Excuse the pun but LA are bucking the trend of breeders to retain fillies from their very best families, when we offer for sale fillies from two of the most highly regarded families in the NZ studbook at Karakas Premier Yearling Sale, presenting buyers with a not to be missed opportunity.
The Pins filly from Rivertaine - Lot 199 - is a three-quarter sister to dual group one winner Legs and from a full sister to recent Group One Perth Cup victor Guyno.
Over the last seven weeks her half siblings Regency Horse (Stravinsky-Rivertaine) and O'Reilly Rally (O'Reilly-Rivertaine) have each won two races in Hong Kong with Regency Horse taking his career record to 10 wins and O'Reilly Rally amongst the most promising horses up that way with five wins from just 16 starts.
For good measure Rivertaine also happens to be a full sister to the dam of Roger James highly promising staying prospect Maythehorsebemagic.
Whilst Vedodara, whose Savabeel filly is lot 314 in the Premier Sale has been an excellent matron, leaving group one winner Sharvasti and group 3 winners Shastri and Bhandara, it has been a case of what might have been for her breeder Jim Barlow.
Sharvasti looked to have NZ middle distance weight-for-age racing at her mercy last summer before her racing career was cruelly cut short when blinded in one eye in a freak accident and a couple of seasons ago Shastri was the equal of the early season NZ three-year-olds then suffered a paddock injury that effectively meant that he was never the same horse again.
The racing highlight of the last week was the second placing of More Bountiful (Van Nistlerooy-Centaine Gu Li) in Sundays Group One Mercedes Benz Hong Kong Classic Mile in Hong Kong. Consigned by LA to the 2006 South Island Sale for breeder Helen Phinney, the gelding was a $38,000 purchase by John Foote Bloodstock.
More Bountiful now heads towards the Hong Kong Derby on 22 March.
Another LA prepared and consigned horse heading towards a derby is Carchelo (No Excuse Needed-Bellesinga) who pushed his claims for inclusion in next months Group One Telecom New Zealand Derby with his second win, this time at Te Rapa last Friday over 2000m. Bred by Angela and Tom Williams and sold for $95,000 from our 2007 Karaka Select Sale draft, the colt has a full brother in next Months Karaka Festival Sale for Tom, Angela and LA.
Ace Allado (Towkay-Waikawa) who won over 1200m on debut in Singapore on Sunday was bred by long-time LA client Christopher Grace.
Talking things Towkay and how about the world wide recognition for Armada's (Towkay-Dance in Time) performances last year which saw him allocated 118 on the International Federation of Horse Authorities Rankings which were released last week. Joining him on 118 as the equal highest New Zealand bred on the Rankings were his Hong Kong foe Able One and Cox Plate winner Maldivian. Alamosa, Nom Du Jeu, Red Ruler and Seachange all rated 115.
With last November's VRC Derby sixth place getter Larry's Never Late (Pentire-Labeel) and genuine Hong Kong and New Zealand Derby contenders in More Bountiful and Carchelo, you can see that our sales consignments are the place to shop particularly if you are looking for a budding derby runner. See you at Barn D Karaka next week and ask Sam about this years South Australia Derby candidate bred, also bred and sold by us at Karaka.
