Archive for category: Industry News

Beach Front was an appropriate winner of the Telstra Phonewords Hcp (1200m) when the National Apprentice Series moved to Moonee Valley last Friday night.

The consistent mare is a homebred for Contract Racing’s David and Jennie Moodie & Musk Creek Farm’s David Kobritz and Teresa Poon.

Beach Front (4m Strategic – Cos Snip by Snippets) is prepared by Brent Stanley and his team races out of Kyneton under the Cloud 9 Thoroughbreds banner. Stanley is one of Victoria’s up-and-coming trainers and he knows what it takes to make the big time having won the 1996 Caulfield Cup as an apprentice on the Contract Racing mare Arctic Scent.

His first win as a trainer was with Beach Front at Moonee Valley in December. “She was with Peter Moody but wasn’t making the grade there,” Stanley said. “She’s come good as an older horse and has won five races since coming here twelve months ago.”

Star Tasmanian apprentice Sigrid Carr piloted Beach Front who is from a winning daughter of Ossie Cossie (Mister C). She was a speed machine winning 19 races up to 1200m including the LR Lightning Stakes at Randwick.

Cos Snip’s 3yo filly Liberty Star (Statue Of Liberty) and 2yo filly Moon Tide (Hard Spun) are both unraced. The mare foaled a colt by Master Of Design in October.

Melbourne breeder Todd Lichti landed his most important race when Villa Verde swamped a top-class field of sprinters in the G2 Challenge Stakes (1000m) at Randwick on Saturday.

Villa Verde (3f Not A Single Doubt — Young and Free by Kenmare) is from the first group of yearlings that Todd offered at the Inglis Melbourne Premier Sale. She made $95,000 to the bid of trainer Shaun Dwyer at Oaklands Junction in 2012.

The grey filly (pictured ranging up to the leaders at Randwick) was a Listed winner at Caulfield and Flemington as a spring two year-old for owners Mike Buys and Rob Willis before Dwyer recommended she would be better suited in Sydney with Anthony Cummings.

“Shaun had given her a great grounding and she’s been working so well,” Cummings said. “We came here expecting to win.”

Lichti paid $10,500 for Young and Free at the Inglis Australian Broodmare Sale in June 2010. “She was 16 at the time but in foal to Not A Single Doubt and I thought he was a young sire on the up,” Lichti recalled. “She was a well put together mare and good value at the money.”

Young and Free has a 2yo colt named Free On Saturday (Any Given Saturday) and she foaled a filly by Dylan Thomas in October.

Class filly Eloping turned the UAM Pty/Ltd VOBIS Gold Rush into a procession at Bendigo on Saturday.

Starting a $2.70 second-favourite, she exploded to a six length victory while clocking a quick 56.70s for 1000 metres. The Choisir filly (pictured at the presentation) had won on debut at Bendigo in December and followed up with a Listed victory in the Blue Diamond Preview at Caulfield over the Australia Day long weekend.

Eloping (2f Choisir — Runaway Jesse by Rory’s Jester) streeted the minor placegetters Jarklin (King Of Prussia) and Lady Trickster (All American). Lindsay Park colt Wilderness, a half-brother to Starspangledbanner who cost $2.40 million as a yearling, started favourite but faded in the straight to finish a well-beaten fourth.

The VOBIS Gold Rush was worth $150,000 in prizemoney, plus an extra $23,000 in Super VOBIS bonuses for the winner’s syndicate of 10 women. She was bred by Michael Christian at Saconi Thoroughbreds in Whittlesea and sold for $120,000 at the 2013 Gold Coast Magic Millions.

Trainer Peter Morgan and Craig Widdison always had the Gold Rush in mind for Eloping. “We targeted this one because she had done so well since the Blue Diamond,” Widdison said. “And what about the money? It’s just incredible.”

Runaway Jesse has a Starspangledbanner yearling filly that made $170,000 at the Gold Coast Magic Millions in January. The mare was covered by Sepoy last year.

The next VOBIS Gold event is the $180,000 VOBIS Gold Ingot at Flemington on April 5.

