Cavalla Bloodstock turn over a new leaf

If you had asked anyone involved with harness racing in New Zealand who Robert Famularo was, the answer would invariably be the man who raced Monkey King and Carabella.

But racing horses was never really meant to be the plan when Robert and his daughter Sara established Dancingonmoonlight Stud at Ohoka all those years ago.

The plan had always been to set up Dancingonmoonlight as a boutique breeding establishment and to sell the yearlings they raised at the sales each year.

But with the emergence of first Monkey King and then Carabella, those plans were put on hold as the emphasis understandably went on the racing team.

Now Dancingonmoonlight is about to fulfill those original plans with a batch of yearlings heading to the Christchurch sales next week.

Situated on nearly 200 acres at Ohoka, Robert and Sara have developed Dancingonmoonlight into a showplace the equal of any in the world.

From the long tree lined entrance to the state of the art yearling boxes to the fully irrigated paddocks, no expense has been spared in establishing the stud.

Sara is really looking forward to next weeks sales.

" I am a bit nervous but excited at the same time about next week."

" We have raised these yearlings from foals and I think there are some great types amongst our draft"

" We are taking them there  to sell and thats the hard part for me as I've handled them all the way through but I will get a big thrill out of seeing them race regardless of who owns them," Sara told Harnesslink this week.

At present they have about 15 mares in their broodmare band and Sara thinks that is not to far off their optimum number. 

"We have bred a couple of Artsplace fillies with the sole intention of adding them to the broodmare band long term but apart from that we are pretty happy with the mares we have." Sara said.

This years draft are all from mares that Cavalla Bloodstock have either imported or raced and as you would expect Sara has a couple of favourites amongst them

" The two I really like are from full sisters actually."

"One is the Mach Three colt from the very smart racemare Timeless Perfection (1:56.9 6 Wins) and the other is the Four Starzzz Shark colt from her full sister Miss Moonlight Shadow."

"They are both lovely strong colts who have been very popular with trainers and owners looking at our draft," Sara said.

Next year Sara expects to have up to twelve yearlings entered and the star lot of those will undoubtedly be the Mach Three colt from the champion racemare Carabella 1:55.2 ($693,617)

" He is Carabella's first foal and is a lovely type.

" We have all the top sires represented amongst our foals but we also have some Raging Bull foals to go through the ring next year.

"He stood here last year and we have some lovely foals by him," Sara said.

While it may have taken a bit longer than planned to get Dancingonmoonlight Stud functioning as they originally planned, Robert and Sara should be very proud to have a breeding establishment unrivaled in the southern hemisphere and a lovely broodmare band with which to take advantage of the superb facilities.

Harnesslink Media