Rare opportunity providing unreal excitement

At any stage of life, when opportunity knocks, you best answer the door, and that is exactly what happened when Manawatu breeder Spud Crosse, secured an American Ideal out of one of New Zealand harness racing’s best maternal families.

Anything out of the Charles Roberts breed with the ‘me’ moniker seems to be gifted with unfounded pacing ability inherently, and the daughters and granddaughters have pedigree pages that will make any breeding buff salivate at the mouth.

Tayla Me is the granddaughter of two-time New Zealand broodmare of the year and 2013 Broodmare of Excellence award winner, Scuse Me. She was the winner of the Great Northern Oaks in 1997 and the Taylor Mile in 1998 before going on to become one of the most prolific southern hemisphere producers of all time.

So, when long-time Canterbury bloodstock agent made Tayla Me available, it’s easy to see why Crosse, who was looking to improve his broodmare band, jumped at the opportunity.

As the saying goes: Fortune favours the brave. While Spud has a highly commercial broodmare for the future, he might be waiting a while before he gets an opportunity to put her in foal, given she lines up a strong chance in tomorrow night’s (5 Apr.) $40,000 Listed Uncut Gem’s Mares Classic.

So how did it come about that a broodmare purchase would wind up racing some of the best in her sex?

We spoke to her trainer and future stud master, Brent Macintyre at Macca Lodge to find out.

“Craig Crosse had the mare offered to him as a broodmare by Peter Lagan, which is why he bought her,” said Macintyre.

“The idea was she would come to us at Macca Lodge, get in foal, and produce some quality stock.

“She arrived here in the knowledge that she had a wee bit of ability and while we were waiting for the breeding season, we just knocked around with her a wee bit and we decided she was worth taking to the trials for a look.

“She was a wee bit sore and blew out with a stone bruise in her back leg and despite that had still gone really well. We got on top of that, and she ended up winning a week later first up for us, which is when we had the conversation that she might be a bit too good to put in foal just yet,” he laughed.

Prior to arriving in the Riversdale district of Northern Southland, Tayla Me had had three race day starts for Cran and Chrissie Dalgety and was good enough to win on debut in the Autumn last season as a three-year-old before being turned out and brought back in the Spring. She ran third fresh up at Addington beating home some smart types but was a disappointing 11th in a Nevele R Fillies heat a week later with a vet report showing no abnormalities.

“She had a few issues in her front feet as well as it turned out and long story short, she had more stone bruises coming up through the ‘frog’ in her feet which Bruce Wallace managed to sort for us. Once we got that sorted, she grew another leg really and started to show her true worth,” said Macintyre.

Whether it was the stone bruises troubling her in Canterbury is unknown, but what we do know now is the four-year-old mare has turned the corner and has won two more races this campaign achieving a 1:54.1 mile rate in the process when qualifying for the Southern Belle Series in her home province.

TAYLA ME REPLAY

“She is just blessed with natural speed, she is only a wee girl, so you have to look after her a wee bit, but she has a lot of toughness, and I don’t really think anyone has seen the best of her yet,” he said.

Tayla Me heads into tomorrow night’s assignment on the back of a very good second in the Southern Belle Series final where after drawing one on the second line was able to get on the back of the talented Joe’s Rock before unwinding stylishly in pursuit of the Brett Grey trained mare for second.

“We were following a very good horse who just got a couple of lengths on her turning in fresh up and she is pretty sharp that Joe’s Rock, so we were pretty happy with the performance.

“Unfortunately, we have the visitors draw which going to make it very hard for us on Friday, but she is well in herself, and we have a talented driver aboard in Craig Ferguson so hopefully he can weave some magic,” he said.

The draw Macintyre speaks of is one of the second row which over the 1980m with the lower assessed horses drawn in front of her could prove arguably a bigger handicap then the likes of the G1 placed Manhattan finds herself presented with having drawn the widest on the front line.

The preferential barrier draw is based on ratings, and one could argue that the Bob Butt trained mare who is blessed with gate speed should find it a lot easier to get a prominent position without a wall of R35 pacers starting in front of her. Nevertheless, Macintyre is just happy to have a mare of Tayla Me’s ability in the barn and with untapped potential, she is no doubt providing some real excitement among the day-to-day rigours of running New Zealand’s largest standardbred breeding base.

“She is exciting to work with and we are just trying to place her right because it’s not hard to get up the grade and before you know it, you’re having to race the best most weeks, so you have to be a bit careful with where you go but what happens next year, I am not too sure.

“We are probably looking at turning her out after the Uncut Gems and give her a couple of races later in the season and if everything is going right Craig is thinking of sending her to Australia possibly to race in some of the better mares’ races over there before bringing her back in foal,” he said.

For complete Addington race fields, click here.

by Brad Reid, for Harnesslink