Roy Higgins was a legend of Australian racing. That’s not for debate. But the former jockey was an even better man. That was the theme of Higgins’ funeral, which was today held at Flemington.

Australian racing royalty was on hand to remember Roy Henry Higgins, who last Sunday lost a battle with illness at the Cabrini Hospital. He was 75.

“In the end, Roy put more into racing than he ever took out,” Legendary writer Les Carlyon said. “Right to the end, part of him was still the battling kid from the bush who thought he owed racing for all the fame it had brought him.

“The truth, I’d suggest, was the other way around; racing owed him.

“But Roy wasn’t just a great jockey and fine ambassador for racing, that’s only half the story. He was a great human being and that might be the biggest story because it’s harder to be a great human being.”

Damien Oliver, who this season joined Higgins in the select club of Australian jockeys to have ridden 100 Group 1 winners, remembered a jockey whose record was daunting but his disposition anything but.

“Roy was incredibly generous with his advice and his support and that’s something that I’ll never forget,” Oliver said.

“At the time, I didn’t know why Roy was so good to me but it wasn’t long after that I realised that was the same manner he used to everyone. He always had time and was always willing to go out of his way to have a chat and give people plenty of advice.

“Roy had been there and done everything possible as a jockey and I think he knew that I was determined as he had been to achieve his success and that’s what brought us close.

“It’s a very sad time but also a career and a life we should be celebrating because on behalf of all Australian jockeys, Roy’s been an inspiration, an icon and a legend. His legacy will live on forever.”

Higgins and Oliver also in the club that have ridden the Big 4 in Australian racing — the Melbourne Cup, Caulfield Cup, Cox Plate and Golden Slipper.

Higgins, who was born in Koondrook in 1938 and started his race riding career at Deniliquin in 1953, did not take long to gravitate towards Melbourne where in 1978 he equalled Billy Duncan’s record of 11 Melbourne Jockeys’ Premierships.

In 2001 he was one of the five jockey inducted among the inaugural intake into the Australian Racing Hall of Fame.

But before that, he was a devoted family man, a father to Martine and Nicole. The latter recounted stories of a treasured childhood.

She remembered the day Higgins accompanied them to Pony Club, for a story arranged by The Sun newspaper regarding what Higgins did away from the racetrack, only for her to appear on the front page under the headline “Higgins Takes A Fall” after falling off.

Plus the time the girls accompanied their father to trackwork and engaged in some unscheduled trackwork aboard star stayer Ming Dynasty.

Or the role she played in the famous call of the two-horse Queen Elizabeth Stakes in 1970. The race was just a week after Nicole was born and Bert Bryant incorporated into his details of a bet Higgins and Pat Hyland on what would be the sex of the baby, which Hyland won.

But it wasn’t only family that Roy touched.

Legendary broadcaster Bruce McAvaney recalled the first time he met Higgins, at a sportsman’s night in Adelaide, where Higgins and Bill Collins were the guests of honour, but how special he was made to feel.

“My lasting memory of Roy that night is his accessibility, his ability to make you feel a little bit special,” McAvaney said.

“Roy’s greatest gift and his legacy is that he’ll be remembered more as the man than the legend. This was one champion we truly loved.”

The service was conducted in the Flemington mounting yard, where Higgins returned victorious after the 1965 and 1967 Melbourne Cups, aboard Light Fingers and Red Handed respectively, before the hearse took him on one final lap of the Flemington track.

Roy Higgins: 5 June 1938 — 8 March 2014

Christie Woodard’s long-standing contribution to the thoroughbred racing industry was recognised on Thursday when she was honoured with the 2014 Wakeful Club Lady of Racing Award.

Each year since 1993, the award has been presented to a woman in Victoria who has shown outstanding passion and commitment to the industry in her chosen field.

Christie was nominated by Thoroughbred Breeders Victoria and the award acknowledged her success as a breeder at Yallambee Stud in Romsey as well as her contribution to the ongoing development of the industry through education and new technology.

Racing Victoria Chairman Rob Roulston presented the award at a special ceremony at Myer Mural Hall which was attended by more than 350 people including finalists Maree Ryan and Gaye Gauci-Marchant.

