New Names Set to Parade

The yearlings at Karaka 2018 will be presented by a host of respected and skilled vendors, including a fresh group of consignors whose names may be somewhat new to buyer’s ears.

The recently established Koru Thoroughbreds has set up at the former Curraghmore Stud near Hamilton with the Taylor family, comprising of Kevin and Julie Taylor and their son Matthew and his partner Melissa Speers, ready to present their inaugural draft at the Sale later this month.

With decades of experience, the team have a solid reputation in the racing and breeding industry through past success under their “KO” brand in which the horses found their way into leading stables of Peter Moody, Mick Price, Chris Waller and Gai Waterhouse just to name a few. Group success came with Viennetta (NZ) (Pins) when the mare won the Group 2 Breeders’ Stakes and more recently with the Group-winning leading second season sire in Queensland Golden Archer (Rock of Gibraltar).

Eight yearlings in their first Koru Thoroughbreds draft are catalogued across Book 1 and Book 2 including a half-brother to Golden Archer, out of Viennetta, catalogued as Lot 687 being a son of first season sire Sacred Falls.

Karaka 2018 will be the debut appearance for Canterbury-based Jean-Pierre St Guillaume under the Highfield Grange banner – a boutique family-based establishment that he runs with his daughter Trinity.

“I have been a racing enthusiast as far back as I can remember, and three years ago we decided it was a good time to start a plan for a breeding program,” commented Jean-Pierre.

 “We now have a team of eight broodmares and plan to take a small draft to Karaka each year,” he said.

The first foal out of winning Volksraad mare Kaapfleur, the matriarch of their broodmare band, will be the first yearling offered from the draft at Lot 869. The filly is by Group 1-winning emerging kiwi sire Redwood and comes from the family of 1000 Guineas winner Pace Invader (NZ) (Westminster).

Waikato-based Highline Thoroughbreds has a two-horse draft catalogued and while they have offered yearlings in recent years this is their debut appearance as a Book 1 consignor. Upon a relocation from Wellington to the Waikato, Cameron and Eva Heron pursued their dreams into the industry of thoroughbreds with the purchase of two broodmares at the 2013 Weanling, Broodmare and Mixed Bloodstock Sale – Amiga Mia and Nightingale Island.

After selling their first yearling at Karaka in 2015, and their first homebred, it fuelled their passion and this year they will have two quality colts on offer. The first to go through the ring will be Lot 23, a son of Proisir out of Amiga Mia, followed by a son of Shocking (Lot 433) who is out of Nightingale Island, a half-sister to reigning Singapore Horse of the Year Infantry (NZ) (Tavistock).

Husband and wife duo Olly and Annabel Wigley have started Beaufort Downs at their new property in North Canterbury. Following stints in preparing yearlings under relative Gus Wigley’s banner of Inglewood Stud they have now set up their own business to agist broodmares and foals, spell racehorses and prepare yearlings.

Ready to make their debut appearance, two Zacinto colts (Lot 30 and Lot 284) in Book 1 will form their draft.

“The two colts we have in book one are full brothers to the colts we prepared last year in the Inglewood draft, which sold for $180,000 and $120,000,” commented Annabel.

Nick Fairweather and partner Nicole Brown have been operating Carlaw Park for just over 12 months from their Cambridge base and originally had a vision of specialising in spelling racehorses but with an influx of support from breeders and trainers alike have developed into preparing yearlings early in the piece.

Now set to present their very first draft at Karaka 2018, a classy Tavistock filly (Lot 180) and half-sister to Group 1-winning gelding Sound Proposition (NZ) (Savabeel) is part of their six-horse draft catalogued through Book 1 and Book 2.

Mana Park has become a respected name among Ready to Run Sale vendors and in just over a decade of consigning they have produced a long list of stakes winners headed most famously by the now Windsor Park Stud sire Turn Me Loose (NZ) (Iffraaj).

Now set to make their first yearling foray, Karaka 2018 will see Mana Park offer nine yearlings in Book 1 including a full sister to Turn Me Loose at Lot 272.

NZB’s revamped National Yearling Sales Series will take place from Sunday 28 January – Sunday 4 February. Catalogues can be collected from the Karaka Sales Centre or viewed online at www.nzb.co.nz.