There were great turnouts at both our Open Day and the Manawatu Stallion Parade where Towkay and Zed (pictured left) both had the opportunity to show off. It was wonderful to receive a number of exciting bookings from old and new clients setting the stud up for a magic start to the breeding season.
A slight contrast in weather for both events though - thank goodness for the renovated Trentham barn. We knew it had uses other than stabling horses - like drinking mulled wine and eating gourmet sausages!
We were able to show Towkay inside - bless his temperament - out of the rain sqawls. Congratulations go to Don Gordon and Bryan Hutchinson for their win with the 50% discounted service fee to Towkay and Bruce McKenzie and Raymond Matthews for their free service to Zed. These were drawn at our Open Day and all bookings, on the day and prior to, were eligible.
A perfectly clear and still day greeted 150 or so enthusiastic breeders for the Manawatu Stallion Parade - a treat for us all!
Towkay
The Christopher Grace bred Ace Aliado (Towkay-Waikawa) made it four from four with his latest Singaporean success, over 1200m early in July.
Sold as an unraced trail winner from David Haworth's barn earlier this year the three-year-old warmed up for a return to racing with a seven and a half length trial win in Singapore last Friday.
The latest promising Towkay horse to leave these shores for Hong Kong is the former Lance Noble trained charge Beauty Again (Towkay-Follow the Sun). The impressive maiden win of the LA bred four-year-old on 17 June has been franked with runner-up Sun Spur subsequently putting together two comprehensive victories resulting in his sale to Hong Kong also.
Other News
Given the run of success that the Sellou/Sneetch family has been on these last 12 months, with the likes of Black Mamba, Roman Emperor, Rios, Can't Keeper Down, Volgus etc, one doesn't need to be a rocket scientist to realise there's more competition for purchasing mares from the family than at a South Africa/All Black breakdown. However earlier this month the farm was able to purchase the three win Volksraad mare Kim Possible from Greg and Jo Griffin in the Hawkes Bay.
By Thunder Gulch from the group two winning two-year-old Fleur De Chine, Kim Possible's dam Thunderchine is a Thunder Gulch full sister to the Oaks winning filly Tully Thunder and a half sister to the promising stakeswinning Zabeel colt Sufficient. Thunderchine looks to have inherited the family's ability to produce quality racehorses judging by Kim Possible and the Danny O Brien trained Thorn Park filly Fleur D Amour the winner of three of her five starts to date. Kim Possible has a date with Stratum this spring.
Sam finalised the Karaka entries last week with our Premier draft looking like being 24 yearlings.
It's been the harshest winter in a while so it's good to see that it's less than 14 sleeps until the first foal is expected on the farm and less than 30 to the Mudgway. Even allowing for the below par performances from the All Blacks, life is good!