Racing Victoria recently announced that female participation rates in the Victorian thoroughbred racing industry are at an all-time high and RV has made further growth a key objective in its recently released three-year strategic plan, Racing For The Future.

“I feel incredibly humble to be the recipient of this award — especially up against two other women who are very deserving,” Christie said. “Racing and breeding has to be one of the most rewarding industries — where a single love for the equine allows a unique mix of business and pleasure.

“In this day and age there are so many opportunities for women to excel in the thoroughbred industry — in both racing and breeding — and it’s fantastic that there are more and more opportunities and avenues which can be followed.

“My experience in the industry has been that if you are committed, focused and enjoy what you do, you can achieve anything.”

After growing up on a farm in the western districts at Ararat, Christie originally tried to convince a pair of thoroughbred tragics — her husband Rick and brother-in-law Peter – that cattle and sheep were the way to go. Fortunately for the thoroughbred industry, that was one of the few arguments she’s lost!

With Christie at the helm, the Yallambee Stud yearling team has won numerous awards including the prestigious ‘Best Presented Draft’ at the Inglis Premier Yearling Sale. Christie has sourced highly successful bloodstock on behalf of clients as well as enjoying considerable success in her own right on the track and in the breeding barn.

But it’s often her work behind the scenes that makes Christie Woodard such an industry trail blazer.

She was one of the first – if not the first – to write and develop farm administration and procedural software. She maintains Yallambee Stud’s website and provides clients with a photo and summary of their newborn foals, and has written widely circulated articles and features on areas as comprehensive as the “Causes of Infertility and Sub Fertility in Mares” to light hearted pieces about “Turning the Girls On: Teasing and the Teaser”.

She has also written countless educational articles, handbooks and documents covering the breeding and rearing of the thoroughbred, many of which are widely used by equine colleges throughout Australia.

Her knowledge of veterinary procedures is legendary and she designed and created strapless foal rugs capable of holding IV lines for short or longer periods of fluid therapy, allowing the foal to continue nursing from its mother. These are now widely used throughout Australia, saving many a foal’s life and improving the quality of care required.

And through it all, she has managed to raise two colts of her own. Christie Woodard is truly one of the industry’s unsung heroes.

Duble Barrel Daisy scored a special win for trainer Darren Weir at Moonee Valley on Monday.

The Super VOBIS qualified filly broke her maiden by five lengths at Donald last month but only had a nose to spare in the Essendon Hyundai Hcp (1000m). “It was a head-bobber and I wasn’t sure whether we had won,” Weir said. “It was a good effort and she’s heading in the right direction.”

Duble Barrel Daisy (3f Dubleo – African Lily by Johannesburg) is a homebred for Angela Taylor-Moy who is an integral part of Weir’s Forest Lodge stable at Ballarat. “It’s a great result for ‘Ang’ and her parents who race this filly. She has been working for me since the early days at Stawell.”

Weir also recalled his formative years after welcoming winning jockey Harry Coffee back to scale. “I learned the ropes from Harry’s uncle Jack Coffey as a young bloke. Later on, his father Austy taught me to be a farrier.”

Duble Barrel Daisy is the first foal of former Coolmore Stud mare African Lily who died in October 2012. Her second dam Hint Of Glory is a half-sister to G1 VRC Emirates Stakes winner Sky Cuddle.

Taylor-Moy has an unnamed two year-old half-brother to Duble Barrel Daisy by Decanter. He is a Chilean bred son of Hussonet who stands at Kedarona Stud south of Pakenham.

Dour stayer Outback Joe rekindled memories of champion mare Let’s Elope in the G2 Adelaide Cup (3200m) on Monday.

Outback Joe (6g Elvstroem — Let’s Elope by Nassipour) looked beaten when Perth Cup winner Black Tycoon ranged up at the furlong but he had enough in reserve to prevail by a short neck.

“It was a very brave win,’’ in-form apprentice Chad Schofield said. “They were going very quickly and I was happy sitting off the pace. I wound him up around the turn and he just outstayed them.”

