Some snapshots of yearlings on parade and sales days 2016 – a reflection on the commitment of breeders, preparers and assistants to develop and present an outstanding and often much loved product – as well as an acknowledgement of the tension of that moment in the parade and sales ring. Tip o’ the hat.
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Posted in Harness racing, Horses | Tagged 2016 yearling sales | 1 Comment »
Karaka Parade Ring 2016
Back today from three days of yearling sales as a vendor and observer, and I am still trying to fathom the puzzle that it gave us.
Reports have covered the basics of the highs and lows (with a focus on the highs of course), and the huge difference in middle market between the two venues. I won’t repeat all of that. I do offer congratulations to those who had a good sale, and empathy for those who had a very average one, and heartfelt commiserations to those who took a beating.
What I will do over the next few blogs is think about the short, medium and long term implications for the industry – not just for breeders although we will start there.
For me, the question is this: How can we progress as an industry if we are not willing to invest in new products? How can we expand our top product base without it being at the expense of breeders?
The glaring result of the sales is that almost all newer sires were simply not wanted – and some who have only had a crop or two racing so far are already struggling as commercial sires.
And then there is fashion – what is “in” at sales time, compared to what was “in” when we booked our mares. Unfortunately for breeders we are making decisions almost 3 years before we line them up as sale yearlings. It is hard to be nimble. Which is why going to top proven sires is where the top breeders are now consistently heading.
And the reception for sires is so different here from North America where buyers will eagerly seek out the top new boys and give them a go.
But is sticking with a handful of proven sires the longer term answer? The average for those sires is certainly well up on others, but the more product buyers have to pick over, the more there will be a number of Bettor’s Delights, Mach Threes, American Ideals and Art Majors who fail to meet the ever-rising bar and who will sell for little if any profit. And that scenario can be even more devastating for smaller breeders who have carried the risk in the hope of getting a good return.
I know the yearlings presented at sales are a small proportion of all yearlings bred. But in many ways the sales are the “canary in the mine” for our industry, giving us a heads-up about its overall health for the future.
Over the 3 days I listened to many breeders (small and also medium sized) who have struggled to make anything overall, and some who will be really assessing if it is worth carrying on.
While that may happen every year, I think it would be cavalier to think “they’ll be back”. Yes, many will be. But I think they will cut right back and be more selective, which may lead to a reduction in foal numbers rather than the increase we need.
Breeders have responded to clear messages about raising the bar of their broodmares and the presentation of their yearling – the standard of product was high across both venues in terms of the catalogue page and the product in the ring.
The new message for breeders is that our role is to test out new sires until they are proven enough for buyers to pay higher prices. Breeders will be expected to carry that risk and cost by being willing to take a loss – or by carrying the costs even further through ownership.
I’m not sure that’s a great model for any industry going into the future. And there may be lessons we can learn from other industries about how to invest in and support new product development and niche marketing that could be useful.
I’ll be looking at that in some future blogs.
Back to day job this afternoon, so will post up some more photos tonight. Personally, we sold our 3 yearlings, but were hit by the sire choice – we weren’t in fashion. I set my reserves very realistically and just scrapped in, for which I am grateful. My aim is always to breed the best I can from the mare rather than aim for the top sales price. We’ve had good sales in the past, so I am not complaining. But even so, the flat results have given me a wake-up call and a prod to reassess my breeding plans. Will I be alone in that?
As always, your views and insights welcome – as a comment or direct to me at bee.raglan@xtra.co.nz
Posted in Standardbred breeding | 2 Comments »
There will be a short “holiday” from blogs while I immerse myself in the yearling sales at both Karaka in Auckland and in Christchurch – not just as an observer but also as a vendor.
I hope to catch up with some of the lots/vendors/preparers I’ve talked to, and other blog friends and standardbred breeders over that time as well. And will report back over the following weekend.
At Auckland it will be a nervous time until our three lots have all gone through the ring – any vendor will tell you, it can be so unpredictable. I wish all of them well. We are not in competition, but part of the same industry. And yet our drive to produce a really good yearling and then, secondly, to sell it well, makes us both comrades and competitors on the day.
Yeeehaaa!!! My Zentefold filly by Rock N Roll Heaven
The best result is that buyers expectations and vendors expectations align well, or at least in the same ballpark. There will always be some gutting negative surprises and some elating surprises. But my estimate is three quarters of sales results are pretty much aligned, if parties are realistic.
My own personal interest in going to Christchurch, same as two years ago, will be to see the variety of sires in the Christchurch sales. Yes, a more mixed lot, but this is where the future of harness racing is growing its future roots in the new sires and new combinations. I want to see a Stunin Cullen yearling or five for myself, and likewise Shadow Play (my colt is one of only two Shadow Plays in the Karaka sale, and the second one is a filly), and far more Auckland Reactors and Betterthancheddars than in the Karaka sale. I will enjoy looking at the 4 Big Jims in Christchurch (none at Karaka) including one by Under Cover Lover, and a couple of Mister Big, plus some Panspacificflights, more Sportswriters, and hey we have about 8 Well Saids to look at instead on just one at Karaka. In the trotting lines some decent lots of The Pres, Skyvalley and some by Love You, Sam Bourbon, many others – even a decent related colt from Imperial Count.
