive test to Fast N Famous. We have seven mares due to foal this month.
Towkay
Winners during July for the son of Last Tycoon were;
Malaysia
Astronaut (Towkay - Icicles) Ego's Malang (Towkay - Hypanthia Lee)
Singapore
Gold Pool (Tokay - Cut's both Ways) D'Mighty Bull (Towkay - Snowcloud) Hey Toro (Towkay - Grand Vitesse)
New Zealand
Macrob (Towkay - Our Dorothea) Blackballed (Towkay-Panadol)
Australia
Towcutter (Towkay - Eva's Belle)
Noble One (Towkay-Cinzano) who so nearly made it six winners in Asia with his nose second in Singapore on 25 July - his fifth consecutive second place finish - got due reward wining at Kranjii last Sunday.
At $10,000, Towcutter was a bargain for Victorian trainer Ray Cleaver from our 2006 South Island Sale draft. This year's sale on 8 August featured two Towkay colts. One was lot 133 which Ranganui Farm put forward on our behalf and sold for $17,500. The other from the Groversnor mare Dipix for $45,000.
Kay's Awake (Towkay-Wake up Suzie) and Special Mission (Towkay-Te Akau Theme) are both back in work with Matamata trainer Peter McKay. Peter reports that Kay's Awake has actually grown during her spell (not bad going for a rising six-year-old); she will once again target the major sprints over the summer while Special Mission's early season target is the Group One Captain Cook Stakes at Trentham on 25 October.
It may only have been a trial but the performance of an unraced Towkay-Vicki Buck colt at Cambridge on 8 July had the bloodstock agents reaching for their mobile phones. The run away winner of his heat in easily the fastest time of the day for the distance was a $170,000 purchase at last years Karaka Premier Sale. The now three-year-old is due to have another trial here before going to Hong Kong.
The yearlings, who all got an extra scoop of feed for their first birthdays last Friday, are well rugged up out in their paddocks. Sam reports that while it's been very wet of late, the winter has been pretty mild so far in the Wairarapa and the young stock are doing well for this time of the year.
Two client's yearlings that have really gone forward in the last couple of months are a Savabeel - Oenotria colt for Brown Thoroughbreds and a Towkay - Young Jude colt for Richard and Anthony Cottle.
Having sold Savabeel's top selling first crop yearling, LA look forward to similar success with the Oenotria colt next year. Coincidentally the colt's dam sire O'Reilly, an emerging broodmare sire influence, was represented by his third stakeswinner in that role with the win of Morgan Dollar in Adelaide last week. This follows the earlier success's of last seasons Group One NZ 2000 Guineas winner The Pooka and Group Two Alister Clarke Stakes Group 2 victor Sound Journey.
The Cottle's colt hardly lacks for breeding either with his half brother being the highly promising Sandy Dravitski trained Bohika, the winner of four races last season including his last three starts in a row.
Catbird - Monashees Yearling
The colt continues to develop the best attributes of his speed orientated relations, Altrista, Alynda and Zalinda. A well developed hindquarter with plenty of bone, he's from the last crop of the Golden Slipper winning Danehill stallion Catbird, himself a very good stallion whose progeny include the group one winners Cat's Fun - a recent transfer to the Freedman stable for the Melbourne spring - and Hong Kong star Green Birdie.
Zed
The countdown is well and truly on for the arrival of the first foals of our young stallion Zed (Zabeel-Emerald Dream) and we look forward to showing some off at the open day here at the stud in September - keep an eye on the website for details.
The recent Listed Ryder Stakes at Foxton almost produced a dream result for Zed and our client Helen Phinney. Helen is breeding from the Zeditave mare Stella Suprema, dam of the Ryder Stakes runner-up Jasminka. Stella Suprema, who has already left recent Hong Kong winner Speedy to Towkay, is currently in foal to Zed.
Zed's close relation Commands sired his 18th individual stakeswinner with the success of Commanding Victory in the Group Three Bletchingly Stakes at Caulfield last Saturday.
Other News
The LA bred Veeandvee's (O'Reilly-Aspects of Love) made it four Singapore wins with her success there on 16 July.
Pinelope (Pins-Cymbidium) who put two wins together in Queensland last month was bred by LA and Rob Tunnicliffe.
Black Mamba (Black Minnaloushe-Sneetch) finally nailed that elusive group one victory in the States taking the US $400,000 John C Mabee Handicap at Del Mar on 3 August. Sneetch who was bred by Tom and Buzz Williams.
Pity the Hawkes Bay races were postponed from last Friday, otherwise Towkay would have cracked the 1 million prizemoney in NZ barrier for the season. At Monday's rescheduled meeting Secret Mission (Towkay-Secret Step) lived up to the promise of her three trials wins with a win in the maiden 1200m.
Hard to believe it's less than 60 days to the Kelt. Look out for photos of some of Zed's first foals in next month's newsletter and details of our open day in September.
