re: Undervalued New Zealand Sires

waikato — Tue, 30 Jul 2013 21:50:32 GMT

I've spent the past 16 years as an owner, breeder and buyer in New Zealand & produced many Stakes winners. Azamour & Ekraar are the only 2 on TrueNicks' list whom I think are good value for money. However, Capt. Rio, Falkirk, N. E. Needed (his Daffodil surely owed her talent to her top female line) and H. Ransom have all have many chances but most of their foals have disappointed & shown lack of class.

NZ's best younger sire is Darci Brahma while good value sires under $10,000 include $7,000 Guillotine and Istidaad, a splendid but ridiculously unfashionable $2,000 stallion despite siring many Group SWs from bad and badly bred mares like millionaire Ginga Dude (whose dam was rescued from a dog food factory) and champion Justa Tad.

There is much more to breeding Stakes winners than crossing names of stallions in distant generations. Environment,handling & training, veterinary care, the dams and feeding are more important than paper nicks of stallions. Durham Town and Habibi are both well trained by the very talented Logans, a better explanation for their Gr.1 victories than males names in half a pedigree.

Danehill's full brother Anziyan (broodmare sire of Ekstreme) was one of NZ's worst stallions despite his great brother.

re: Undervalued New Zealand Sires

Tiz Herself — Mon, 29 Jul 2013 20:40:21 GMT

In 2008 I took a trip to Ireland and was part of a horse racing tour there. One of the stops along the way was at the Gilltown Stud where Azamour was one of the first stallions showed to us (where we saw Dalakhani as well)... of that trip which included seeing horses such as Galileo, Sadler's Wells, Invincible Spirit, etc., Azamour was one that stuck in my mind. In 2008 he was a physically beautiful specimen - absolutely gorgeous.