Last month has seen a changing of the guard with the farms racing team as horses such as Aspinal head for winter spells and early spring horses like Rampant (Towkay-On Honeymoon) come back into the stable €“ less than 80 sleeps until the Mudgway!
Our small draft for the South Island Sale €“ including a Fastnet Rock colt €“ have headed south for their sale preparation at Samantha and Jane Pascoe's Ranganui Farm in Canterbury while Sam has finalised our Ready to Run Sale candidates and cast his eye over our weanling crop.
Towkay and Zed
Both stallions will stand this season at unchanged service fees with Towkay (pictured left) remaining at $6,500 plus GST and Zed at a $1,000 plus GST booking fee.
Towkay represents wonderful value when you consider he averaged $68,000 across the Karaka Yearling Sale series for 14 yearlings with a median of $57,500.
The son of Last Tycoon has enjoyed another consistent season that has him currently sitting within the top 20 stallions on the Hong Kong Premiership, leaving two group winners in High Octane and Singaporean star Ace Aliado (seven wins from eight starts) and the highly promising group two placed filly Blonde Bombshell.
Xpectation (Towkay-Wooden Doll) registered another win in the United States with her latest success coming in a US $32,500 Allowance race at Arlington in Washington on 22 May.
The Lorraine Jameson bred Casey (Towkay-Kincia) registered a third career success with her win over 1600m at Matamata in May. Kincia has been an excellent broodmare for Lorraine with her four foals of racing age all winners and yearling sale receipts of $327,500.
Central Districts Stallion Parade 13 June
Local breeders turned out in good numbers to view the 15 stallions paraded.
Sam took bookings on the day to both Zed(pictured right) and Towkay and Zed in particular looked in spectacular shape, reflecting his continuing physical development since retiring to stud as a five-year-old in 2007.
Nom Du Jeu and Road To Rock had both let down well and the farms decision to take shares in both stallions looks set to pay dividends. Sound Lover and Dancing Daze will visit Road To Rock this season while Sam has yet to decide which mares he will send to son of Montjeu.
Farm Weanlings
Once again LA will have a number of Darci Brahma yearlings to sell next year and at this early stage Sam is especially taken with a colt he bought privately recently, from the mare Sporty Spice.
The farm has a lovely filly by General Nediym the sire of this year's Karaka Million winner; by the Carnegie mare Generous Nature she's a tough spunky filly who moves well in the paddock.
The well related mare My First Fifteen who's first foal a Pins filly sold for $190,000 at Karaka this year has arguably an even better O'Reilly filly for her breeders JML Bloodstock.
Towkay has a couple of strong mature colts from the mares On The Catwalk and Ashley Downs. The Ashley Downs colt is a half brother to last year's New Zealand Oaks runner-up Can't Keeper down and a full brother to recent Hong Kong winner Fun Heroes.
South Island Sale 6th August
Ranganui Farm will sell the following two-year-olds on behalf of LA and clients:
Fastnet Rock €“ Moonstrummer colt in partnership with Graeme Gimblett
Towkay €“ Miss Sartorial colt on behalf of Storm Thoroughbreds
Danske €“ Her Hidden Talent colt
Other News
One type of yearling that we target as suitable for the Sydney Easter Sale each year is the yearling who is not sufficiently physically developed for the Karaka Sale three months prior and in 2008 our Zabeel-Dancing Daze filly bred in partnership with Hastings Don Gordon was exactly that type of candidate. Unfortunately she didn't travel too well to Sydney that year and leading Melbourne trainer Peter Moody was able to buy the filly for $150,000.
Commencing her career proper as a late three-year-old, Too Ra Loo (Zabeel-Dancing Daze) certainly looks set to reward connections for their patience. Sam had happened to see the filly work at Caulfield in January this year and had to look twice to recognise the filly such was her physical development. Too Ra Loo's first two starts this preparation over 1400m then 1700m both resulted in seconds before a winning effort over 2025m at Cranbourne on 30 May
The LA bred Lame Excuse (No Excuse Needed-Flight Queen) made it three successive wins with his 1200m success at Timaru a fortnight ago. Lame Excuse sold for $7,000 from our 2006 National Weanling Sale draft.
In Hong Kong on Wednesday the LA bred National Treasure (Pins-Trigon Lass) registered his second career win when scoring over 1400m. The three-year-old has been a model of consistency for his connections - never further back than third in six lifetime starts - since his purchase by John Foote Bloodstock for $180,000 from our 2008 Ready to Run Sale draft.
At this stage our draft for the 2010 Karaka Ready to Run Sale looks set to comprise the Pins colt from the group winning mare Eloa (dam of this seasons two-year old winner Kallisan) and the Towkay colt from Outstripping.
The Little Avondale Stallion Parase showcasing ZED and TOWKAY will be here at the farm 11th July, 10.30am. A few of the 2011 yearlings will be on show too. We look forward to seeing you then.
Go the All Blacks and the All Whites!
