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Avondale is dead in the water.  Where is the $30m or more going to come from to un-mothball it?  If it is sold where should the funds go?

That's the myth that some are promoting.  There were pre-arrangements not too dissimilar to other real estate deals done.  Didn't Westland have the opportunity to invest in Kumara?  The iconic racecourse 25km down the road.

Following in the steps of Notable Speech (Dubawi) and Opera Ballo (Ghaiyyath), Godolphin's Hidden Force (Frankel) lived up to expectations in providing Charlie Appleby with a third straight “European Road To The Kentucky Derby” Conditions Stakes at Kempton on Wednesday. Languid out of the stalls, the chestnut who had won on debut over here in December was allowed to saunter behind his three rivals throughout the early stages before being cajoled upsides soon into the straight. In front a furlong from home, the 1-4 favourite dismissed Venetian Prince (St Mark's Basilica) to score comfortably by 1 1/2 lengths. “That was a competitive race with horses with proven form from last year and this and so I'm delighted,” William Buick said. “He couldn't do any more and this mile is more to his liking than the seven last time. He's in good company winning this race and he is going to keep improving. I really like what he did there and he's got plenty of pace, so for the moment I'd be content to stay at a mile and when he's on turf then assess his trip.” The post Hidden Force Extends Appleby Record In Key Kempton Pointer appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article

Constitution Hill will not run in next month's Champion Hurdle after Nicky Henderson ruled his stable star out of a jumps return, with his future now lying solely on the flat.View the full article

Only Todd Pletcher could lose the prohibitive early favorite for the GI Kentucky Derby and the 2-year-old champion in Ted Noffey (Into Mischief) and still be stocked with talented horses that are on the road to the first leg of the Triple Crown. Pletcher has GIII Holy Bull Stakes winner Nearly, Sam F. Davis Stakes winner Renegade (Into Mischief) and recent allowance winner Jackson Hole (Nyquist), who will be among the favorites for Saturday's GII Fountain of Youth Stakes at Gulfstream Park. To discuss his plethora of talented colts, their plans going forward, and other top horses in his stable, Pletcher joined this week's TDN Writers' Room Podcast presented by Keeneland. He was the Gainesway Guest of the Week. “We did think a lot of all of those colts,” Pletcher said. “Anytime you lose the two-year-old champ, it's a big blow to the stable and disappointing, but we did have high hopes for several of these colts. In particular, Nearly looked like he was coming up to the Holy Bull in good shape and we're very high on the way Jackson Hole had been training. It gave us optimism. Renegade was coming off a good second in the Remsen and training very well. So, we had high hopes for all of them and now we just have to hope we can continue on and keep them healthy and keep developing.” Jackson Hole may need to prove more, but it looks like he has a world of potential. After breaking his maiden at Gulfstream, he was sent to the Fair Grounds for an allowance race, which he won by 5 1/2 lengths. The Fountain of Youth will mark his stakes debut. “I didn't think his debut was as impressive as he had trained in the mornings,” Pletcher said of Jackson Hole. “We were expecting a good effort from him. We think he overcame some immaturity and some greenness. From where I was standing in the grandstand, when he came by me and he had just made the lead, it was as if he didn't know what to do once he made the lead. I thought the race at the Fair Grounds was much more professional. He made the lead and he stayed pretty focused. I still thought that coming down the lane, he kind of saw some footprints and balked just a little bit. But I thought it was a much better effort and a step in the right direction.”   Nearly, who overcame a very fast early pace, was particularly impressive in the Holy Bull. He will go next in the GI Florida Derby, and may be Pletcher's best prospect. “We loved the way the horse trained before his debut and we were completely dumbfounded that he did not run well first time out,” Pletcher said. “We kind of regrouped and took advantage of the fact that he's Florida-bred and ran in a Florida-bred maiden, which he won very impressively. We came back in the allowance race and, again, he was super impressive.  Although the field scratched down to four, we thought, 'Wow, that was impressive.'  The time was very good and it was what we expected. We needed to step up, to stretch out. We kind of had three races fairly close together and I was a little concerned about doing too much, but he just kept coming back at us and showing good energy.” Pletcher also has Class President (Uncle Mo) running in Sunday's GII Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn. In his last start, he ran second in the seven-furlong Swale Stakes. Whether or not he can stretch out to a mile-and-a-sixteenth will be a question he'll have to answer this weekend. “We feel really good about stretching him out,” Pletcher said. “We were a little frustrated that we didn't get to stretch him out in his second start. In his second start, we intended to go in a one-mile race and when that didn't fill, we had to look for something else. We chose the Swale because it was our best option at the time. He drew the rail in there, which is always a disadvantage, particularly with the way the track was playing. The winner got loose through pretty comfortable fractions and I thought he ran pretty well considering everything kind of seemed stacked against him. He's definitely a horse that we feel like wants more distance and two turns.” The “Fastest Horse of the Week” was Shining Star (Chi) (Sarah Spirit), who earned a 103 Beyer figure when winning the Feb. 17 Mardi Gras Stakes at the Fair Grounds. The Fastest Horse of the Week segment is sponsored by WinStar, which stands the sire Life is Good  Elsewhere on the podcast, which is also sponsored by the PHBA, 1/ST TV, the KTOB and West Point Thoroughbreds, Randy Moss, Bill Finley and Zoe Cadman discussed the ongoing dispute between HISA and Churchill Downs and HISA's claims that Churchill owes it more than $2.4 million in unpaid fees. The panel agreed that there are a lot of unanswered questions when it comes to the dispute. The team also handicapped the major races that will be run this weekend, focusing on the three Derby preps, the Fountain of Youth, the Rebel and GIII Gotham Stakes. Click here to listen to the podcast or click here to watch. The post Todd Pletcher Joins The TDN Writers’ Room Podcast Presented by Keeneland appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article

Sold it for $1 didn't they but voluntarily as they still had the right to do at the time without NZTR grabbing the dosh.

