Terry Ryan had a great trip through SE Qld last week with Paul Campbell from Campbells Comments and caught up with some current and new consigners for the Sunshine Stars 2023 sale.
We will be loading more from their trip, watch the catch up with Lindsay and Mary Vagg from Victree Standardbreds, and studmaster Peter Bell from Egmont Stud.
Entries close for our Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne 2023 sales on the 23rd August 2022.
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While most of the focus yesterday was on the heats and preludes of the Nutrien Sales Classics at Menangle breeder Gary Crocker was also keeping a close eye on last night’s heats of the $100,000 Pearl Classic at Gloucester Park
At the inaugural Nutrien Yearling Sale Crocker sold Lot 18 for $31,000 to a group of owners being put together by gun young trainer Justin Prentice and he then bought back into the stunning colt.
By Roll With Joe from the former Western Australian mare Incendio, the colt is now named Rolling Fire and, having his first start since March, Rolling Joe won the third of last night’s heats rating a handy 1:57.8 for the 2130 metres.
Prentice trained all three of last night’s heat winners and all three were driven by Gary Hall Jnr and one suspects his choice of drives in next week’s final will be influenced by the barrier draw.
The first Group One pacing winner sold through the inaugural Nutrien Yearling Sale may well be at Gloucester Park with the Pearl Classic being run the night before the Nutrien Finals at Menangle.
While Gary Crocker, through his business Walk Proud Pty Ltd, doesn’t have a yearling from Incendio to offer this year but he will be selling a colt with a somewhat unique pedigree.
The colt is by Art Major from the broodmare gem Aratusa Lass.
He is the 10th foal from the mare whose ninth foal is scheduled to race as a 2yo in 2023.
Her eight foals currently of racing age have all won and include the likes of 3yo Australasian Breeders Crown winner Major Crocker p,1:49.4 $996,327, Adam Crocker p,1:51.3 $111,643 and Innocent Crocker p,1:52.1 $106,636.
If having a 100% Producing Dam isn’t reason enough to inspect this colt, his grand-dam produced seven foals and she too is a 100% Producer with all seven being winners with five taking sub-2:00 records.
Story Alan Parker Photo courtesy Hamilton Content Creators
Two Petraccas – both stars
Christian Petracca might be a star for the Melbourne AFL club but he would struggle to catch Petracca the Standardbred which won the second heat of the 2022 Nutrien Sales Classic at Menangle today.
Sold at the inaugural Nutrien Sale for $80,000 Petracca had a pedigree to die for being by the boom sire Captaintreacherous from the smart race-mare Lovelist p1:53.2 $222,889.
Lovelist’s first two foals were both winners including Petracca’s full-sister Treachery which had already won the Group One The Allwood and banked $116,691 by the time of the sale.
Today’s win was Petracca’s fourth in five starts and he showed scintillating speed to scoot over the final 400 metres in just 25.3 seconds for driver Nathan Jack to beat his stablemate First Responder and Dangerous.
This time equalled the 25.3 final quarter of Cash N Flow NZ when he won a Free-For-All at Menangle in July 2020 in the midst of a string of 12 consecutive wins at the track.
Petracca and First Responder are both trained by Emma Stewart who is on the cusp of her 100th Group One success as a trainer and the $175,000 Nutrien Final on August 27th at Menangle may bring up the milestone win.
Bred by B J Cameron and C W Cameron, Petracca is raced by Melbourne fanatic Danny Zavitsanos and the colt was named not long after the drought-breaking AFL premiership last season when Christian Petracca took home the Norm Smith medal for best-on-ground.
Emma Stewart has three runners in colt’s final
Emma Stewart made the trip to Menangle today with three colts and the first of the Nutrien heats was taken out by another Emma Stewart runner when Major Celebrity, driven by Mark Pitt, rated a slick 1:56.5 for the 2300 metres and downed Our Vinnie and Captain Hammerhead.
Major Celebrity was sold for $40,000 at the inaugural Nutrien Sale and he is a son of Art Major from the Presidential Ball mare Celebrity Ball.
So what you may say – Celebrity Ball is a half-sister to the Classic Garry mare Lifeline which is the grand-dam of the second of today’s heat winners Petracca.
Former Australian Broodmare of the Year Larrakeyah Lady is therefore the grand-dam of Major Celebrity and the third dam of Petracca.
Major Celebrity was bred by Richard Camilleri and is raced by David McLennan, D Callipari, R McLennan and C Egan.
Wins as both a breeder and an owner
Danny Zavitsanos, in partnership with W R Viney, bred today’s 2yo Fillies Nutrien Sales Classic prelude winner Scheming which downed Ludacrous and Somethin Bout Eily rating 1:59.0 for the 2300 metres to break her maiden status in style.
