Innehållsförteckning för February 2024 från Turf Monthly

Gold And Black was another of the star NZ stayers of the 1970’s. He was a son of In The Purple, a French bred stallion who stood in NZ with great success. He had earned black type over 3100m in France, and was a son of Right Royal by Owen Tudor out of the stakes winning mare, La Mirambule who had placed second in the Arc De Triomphe and the English One Thousand Guineas. In The Purple sired twenty-six stakes winners including Caulfield Cup winner, How Now and Brisbane and Adelaide Cup winner, Amarant. It is interesting that Gold And Black who holds an important place in Australia’s racing history, has a mixed history with punters and the weather Gods of Melbourne. The gelding was trained by the legendary Bart…

If you want an idea of the state of Australian thoroughbred breeding, a simple look at the first season stallions who have offerings at the major yearling sales is a good place to start. At the recently completed Magic Millions sales, we saw that there are an incredible 22 stallions who first went to stud in the 2021 season represented. As a background, in 2021 there were 20283 mares covered in the Australian breeding season. These mares produced 13050 live foals. The first season stallions at Magic Millions covered a total of 3028 mares, or around 14.93% of the total mares covered for the season. They produced a total of 2050 live foals, or 15.71% of the total foals in Australia in that season. These lots represent 25.89% of the…

Last month we started to look at Faux Tirage who was a son of Big Game out of Commotion by Mieuxce from Riot by Colorado. Riot was a daughter of Lady Juror and a half-sister to the renowned stallion Fair Trial who we are also investigating shortly. We have already mentioned Froth and some of NZ stakes winners, so it is time to look at his influence in Australia. In all, Faux Tirage was to sire 43 individual stakes winners across Australia and New Zealand. His stakes winners represent an interesting mix in performances. Akatarawa, for example, a gelding who was a descendant of the top broodmare Eulogy who had been imported into NZ around the time of WW1, had set a track record at Canterbury over six furlongs before…

On 10 February 1999, a field of 2yo’s lined up over 1100m on a heavy track at Warwick Farm in a No-Metro-Win race. It was to prove a remarkable race in terms of quality with the winner being Marechal who was to go on to win the Listed Heritage Stakes. Second in the race was Easy Rocking who was later to win Both were to go on to good careers at stud. Fifth in the race was Aquiver who was to run second to eventual Golden Slipper winner, Catbird in the Black Opal, and then placing twice in stakes races in the Winter Carnival in Brisbane. Later in his career he was to run third in the Group 1 Futurity Stakes at Caulfield as well as placings in the Eclipse…

The popular stayer of the mid-1980’s was another racehorse that traced back to a mare by Faux Tirage. This time it was a daughter called Punihau who was from a rather moderate line of the famed number 2 family of Bruce Lowe that traced back to mares including the famed Eulogy. In this case, the direct female line of Kensei had not produced a stakes winner since a horse called Eton by Castor out of the Musket mare, Lady Walmsley had won the Auckland Racing Club’s Railway Handicap over six furlongs (1200m) in 1897. Kensei by the imported American horse, Blarney Kiss was purchase by one of the first great racehorse syndicators in Australia in Harry Lawton for $15000. The horse was sold into six shares which was the maximum…