ROB'S SHOUT - NEW ZEALAND, LAND OF THE LONG WHITE CLOUD AND LUSH GREEN PASTURES!
By Robert Heathcote | Thursday, December 1, 2011
Robert Heathcote is the leading racehorse trainer in Brisbane. 'Rob's Shout' - the personal blog of the multi-premiership winning trainer will appear every Thursday on HRO.
Hello again to everyone,
I apologize for my absence last week.
I had the good fortune of spending five days in the land of the long white cloud as I was lucky enough to be invited, along with about 28 others from the racing industry in Australia, for a brief tour of the major studs of the North Island of New Zealand.
Even though my wife is a Kiwi and I have visited the country many times, I had never had the opportunity to visit the well known studs and I am now very grateful I took the chance to do so as it was a wonderful experience.
It is a fantastic initiative of New Zealand Thoroughbred Marketing to host a number of trainers, bloodstock agents and even a few owners to further showcase the New Zealand Breeding industry. The tour has been going for a number of years so there were a few ‘experienced tourists’ on the coach tour.
I am not sure exactly how it works, but I believe a small percentage of each yearling sold at the NZ sales goes towards the NZTM to further market the industry.
Not only was it great to visit the famous studs and meet the stud masters and staff, we also got the opportunity to see a number of the yearlings who will feature in the upcoming Karaka premium and select sales in the next few months.
We certainly got to see some super quality youngsters from some of the finest breeding stock in the world and the hospitality handed out to us was exceptional … and that is saying something as I have done a lot of travel in my earlier life as a European Tour Director!
The chance to spend some quality social time with many of the industry’s leading players was also a good experience, let alone a hell of a lot of laughs. Some real characters indeed were ‘on board’!
Tony Gollan and Brian Wakefield made the trip with me from Brisbane. Without naming all of the ‘party’, there was a great cross representation from the industry Australia wide.
Leading trainers Peter Moody and his right hand man Tony Hayden, Mick Price, Troy Corstens, Tony Noonan and the very affable John McArdle were some of the Victorian reps. Richard Jolly, Tony ‘I will dance all night’ McEvoy, Adam Spitzer and Levi Kavanagh from SA and Frank Maynard and Dion Luciani from the West. Bede Murray was there also as well as bloodstock agents Suman Hedge, Cameron ‘Annie Oakley’ Cooke and Brad Spicer.
It was a bit of a hectic schedule with us lads from Brisbane dwelling in the barriers at the start with our plane being delayed in Brisbane for three hours. Needed re-shoeing I think Tony said!
Nick waited patiently for us at Auckland airport and drove us to Westbury Stud as we were too late for the visit to Hanui Farm. Westbury is now owned by Gerry Harvey and a home to 150 of Gerry’s broodmares and their progeny and we were shown 14 quality yearlings as a sample of their draft.
The viewing was followed by an sumptuous buffet dinner and drinks hosted by stud master, Russell Warwick. A great start to the tour!
Tuesday and it was off to the famous Waikato dairy farming region which is also home to many of the well known studs and famed for its lush, rich pasture land.
The morning took in visits to Curraghmore where Gordie Cunningham showed me what I think might just be the sale topper at the K1 sale! Some real quality yearlings were on display and little doubt this stud will be a major player at the K1 sales.
Windsor Park Stud, hosted us to lunch in idealic surroundings and the weather was very kind to us. A real sense of achievement and history exists here with their honour roll including Might And Power, So You Think and Monaco Consul among others.
We were shown some cracking yearlings by High Chaperall, among others, who will surely create immense interest in the sales. They were great hosts and Mike Moran … well he sure showed us Aussies how to have a good time!
After lunch we then visited The Oaks and Trelawney Studs where we again got to see some fantastic yearlings and the absolute lushness of the region makes it plain to see why it is an ideal nursery for young horses.
I particularly liked the progeny of Darci Brahma and an interesting sprinter called Sakhee’s Secret has left some nice yearlings on the ground.
Talk about a sense of history, what about Trelawney Stud? This property was founded way back in 1930 and its produced no less than Seven Melbourne Cup winners!
Now in the ownership of Brent and Cherry Taylor, the stud has also produced many Group 1 winners with the most famous perhaps being the immortal Tulloch. Going on their yearling’s we viewed, there is sure to be more champions come off this stud.
We also got to see the statue dedicated to the running of this year’s 150th Melbourne Cup. Brent tells us that an official delegation came over from the VRC for the unveiling of the statue!
After a ‘very quick’ check into our hotel in Hamilton, it was then off to Pencarrow Stud for a final yearling viewing for the day and then dinner.
Pencarrow is owned by International businessmen, Peter and Phillip Vela and their stud is home to one of New Zealand’s finest broodmare bands including Romanee Conti, Ethereal and Grand Echezezeau.
After seeing some more quality yearlings from such sires as Fastnet Rock, Pins, Stravinsky, O’Reilly, Darci Brahma and Alamosa etc, we were treated to as good a culinary experience that I have ever had the pleasure to enjoy.
It was at Peter Vela’s private residence. Seafood followed by an enormous buffet and all washed down with New Zealand’s finest wines or, in the case of Tony Gollan, pink Veuve Cliquot Champagne, and ‘why not if that takes your fancy’, said Tony!