Trained by Danny Thackeray and driven by Amanda Turnbull, Scheming was a $24,000 yearling and is raced by the Triple A Racing Group, L J Walls and P L Owen.
Scheming becomes the 22nd individual 2yo winner this season for Australia’s leading first-season sire Huntsville.
Such has been Huntsville’s impact with his first crop his semen will again become available to Australian breeders in 2022 after a four year hiatus.
Scheming is the first foal from the Bettors Delight mare War Dan Bad Girl p,3,1:55.2 $75,650 which is a full-sister to Weona Sizzler p,1:50.0 $400,210.
Legend on the track and at stud
There are some who say that a champion race-mare will never be a star broodmare but that certainly doesn’t apply to the remarkable La Coocaracha which has to rank as the worst-named Standardbred in history.
La Coocaracha translates as The Cockroach but with her racetrack exploits earning her honours as both Australian Trotter of the Year and New Zealand Trotter of the Year and her 23 wins earning her $428,911 she is anything but a cockroach.
She has carried her remarkable record over to her stud career with her 13 foals producing 10 individual winners including the Australian Trotter of the Year Dance Craze tr,1:55.6 $551,780.
Eight different stallions have been involved in La Coocaracha’s ten winners.
Her 13th and final foal is the current 2yo colt The Locomotive which brought up a hat-trick of wins when he took out today’s Nutrien Equine Haras des Trotteurs Classic prelude at Menangle for trainer Wayne Potter and driver Nathan Jack.
The Locomotive is by Muscle Mass and today’s win took his record to two wins in three starts and lifted his earnings to $31,798.
Runner-up this afternoon was the Centurion ATM filly Venus Love, which was having just her third race-start for Queensland trainer Chantal Turpin, with Suga Daddy finishing third.
A $60,000 yearling, The Locomotive was bred and sold at the inaugural Nutrien Sale by Yabby Dam Farms Pty Ltd and he is raced by G B Holland and W R Potter.
Yabby Dam Farms is a companion entity to Haras de Trotteurs which is a major sponsor of the Nutrien Race Series for trotters so today’s win was certainly fitting.
They say that “three time’s a charm”, and that certainly was the case for the Inverell Polocrosse Club’s Swan Cup. The inaugural Swan Cup is an incentive horse sale and polocrosse competition, which is run by the dedicated members of the Inverell Polocrosse Club. After the battle with COVID-19 in 2020 and the consistent rain in 2021, it was exciting to see the event come to fruition this year.
The 4-day event took place over the third weekend in July at the Club’s brand-new grounds just out of the town of Inverell. The number of polocrosse players who traveled from far and wide to be a part of this new concept was awesome to see and no one went home disappointed after a great weekend.
Nutrien Equine was thrilled to be the sale agents of the Swan Cup Sale and what a great turnout it was as all the players on the grounds came and supported the sale. The quality of the sale horses was great to see, which was reflected in the sale results.
Following on from 2021’s online sale, 2022 has well and truly set the bar higher achieving a gross of $305,000 with an average of $15,250 and a clearance of 91%
Topping the sale at $65,000 was Justin & Lyndal Hafey’s Lot 24 JAYLYN DOWNS LEXUS. This 2-year-old filly is by BOONARA MENTOR and out of the STAR BRIGADOON mare in JAYLYN DOWNS PORSCHA. Borderview Stock Horses from Booubyjan, QLD are the proud new owners of this youngster.
Lot 9 ONE TIME BELLE, on account of Charlie McKinnon, was purchased for $34,000 by Newcombe Livestock from Tamworth NSW. The 7-year-old mare is by ONE TIME JACK out of the STAR BALCK MINSTRAL daughter, TULLABOOBRI FAVOUR.
Another notable sale was that of Lot 11 BINS MISS LIEUTENANT. She is by KIRKBYS STUD OFFICER and out of TURNERS STUD HAIL. On behalf of Berragoon ASH Stud, this 7-year-old mare was sold for $28,000 to DJ & DA Bale from Elland NSW.
DJ & DA Bale also purchased the top-priced gelding for $24,000. B & A Smith’s Lot 7 EDENHOPE HUNTER is by Polo sire CARMYLE TESIO and out of the STAR BLACK MINSTRAL mare EDENHOPE MIRACLE.
A big thank you to the Inverell Polocrosse Club for putting on a great event and to all this year’s vendors, buyers, and bidders. We look forward to seeing these sale horses compete in the incentive games at the 2023 Swan Cup!