The air may be full of Cheltenham Festival chatter but, in Rathasker Stud at least, there is only one race on everyone's lips these days: the Derby.  It's not hard to understand why. Pierre Bonnard, the ante-post favourite for the Epsom Classic at odds of 6-1, was bred by Maurice Burns, who jokes that he would love to “level the score” with his brother Seamus, breeder of 2008 Derby hero New Approach. Rathasker Stud is home to the speed influence stallion Bungle Inthejungle along with Coulsty and more recently Aclaim, himself a Classic-producer courtesy of Cachet, the 1,000 Guineas winner in 2022.  By and large, the farm produces tough and hardy racehorses who have flown the flag on the international stage. But an Epsom Derby winner? This would represent something different for Rathasker and Burns admits to be feeling the excitement.  “My brother Seamus has bragging rights over me because he bred New Approach so it would be great to level the score,” Burns jokes about the prospects of becoming a Derby-winning breeder this year, before adding, “but there is an awful lot of water to run under the bridge before then.” So, how has Burns found himself in this position in the first place? It all started when, along with his wife Madeline, the stallion master rocked over to the December Mares Sale at Tattersalls in search of some new blood.  Normandie Stud's Group 1 Nassau Stakes heroine Sultanina (New Approach), who was 12 years of age at the time and described by Burns to be “at a bit of a crossroads” given she had only produced one winner at that point, was high on the list. She was sold in foal to Camelot and little did we know then what we know now.  Burns recalled, “When you go to the sales to buy mares, foals or yearlings, sometimes it will go right and sometimes it will go wrong but Sultanina went right. She was a mare at a crossroads when we bought her. She had only one winner but she did have a couple of horses to run for her. The people [Normandie Stud] who bred her and owned her were reducing their numbers and that's how we came to buy her. They kept a couple of daughters in the hope that something would happen but put Sultanina in the sale. Madeline and I looked at a bunch of mares and followed Sultanina into the ring. It all just fell into place.” He added, “She was in foal to Camelot. We bred a couple of horses by Camelot and got well paid for them so we like his stock. She is also a Nassau Stakes winner and is a New Approach mare as well. But, above all else, it all came down to price and she came in at 78,000gns, which we felt was a fair price.”  Pierre Bonnard is said to have been everything you'd want in a foal by Burns, who opted to offer the future Group 1 winner and leading Derby contender at the Goffs November Foal Sale. It was Timmy Hyde of Camas Park Stud who struck the winning bid of €80,000, meaning Burns had effectively recouped his investment in the mare.  But better still was to come. Camas Park Stud turned that initial outlay into €280,000 at the following year's Goffs Orby Sale to Coolmore. Meanwhile, Burns netted himself a cool €200,000 to Amo Racing for a Coulsty filly out of the mare at Goffs last year as well.  He said, “Camas Park Stud bought him off us as a foal and I can remember going down to look at the horse as a yearling and, the fella who was on the shank told me, 'this horse will be going to Ballydoyle'. That was before he even went into the ring. They all loved him and they were right. They paid €280,000 and they buy a lot of horses for much more than that who don't turn out half as good. The Coolmore team were right on the button with Pierre Bonnard to be fair to them. But he was always a very nice horse. As a foal, he had a very good frame and very good action. He's just a very nice horse. We debated about selling him as a foal or a yearling but we brought him to the foal sales and said that if he wasn't making enough money we'd bring him back as a yearling. He sold for €80,000 so we recouped our investment on the mare. We are a commercial operation.” He added, “We were very happy when Pierre Bonnard won at Dundalk because it came just before the catalogue was printed for the Goffs November Foal Sale. That was a very nice update for the filly but then a couple of days later the sister, Crepe Suzette (Saxon Warrior), was placed in a Listed race. So at this point we are extremely happy. By the time we got to Goffs, Crepe Suzette had placed in a Group 2 race and Pierre Bonnard was entered in a couple of Group 1s. A lot of people were not aware of the update but we had to tell them. Word got around that she was a nice filly and obviously there was the added attraction with the updates. She attracted what I call the elite buyers coming around to look at her and that was it. In this game, you are always very hopeful that this or that will happen but it rarely comes off. For it to come off is fantastic.” Sultanina is due any day now to Bungle Inthejungle. After that, the world is her oyster. Yet, Burns could not be drawn on firming up plans as to what stallion his star mare would visit this year.  He said, “We probably cover 75 per cent of our mares at Rathasker by our own stallions so she is in foal to Bungle Inthejungle and is due to foal in the next week or 10 days. After that, we haven't decided who she will visit but a few studs have been onto us. Camelot will have to come under consideration but I am not going to jump the gun. She's the sort of mare where nobody is going to refuse her.” The post How Pierre Bonnard’s Breeder Maurice Burns Could “Level The Score” With Derby Victory appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article

But Hokitika wasn't sold by NZTR - the Club effectively gave it away.  Although they did have prior agreements with local stakeholders.