If I thought that was a great day, the following day turned out to be another gem. After visits to Wentwood Grange and Whakanui Studs, it was onto the world famous Cambridge Stud.
This is the home of the truly amazing story of Sir Patrick Hogan and his life with the immortal Sir Tristram, who produced no less than 45 individual Group 1 winners and, in more recent times his famous son Zabeel, who is hot on Sir Tristram’s heels with 41 Group 1 winners.
Quite incredible and I was literally in awe as I walked the grounds of the stud.
I was quite taken with the passion of Sir Patrick which is clearly evident in his voice as he spoke of his time with Sir Tristram and the very moving story of how Sir Tristram was buried and the monument created to this legend.
Old Zabeel is coming to the end of his time with us but the monument depicting his Group 1 winners is testimony to what a champion stallion he has been. It was great to see the old bugger and there’s hope for you old trainers yet as he’s still getting a shot away at the ripe old age of 25!
The journey from Cambridge to Lake Taupo saw a ‘change of in coach entertainment’ with a DVD of the Sir Tristram story. Tony Noonan certainly enjoyed the break from the ‘normal’ in coach ‘viewing’!
We had an afternoon fishing cruise on Lake Taupo which is famed for its trout fishing. We caught a few and also did a little bit of clay pigeon shooting off the stern which saw a bit of competitive fun!
Off to JJ’s for another enjoyable dinner and a few quiet drinks in the local … yeah right! Plain to see many of these trainers were not getting up for their usual 3am starts as some were just getting home to the hotel by then!
Thursday and visits to another three famous studs. Firstly to Rich Hill Stud where John and Colleen Thompson showed us some very nice yearlings.
I saw some very nice Pentire progeny which I particularly liked and they have an interesting addition to their stallion roster in Sir Percy, who not only won the English Derby but also the Dewhurst which is a two-year-old sprint! He could be a very interesting sire!
Any thoughts that the stud tour could not get any better were soon allayed with our visit to Waikato stud.
Gary Chittick along with his son Mark and Lisa Chittick run the hugely successful stud. They have been the leading Australasian breeder of Group 1 winners over the last decade and their stallion roster includes, Savabeel, Pins, O’Reilly and Fast N Famous.
After viewing 15 premier sale yearlings, we headed down to ‘game gulch’ for lunch and some clay pigeon shooting. It’s an awesome set up and it certainly was a lot of fun.
Bloodstock agent, Cameron ‘Annie Oakley’ Cooke kicked our arses with a fine display of shooting scoring 6. Many scored 5 and I fluked 4.
The final stud visit of the tour was to Hallmark Stud where I was very impressed with the yearlings shown to us. I have no doubt that they will be in for a good sale with their draft.
Our final evening was spent in a bar down at Auckland’s famous Viaduct precinct for dinner and a few farewell drinks.
Yes, it was a wonderful tour and a very special thank you to New Zealand Thoroughbred Marketing and in particular Andrew Birch who did a wonderful job looking after us and, yes … I am going to go over for the Karaka sales and hopefully pick up one or two of the very nice yearlings I saw on the tour!
I was impressed and my good opinion of New Zealand has grown to an even higher level!
Back home it proved to be a pretty tough week. Unfortunately Work The Room suffered a serious tendon injury in training which was a bitter pill to swallow as he had come back in great order and we had done a lot of work to get him right.
His excellent first up win over Excellantes was certainly franked with Excellantes just going down in a nail-biter to Listen Son in the Listed feature on Saturday at Eagle Farm.
I have certainly had better days at the races, but those who suggest it was an ordinary day for me have not been a horse trainer. Yes, I had three or four fancied runners in the betting markets from the large contingent (8) that I sent to the races and, yes, the stable has been enjoying a regular stream of winners.
Whilst I didn’t get a winner on the day, the stable did earn a close second (nose) in the feature race and another tough second from Sway To Go and a close third from Red God, who, in my opinion, was under his rightful odds as favourite as he’s never won past 1800m … and several of the other runners had explainable reasons for their performances.
Contrary to the comments of a few in the media, for me it was not such a bad day as I have been there before and I will experience days like that again.
The two-year-old (Khaantantes) pulled up scratchy and Solzhenitsyn ‘s blood shows he’s picked up a bug so they have both gone to the paddock.
Funny how life is at times as my good friend and ‘roomy’ on the trainers tour, Tony Gollan, knocked me off in the feature race last Saturday by a nose. I congratulate him for his great win with Listen Son.
Getting back to Excellantes, what a prize fighter he has proved to be. The son of Falvelon has won five times with two of those coming in photo finishes. In four of his runner up finishes he has also just gone down in photo finishes so staying with the prize fighter example you could almost call them split decisions … like the battle on Saturday with Listen Son.
No question that you get good value in terms of action when he races!
It was a very hectic week with an enjoyable trip away and a busy weekend’s racing.
It’s taken me three days to catch up with my work, but I look forward now to going back over to the sales in January.
Let me know if you want me to pick up a future star for you whilst I am at the sales
Cheers for now.
Rob
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