Three NZ Yearlings Purchased For The Team....

The annual New Zealand Bloodstock sale was conducted last month and we bought three yearlings for the team, one for Belhus Racing Stables and two for Grand Syndicates.

Staying in New Zealand and racing in the blue and white Belhus colours will be the filly (pictured here) by new season stallionREDWOOD from Sun Chariot. I'd describe this filly as the best I've bought for the price. I expected to pay more, but fillies were on the nose at this sale with most buyers looking for colts to train up and run through the ready to run sale in Spring. One of NZ's leading trainers Graeme Rogerson also had his eye on her and so we went in together and bought her from the draft of one of the sales leading vendors Westbury Stud. I'm more than happy to leave her in New Zealand as our second horse (joining Te Waewae Bay) there being trained by 'Rodgie'...

For Grand Syndicates, we bought two horses, the first a colt by ALAMOSA from Charlotte de Berry. He's very much a correct, athletic colt albeit a late foal being born on November 24th. He was giving many of the other yearlings up to four months start but he was as forward as many of them so when he catches up-look out! He's got a lot of upside to him from a growth perspective but he certainly won't be rushed along. He'll go to Australia and be trained by John Price at Cranbourne (Vic).

Our third buy is another filly, this time by the very good NZ stallion POSTPONED from Lago de Plume-also purchased from Westbury Stud. She's a very nice type and fitted in perfectly with what we go to look for at the sales-good pedigree-nice type-and at an affordable price. She'll also go to Victoria and be trained at Cranbourne by Robbie Laing...

Shares in each of thee three yearlings-plus the Star Witness filly that we purchased from the Inglis Classic Sale in January will be available next week.

NEW Retired Racehorse Re Education Programme Announced for our Belhus & Grand Horses...

We love our horses-as we’re sure you do too!

We take enormous pride in giving them the best of care both on and off the track, with a particular focus on their all-important post racing careers. With this in mind, we've implemented a new policy to pay for a re education campaign for each of our horses when they've finished racing.  

In the majority of cases, if a horse hasn’t been sold on or isn’t being used for breeding purposes (fillies and mares), then after its retirement from racing, it’s a condition of each syndicate that all members are billed the sum of $110 per 5% share (which can be offset against unused fees or bonds) to go towards the horse’s post racing re-education program. This will enable us to send the horse to a professional person skilled in the process of retraining a racehorse to become a horse suitable for use in other new equestrian sports or pastimes. This initial process takes around 6-8 weeks, and once completed, it not only gives a horse the right start to its new career, but it also value adds them and makes them much more desirable to potential sport horse and or pleasure horse enthusiasts who can give their ‘off the track’ racehorse a good home where they’ll be well treated and loved for many more years to come…

By announcing this new initiative, we're hoping that other racehorse syndication companies and trainers also implement similar policies for the good of all racehorses...

PICTURED: 'Judgement Day'-my pride and joy and I trained to win at Ascot and who I still sponsor in his post racing career paying for all his competition entry fees...Pete