LA Newsletter May 2008
The last month has been one to remember for the team at LA. Hard on the heels of Special Mission becoming Towkay's third individual group one winner, we enjoyed our most successful Australian Yearling Sale ever in Sydney. Add to that winners everywhere for Towkay, including a Group Two in Hong Kong, and it's been quite some month! Sam and Catriona have been in Sydney attending the Australian Inglis Broodmare Sale and you can read about a couple of new mares for the farm later in the next newsletter.
Two New Sets Of Parents
We'd like to welcome Oscar Petro, Sam's sister Anna and her husband Ben's new boy into the family, along with ten new chocolate puppies by resident Labrador sire Billy and his girlfriend Hershey. If you are interested in purchasing one of these gorgeous puppies please contact Sam on 0274 853400.
Towkay and Zed
Towkay will remain at last year's service fee of $10,000 plus GST for the upcoming season. At this fee Towkay offers all breeders a realistic commercial return, be it on the track or in the sale ring.
Enjoying his most successful domestic season to date, Towkaycurrently sits in eighth position on the New Zealand Sires premiership with progeny earnings in excess of $920,000. Exclude the Australian domiciled sires above him in Encosta De Lago and Cape Cross and that's quite an achievement for the son of Last Tycoon, particularly off a $3,000 to $5,000 service fee.
Bred by David Ellis and Dr C Yau, Special Mission (Towkay-Te Akau Trek) has taken first time owners Ralph and Frances Maxwell on a truly special ride this season. After her demolition of a two-year-old field on debut last July, followed by two listed stakes wins and success in the Westbury Classic at the Auckland Cup Carnival, few doubted her prowess on a rain affected track. But a firm track and a wide draw for the Group One New Zealand Bloodstock Breeders Stakes at Te Aroha earlier last month held no fears for the gutsy filly as she packed too many punches for Culminate and group one winner Keepa Cruising.
Other highs in NZ for the month were The Georgian (Towkay - Aglow) and High Octane's (Towkay - Trendy ‘n' True) 3rd palcing at Listed level.
Following his Group Two Chairman's Trophy win in Hong Kong earlier last month, Armada (Towkay - Dance in Time) backed up with a courageous second to current Hong Kong superstar Good Ba Ba in the Group One Champions Mile. When you consider that Good Ba Ba looks set to join Weekend Hustler at the top of the International Milers Classification, you get an appreciation of the strength of Armada's performance.
Last week in Hong Kong saw Cash Money (Towkay-Also) register his second consecutive success and his third in total when scoring over 1400m, while on the same programme, Animation (Towkay-Chica Guapa) bred by Hawkes Bay's Andrew Lockyer, ran second.
Anzac Day at Flemington saw Electronic Million (Towkay-Gaysutina) score over 1800m. Bred by LA Stud in conjunction with Tina and John Todd, the four-year-old is a full brother to the yearling sold at Karaka last year to the Hong Kong Jockey Club for $270,000 and resold at their International Sale earlier this year for nearly $800,000 NZ.
Hey Toro (Towkay-Grand Vitesse) who won over 1200m in Singapore last month was sold by breeder Bloomsbury Stud at the 2005 National Weanling Sale. LA sells six Towkay weanlings at this weekends National Weanling Sale.
The LA bred Hot or Not (Towkay-Glacier Queen) was a winner over 1700m in Malaysia last Saturday.
After serving in excess of 130 mares in his first season last year, ZED (Zabeel - Emerald Dream) will stand this season for $1,000 plus gst with a $750 refundable if your mare is unable to get in foal.
In other news, LA client Justice Lowell Goddard had a slightly bigger smile than most kiwis after Derby day at Randwick. Justice Goddard's broodmare Heidi Fleiss is the mother of Secret Liaisons who in turn is the dam of Reigning To Win - runner-up to Apache Cat in the Group One TJ Smith Stakes - and the promising Running To Win, third in the Listed Carbine Club Stakes. On Justice Goddard's behalf we sold a lovely Don Eduardo filly from Heidi Fleiss to Lance O Sullivan at this years Karaka Select Sale for $85,000. Heidi Fleiss has an O Reilly weanling colt this year.
Sydney Yearling Sale
The Zabeel - Rites of Spring colt was the second top priced Zabeel colt of the sale, fetching $500,000 to the bid of Antony Cummings.
DGR Thoroughbred Services secured the Savabeel - Steluta colt for $300,000 making him the highest priced Savabeel yearling to go through a sale ring this year, something we were pretty chuffed about.
Although she didn't travel the best to Sydney and it probably cost her in the ring, the Zabeel - Dancing Daze filly found an excellent home, in the form of Melbourne trainer Peter Moody, where she'll get ample time to grow and develop. She sold for $150,000.
National Weanling & Broodmare Sale at Karaka 11 - 13 May 2008
The LA draft of 15 weanlings includes a lovely Towkay colt from a full sister to last weeks Sydney Cup runner-up Pentathon and foals by Stravinsky (Sydney Yearling Sale average of $343,000), O Reilly (currently top of the Hong Kong sires premiership by earnings and fifth in Australian equivalent) and the 2005 Golden Slipper winning son of Redoute's Choice in Stratum.
Our broodmare offering includes two young maiden mares by Centaine, currently leading the broodmare sires premiership in NZ. In fact the pedigree of Lot 494 - Cent To Win - is very topical given that she's a three quarter sister to Young Centaur, a runner in last weekends Sydney Cup and earlier this season successful in the Group One Wellington Cup and also the same family as Lang who ran third in the Sydney Cup.
Don Gordon has a selection of mares going forward under the LA banner that are well worth inspection in particular the stakeswinning half sisters Dancing Daze (Lot 517) and Full Noise (Lot 557). Hailing mostly from Don's tap-root mare Phareno, this is the hard running family of group one winners Mun Lee, Allez Suez and Marmalitre. It's a family seemingly never without a promising horse with the latest looking to be the Brisbane trained Somewhere Safer (Postponed-Secrecy), twice a winner in recent weeks and a candidate for a nice race during the Queensland Winter Carnival.
For those of you considering upgrading your broodmare band here's a couple of encouraging stories to reflect on;
- Purespeed the dam of Sebring was a $70,000 purchase at the 2004 Inglis Broodmare Sale.
- Oceanfast the dam of Alinghi and the $2.2 million Encosta De Lago colt at last week's sale was bought by her current owners in 2004 as a broodmare prospect for $100,000. Her four foals for them have realized a staggering $6.725 million.
Please don't hesitate to ring Sam for further information on any of the above horses and if you're out at Karaka for the sale, do drop in. We are at our usual spot in Barn F if you'd like to inspect any of the horses that will be up for sale.