It’s not just the numbers game. It is the way the breeders are reading the market and going into a corner that may be lucrative now, but may end up being a fight cage.
Variety, width, choice, spreading new sires, marketing new sires, seems to come to a dead end at Karaka at the moment. I predict it will be a good sale, and lots of figures to support that. My view is not the immediate result but the trend. And promotion of what has been successful in the past has resulted in what we have now – a successful sale (we hope) but one that is not taking our breeding industry forward at all, even though on the surface it appears to be pushing toward top end and established sires.
I think that will change in future. Now it is the probably wise and careful reaction of breeders at least 3 years ago when it became clear that selling a yearling for a decent return was a tough ask, whether you were a small or big player.
Kym Kearns with The Snow Leopard, my Shadow Play colt who is such a character!
Breeders in the North Island read those signals (not so different from years before but stronger, more potent) and made their breeding choices accordingly. Top end buyers may be happy – and may end up having so much similar top end choices (“this lovely well bred Bettors or those other 5 lovely well bred Bettors…) that it will level the playing field.
My wish, and one I have tried to act out in the real world with my mares, is that as breeders we go for quality but take some calculated and well considered “b4breeding” risks to bring our topline standardbred mares to sires that will most suit them as well as potentially attract buyers.
The two lots I have as a vendor at Karaka- as I said earlier, my colt (from a mare who is half to Tintin In America) is one of two Shadow Plays, the other being a filly. My filly (from Zenterfold herself) is a Rock N Roll Heaven filly – there are just 2 colts and 1 filly at Karaka from this potent new sire. Seems crazy to me. He is ticking all the boxes including that elusive one which says “Good Fillies”.
Makes you think. I understand the drivers behind breeding decisions and respect that. I just don’t want this “niche” to become a “Karaka Korner” that backs us up against the wall in the long term.
What we can learn from overseas experience is the scenario of first year sires supported by a stud farm – and that is why the Auckland Reactor marketing push from quite a few directions is interesting to follow. That’s an outcome of big players buying into long term results, which often our local sires have not had at that level. Canny, and good luck to them, a well planned and long term strategy to get Auckland Reactor off the ground and into orbit as a sire of the future. I will be keen to see his lots down south. Even the adverts mention his “type” as leggy and I wonder if they will present like many Changeovers have before – scopey types that may need a bit of time, but worth waiting for, rather than pushing them as the 2yos they may not be. Which can make it a longer wait for a sire.
Good wishes to all vendors in the sales. And all buyers. I hope we meet in a good place.
Posted in Pedigree matching, Standardbred breeding | Leave a Comment »
Bringing fillies to the yearling sales can be tricky, and more so when their sires are not amongst the top four or five. But this hasn’t stopped Anna Laxton, preparer and one of the vendors of three fillies heading for the Premier Yearling Sale in Christchurch. And on type and family connections, they are well worth a look. Two of them are by “old hand” Live Or Die, and the third is by “new boy” Tintin In America. In this blog I look at Lots 213 and 157.
Our Promise, Lot 213 Premier Yearling Sale, Christchurch
One that “ticks all the boxes” is Lot 213, a Live Or Die filly from the Holmes Hanover mare Good Looking Woman. That makes this filly a full sister to Livin It Lovin It who is doing a great job over in Australia (26 wins and $175,811 to date). Live Or Die is now 23 years old, and he has earned his reputation as a great value sire of tough raceway horses over many, many seasons. Many of those have ended up racing in Australia where their tenacity and durability has stood them in good stead. We tend to forget Live Or Die has had a couple of $1m-plus foals – Divisive and Just An Excuse – as well as top horses like Bondy, Power Of Tara, Bold Cruiser and among the mares Elect To Live and Life Of Luxury. When you look at those names, you think of mental and physical toughness. He’s doing a great job as a broodmare sire too – Terror To Love, Ohoka Texas, Major Mark, Lizzie Maguire, Libertybelle Midfrew, Franco Ledger, Elusive Chick and even the trotter Escapee! So investing in a Live Or Die filly can pay dividends in the breeding barn as well as on the track.
Good Looking woman has produced 5 to the races for 5 winners from her 8 foals, and Anna Laxton describes this filly, named Our Promise, as a “tanky, good looking girl, tough – she should have been a colt!” She says the filly free-leg paces around the paddock all the time.
American Dame, Lot 157 Premier Yearling Sale, Christchurch
If Live Or Die is the “old hand”, then Tintin In America is very much a new kid on the block, but one who is doing enough from very small numbers to open a few eyes – and potentially a few buyers’ cheque books.