Outback Joe was set for the two-mile test after winning the LR Bagot Hcp (2800m) at Flemington on New Year’s Day. A homebred for Dennis and Margaret Marks, he is by Blue Gum Farm stallion Elvstroem and is the fifth stakes performer for former Australian Horse of the Year Let’s Elope.

Now a spritely 26, she is in retirement at Lauriston Park in Euroa.

“I have always wanted to get him to 3200 metres and he didn’t let us down,” trainer Nigel Blackiston said. “He’s qualified for the Melbourne Cup so we will have a crack. Dennis won it with Let’s Elope and this bloke is still maturing.”

Blackiston was foreman for Bart Cummings when Let’s Elope cut a swathe through Australia’s staying ranks in 1991-92 winning the Turnbull Stakes, Caulfield Cup, Mackinnon Stakes, Melbourne Cup, C F Orr Stakes, St George Stakes and Australian Cup.

Transferred to the United States, she won the G1 Beverley D. Stakes at Arlington but was relegated for causing interference to home-town heroine Flawlessly.

Let’s Elope was retired to stud in 1995 and started with French stakes performers Yes I Will (Danzig) and Over The Moon (Storm Cat) before returning to Australia carrying G2 MVRC AAMI Vase winner Ustinov (Seeking The Gold). He currently stands at Moorookyle Park in Victoria.

Let’s Elope foaled Caught Courting (Danehill) a year after Ustinov and he won four races in Sydney and was stakes placed in Perth. He is based at Greenvale Park in Queensland.

Marks pensioned Let’s Elope after foaling Outback Joe’s younger sister Karata (Elvstroem) in 2008. She is also trained by Blackiston and has won a Seymour maiden in 16 starts to date.

One-time Independent Stallions shuttler U S Ranger opened his southern hemisphere account in Adelaide on Saturday.

Get The Nod (2g U S Ranger — Silent Cash by Secret Savings) raced on the pace first-up in the Holdfast Insurance Hcp (1000m) at Morphettville and scored by three-quarters of a length from Frank Heavens (Big Brown). The Lloyd Kennewell trained youngster was an $18,000 buy at the 2013 Inglis Classic yearling sale.

“I was very impressed,” Kennewell said. “He’s a promising young horse of the future!”

Independent Stallions owner Mike Becker stood U S Ranger (USA) at short notice when Artie Schiller was a late withdrawal from the southern shuttle in 2010. Both stallions were based at WinStar Farm in Kentucky.

U S Ranger was one of the last sons of legendary sire Danzig to retire to stud and there were 34 foals from that sole Victorian crop. He was unbeaten at two in the French provinces and resumed as a three year-old to win the G3 Prix Djebel at Maisons-Laffitte before finishing second in the G3 Jersey Stakes at Royal Ascot.

A free-wheeling front-runner, he developed into a high-class sprinter at four with Group 1 placings in the July Cup at Newmarket and Prix de la Foret at Longchamp. His dam My Annette (Roberto) is a three-quarter sister to Dynaformer.

The Australian opener came a week after U S Ranger’s three year-old colt Solitary Ranger won the LR John Battaglia Memorial (1700m) at Turfway Park in Kentucky. He had posted an initial black-type victory in last year’s G3 Arlington-Washington Futurity.

Trainer Wayne Catalano said Solitary Ranger will possibily run in the G3 Spiral Stakes back at Turfway Park on March 22. It’s a designated points race for the Kentucky Derby.

The harder the audience clapped, the higher he stepped. Lofting his exceptionally long legs so high that each step seemed more animated, more look at me, than the one before, he danced with all his heart to a movie soundtrack from Secretariat.

And Sea Lord was great that day. Not as a racehorse, he never raced.

But in the hands of top-level dressage rider Silva Martin he was a virtuoso in the dressage ring performing a Freestyle that displayed their talent and connection, while reminding everyone who watched that this was no Warmblood.

This was an ex-racehorse Thoroughbred who became a Grand Prix dressage horse!

Outfitted in the silks and blinkers customarily worn on the track, Martin cantered them into the show ring of the PVDA Ride For Life Dancing Horse Challenge June 25 to the sound of a bugler announcing the start of a race.

