Bella in work

A photo of Bella (Now Another Look/Bossy Octopus) showing her first trotting skills at Kerry O'Reilly's place. We were impressed as she had progressed well within a few days and has progressed even further since. She was trotting so fast even our 'posh' camera couldn't keep up :))

Another b... beautiful filly

Our third filly foal for the season and second Julius Caesar "Cleo" was born this morning. We have yet to see her but Graeme (Lamb) tells me she is again a picture of a horse, as have been all the JC horses on the farm this year. My guess is 'Anotherflamingfilly' won't make the cut at HRNZ (we've had seven foals now all fillies) so we'll go for something reminiscent of this situation but not that specific name.

Photos will follow tomorrow.

Trotters Galore

As stated, we have two trotting broodmares, one Bossy Octopus (Dolly) is a three win mare (from 16 starts) by Game Pride and we have "Bella" a beautiful 2yo by Now Another Look from her who looks promising and very likely to race next season. We have tried to get her back in foal to another sire this season but have been unsuccessful. She is likely to go to Sunseeker in the Spring.

Our second trotting broodmare is Glentar (Whizzy) our original is by Gee Whiz II. We have a 2yo (Lucy) out of her and she just recently foaled another filly (Honey) both by Now Another Look. Lucy has been broken in (by Kevin Townley) but we have done no more with her since. Honey (pictured above) really is honey coloured and looks just like her Dad. It would be nice if she had a good share of his talent too.

Nature - The Balance of Life and Death

Laura Jayne and Sophie

Our second pacing broodmare - Laura Jayne, foaled a beautiful Julius Caesar filly just before Christmas. Sadly, as can happen, Laura died later in the day from internal bleeding due to a ruptured uteris. Vanetta rang everyone we know in the business as well as many we didn't. This included Trackside who kindly broadcast the situation and a contact number. We ended up being offered a Thorougbred mare "Bonnie" by Steve Montgomery and the two hit it off straight away, as if they actually were dam and foal.

Sophie is pictured here alongside of her new mum Bonnie.

A note of warning here: We had taken added insurance at a limit of $2,000 per broodmare with AMI but, as many will not be surprised, when we went to claim we were told that the cover did not include "this sort of situation". I have yet to talk to the Area Manager to see which sorts of situation the bloody thing does cover.

Summer update

We have four standardbred mares, two pacing bred and two trotting.

We currently have two trotting two year olds in work. One of these is just returning from Kerry O'Reilly's place (by Now Another Look out of Bossy Octopus) and is expected to qualify easily as a three year old after some spelling time during the Summer.

We also have two hacks, both of which are standardbred geldings. Eddie, at 15 hands, is an everyone rides near-schoolmaster and Sooty is a 16.2 hand dark bay who thinks he is the most beautiful horse in the world (we agree) and also considers himself to be a stallion but he's wrong. Sooty's breeding goes back to the great Bravine but we didn't know that when we bought him as a 5 year old hack (he's 10 now).