Anna Laxton’s father-in-law Peter Fry came across Carnival Banner, a unraced sister to the great Mainland Banner and Christian Banner, and half sister to Stunin Banner, Rocker Band, Return To Sender etc. He bred the mare to Rock N Roll Heaven, lost one but now has a 2yo filly by that sire (Called My Blue Heaven) in the care of John Hay. After that, the plan is to let the mare prove herself before going back to another highly commercial sire. So the next two foals have been by well-regarded but cheaper new sires Tintin In America and most recently Auckland Reactor.
Carnival Banner was an unraced and very big mare, about 16.3hh. Anna says some of that tallness is starting to come through in the Tintin In America filly – “she’s almost thoroughbred looking, she’s very beautiful and I think the best looking filly we’ve had.”
She’s also the only Tintin In America yearling in the sales – both Christchurch and Karaka days. That’s more about the pricing of Tintin as a sire for breed-to-race, and to attract enough mares to develop a reputation. He’s not yet a yearling sales sire – but this is very much a yearling sales filly. Named American Dame, her photo shows a well built, attractive filly who, like her illustrious close relations, could develop into a really strong 3 and 4yo. I have a similarly built Tintin In America filly myself (co-owned with Brian West) from a big Safely Kept mare who has developed nicely and qualified, but we have given her time to mature into her frame and develop some strength, and hopefully will reap the rewards. And Tintin In America fillies are certainly flying the flag, with Just Wantano and Aussie Vista in Australia, and American Flybye here in New Zealand.
With the family credentials for stamina and quality, and a sire that is adding speed, American Dame deserves her place at the sales. On type alone should turn a few heads towards the ring come auction time.
Posted in Standardbred breeding | Tagged Live Or Die, Mainland Banner, tintin in america | Leave a Comment »
Ohoka breeder and vet Bruce Taylor (with co-breeder Bruce Kennedy) has an interesting Changeover filly on offer at the Premier yearling sale in Christchurch.
He describes the filly as a lovely, striking looking one, a typical Changeover being a bigger and scopey type, with a big bum and strong neck.
The filly’s dam is My Life, a 16yo Life Sign mare who was imported from North America for breeding purposes more than 10 years ago, by Bruce Taylor, Bruce Kennedy and Danny Boyle. My Life’s dam is where things get very familiar – she’s Mica Lobell (by Temujin from Ms Romeo Waverly), and is of course Live Or Die’s dam.
Live Or Die, half brother to My Life who has a Changeover filly Lot 315 in the 2016 Premier Yearling Sale.
So given the enduring respect and popularity of Live Or Die (particularly in the years around 2000 to 2005 when he was serving large books of mares), importing his half sister to breed from must have ticked many boxes. But the hoped for success turned out to be very elusive; Boyle drifted away, and more recently Kennedy has ended his interest, and so now Taylor is the one left with the mare for any future breeding.
Her first foal (born 2005) was by Red River Hanover, and qualified here, was sold to Australia and scratched out 3 wins and 15 places from 64 starts.
After that, the mare proved impossible to produce a foal for another 5 years until a Badlands Hanover colt came along in 2010. He was just average. The following year the mare had a Royal Mattjesty colt that Taylor describes as a magnificent type and was headed for the yearling sales but got kicked and ended up having to have an operation, so was withdrawn from the sales. They tried him as a racehorse and he did look promising but as soon as the pressure came on the damaged hock started playing up again. Taylor says he developed into a lovely natured horse and is now enjoying life as a hack.
My Life’s third foal (born 2012) was a breeding arranged by Boyle. The chosen sire was Rob Roy Mattgregor and Brisbane Pastoral, the owners of that sire, took the resulting colt foal. Brisbane Pastoral Company Ltd (Steve Clements) leased many mares at that time to help build up the sire’s book, and I am presuming it was one of those deals. Interestingly, Rob Roy Mattregor comes from the maternal line of Leah Almahurst (K Nora), so possibly a bit of conscious doubling up going on in that match with a Life Sign mare (K Nora). The foal, named Walter Mattgregor, was exported to Australia in early 2014 and is now a 3yo but yet to show up in the Australian statistics.
The mare missed to Changeover in 2013, but foaled this Lot 315 filly by him in 2014 – nicely named Change Of Tempo.
As I mentioned, Bruce Taylor is pretty much left with the mare now and wondering what direction to take. He’s keen to step up in terms of the quality of a sire, and has been considering Art Major as an option. That has an intriguing double up with brother and sister Romeo Hanover (sire of Ms Romeo Waverley in My Life’s maternal line) and Romona Hanover (dam of Rodine Hanover in Art Major’s maternal line). They are, of course, from the great Romola Hanover/Romola Hal line.
Another option is to look at My Life as a Life Sign mare with all the potential modern connections to the stunning K Nora/Adora maternal family, which we’ve looked at in detail in previous blogs. And that would lead you in the direction of American Ideal for a 3×3 to the great mare Three Diamonds, and a 5x6x5 to K Nora herself. (He’s Watching would be another option in this regard but that cross results in a 4×2 to Life Sign which I would be wary of.)
