Breeder

Cambridge Stud is having a really bad run this year. Hopefully the bad luck has ended now.

Did you get a broodmare that suits, Sickopunter ?

The late November Inglis Online sale is going at the moment --finishes on Wed. Getting a bit late in the season to get it over here on time but worth looking especially if you plan to race yourself where a late service is probably not so important.

Look at the classified section on here. Aaron Bidlake has a Shocking mare.

Number of live foals for 2018 (foaling year ) was well down and his fertility for 2017 (serving year) was down about 8-10% from previous years. (77% compared 85-87% on previous years) He only had 62 live foals in 2018 compared to around 100 on average for previous years.

If you want to buy a filly/mare from the Tessa Gillian / Eight Carat family have a look at the latest Inglis online sale (finishes on Wednesday). Lot 49 is a Makfi 3yr old filly that traces to this family via Habibti. The filly was bred and sold by Pencarrow Stud for $180K to Darren Weir and after his problems has ended up with Ciaron Maher. It is now being sold after 1 minor win from 5 starts. Currently the bidding is at A$700 but this sale normally does not get going until the last 24 hrs just like Gavelhouse. But you never know, if you are interested you could get it cheap. There are a couple from the same family in the NZB Ready to Run sale.

Thanks Elvis. The price for the tests seem reasonable when you balance it against the cost of training --ie. for just a part of a months training fee you can get an indication of the distance the horse may perform at best. Obviously it should only be taken as an indication and not a caste iron fact, but I think it would be worth trying.

This is an interesting comment from the breeder of Vow and Declare on the ANZ Bloodstock News this morning : “Her first foal was a Star Witness who raced as Lycurgus. We expected we were breeding a sprinter but Danny (O’Brien) sent the blood samples to Ireland and they came back as a 2400-metre horse,” Lanskey said. Does anyone know what the tests in Ireland are all about and do NZ trainers/owners use the service ?

I was pleasantly surprised to find today's Melbourne Cup winner , Vow and Declare, descends directly from Tessa Gillian ( and further back to Mumtaz Begum and Lady Josephine etc.). so this is the family of Eight Carat, Octagonal, Very Ellegant and scores of other great race horses and producers. It goes to show if you are entering into the breeding and can buy a mare directly descended from one of theses great females families, your odds of breeding a good one can be vastly improved.

From ANZ Bloodstock News this morning. "Second surgery for Tavistock Cambridge Stud stallion Tavistock (Montjeu) has undergone a second round of surgery after suffering a serious injury to his near fore foot last week. The injury saw his immediate withdrawal from service. Cambridge Stud yesterday said that Tavistock had been operated on by Dr Ric Redden from Kentucky in the US on Friday with assistance from staff at the Cambridge Equine Hospital. An artificial shoe and sole to the foot was fitted while a support structure was applied to the other foot to aid his recovery. After observation, it was decided to perform another operation yesterday which was deemed a success. In a statement, Cambridge Stud said Tavistock’s recovery could take up to 12 months." All the best to Tavistock and the Cambridge Stud team. They are obviously pulling out all stops, by getting in a vet from the US.

Congrats to the syndicate for having the courage and the belief to be able to turn down the huge offer ($3+ mill ?) they had for earlier the year. She has paid you all back well.

"...the grass is higher in protein," If there is no or little grass then they have a problem. I would also question the higher protein content. But back to your original post --I agree that it is not all pasture and sunshine etc. is important but feeding of the young animal is very important and so the abundant grass in NZ must help. I would also suggest that Australia breeding the sprinter - milers is more to do with genetics over generations, as much as anything else.

Things are getting very bad for the rural areas in Australia. It is not just the weather but the inner city Greens are being successful at squeezing the life out of farmers especially around water regulations. I watched an episode of "Bred to Win" a few weeks back and Caroline Searcy interviewed some one from Arrowfield, in about early September and they commented on how happy they were with the recent rain and the subsequent grass growth. In the background you see there was green but barely any real grass. Then the program went onto an interview at Cambridge Stud which was clearly very early spring --there were no leaves on the trees, but the grass was about 20 cm high. I wonder if any of the big studs would or are considering setting up in NZ like Gerry Harvey to take advantage on the growing conditions here? Air transport is relatively easy now . The costs of supplements must be increasing in Australia. Earlier in the yea,r around the yearling sales time we had David Ellis and Paul Moroney commenting on how the drought seemed to have negatively affected the yearling development in Aussie ---quite possibly some "sales talk" to help NZ sales but I am sure there must have been at least an element of truth in it. Even if people sent to NZ the weanlings they intend to race themselves to be reared here, there could be advantages for them in the long run.

The bad luck continues for Cambridge Stud this year. Tavistock has been injured in the paddock and is being withdrawn from service for the remainder of this season. https://www.breednet.com.au/news/8508/tavistock-withdrawn-from-service

I can remember Jack Glengarry, in one his articles , writing about this --probably 25+ years ago. Jack was a keen runner in his day and said while athletes were improving their times, horses were not just as the above states. Jack's opinion was that training methods were not changing --he said he had watched track work at Wanganui , as part of his job as a racing journalist, for 30 + yrs and nothing had changed. Methods may have changed since but I do not think times have improved much.