Ferguson Racing – Next level – Next Gen

“We thought if we were to carry on the way we’re going we’re just going to be chasing our tails for the next bloody how many years. We thought right, we’ll have one good crack at it this year,” harness racing trainer Dylan Ferguson said when reviewing he and his wife Jo’s decision to buy some good quality stock at the recently held NZB Standardbred Yearling Sale in Auckland.

The Fergusons are based at Dylan’s parents place five minutes from Cambridge Raceway. They work their horses on a 700 metre track and generally have twenty horses in work at any one time.

Dylan trained with Graeme Rogerson for four seasons and Jo (nee Stevens) trained in her own right. Now the husband and wife team are in the second season of their training partnership.

“It’s different starting from the bottom again and working our way up but we’re still determined as ever and keen to give it a good crack. Being a young couple and trying to make our mark, we have to try and buy horses that will go early and hopefully be competitive in those two year old feature races. We have to stay relevant and try and produce the results.”

Their top purchase out of the Auckland Sale was a Bold Eagle – Tickle Me Pink colt which they bought for $90,000.

“The Bold Eagles are a little bit unknown. Those European stallions come over with all the hype so we just have to hope they follow up. We picked out a handful of trotters but we got blown out of the water by Stonewall on our top pick, the three quarter brother to Lovemeto, but we thought this horse wasn’t a huge amount behind him.”

Tickle Me Pink won nine races including the Group One Harness Jewels Three Year Old Ruby.

“As with all the Breckon Farms trotting mares there’s black type galore and all of them can get up and run (early). His mother was a high class juvenile and three year old and probably didn’t have a chance to show her best as an older horse.”

Dylan says the colt has a lot of scope and filling out to do.

“Looking at him now, you can see he’s going to be completely different in six to twelve months. He comes out and lets everyone know that he’s worth more than most of the horses on the property (laughter).”

Their other top end purchase was a Bold Eagle – Ellaria Sand filly which they shelled out $60,000 for.

The filly is Ellaria Sand’s first foal and is from a family which includes Daenerys Targaryen, Springbank Sam and Pocaro.

“We picked her out thinking about having a ladies syndicate which Jo is putting together. We felt if the sales were run purely on looks she would have won hands down. She’s got great markings and looks more like a colt. She’s one of those fillys that’s just gorgeous and has a lot going for her. Any ladies out there that want to race the Bold Eagle and the two bargain buys as I call them, there are shares available. We welcome aboard new owners, and we try and make racing as fun as we can. Everyone gets treated the same no matter how many hairs on the tail they own.”

“With the way she looks now she’s not going to have to develop much in the next twelve months to become a racehorse.”

In the middle to low end of the market, Dylan and Jo paid $25,000 for an Always B Miki filly out of the Art Major mare Magical.

“She’s a lovely filly. I was keen to get an Always B Miki at the Sales, especially a filly. Normally they’re quite reasonably priced. We thought she was a wee bit of a steal at that price. We’ve already got a lot of good loyal owners but they’re more the five to ten percenters. We’re as keen as ever to expand that. Syndicates are the way of the future but it would be nice to get a bit of money and power behind us to go along with our little group of owners.”

Ferguson says the best way to attract some bigger investors is to buy well bred, quality stock.

“They’re the sort of horse the powerhouses want to be involved in.”

Rounding out their purchases is an American Ideal – Readallaboutit filly who’s a full sister to Hard Copy which they secured for $20,000.

“She was one of those Plain Janes. We saw her four or five times at Karaka. Every time she walked out of the box, she just strolled out quietly with her head down. I think she fell into the back row so to speak. All the big strong colts come out screaming and let everyone know they’re there, whereas she’s just completely the opposite.”

Ferguson said the filly was a bit on the small side.

“That whole family have been and they’ve all won races, so there’s no reason she can’t. She had great conformation and the full siblings have all won races, so the cross works.”

He says all four of the couple’s previous sales purchases from other sales have won.

“We had three two year old winners last season. I feel as though we have done well with what we’ve bought so far but for us it’s trying to go to the next level.”

Dylan said they had to be quite strategic when selecting yearlings at the Sales.

“It was a bit tricky for us because I’d won a Group One race. So by buying the two Bold Eagle trotters it meant that we didn’t have to jump through any hoops to make them eligible (for Next Gen). Hopefully we can do a bit with the other two fillies to make them eligible to.”

by Bruce Stewart, for Harnesslink

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