Thinking outside the square is how Soliloquy Lodge's Angenita Holzke describes their sponsorship this year of apprentice jockey, Samantha Spratt.
"We were trying to think of something that hadn't been done before," Angenita says.
A native of Germany, Angenita is partner to David Moore. Along with David's father, Richard, the couple now run Soliloquy Lodge at Karaka.
Angenita, business manager for the farm, says the sponsorship of Samantha helps raise the profile of their farm. The apprentice jockey gets a bonus from Soliloquy Lodge each time she rides a Group or Listed race winner.
"We launched it on the eve of the Karaka sales," Angenita says. "We have had a lot of positive feedback from it as Sam has a lot of admirers."
The profile of the farm was raised even further at the NZ National Yearling Sales earlier this year when Soliloquy Lodge finished in both the top twenty vendors by average and aggregate overall.
Angenita says they were blown away by the results from the sale.
"It was a really strong sale. There were a lot of people that had returned to the sales and a lot of new people we hadn't seen before."
Expecting to get around $300,000 for their top lot, an O'Reilly colt out of Cappie, Angenita said they were "flabbergasted" when the colt made $480,000, purchased by the Hong Kong Jockey Club.
"He was horse a you just fell in love with when you saw him, and there were two people who had big cheque books that wanted him," she laughs.
"David was leading him around the ring and his grin just got bigger and bigger."
The Hong Kong buyers also paid $200,000 for a Pins-Soltanto colt with Anthony Cummings taking home a Flying Spur-Trewoman filly for $300,000.
One of the top ten vendors by average in the Premier Sale, Soliloquy Lodge's aggregate for the entire sale was $1,701,500.
The Moore family has had a long association with the breeding and racing industry.
David's grandfather, Dick, worked on the property, that was to become Soliloquy Lodge, as a youngster. The opportunity to buy some of the land was taken up by Dick on his return home from fighting during World War II and son Richard then purchased the remainder of the farm when the original owner died.
Good fortune seems to run in the Moore family for breeding and racing good horses with Dick enjoying success as an owner of Queen Elizabeth Stakes winner, Ravenwood.
Richard continued the tradition after Sir Woolf Fisher, of Ra Ora Stud fame, gave him a few mares to breed from. One of those mares was Pay Packet which Richard bred to Ismone. The resulting colt, Osmarin won eight races and was stakes placed.
A friendly deal between the owners of another filly named Princess Patine, which Richard had bred and sold on, saw Richard and his father secure the mare after she had finished racing.
Putting the mare to Sobig, Princess Patine subsequently produced a brown filly that was named Soliloquy. The winner of 13 races including the Group 1 Lion Brown sprint (1400m) at Te Rapa, Soliloquy has had 11 foals to the races with nine of them being winners.
With between 30 – 35 mares on the farm, including some outside mares, Angenita says they do retain some of their fillies to race themselves.
Talented 4 yr old filly, Culminate by Elnadim out of Solstice, a daughter of Soliloquy, who finished third in her last start at Ellerslie in the Group 1 $200,000 First Sovereign Trust Easter Handicap was one such retention.
"She probably would have only made K2 at the sales but she looked an athletic type. And now she is a very valuable broodmare," Angenita says.
Another Soliloquy family member is the up and coming filly Bow Lane (Russian Hero – Mary Le Bow) who has won four of her seven starts to date.
Pre-training several of their young horses themselves, Angenita says they have a long association with the McKee family who train the majority of their horses.
"We also have a couple with the Moroney's and Sally Gillespie pre-trains for us also."
Although they have never stood a stallion at the farm, Angenita says they do not rule out the possibility.
"We have got shares in a few stallions. But the nice thing about not standing a stallion is we can spread our mares around. But if the right horse came along you never know," she says.
Planning of the mares' matings is made by Richard in consultation with David and Angenita with decisions being made at the start of the season often changing as time goes by.
"Some we wait until they foal and some are last minute decisions."
Aiming to grow the business, Angenita says they are will look to improve the quality of their broodmare band.
"We would like to buy a couple more good ones each year and build on that," she says.
"We want to improve the quality of the horse that we present and our racing team follows on with that by coming back into our broodmare band."
Angenita says it is a great time to be involved in the breeding and racing industry.
"There are a lot of great people involved and even though the economics of the country are in a bit of a downturn I think the industry will keep growing."
