On the Road Again

Just prior to Christmas, Te Akau Racing Manager Jamie Richards joined the NZTM Central Districts' tour of yearling inspections ... he reports ...

On Thursday morning I was up early and off to meet Danny Rolston at his home in Tamahere (just outside of Hamilton) at 5:30am before we flew via Hamilton to Palmerston North.

Danny, the Bloodstock Sales Manager for New Zealand Bloodstock, in conjunction with New Zealand Thoroughbred Marketing (NZTM), had organised a tour of the stud farms in the Central Districts. NZTM organises several tours around a range of different stud farms nationwide to stimulate an interest in the upcoming Karaka Yearling Sales.

On arrival in Palmerston North we organised transport. The first stop was Highden Park, which is owned and operated by Libby and Sam Bleakly. Highden Park is a boutique stud farm, foaling down 25-30 mares per year and presenting an exclusive draft of 10-12 yearlings for the Karaka Sales. Sam and Libby had some lovely colts and fillies to show us, with a really nice filly in the Premier Sale by Tavistock.

Moving on from Highden Park we headed to Goodwood Stud, owned by Rex and William Fell.  Goodwood Stud was established in 2007 by Rex and William after Rex had spent 45 years in partnership with his brother Gerald at Fairdale Stud.  Fairdale Stud was the next stop, owned by Duncan and Gerald Fell. They had a number of quality colts both in the Premier and Select Session.

Our last stop on Thursday was at Wellfield Lodge, who presented another quality draft. One horse that really caught my eye was a Makfi colt out of a Zabeel mare and they also had colts by O'Reilly & Fastnet Rock that look as though they will continue to progress toward the sale in good order.

That evening we had dinner at Wellfield Lodge, hosted by Bill & Tania Gleeson and Peter & Trish Didham. It was a great night as we were joined by all of the different stud farms that we had spent the day visiting. Bill and Peter cooked a lovely barbeque and we had plenty of laughs as the night progressed !

On Friday morning we headed to Masterton where our first stop was Ardsley Stud, owned by Jim Wallace. Jim had a lovely draft of horses to show us and we were joined at Ardsley Stud by Michael Wallace (Jim Wallace's son), a respected Bloodstock Agent. Michael has been heavily involved with The China Horse Club who have been very active on a global scale with buying such horses as ‘Australia', ‘First Seal' and ‘Just The Judge'. Australia is a son of Galileo trained by Aidan O'Brien and raced in partnership by the China Horse Club with Coolmore. He won the Epsom Derby and will stand his first season at Coolmore, Ireland, in the coming months.

The last port of call was Little Avondale Stud. What a quality draft they had, with some lovely colts by the likes of Darci Brahma, Savabeel and the exciting young Australian stallion Denman. We had a lovely lunch at Little Avondale Stud with Sam and Catriona, Buzz and Suzie Williams as well as Jim and Michael Wallace. Once we had finished up at Little Avondale we headed back to Palmerston North Airport as and awaited our flight to Hamilton.

It was such a great way to spend a couple of days and I personally would like to thank NZTM for organising the tour, Danny Rolston from NZB for hosting the tour and all of the studs farms for welcoming us onto their properties. It has made me even more excited for the sales and I am really looking forward to seeing how the yearlings have progressed when they arrive at Karaka in late January.