An Unmitigated Disaster Delivered by People You’d Expect it From
The Ladbrokes Sunshine Stars Yearling Sale, to be conducted by Nutrien Equine at the Magic Millions complex on March 11 and 12, will be the keystone of an iconic weekend at the Gold Coast. The brainchild of the Albion Park Harness Racing Club, the sale has attracted well bred yearlings from leading breeders in Queensland, […]
Archie Calls the Top Seller Before the Auction Even Starts
The Nutrien sale at the Gold Coast is on today, and there are buyers from Africa here, or Kiwis at least. So far I have spotted a couple of Purdons, Regan Todd and Lurch, whose parents call him little Johnny Dunn. There are others too, and plenty of interstaters, a number of non-guaranteed buyer free […]
NZ Standardbred Sire Stats – The Numbers Keep Falling Through the Floor
The number of mares bred each season continues to head in the wrong direction despite the introduction of a Breeding Incentive Scheme last year. While the figures below are incomplete with notably Cobbitty Equine Farm yet to advise the number of mares served by their pacing stallions, the number of individual mares bred is likely […]
Some Very Interesting Observations About Standardbred Breeding From the Sales Across the Ditch
The rise and rise of the massive Stonewall Stud operation was the enduring story of the National yearling sales, no more so than in Christchurch where the dual-island operation picked up 22 lots to go with the seven it bought in Auckland. A whopping $1,632,000 (average $74,182) was spent across the three days on the […]
Auckland Yearling Sale – Top 5 Sellers
$300 000 – Captaintreacherous x Goodlookinggirl (f) I have one golden rule when doing the pedigrees for yearling sales, and that is to immediately strike out any youngster by a mare whose only successful offspring were trained by the All Stars combination of N. Rasmussen and M. Purdon. If you can’t work out the reasoning behind […]
Top 5 Sellers at the Christchurch Yearling Sale – But Only One I Would Want
$240 000 – Bettors Delight x Hartofdixie (c) Full brother to Erupt Stride, the colt that Australian construction giant Emilio Rosati paid $320 000 for at the 2021 yearling sale. This one was 3/4 off that huge price, and so he should be given that his older brother has had 9 starts for 5 wins […]
When the Going Gets Tough, the Real King Stands Up – Bloody William – He’s Killed the Republic
Harry has really stuffed this whole anti-royal thing up. He was going alright at first, but he just didn’t know where to stop. I think it’s because he’s a very damaged man, in the post traumatic stress disorder sense of the word. The poor bastard lost his mum when he was little, and then watched […]
HRNZ CEO Gary Woodham is a Liar, a Hypocrite, and a Man Drenched in Dollars Reaped From Self-Interests and Conflicts – This Man Should Be Sacked Right Now – NZ Harness Racing Has No Hope if He Stays
“One thing we need to know is what will be the horse population look like in the future. Do we have enough highly-rated horses to make our top races fair and competitive?” Gary Woodham, CEO Harness Racing New Zealand. August 2022 “This goes in line with trying to keep our breeding numbers up and encouraging […]
Give Us a Break Cobbers – This is Un-Australian
Can anyone tell me exactly how the wins of the offspring of Captain Treacherous, Downbytheseaside, Sweet Lou and Shadow play afford a timely boost to the Australian standardbred breeding industry? Always B Miki does, because he stands the southern hemisphere season in Australia, but the other four? Give us a break. Captain Treacherous stands all […]