b4breeding

There are some good opportunities to look at and perhaps buy some young standardbreds in the latter part of this month (May), with the North and South Island weanling/mixed stock sales, and Macca Lodge’s current Southern Geared Yearling Sale.

The Macca Lodge sale is on now – and it gives people the opportunity to try before they buy. Read about it here.

Ashleighs Flight yearling filly in the Macca Lodge geared sale, May 2014

One that really caught my eye was Ashleighs Flight by the Western Hanover line sire Panspacificflight from Albaglory (a daughter of Quest For Glory, and so related to Averil’s Quest, New Age Man amongst others). It’s a family that has produced some good horses over the years, but not consistently. One branch that has been showing up very well lately is Averil’s Atom, with matchings to Badlands Hanover (Western Hanover sire line) resulting in Averil’s Quest and to McArdle (who has Nihilator as his damsire) resulting in her speedy half sister Fizzi Lizzi, so this filly’s cross with Panspacificflight ticks both those boxes. I’ve blogged earlier on Panspacificflight. Just on type this yearling filly looks the part and I like what Hamish Hunter says about her.

The PGG Wrightson Auckland All Age and Mixed Sale will this year be held on Friday the 30 May at Karaka, but the inspection of the Alabar weanling draft is this Sunday, 1-3pm at Alabar Stud. The pedigrees and photos from Alabar’s weanling draft are online here. While much of the interest will focus around the siblings to Isaiah, State Of Affairs and Offtocullect, I’ll take a very quick look at two fillies that appealed to me.

Lot 44 – Shadow Play x Splish Splash Filly

I’d be interested to see how Lot 44 the Shadow Play filly from Splish Splash turns out. My god, that mare stamps her foals with the family looks! (Although I think that Shadow Play’s sire The Panderosa was chestnut too). Like Quest For Glory mentioned above, the Splish Splash family can shoot up a really good one now and then, but she has not been a consistent producer so far. What I really like about this weanling is the cross with Shadow Play. Check out the pedigree and then my blog on crosses with Shadow Play – search the blogsite for “Shadow Play” and you will come up with a few blogs on him. On type (only from the photo) she looks a strong filly with plenty of growing to do, not pretty but quite unusually striking. In some ways she reminds me a wee bit of Classical who was a stocky, almost big boned chestnut yearling when I first saw her, and of course went on to be a champion filly. It’s hard to tell, and I don’t have such a good eye as many who can “see” the future horse in a weanling.

Lot 52 is an athletic type of filly by Real Desire from a mare that’s half to the dam of Let’s Elope and Five Star Anvil. You might be picking up a real bargain here, given the thumping Real Desire took at the yearling sales! I like the cross, and the pedigree has some of those hard working, under-rated damsires I like – Troublemaker, Big Towner, Shadow Wave as well as doses of Adios. There’s Golden Miss on the sires maternal line, and Barbara Direct on the dam’s bottom line. Those are two damn good references. 

PGG Wrightson Autumn Weanling & All Age Sale at the Canterbury Agricultural Park is on tomorrow, 15 May, and I’ll be keen to see how some of the lots sell. You can see them on the Nevele R website, at least for now

Tintin In America colt from Arma Class

– a good range of established and newer sires. Of particular interest to me are the Tintin In America weanlings of course, and I thought Lot 52 (colt) and Lot 54 (filly) were very nice looking types. He does seem to leave good lookers, well proportioned. See my blog on Tintin In America as a sire and on my own yearling filly.

I was also  interested to see photos of the Vintage Masters (and in Alabar’s draft the Big Jims) as they were such different types of stallions and racehorses themselves, although both sons of Western Ideal. At Nevele R I like the look of Lot 58, a colt by Vintage Master from Emma Grace (from the Vicario family). Lot 74 is another nice looking Vintage Master from the good producer Nemesis Choice. The two Changeovers (Lot 55  a strong looking filly and Lot 55 a long barrelled colt) also appeal. The colt may lack a bit of depth of chest but having seen the way Changeovers develop into strapping yearlings, I can visualise him looking quite bold as he grows – and I’m a sucker for those roman noses.

I’ll make some additions to this blog after the sales.

Post script 15 May:

Just had an initial look at results from the PGG Weanling and All Aged Sale today, and the prices show how much this is a buyers market. Apart from a few exceptions, prices would hardly cover the feed costs for most of them. So weanling and all aged sales are still in the era of  “clearance” sales, which is not where we want weanlings to be. Weanling sales are a huge opportunity to even out the buyers and producers return on investment, to make a reasonable sale price that delivers fairly to both. But the balance so far is not fair. “Fair” of course is an emotional term, so in my next blog I will look at why the lack of definition in our industry about “What we are” is creating a very confused market for all.