Or you could go back to the Mica Lobell well, and try something like Terror To Love who has Live Or Die as his damsire. But is doubling up the Mica Lobell connection the wise way to go?
The fact is, Mica Lobell produced several really nice racehorses – 10 winners from her 15 foals – with Live Or Die ($728,264) and Sea The USA ($765,521, by Seahawk Hanover), and Presidential Power ($218,993) the best of them. But as a maternal line, it is not kicking on at the level or with the consistency that you might expect.
At this stage, I think Bruce Taylor is heading in the right direction – forget the Live Or Die factor and play to the mare’s strongest enduring elements in her pedigree (those modern classic maternal lines I mentioned above) and match to the most proven and commercial sires who also have those elements or ones that click well with them.
Posted in Standardbred breeding | Leave a Comment »
Sorry about the lack of blogging – still coming up to speed from being unwell.
The Australian yearling sales have started, and here in New Zealand we have only a couple more weeks before the Australasian Classic at Karaka (22 February) and the Premier at Christchurch (23 and 24 February).
This is a pressure time for all preparers, but to be honest if the ground work hasn’t been done then it is too late to make a silk purse from a sow’s ear. The canny buyers, usually trainers, will be focused on the underlying quality of the yearling, its conformation and pedigree, and what they see in their mind’s eye it will be like in another year or so. Those are not things you can turn around in the last two weeks.
Isa Lodge (the name Kym Kearns and I go under for our breeding) has two fillies and a colt headed to Karaka. All three have been raised at our home base, and it has been a pleasure to watch them develop. As always, Kym has done the hard yards of the preparation, and the horses reflect her skills and dedication. We are really pleased with them.
Lot 100 is a Shadow Play colt with heaps of character from my lovely mare The Blue Lotus. I love this colt. He is very sociable. He entertains himself with made up games, he’s intelligent and he can’t wait to have something more to do. He has a real zest for life, and my guess is that he’ll love racing. And that’s half the battle.
Lot 133 is a Rock N Roll Heaven filly from my top mare Zenterfold, so she is a half-sister to Tintin In America. This is the only filly from Zenterfold that has been offered at the yearling sales – she is genuinely for sale – and I think she’s a really nice racing proposition as well as having longer term broodmare value. She’s built like a brick sh**house, and has really quick reflexes. Very typical of the good Heaven fillies I’ve seen on the track, and potentially an early type.
Lot 115 is a Majestic Son filly from Kym’s mare Toggle. She’s an incredible yearling, lovely temperament, inquisitive, takes everything in stride. She’s a showy type in terms of looks, with a dark mane and a blonde tail. She seems a very professional youngster, well grounded, sensible. She’s got a really good trotting family behind her, and Majestic Son has given her a nice length and more height than her dam.
With the demise of the Harness Weekly, we’ve done almost no advertising this year – we feel many of the publications come out after the key buyers have long-listed and even inspected their preferred yearlings. We’ve focused more on having a good product ready to be inspected, hands-on, when buyers and trainers wanted to see them. We were delighted that PGG Wrightson again allowed smaller breeders in the Cambridge area to be part of the “buyers bus tour” of the major preparers/vendors in the Waikato area, by adding the Cambridge Trotting Track as a tour stop for presentation and inspection. Almost all the top trainers were on that “bus tour”, and our lots did us proud.
Below are the posters we have developed for the yearling sale day promotions.
Posted in Harness racing, Pedigree matching, Standardbred breeding | Tagged 2016 yearling sales, Majestic Son, Rock N Roll Heaven, Shadow Play, Zenterfold | Leave a Comment »
After more than a year of self-proclaimed “finding out what breeders want”, with online surveys, regional forums, and invitations to contribute ideas, the New Zealand Standardbred Breeders Association (NZSBA) produced its three-year strategic plan. Excellent.
As blog readers know, I’ve had real issues with some of this “consultation”, but at least it is a start and we can improve on it.
And now with a plan that includes a large list of Key Actions, I would assume the next steps for the NZSBA and its members would be to group and prioritise those actions into specific projects, develop some clear workstreams around the core ones, and perhaps set up some inclusive/expert working groups (for god’s sake lets not call them committees) to come up with some more detailed options, costings, and proposals for further debate and development. All with clear milestones and transparent reporting.
But no. What we get instead is NZSBA chair John Mooney once again flying a personal kite in the January issue of Harnessed magazine – and inviting readers to comment and “perhaps contribute other options”. No structure, no criteria. It is not the first time this has happened. This time Mooney wants to “throw in an idea” to get rid of the 2yo and 3yo fillies Sires Stakes series and redistribute that funding around 90 bonus payments for other races.
Planning versus kite flying – what is the NZSBA’s priority right now?
Where did this come from? Left field? Late night data crunching on the computer? Some politics regarding the Sires Stakes Board? Who knows.
Certainly it doesn’t seem to come from the regional forums or other consultation, and Mooney claims it as his own idea (albeit heavily borrowed from a thoroughbred scheme). And how odd that it was flagged up as a “from the chair” item in Harnessed magazine instead of in the new fortnightly Breeding Matters newsletter ably put out by executive Brad Reid. What does that say about Breeding Matters as a key method of communication between the NZSBA and its members?
