Driscoll sending five trotters to campaign in Auckland

Harness Racing New Zealand CEO, Brad Steele, incurred a few social media scoffs after the unveiling of The Future Starts Now roadshow when in his maiden address to New Zealand stakeholders, the Queenslander stated that he envisioned a future that would address the exodus of horses crossing the ditch.

The line that seemed to attract the most ribbing in the comments sections was when Steele was quoted saying the ten million dollar investment and incentives might see more Australian-based horses either returning or being sent here to take advantage of the opportunities.

While we won’t name and shame anyone with receipts of said comments, let’s just say they followed similar lines of the cult Aussie classic movie, The Castle, with Dale Kerrigan’s famous quip: “Tell him he’s dreaming”.

In a little over a month, Steele’s hunch has come to fruition with the news that Yabby Dam Farms Principal, Pat Driscoll, is sending over a team of five trotters to be based in the North Island as early as Wednesday this week.

While it won’t be described as a watershed moment for the sport, it’s a development with plenty of scope to grow and a step in the right direction, particularly in the North Island which has seen a serious investment and requires horse numbers for future sustainability.

Driscoll who has been in New Zealand for the better part of the last week taking part in the NZ Standardbred Breeders stallion seminars has been encouraged by his visit and what he is hearing and has wasted little time devising a plan.

“What Brad (Steele) has been talking about and what he discussed at a ministerial level was just brilliant. They are having a crack, and they might not pull all of it off but even if they achieved half of what they are looking to do it will be just fantastic,” said Driscoll.

“I saw Anton (Golino) on Saturday night and said to him let’s talk about setting up a satellite stable in the North Island. That’s the positivity I have got out of being in New Zealand for a week. I just think some of the potential and things that are happening with the new increases, it would be very good to be a part of,” he said.

While the satellite stable idea is a work in progress, Driscoll has landed on a deliberate strategy of sending a team of five trotters of mixed age, sex and ratings to compete mainly at Alexandra Park.

“We’re sending across five trotters initially, they are leaving here with IRT on Wednesday and they will be heading to Auckland to be trained by Bernie Hackett and Michelle Wallis.

“It all happened very quickly and we obviously have had some great success with Bernie and Michelle with All Cashed Up and they had the scope to take five at short notice. We may in future look to spread them around a bit but this is what we have decided for now.

“They are all ready to go and have all been racing so it’s not a case of two or three months before you will see them on the track, Anton has kept them in full work and they should be very close to being race fit on arrival.

“They are not also-rans, we think they will do a nice job over there and the idea was to send over a variety of horses off different marks,” he said.

Part of the quintette destined for Auckland is last year’s Group One 2YO Breeders Crown champion, Val Thorens (Volstead), as well as the stakes performed daughter of Village Mystic, Courmayeur.

The Michael Purdon-trained Mystic Max will be happy about that (or unhappy, you’ll have to ask him!) no longer being the only progeny of the son of Love You in the country. Furthermore, Courmayeur is out of Onestar LB, a Cantab Hall half-sister to the Italian-bred import, Callmethebreeze (Trixton), highlighting the quality of bloodstock that is arriving.

“Aside from the racing opportunities, it’s also a great chance for us as a breeding and racing entity to expose our bloodstock, their sires and maternal families to New Zealand breeders and familiarise themselves and our brand with the trotting breeders in the country.

“I know it’s not as simple as just going and setting up a stable, but all going well we will look at working with more people over there to facilitate more horses in New Zealand in the future because I think there is some wonderful opportunities going forward,” he said.

Driscoll has been one of the catalysts for the renewed growth in Australasian trotting over the last decade, having imported significant European and North American bloodlines down under.

The impact has been immense and despite copping the odd blood nose for his efforts, Driscoll is starting to bear the fruits of his labour and rewarded for a vision very few would have attempted.

Champion trotter Just Believe is a testament to that, and the son of Orlando Vici is just the type of trotter that Driscoll envisioned when he set out to revolutionise the down-under trotting gait.

It is and will likely always remain a more niche market of the two gaits down under, but despite now comprising nearly 30% of the foal crop, trotting features have made up a little more than 5% of the aspirational stakes.

The tide is turning, and Yabby Dam Farm’s have aided that growth over the years with sponsorship of fillies and mares races such as the inaugural North Island and Southland Trotting Oaks.

Driscoll is doing his part yet again this season, offering New Zealand breeders a great incentive to support his stallions by offering to pay up to $1000 of the costs to get a mare in foal when utilising one of his many great stallions on offer.

“For the last few years we have sent a lot of chilled semen options across to New Zealand and we have worked in with the other studs and they have treated us nice and done everything correctly, but the reality is we are a small stud and we only sent semen when it was required.

“It’s a very expensive exercise and that goes with all the little issues that come with sending something like chilled semen, does the plan take off on time? Does the stallion get collected on time etcetera? We were finding in reality, two breeds could soak up the whole service fee where some stallions were concerned and we wanted to help mitigate that,” said Driscoll.

“We wanted to think about how we could do it better and we decided that we would freeze the options we had available locally and the money we were saving on the transport, we would offer to New Zealand breeders a rebate of up to $1000 per mare at selected vets.

“The idea is we are going to pay you to breed. It’s not a case the mare has to get in foal to get the rebate, it just has to go to a selected vet or breeding entre, they agree the mare is fit and healthy and ready to be bred to frozen semen and that will come off the breeder’s bill.

“We think it’s a good initiative, most people are asking for money upfront for early birds and that sort of stuff. What we are saying to you is we will essentially give you money to breed and we think it should be attractive to breeders in this day and age,” he said.

For the full list of available Haras Des Trotteur Stallion’s, click here

by Brad Reid, for Harnesslink