News

Yorkshire Combines Breeding Powerhouses

Yorkshire produced a brilliant, but slightly unusual result for three giants of standardbred breeding when he won at Ashburton on Sunday.

There would not have been anything too unusual had stallion heavyweights Nevele R Stud, Alabar NZ and Diamond Creek Farms combined to win with a filly or colt, who had a big future in the breeding barn.

Tough Yorkshire clearly has a bright future on the track, his status as a gelding means his breeding future is non existent.

The decision to geld the royally bred son of A Rocknroll Dance and group 1 winning mare Veste was made in Yorkshire’s best interests.

The result of it has been that three studs that own him are in the curious position of racing a gelding.

However, they are happy to just enjoy the ride while racing what looks to be a very smart pacer.

“Keeping a horse as a colt is the ultimate, but it is something that really has to fall in to place and work for you,” Nevele R Stud general manager Ged Mooar said.

“That would have been the dream result, but we decided to geld him and have a go together at racing him.”

Racing Yorkshire together has come after the Nevele R Stud, Alabar NZ and Diamond Creek Farms have combined with several even faster horses.

The two New Zealand studs shared the southern hemisphere rights to the Diamond Creek Farm owned stallions Always B Miki and Yorkshire’s sire A Rock N Roll Dance.

Their progression to racing a horse together came after talks between Mooar and Alabar NZ general manager Graeme Henley.

They progressed their plans by combining to purchase Yorkshire for $48,000 from at the 2017 national yearling sales.

“He was a nice cut of a colt at the sales,” Mooar said.

“Graeme and I were just talking and we thought wouldn’t it be good to race a horse and bring Diamond Creek in.”

“We have obviously done a bit of business over the years with stallions, doing joint ventures with the shuttling of stallions to the southern hemisphere.”

The Breckon Farms bred son of A Rocknroll Dance and group 1 Caduceus Club Classic winner Veste was the perfect fit for the trio of studs.

Hopes are high A Rocknroll Dance can attract a good book of mares for the upcoming breeding seasons.

The stallion arrives down under next month, on the back of serving 186 mares in Australasian last season.

“He got a reasonably good book last year, so we would be hoping to replicate that again,” Mooar said.

“His really big book was the year before when he served over 400 mares.”

A Rocknroll Dance enjoyed an excellent past weekend.

He produced Duke Of Dundee to win at Addington, before Yorkshire, Can I Be Me and Queenofdance won for the sire at Ashburton on Sunday.

Always B Miki will also touch back down in the southern hemisphere when he lands in Australia next month.

He returns after his stock sold in their first public offering at weanling and mixed ages sales, earlier this year.

“They sold well at the Auckland weanling sales, he is leaving a lovely type,” Mooar said.

Nevele R Stud and Alabar NZ will also jointly offer the former All Stars pairing of Vincent and Ultimate Machete to Australasian breeders in the upcoming breeding season.