I have no doubt about John Mooney’s passion and commitment to harness racing and the NZSBA. But this sort of personal kite flying, especially after a year or so of supposedly asking breeders for their ideas, is simply inappropriate and very odd timing.
What is the point of diverting the focus from the new strategic plan to some out-of-the-blue speculative but specific scheme that he doesn’t even relate back to the strategic plan?
I know at work when I have several tough, big or boring projects to get stuck into, I’m tempted to delay by diverting into a more creative, speculative task that I find interesting. I can only suppose that’s the case here. It’s a very human thing to do.
I also know from work experience, that the only way to convert a strategy into actual deliverable results is to use a pretty robust programme/project management approach. It’s not rocket science. It just requires some rigour, structure and some accountabilities.
My big concern is that NZSBA will continue to be driven by these one-off ideas, developed in isolation and with no criteria against which they can be measured and compared for potential investment (of time, resources, budget). The last one was the North Island Breeders Association proposal for a mares credit scheme. There is nothing wrong with these schemes/ideas individually, it is just a lack of context and process that gets me frustrated. Thinking outside the square is great, but put some structure around the brainstorming.
“Random” will not get us to our objectives.
The Strategic Plan isn’t perfect but please, please, try to build on it rather than undermine it with “left field” proposals particularly coming from the top (and therefore seen to have more clout).
I put my hand up to share some basic project management tools that could help make that transition from plan to actions, and make implementation more inclusive and transparent. It doesn’t stop creativity and discussion, it just channels it.
Posted in Harness racing, Standardbred breeding | Tagged Brad Reid, John Mooney, New Zealand Standardbred Breeders Association NZSBA | Leave a Comment »
Update: Have received the photos from Sara and also a very recent result from Lady Moonlight’s first foal – one start, one win, you can’t do better. Check the race result at the bottom of the blog and thanks to Dot “Sherlock” Schmidt for picking that up.
Just a wee heads up – I have been very crook with a virus last week, and it has knocked me over. I hope to be better this week but it will take time. You can always pick up discussions via “Comments”.
A few blogs ago I asked the question, who is going to be the inheritor of the In The Pocket siring line? And I took a closer look at some of the potential heirs including sons of Christian Cullen. Blog reader Ted Sieper rightly pulled me up for not mentioning Raging Bull. Dot Schmidt also came in with the comment that maybe we should try to get one of the well bred North American sons of Christian Cullen, from the brief stint he had over there as a sire.
Raging Bull as a racehorse, for trainer Cran Dalgety.
If you look at his pedigree, Raging Bull already fits that bill.
So why is he flying under the radar of too many breeders?
I wish it was a puzzle to know but it is a common dilemma. Using a rugby analogy (instead of my usual cooking ones) – the conservative nature of breeders, trainers and buyers makes it very hard for any new young flanker to slip past the “tight five” they are facing – Bettor’s Delight, Mach Three, American Ideal, Art Major and still in there Christian Cullen.
Raging Bull was one of several hugely talented youngsters who dropped out for various reasons and never had the opportunity to prove what they could do on the track in the long term. Alta Christiano falls into that category too. They didn’t get the time to really embed themselves in our imagination.
Raging Bull himself was an extremely talented 2yo and 3yo, but injured himself in the suspensory. He was tried again very briefly in 2014 by trainer John Parsons but the old injury quickly flared up, and he is now a sire. As that Harnesslink article points out,
Since Raging Bull disappeared off the harness racing scene, we have worked out just how good the only three horses that have ever beaten him are – Christen Me, Smolda (x3), and Ideal Scott.
The third problem for Raging Bull is that he wasn’t picked up by any of the main studs. Nevele R and Alabar already had their own sons of Christian Cullen standing (though neither have stepped up enough in the end). Woodlands is already committed to Bettor’s Delight son Highview Tommy as their “local boy” at the cheaper end. And Raging Bull would have had even less traction and more low end competition in Australia. He did however get huge support from Robert Famularo and his resources at Cavalla Bloodstock, who was not afraid to send quality mares to him.
He now stands at Craig and Nicky Kennedy’s stud “The Oaks”. Craig describes the stallion as a lovely type with a temperament like his father’s, whom he worked with as a sire at Wai Eyre. Raging Bull had 30 mares in his first year at Dancingonmoonlight, a small handful at Barra Equine last year and 10 this year at the Kennedys. Craig Kennedy says they are not expecting much more until some of his foals hit the track – “He has to show he’s worth going to.” An advantage, he notes, is that even with his very small numbers this year, most of them are mares with a bit of breeding or racing performance behind them.
“When we got him to stand, I heard from owners of his foals and there was not one bad comment.”
Raging Bull stood at $1500 this season.
