LA's Karaka Record Set to Continue and Planet Rocks Deeds Highlight Interest in Lot 81
Tonight our 14th Karaka Premier draft under the LA banner will board the horse transporter for their ten hour trip to Auckland. We sat down the other day and worked out that since 2000 the farm has either bred, reared, sold, or in a combination of each, 15 group one performers, most of those having been presented for sale through our drafts at the Karaka Yearling Sale Series. It's a proud tradition and one that looks set to continue next week.
This Sunday evening the team at LA will be paying just a little more attention than usual to the Karaka Million race at Ellerslie and hoping pre race favourite Planet Rock can justify that support and take the million dollar race because just 24 hours later the farm will sell as LOT 81 in the Premier Session a striking Pins colt from Steluta, the dam of Planet Rocks mother Akris.
Timely news filtered through during last week that a filly we sold at last years Select Sale to Timothy Kemp Bloodstock had comfortably won her first jumpout at Awapuni. The as yet unnamed Written Tycoon filly was the first foal of our four times winning mare Bondi Beauty, a beautifully bred mare from Rios and Roman Emperors family, and dam of her second foal, a very attractive Pins filly, which we sell as LOT 204 on the second day of the Karaka Premier Sale on Tuesday.
The leading Australian two-year-old sire Not a Single Doubt has only one entry in the Premier session and the colt from Exceed and Excel's family sells as LOT 348 on the second day of the Sale.
How brave was Can't Keeper Down in the Listed Marton Cup? To finish second after the run she had thrilled connections and we are confident of another big run in this weekend's Group 2 Wellington Cup at Trentham, the course where she ran a courageous second in the New Zealand Oaks two years ago. Another big effort from the mare would be so timely with her outstanding Towkay half brother selling as LOT 171 in the Premier Session.
LA have taken some very nice O'Reilly fillies to Karaka in recent years and the filly selling as LOT 1073 on the third day of the Select Sale would be one of the nicer types by the sire we have prepared for some time. The filly's family has really been on the move in Australia of late with her half brother winning his third race just before Xmas and then just Friday her half sister by Fastnet Rock, who we sold in 2009 at Karaka to Victoria's Blue Sky Thoroughbreds for $85,000, won her third career start after a strong second at her penultimate run.
Perfectly Ready whose promising start at stud continued with another winner over the weekend, is represented by a nice filly from the Eight Carat family to sell as LOT 1046 in our Select Sale draft. She's a typical type by the sire, athletic with some early strength and her more immediate pedigree was assisted by the win last week in Australia of Merci Grand (from a half sister to dam of LOT 1046).
Karaka 2011 is here! Our draft is located at Barn D, come out and have a look and maybe you can find another Roman Emperor(2007 Premier draft), Larry's Never Late (2007) or Can't Keeper Down (2007 Carnival draft). What we can PROMISE YOU is that they have had the best possible start to that dream!
