Group One performer a major drawcard in National Online Breeding Stock Sale

[Wandering Eyes]

The 2024 National Online Breeding Stock Sale is now live on Gavelhouse Plus, with a high-quality catalogue that includes the Group Two winner and Group One performer Llanacord (NZ) (Contributer).

Llanacord was bred by Simms Davison, who offered her under his Mapperley Stud banner in Book 2 of Karaka 2019. Kevin Hopson bought her for $15,000 and later sent her to the Rangiotu stable of his stepson Stephen Nickalls, who also had a share of the ownership.

Llanacord turned that $15,000 price tag into almost $220,000 in a career that her connections will never forget.

“She’s been absolutely wonderful,” Nickalls said. “The ride that she’s taken us on and the opportunities that she’s given us have been beyond what we could have imagined. We are a small, family-run stable, and to share that journey with my mother, stepfather, wife and kids, it was amazing. We’ve been very lucky and we’ll never forget the journey we had with her.

“Kevin is 80 now and has decided against breeding from her himself. He wants to race – that’s what he buys horses for. He said to me that by the time her progeny are old enough to go to the races, it might not be as easy for him to go along and see them run.

“So we thought we’d put her up for sale and give a breeder a great opportunity to have a really good go with a fantastic young mare.

“We think she’ll be a lovely mare for someone. She’s just the sweetest horse to do anything with. My eight-year-old daughter leads her in and out and does a lot with her – we have a lot of photos of them together.

“She’s a maiden mare who will be ready to be covered nice and early in the spring.

“We’ll always have that connection there and will follow her closely, but it’s time to pass her on to someone else.”

Llanacord’s outstanding three-year-old season saw her perform at stakes level on both sides of the Tasman. She won the Group Two Lowland Stakes (2100m) at Hastings in early March 2021, then finished third behind Amarelinha (NZ) (Savabeel) in the Group One New Zealand Oaks (2400m) at Trentham later that month.

Nickalls ventured across the Tasman in the autumn, finishing second in the Group Three SA Fillies’ Classic (2500m) at Morphettville in Adelaide.

“She was an absolutely amazing three-year-old for us,” Nickalls said. “When Kevin sent her to us to train, he said his one condition was that he wanted to get her to the Oaks. Things like that are pipedreams for little stables like ours, but we actually made it there. A busload of people came along to support us at Trentham. It was really wonderful.

“And it all happened because Kevin used to drive the bus for Stu Hale’s yearling tours, so he got to watch all the parades, and he just fell in love with her. He bought her for $15,000 and sent her to Glyn Brick to break her in and do all the early education with her. Glyn sadly passed away and she came down to us as a late two-year-old. She took us on a ride you don’t get to experience very often.”

While Llanacord had her best season as a three-year-old, she later collected six placings as an older mare including in the Listed Wanganui Cup (2040m) and the $80,000 Royal Descent Stakes (1600m) on Auckland Cup Day at Pukekohe. She finished fifth in the Group Three Balmerino Stakes (2000m) and Group Three Manawatu Breeders’ Stakes (2000m), sixth in the Group One Livamol Classic (2040m) and seventh in the Group One Windsor Park Plate (1600m) and Herbie Dyke Stakes (2000m).

“We were never afraid to have a crack at the big guys, and we kept doing that with her as an older horse,” Nickalls said. “She was beaten by about a length when she ran fifth in the Balmerino, and she wasn’t far away in a number of other races.

“She had a cut on a hock that held us up after her placing in the Wanganui Cup, and there were a few little setbacks that kept giving us problems along the way and she never quite performed to her best as an older mare.

“But we’ll always have those special memories of what she did for us at three.”

Llanacord is out of the winning Golan mare L’Accord (NZ), who is a half-sister to the Group One winner Ad Alta (NZ) (Kenfair) and closely related to the multiple Australian Group winner Zanna (NZ) (Pentire).

Llanacord will be among the first daughters of Contributer to retire to stud, but several other High Chaparral stallions are making their mark as broodmare sires. Daughters of So You Think (NZ) have so far produced five stakes winners headed by the Golden Slipper (1200m) heroine Fireburn (Rebel Dane), while Dundeel (NZ) is the broodmare sire of six winners and two stakes winners from only 14 runners to date.

The first lot of the 2024 National Online Breeding Stock Sale will close from 7pm on July 10 on Gavelhouse Plus.

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