The Corner with Garry Chittick
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Racing can be and is great fun. On Saturday, Waikato Stud joined forces with Te Rapa for the Waikato Stud raceday featuring the time-honoured Group 2 Foxbridge Plate over 1400 metres. This is the start of the real horses, and there will be many more yet to show their ability with the excitement of up-and-coming three-year-olds not yet seen. The Foxbridge didn’t disappoint – Imperatriz was imperial. The raceday attendees responded to her performance in true sporting fashion, we all love a great horse and I believe we witnessed the start of a dominant spring for her.
Pippa and Butch Castles conspired to upgrade the winners circle with the Waikato Stud brand. It was a pleasure to host the winning connections, a group of owners joined together by the Te Akau racing team . I have no idea how many owners there are, or how many enjoyed our hospitality, but the attendees were compelled to watch our gelding I Wish I Win score in impressive manner at Caulfield. This was not a Group race, however as a Saturday metropolitan race offered a stake of AU$160k. Ironically our aspirations were not at this level but the result is important as it franks NZ form. I Wish I Win was a two win horse but not to be underrated, achieving multiple Group placings at home. He is a story on its own, a full brother to No Limits who sold for $1.4m, I Wish I Win was born with his near fore in at the knee and attached to his shoulder at an unfortunate angle.
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An attendee in our room expressed, to his disappointment, having seen his newly born foal which he described as being turned out. I couldn’t resist showing the shot of I Wish I Win, you can imagine his surprise. As you know I have been breeding horses for a long time, and my first experiences of deviated foals really disappointed me. I had a client who, on seeing his foal, cried. Obviously, more emotional than me. Anyway, he arrived a couple of days later with the well-respected Massey University Veterinarian, the late Harry Pearce. He instructed us to confine the mare and foal in a small paddock, and he instructed the owner not to return for at least two months. In fact, he said no owners should see their foals until one month old. I Wish I Win was subject to no surgical intervention; time, blacksmith management and we have a racehorse. We are constantly amused when listening to potential buyers whispering about the slightest issue which will inhibit the racing soundness or ability. We didn’t offer our horse as a yearling, mind you he was at the extreme end. Who knows, he may never win another race but he has achieved more than most.
I read with interest that the minimum stake to be offered by the newly formed Auckland Racing Partnership is $20k. Well good on them, it is a start. But is it good enough? During my tenure as Chairman of the Racing Board the trainers requested a tiered racing structure. My Board, in conjunction with the codes, confined the combined executive staff to the Museum Hotel to devise a formula to meet these demands. The resulting Graduation, Feature and Premier days set the minimum stakes clubs could offer; Premier days were required to run a minimum of eight races at $20k, bearing in mind that was over twenty years ago you can see we have come a long way. Incidentally we are running for $55k in a Wednesday maiden this week, guess where?
Finally for the week don’t allow yourself to be enamoured by the Auckland Racing Club’s so called generosity: “We have topped up the stakes by $1.4m” – why wouldn’t they? ‘Racing Headquarters’ as they label themselves, are of course the showpiece of our sport. I can tell you when the board I was Chairman of wrote off a debt of $14m (probably like $30m in today’s terms), their balance sheet looked a helluva lot better and we copped the flack, on behalf of the industry which they are part of.
Cheers
G
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