Sam's happy with bookings for both stallions as it's much on par with recent seasons. Interestingly, almost all of Towkay's confirmed bookings to date are from breeders who have not used the stallion before.
The strong interest in Zed could be down to the outstanding recent run of success of Commands in Australia - a very close genetic relation to Zed. Commands sired two individual group one winners at the recent Queensland Winter Carnival.
We look forward to seeing a number of you at our annual stallion parade and farm walk which this year will be held on 12th July. A selection of Towkay and Zed weanlings will be paraded along with both stallions, and then we'll go on a walk of the paddocks - so bring your gummies!
Towkay
Towkay's incredible autumn run shows no sign of stopping with another 6 individual winners of eight races throughout June bringing his tally of individual winners for the last four months to 26.
Join the likes of Haunui, Highview, Pencarrow, Trelawney, Windsor Park and Wentworth Grange, they are just some of the breeders who have used Towkay for the first time over the last two seasons. The progeny of these mares will be hitting the racetracks in a season or two's time just when a yearling - from a service this season - is ready to be sold.
This coming season we will send our own high calibre mares Sound Lover, Heureka, Aspects of Love and Cent From Heaven toTowkay.
Towkay Winners during the last month were;
Surf Patrol (Towkay-Out on Bail) - another Towkay winner for breeder Sue Harty.
Cash Money (Towkay-Also) - his third win from his last four Hong Kong appearances.
Ace Aliado (Towkay-Waikawa) - two wins in Singapore during the month for the Christopher Grace bred three-year-old to remain unbeaten in three starts.
Swift Strong (Towkay-Cajun Affair) - a Singaporean success.
Beauty Again (Towkay-Follow the Sun) - impressive maiden winner at Ruakaka for the $100,000 Karaka purchase.
Ambitious Owner (Towkay-Melissa Moon) - racked up successive wins in Hong Kong during the month.
She may only have been second but the performance of Elbeesutina (Towkay-Gaysutina) to run second in the two-year-old race at Otaki on 21 June had black-book written all over it.
Slowly away the Richard Otto trained filly never seemed to be handling the track but once she got to the outside in the straight and got balanced she made up many lengths, particularly over the last 50 metres.
A $34,000 yearling purchase from our 2007 Karaka Select draft, Elbeesutina looks a promising three-year-old type.
Elbeesutina joins the likes of Rampant (second at his only start) as Towkay three-year-olds to keep an eye out for next season.
Weanling to Follow
As reported in last month's newsletter the team has chosen a Towkay colt from the Carolingian mare Auxerre to follow through to next years Karaka Yearling Sales.
Featuring the Fair Trial blood so frequently found in a number of Towkay's best performers, the chestnut colt hails from the a strong NZ family in the news in recent seasons through the deeds of Group One winning sprinter Swick.
Remember that the weanling we selected from our 2008 Sales draft, an as yet unraced No Excuse Needed colt from Soneri has won his only trial to date so we could well be onto something with our annual selections proving that a little bit of personality and good looks can go a fair way to making a good racehorse.
Other News
The LA bred The Fonz (Traditionally-The World is Mine) took his stakes earnings to over $120,000 with his win in a heat of the Victorian Winter Championship last week. He starts in a $200,000 Listed race @ Flemington today(Saturday).
Leaving the farm this week to get broken in before beginning race careers were two very well bred youngsters worth keeping an eye out for over coming seasons. Roman Emperor's yearling half brother by No Excuse Needed will race in the ownership of his breeders the Ormond family of Hawkes Bay and the rising two-year-old Pins-Steluta gelding.The half brother to Gorky Park will race for Owner/Breeder Ricky Savory from the South Island. .
The LA bred Aggregate (Carnegie-Sound Lover) registered his third Australian success with a victory over 2100m in Victoria on 6 June.
Larry's Never Late (Pentire-Laebeel) who took his stakemoney earnings to $240,000 with his close third in last months Group One Queensland Derby has a superb weanling half brother by O'Reilly on the farm who will likely go to the Karaka Premier Sale next year.
LA mares will once again visit a cross section of NZ's leading stallions for their 2009 matings. Darci Brahma is likely to serve upwards of six LA mares with Pins serving 5 and Elusive City having 3 appointments. The Towkay mare Double Okay who is represented by the smart Elusive City colt City Newton - a dual winner this season - visits Zabeel.
We look forward to seeing you out here for the parade at 11am on 12th July. Mike Dillion's quote this week from the great American female jockey Julie Krone is worth repeating; "the outside of a horse is good for the inside of a human being". So rest yourself away from the couch and the fire and lets see you on the 12th for a therapeutic walk around the farm.
