As the dust settles on the Book 1 action at Karaka the Drought family are reflecting on a sale that completes a plan instigated by their mother two years ago.
Lot 134, a Tavistock colt out of the Group One placed Zabeel mare Kind Return was consigned by Woburn Farm on behalf of Nigel Drought and his sisters Casey and Sarah.
Their mother Gail Drought, who was an important part of the racing fraternity in Taranaki for many years, passed away in 2016 after a long battle with cancer.
“Kind Return has been at Woburn since our mother passed away, her and another mare Cassini,” Nigel Drought said.
“Mum had booked Kind Return in to Cambridge Stud to go to Tavistock and she was at the stud when mum passed away.
“After that we weren’t sure what to do and rung Cambridge Stud to see if Kind Return had been covered and she hadn’t so we had some decisions to make. After looking at some alternative options we decided to follow through with mum’s wishes and carry out the mating to Tavistock.”
When looking at the pedigree it is evident why Gail had selected the mating with Tavistock a proven match in Victorian Derby winner Tarzino and Group Two winner Tavidream.
“After Tarzino had won the Derby and Tavistock’s, especially with Zabeel mares, were going very well it was a pretty obvious mating,” Drought said.
“Mum had talked to a few other people about it, she was good friends with Dan Myers and talked to him about breeding, he was a good sounding board for mum.”
Several pedigree updates leading in to the sale had provided a welcome boost to the already strong page but still the Drought siblings were hopeful rather than optimistic of their chances.
“The half-brother by O’Reilly had started winning a few races when stepping up in distance so that was helping,” Drought continued.
“Myself and my sisters aren’t involved in the industry as much as mum was and we were trusting Adrian and Hannah’s judgement of the colt. He had a very good pedigree and had vetted up perfectly so there was no reason why he shouldn’t sell. But there were a lot of Tavistock’s in the sale and a lot out of Zabeel mares and so we didn’t have any real expectations but we were hoping for $120,000 plus, that’s what we had the reserve at.”
The colt was eventually knocked down to Peter Ho of Hong Kong for $260,000 and was the eighth top priced Tavistock of 78 to go through the ring.
“It was a good result, a bit of a relief as well and we are happy with how it all went,” Drought said.
“We grew up with racing, before dad passed away he liked to follow the form and betting side of racing and mum grew up riding horses at pony club and hunting and got more into the breeding side of it.”
“Kind Return was mum’s first horse and she performed in nice races which we all got to see. We used to go to the races as kids and we have loved following the breeding that mum has chosen for her.”
Kind Return currently has a Reliable Man foal at foot and is empty this year with plans for an early cover in 2019. -NZTBA