As a sire, he’s not a wild gamble. He is a calculated bet based on credentials. He is an extremely well bred horse, being by the best pacing sire we have had in New Zealand in recent years – Christian Cullen – with some super North American maternal breeding that includes Galleria, who retired as the richest and fastest pacing mare of all time. What is there not to love?
His maternal family being USA based is perhaps less known by many breeders here except for Galleria. And I count myself amongst the ignorant, when he was on the scene as a race horse. Yet the more I looked at his pedigree credentials, his record and his potential crosses, I consider him “on paper” as one of Christian Cullen’s best chances to carry on his line. With his own Christian Cullen and Artsplace influences, he is available at just the right time for many well bred New Zealand mares to cross back into two lines that are now well-embedded in a lot of good mares, or to outcross from mares from No Nukes or other Direct Scooter lines. Often for a sire, the timing is wrong – but not in this case.
I haven’t seen him in the flesh yet, but I believe Michele Carson in her interview with me, who described him as one of the finest looking horses she has seen. She saw him in a box without knowing what colt he was. He just stood out.
There are two yearlings from his first crop in this 2016 Premier sale in Christchurch by Raging Bull, both colts, and also a third colt from his Western Ideal half sister San Rafaella which I’ll look at in a later blog. All of them come from proven families, and when you add in the credentials of Raging Bull, I would hope these colts get a lot of interest.
Both lots are prepared by Sara Smith (Famularo) of Dancingonmoonlight Farm on behalf of Cavalla Bloodstock, so I rang her to find out what they were like “in person”.
PHOTOS OF RAGING BULL AS A STALLION PLUS THESE TWO YEARLINGS COMING IN A WEEK
Raging Bull x Lady Moonlight – Sands A Flyin
Breeder/owner: Cavalla Bloodstock
Preparer: Sara Smith, Dancingonmoonlight Stud
2nd dam Sirius Flight, 3rd dam Direct Flight.
Raging Bull x Lady Moonlight yearling colt
Sara describes this yearling as a standout. “He’s colty, a bigger type, makes his presence known.” She says he is one of the those colts that people may not mark down in the catalogue but when he parades they go “Oh wow, who is that?”
What sticks out to me in this pedigree is that it is both familiar downunder but also USA proven. At a really good level. The grandam of this filly was the wonderful Pacific Flight who raced here so well then absolutely made her mark in the USA as a great winning, tough, fast and durable mare. She left one good foal over there called Droppinthehammer ($323,617). Her daughter by The Big Dog is Sirius Flight, and she achieved 5 wins in the USA and went under 1.55 there. Brought back here she had the Bettor’s Delight colt Malak Uswaad who did very well both here and later in the USA.
All of this family goes back to Significant from the remarkable Black Watch family, one of our best quality families in New Zealand.
Lady Moonlight’s first foal is by Santanna Blue Chip, and qualified/trialed in some fast times before being exported to Australia late last year.
Raging Bull x Soul Sister – Presidential Ball
Breeder/owner: Cavalla Bloodstock
Preparer: Sara Smith, Dancingonmoonlight Stud
Dam a half sister to Carabella.
Raging Bull x Soul Sister yearling colt
Sara describes this colt as very well put together, muscular, not overly big, but very even in growth and conformation.
Being from a half sister to the absolutely stunning Bettor’s Delight mare Carabella, this colt could get quite a bit of interest.
The USA factor comes in because their dam Andress Blue Chip is North American bred (Artsplace x Athens Blue Chip, an On The Road Again mare) and is a half sister to some very well performed USA horses including Athena Blue Chip, a World Champion by the Cam Fella sire Goalie Jeff. You can see it all in the catalogue entry. (Just a very short aside, Goalie Jeff comes from the same maternal line as McArdle’s .)
Soul Sister is an unraced mare by Presidential Ball. Presidential Ball is proving to be a good damsire and outcrosses this pedigree to balance up a 3 x 3 to Artsplace. Although she was unraced, Soul Sister carries quality genes. Look at the quality of sires who contribute to her maternal line. Presidential Ball, Artsplace, On The Road Again, and her 3rd dam was by hardly-known sire Super Wave (a son of Shadow Wave) but who was one of Shadow Waves best sons. Beyond that it continues with Bret Hanover and then Duane Hanover who of course appears twice in Artsplace’s own pedigree – as Abercrombie’s damsire, and in Miss Elvira’s maternal line.
Plenty to like about these two colts and their sire.
B J TURNBULL MEMORIAL
Race code: BHC20011601 Stakes: $6,360 Gait: PACERS Class: 2YO
1,730 METRES MOBILE START
BROWN GELDING 2 by SANTANNA BLUE CHIP USA out of LADY MOONLIGHT (NZ)
Owner(s): H Harper, D W Harper
Breeder(s): S A (Sally) Smith
Track Rating: GOOD
Gross Time: 2:05:3, Mile Rate: 1:56:6
Posted in Pedigree matching, Standardbred breeding | Tagged Athena Blue Chip, Carabella, Galleria, Life Sign mares | 1 Comment »
Thanks to all of you who joined in this K Nora discussion and several who provided very interesting examples from their own breeding decisions and research. There seems to be a lot of agreement that this is a family that is travelling really well into the modern era.