The idea to honor Sea Lord’s heritage came to Martin and the Thoroughbred’s owner Charish Campbell once it was decided that he would be the horse they would bring to the benefit show for the Johns Hopkins Avon Foundation Breast Center, Martin says in a recent interview with OffTrackThoroughbreds.com.

“Charish and I were throwing ideas around, and I said, ‘There’s really no question. We’ll have to go as a jockey and racehorse.’ He’s an American Thoroughbred and we should honor that,” she says.

“A good friend of mine sewed my silks and he wore goggles for the first time in his life. The whole idea that he was off the racetrack in Virginia was fantastic. The audience loved it. And the more they clapped the better he went for them.”

Martin and her husband Boyd Martin, a US Eventing Team A-List member, love Thoroughbreds.

“Boyd has always purchased Thoroughbreds off the track and has been a big fan of them. He has tended to prefer them to Warmbloods because they’re so smart and they have a good energy–they never wear out,” she says.

And Sea Lord was evented by both Boyd and Olympian Phillip Dutton before Martin moved him into a dressage career in 2007.

She still remembers what she said the first time she saw Sea Lord. “I met him in July 2007 and Phil Dutton was eventing him and Boyd was also riding him, doing some novice work,” she says. “I used to look at him and think that this was a really nice horse. You could just see it.”

At the time, his jumping skills were not meeting expectations, so she offered to sit on him.

“I remember telling his owner at the time, Shannon Simpson, that he could be something really good. Then he developed into this freak that he is now.”

The pair has quickly climbed levels, and is now at Grand Prix. Most recently, Sea Lord won Reserve Champion in the last Regionals at Prix St. George and has achieved many other successes, including wins at multiple Prix St. George shows.

In a Dressage Daily.com article, he is described as a “well developed Grand Prix” horse who has achieved one tempi changes and piaffe-passage. The article notes: “He is a dream to ride, very soft, forward thinking, and loves to please.”

His personality and his ability were deciding factors guiding Martin’s decision to take him to the show.

“Sea Lord loves to make a grand entrance and he thrives in the big atmosphere at a dressage show, with all the lights, music and people,” Martin says. “A lot of horses can get scared in an atmosphere like that. But this horse is way less hot than some of my Warmbloods, and when he’s in the ring, all he does is try for you.”

And he has made a big impression on many of the people in his circle.

Shannon Stimson, his first owner, recalls how impressed she was with the horse nicknamed Big Bird because of his resemblance to the Sesame Street character.

“He was so gangly and his neck and legs were so unusually long at 17.1 hands that he was called Big Bird by the stable guys caring for him,” Stimson says. Skinny and out of shape, he had a “huge suspension” and his trot “was like velvet,” she adds.

She purchased the horse and put him in a program with Phillip Dutton. But, as the horse advanced it became clear that he was not as careful over rails as they would have liked, and that upper-level jumping was probably not in the cards for him.

But Martin saw something special in him, and grabbed the opportunity to teach the large, constitutionally uphill mount to perform dressage.

Stimson recalls how well they fit each other when Martin finally gave him a try.

“From the first moment Silva sat on him and I watched them work together, it was clear that dressage was what he was born to do,” Stimson says. “Silva’s personality matches Birdy’s perfectly, and he will do anything for her.”

He was always a big mover with a bold personality, she adds.

“His personality was always exceptionally sweet and laid back, not that he didn’t have his opinions,” Stimson recalls. “He has huge self-confidence, and there is absolute no ‘No!’ in him. I take this to be basic to his Thoroughbred temperament and excellent blood lines.”

Among the greats in his family tree are Native Dancer, Nashua, and Seattle Slew.

Although Sea Lord is “still learning collection,” he’s young yet, and full of promise, Martin says.

His owner has watched the video of his debut Freestyle over and over again.

“The performance is a tribute to the American Thoroughbred,” Campbell says. “Watching this in person has been the highlight of my career.”

And for one more ex-racehorse performing at the highest echelons, the performance in honor of great Thoroughbred athletes helped underscore what so many top riders know: Thoroughbreds can do anything.

“If you get them on your side,” Martin says, “they’ll do anything for you.”

See original post here: Off-Track Thoroughbreds