October race results have seen significant pedigree upgrades for some of LA's Karaka 2009 cast, including leaving one very satisfied client with an extremely busy time fielding calls from the Northern Hemisphere. Catriona's been busy gearing up for the CatWalk Trust dinner in Christchurch this Thursday and Sam popped over to Hong Kong for a couple of days catching up with trainers and agents. The pace around the farm has picked up in earnest with ten new staff helping to bring over 30 yearlings into the barns to begin their Karaka preparations.
Towkay & Zed
Winners over the last month for Towkay include;
The Sue Harty bred Parole (Towkay - Out on Bail) added win number four and then ran second on Melbourne Cup day at Wingatui.
Go Kay (Towkay-Pesky) franked his fresh up third to 2000 Guineas contender Islington Bay earlier in the month with a win over 1400m at Poverty Bay yesterday for trainer Guy Lowry.
Sparky Winner (Towkay - Mission Star) was a winner over 1500m in Macau.
Master Nagol (Towkay - Miss Nagol) scored over 1400m at Otaki for breeder and part owner Donna Logan.
Sam caught up with John Size in Hong Kong and reports that Armada (Towkay - Dance in Time) is due to trial this week. Whether the high class galloper is ready to compete in the Group One Invitational Mile is still undecided at this stage. Super mare Vodka's win in last weeks Group One Tenno Sho in Tokyo in the almost unheard of time of 1.57.2 for the 2000m turf further franks the class of Armada after his courageous second from an outside gate to the Japanese champion earlier this year in the Yasuda Kinen.
Zed's foals have continued to please with recent standouts including a filly from group one winner Danamite's full sister Dangelic for Ron Webby and a filly for breeder M Duncan's Victory Dance mare Isadora.
Karaka 2009 Draft
England's Group One Racing Post Trophy for two-year-olds has already been won by five Classic winners including three Derby winners this century.
Crowded House's win rated higher than the wins of English Derby winners Authorized and Motivator in the same race.
This seasons winner Crowded House (Rainbow Quest-Weiner Wald) just so happens to be a half brother to LA client Jim Barlow's broodmare Bering Island, the dam of a striking Pins colt who goes forward as part of our Premier draft in January on Jim's behalf.
Already the subject of overseas interest the colt is a very scopey type of Pins yearling with a good deal of leg.
Buyers missed a real gem at Karaka 2008 when Jim couldn't get his reserve of $80,000 for Bering Island's first foal, a Savabeel filly.
Two other Pins yearlings bound to generate significant interest at Karaka from our draft are : the colt from Steluta for Ricky Savory and the filly from Rivertaine.
The Steluta colt as well as being a half brother to Group One runner-up Gorky Park is a half brother to the $300,000 Savabeel colt sold from our draft earlier this year at Sydney Easter.
Rivertaine (Centaine-Riverlette) a full sister to River Century the dam of Legs and Guyno has been a very good broodmare in her own right leaving Class One Hong Kong gallopers Regency Horse and O'Reilly Rally. The residual value of her Pins filly alone makes her a must inspect at Karaka.
Sam's pick of the yearlings that have moved ahead the last month is the Pins filly from the stakeswinner and group one placed Rapid Kay. The sensible but no nonsense filly has a really developed, particularly in the hindquarters and her pace in the paddock before the yearlings came inside was a standout.
Other News
Client Helen Phinney's good run of success has continued with More Bountiful (Van Nistelrooy-Centaine Gu Li) winning in Hong Kong last month. Sold through our 2006 South Island Sale draft to John Foote Bloodstock for $38,000. Centaine Gu Li has a Towkay yearling filly.
As we've mentioned previously the family originating from the Buzz and Tom Williams bred Sellou has had a huge last 12 months through the deeds of Black Mamba, Rios, Belcentra, Sufficient etc. And it shows no signs of stopping judging by the wins of Didi (Pins-Selliera) and Kildare (O'Reilly-Jackie O) in Hong Kong over the past fortnight. Didi was a $140,000 purchase by Worldwide Bloodstock from our 2006 Karaka Premier draft.
Congratulations to Angela and Tom Williams on the most impressive win of Carchelo (No Excuse Needed-Bellesinga) at Matamata. LA prepare a full brother to Carchelo for Karaka 2009 in partnership with Angela and Tom.
Sam and Catriona look forward to seeing some of you down in Christchurch on Wednesday for the races and Thursday for the CatWalk dinner.
Hot Off the Press - Bow Of Champions
TOGETHER IN ONE PLACE, AT ONE TIME
Sadlers Wells - Redoute's Choice - Zabeel - Makybe Diva - Sunline - Ouija Board
For more information go to www.catwalk.org.nz.
Don't forget pre dinner bids can be taken on this uniquely crafted violin bow!
And we couldn't go without a word about the run of Larry's Never Late (Pentire-Laebeel) in last weeks Group One VRC Derby. A sixth place finish in any Classic race is a great achievement for connections however we feel the best is yet to come for this exciting stayer. Laebeel delivered us an O'Reilly colt last week and maybe he can go a couple of places better in three years time.