It would be great if someone in Australia can have a look at what the APG yearling sales 2016 offer in this regard or what is showing up at races with this line breeding to a great maternal family branch.
I had a look through the PGG Sales of the Stars (both Australasian and Premier) and there are several lots who have the K Nora branch in their veins. (I have put in brackets the number of strains of K Nora branch I can spot in the yearling, but I might have missed some, and of course American Ideal will automatically bring in 2).
Remember this whole discussion kicked off with my blog about three of them here, as they are ones who have gone to American Ideal to increase the number of crosses.
I’m noting the fillies, in particular, as buyers may be interested in some of these for the longer term prospect they offer to breed on this cross with a sire like American Ideal or He’s Watching. And perhaps sometime in the future with Canadian horse Control the Moment, as one blog reader suggested, if he keeps on winning and ends up at stud.
Lot 67, by Rocknroll Hanover, dam is by Life Sign from Aberfeldy family (2); Lot 138, by Bettor’s Delight, dam an American Ideal mare (2); Lot 144, by American Ideal, grandam is by Life Sign (3); Lot 167, by Always A Virgin, grandam is by Life Sign (2); Lot 219, by Betterthancheddar, grandam is by Life Sign, from family of Changeover (1); Lot 235, by Shadow Play, dam is by Life Sign from good family (1); Lot 273, by Bettor’s Delight, dam is by Life Sign (1); Lot 315, by Changeover, dam is a Life Sign mare from family of Live Or Die and I will do a blog on her next week or so (1); Lot 353, by American Ideal, dam is by Life Sign (3); Lot 481, by Artsplace, dam is by Western Ideal (1); Lot 495, by Bettor’s Delight, dam is by American Ideal (2); Lot 502 by Gotta Go Cullect, dam is by Life Sign, family of Courage Under Fire (1).
Lot 121, by American Ideal, dam is by Real Desire (3); Lot 125, by Sir Lincoln, dam is by Real Desire (1); Lot 241 by Stunin Cullen, dam is by Life Sign (1); Lot 301, by Well Said, dam is by Real Desire (1); Lot 487 by American Ideal, dam is by Life Sign (3).
Posted in Standardbred breeding | Tagged American Ideal, K Nora, Life Sign | Leave a Comment »
He’s Watching, Alabar stallion parade October 2015. Photo: Bee Pears
When I wrote the previous blog on the sales yearlings bred on the American Ideal x Life Sign cross, I got diverted into seeing how other double ups with important mares from the K Nora line could happen, and what had already been tried here with our limited resources.
I edited much of that out, and it is now part of this extended blog looking at our potential downunder to dip into the K Nora/Adora pool in a number of different ways. Please comment if you find other options of interest, particularly in Australia where timings and numbers, siring and even Adora descendant options might be different.
As Australian blog reader C Rookwood notes in his comment on the last blog: “Another way to get the Three Diamonds double up is American Ideal/Real Desire mare. Yes, absolutely, and in his case an American Ideal colt foal from a dam by Real Desire out of a Panorama mare, so in his mare he already has a duplication to another very good maternal line, aka Golden Miss. That is impressive. It is the same other strong maternal line that He’s Watching brings of course, via Real Desire. You also find a mix of the K Nora and Golden Miss families in $3.7m earner Mr Feelgood.
Mr Feelgood in the winners circle, 2006 Little Brown Jug
Photo: Bee Pears
Just before I go into some of these other cross options, I did take a look at the closer Australian crosses with American Ideal x Life Sign mares – in total 12 to date, and about half of those are 2yos or younger, so it’s really hard to get a line on anything from small numbers. So far the best performers are Life’s Just Magic (49 starts, 9 wins) and Spinner’s Boy (15 starts, 6 wins).
So let’s have a look at what other crosses deliver crosses to Three Diamonds or the K Nora/Adora line. Here’s part 2 of the blog:
American Ideal is offering more opportunities to achieve multiple influences of the Adora/K Nora family, and his coming of age as a sire is also well timed to catch breeding mares not just from Life Sign himself, but also from some of his sons – Day In A Life, I Am A Fool, Island Fantasy and (like He’s Watching) Real Desire.
But in many of these cases, the double ups are moving back in the pedigree and may not be situated in particularly influential positions. For example their influence is going through two males (e.g. Three Diamonds to Life Sign to Real Desire), rather than what seems to be a more influential female-to-male-to-female or female-to-female relationship. What we might call the “x factor” line. The numbers are so small here, that drawing conclusions is impossible. But it is still worth taking a look – and a punt that quality + quality will result in better quality. In New Zealand and Australia to date there is just a scattering of these sons of Life Sign mares going to American Ideal and it would be foolish to try to draw conclusions one way or another. You can check out the NZ ones on the HRNZ Info Horse website by filtering American Ideal progeny on damsire. My own view is that each of these sons of Life Sign is a different package in terms of pedigree and in their ability to pass quality genes and other attributes as a damsire, and for some of them the drivers may be less Life Sign/Three Diamonds, and more influences from their own maternal lines. Both Real Desire (via Whispering Sands, a daughter of Shifting Sands) and Day In A Life (via Strike Out, a half brother to Shifting Sands) bring in the Golden Miss family which, as noted above, may complement the K Nora family.