Expect to see more thinking outside the square as Soliloquy Lodge becomes one to watch in the thoroughbred industry.
- Kathy Graham
"We were trying to think of something that hadn't been done before," Angenita says.
 |
| Angenita Holzke and David Moore at Soliloquy Lodge in Karaka Photo: Trish Dunell |
Angenita, business manager for the farm, says the sponsorship of Samantha helps raise the profile of their farm. The apprentice jockey gets a bonus from Soliloquy Lodge each time she rides a Group or Listed race winner.
"We launched it on the eve of the Karaka sales," Angenita says. "We have had a lot of positive feedback from it as Sam has a lot of admirers."
The profile of the farm was raised even further at the NZ National Yearling Sales earlier this year when Soliloquy Lodge finished in both the top twenty vendors by average and aggregate overall.
Angenita says they were blown away by the results from the sale.
"It was a really strong sale. There were a lot of people that had returned to the sales and a lot of new people we hadn't seen before."
Expecting to get around $300,000 for their top lot, an O'Reilly colt out of Cappie, Angenita said they were "flabbergasted" when the colt made $480,000, purchased by the Hong Kong Jockey Club.
"He was horse a you just fell in love with when you saw him, and there were two people who had big cheque books that wanted him," she laughs.
"David was leading him around the ring and his grin just got bigger and bigger."
The Hong Kong buyers also paid $200,000 for a Pins-Soltanto colt with Anthony Cummings taking home a Flying Spur-Trewoman filly for $300,000.
One of the top ten vendors by average in the Premier Sale, Soliloquy Lodge's aggregate for the entire sale was $1,701,500.
The Moore family has had a long association with the breeding and racing industry.
David's grandfather, Dick, worked on the property, that was to become Soliloquy Lodge, as a youngster. The opportunity to buy some of the land was taken up by Dick on his return home from fighting during World War II and son Richard then purchased the remainder of the farm when the original owner died.
Good fortune seems to run in the Moore family for breeding and racing good horses with Dick enjoying success as an owner of Queen Elizabeth Stakes winner, Ravenwood.
Richard continued the tradition after Sir Woolf Fisher, of Ra Ora Stud fame, gave him a few mares to breed from. One of those mares was Pay Packet which Richard bred to Ismone. The resulting colt, Osmarin won eight races and was stakes placed.
A friendly deal between the owners of another filly named Princess Patine, which Richard had bred and sold on, saw Richard and his father secure the mare after she had finished racing.
Putting the mare to Sobig, Princess Patine subsequently produced a brown filly that was named Soliloquy. The winner of 13 races including the Group 1 Lion Brown sprint (1400m) at Te Rapa, Soliloquy has had 11 foals to the races with nine of them being winners.
With between 30 – 35 mares on the farm, including some outside mares, Angenita says they do retain some of their fillies to race themselves.
Talented 4 yr old filly, Culminate by Elnadim out of Solstice, a daughter of Soliloquy, who finished third in her last start at Ellerslie in the Group 1 $200,000 First Sovereign Trust Easter Handicap was one such retention.
"She probably would have only made K2 at the sales but she looked an athletic type. And now she is a very valuable broodmare," Angenita says.
Another Soliloquy family member is the up and coming filly Bow Lane (Russian Hero – Mary Le Bow) who has won four of her seven starts to date.
Pre-training several of their young horses themselves, Angenita says they have a long association with the McKee family who train the majority of their horses.
"We also have a couple with the Moroney's and Sally Gillespie pre-trains for us also."
Although they have never stood a stallion at the farm, Angenita says they do not rule out the possibility.
"We have got shares in a few stallions. But the nice thing about not standing a stallion is we can spread our mares around. But if the right horse came along you never know," she says.
Planning of the mares' matings is made by Richard in consultation with David and Angenita with decisions being made at the start of the season often changing as time goes by.
"Some we wait until they foal and some are last minute decisions."
Aiming to grow the business, Angenita says they are will look to improve the quality of their broodmare band.
"We would like to buy a couple more good ones each year and build on that," she says.
"We want to improve the quality of the horse that we present and our racing team follows on with that by coming back into our broodmare band."
Angenita says it is a great time to be involved in the breeding and racing industry.
"There are a lot of great people involved and even though the economics of the country are in a bit of a downturn I think the industry will keep growing."
Expect to see more thinking outside the square as Soliloquy Lodge becomes one to watch in the thoroughbred industry.
- Kathy Graham