In future there may be a reverse way of getting these strong female double ups, and that is through American Ideal as a damsire. In New Zealand he has 11 damsire credits to date, none of the mares going to sires with K Nora influence in their pedigree. Of potential sires, only Mr Feelgood and sons of Western Ideal meet the criteria at the moment as far as I can see, with He’s Watching being too close, Mr Feelgood not getting much traction here unfortunately, and sons of Western Ideal (like sons of Life Sign) really putting the Leah Almahurst factor in a position where it may not be particularly influential. So a sire with perhaps Life Sign as his damsire or grandamsire is what we are looking for.
Leah Almahurst. Photo from Gene Riegle Memorial website
Going back to the American Ideal x Life Sign cross offspring in New Zealand…. Remember there are 8 produced on that direct cross. Included in the 8 is Ideal Romance a mare who is bred and owned by Brisbane Pastoral Company Ltd and was exported to Australia in July this year but not yet sighted racing. Perhaps is going straight into breeding? She is of interest because (like He’s Watching), her maternal line adds two K Nora strands, one from Life Sign and the other via Angel Hair, who is Leah Almahurst’s grandam. Pedigree link here. Ideal Romance is from the American-bred mare Ashley’s Romance imported downunder and bred by Bromac Lodge and Cee Bee Holdings Ltd before selling her to Brisbane Pastoral Company Ltd.
As well as some imported mares, we are getting to a stage when Leah Almahurst will start appearing in the maternal pedigrees, through Make A Deal mares (so far only one bred on the American Ideal cross), Western Ideal mares (perhaps too inbred to go to American Ideal although Charlie Roberts has not shied away from it), and eventually Mr Feelgood, Rob Roy Mattgregor and He’s Watching mares. In Australia there may be other, different possibilities as well with Leah Almahurst or other descendants from Adora – let me know. I see Mr Feelgood has just had his first damsire credit in Australia – a colt foal born in October 2015 by, yes you guessed it, American Ideal.
In New Zealand we have only about 16 fillies or mares by Western Ideal, and the 3 ones doing most of the breeding so far are Lisconnie, Western Starr, and San Rafaella. Lisconnie, bred and owned by Charlie Roberts of Woodlands Stud, has gone 3 times to American Ideal (the 2yo and yearling already exported to Australia), but the others have made different choices, mainly to Artplace or one of his sons, or to Bettor’s Delight.
Tas Man Bromac and driver Nathan Williams. Photo Otago Daily Times.
There is another good horse bred here with a different K Nora cross, the 4yo American Ideal gelding Tas Man Bromac (15 starts, 8 wins, 2 seconds, 3 thirds, Lt $64,363). This time there is no additional presence of Three Diamonds or Leah Almahurst, but his bottom line is also descended from Angel Hair, via a different branch – Halo. Pedigree link here. Again, the family was brought to New Zealand through Bromac Lodge importing the gelding’s dam Tasmcmanian. Interestingly, her latest breeding is to Western Ideal. (I should note that the mare has a yearling filly by Auckland Reactor in the 2016 sale at Christchurch Lot 424 Tempest Bromac. The pedigree page gives a nice summary of the recent descendants from this Angel Hair line, in this case the No Nukes mare Shy Devil.)
What is clear, is the strength of this K Nora maternal line, and nothing illustrates that better than how Three Diamonds and Leah Almahurst have kicked it into another gear in more recent times.
Just a section of the K Nora descendants tree in Classic Families
Three Diamonds. Photo from Gene Riegle Memorial website
You only have to look in Classic Families “Descendents” category for Three Diamonds and click through to see the male and female descendent results are simply stunning. There is a significant return on extended family matches with Western Ideal and American Ideal, but not solely. Do the same for the whole K Nora branches and it is fascinating how very good performers keep occurring. Again, some crosses with sires from other branches from the wider family work – but probably some haven’t and don’t even appear on the Classic Families radar. I have only shown a fraction of it in the clipping above. It’s worth taking a look yourself; many of you will already be familiar with it.
In summary then, the numbers are too small to draw any real conclusions. However the K Nora/Adora family is probably one of the top 3 of the modern pacing era and is driven currently by two extremely potent mares – Three Diamonds and Leah Almahurst. Linking back to their influence is not going to give you certain success. It won’t work miracles. But is is definitely likely to add value and quality to a pedigree.
I’ve blogged about this a number of times. Use my blog search on “K Nora” and “Three Diamonds” to find some earlier musings and information.
Posted in Pedigree matching, Standardbred breeding | Tagged American Ideal, K Nora, Leah Almahurst, Life Sign, Three Diamonds | 12 Comments »
b4breeding 