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https://loveracing.nz/News/44284/CastlepointBeachRacessettomakewelcomereturn.aspx sounds like a great day out 

Who cares about "their market", back your own choice and make a killing.  Sadly the "no deductions" for scratchings was canned, otherwise the killing would have been even better. My problem is: How do I get a bet on my horse in the Castlepoint Beach Cup?  😂

Great if that's what the experts think. I am sick and tired of the "tall poppy" syndrome that permeates NZ Racing.

Friday This is the fourth time that John O’Connor of Ballykelly Stud has appeared in Good Morning Bloodstock. I make no apology for featuring him so often, though, as he is a fascinating character with an awful lot going on.   To refresh your memory, he formerly worked in the aerospace industry until he sold his business to Arnold Weinstock in 1994 and since then has worked with governments in Africa and South America on setting up infrastructure projects such as mining ventures or renewable energy schemes.   He calls himself an industrial diplomat, but what exactly it is he does isn’t quite clear. His friend Paul Webber, who trained his homebred Cheltenham Festival winner Indefatigable, was probably closest to the mark when he once described him as “an international man of mystery”.   O’Connor bought Ballykelly Stud in County Tipperary from John Magnier – he thinks he is probably the last person to have purchased a prime piece of farmland in Ireland from the Coolmore supremo – and has bred numerous high-class horses on the Cashel property.   Best of the bunch is undoubtedly Marine Nationale (pictured below), an eight-year-old son of former Darley Club stallion French Navy and the useful, multiple-winning Definite Article mare Power Of Future.    O’Connor retained him and sent him into training with Sam Curling with the intention of advertising his ability to potential purchasers in point-to-points, only for Covid to hit and racing between the flags to be cancelled.    Instead, the horse was sold privately to Barry Connell, who sent him out to win the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle two years ago, when he was partnered by the much-missed Michael O’Sullivan, and to record an emotional second victory at the Cheltenham Festival in the Queen Mother Champion Chase under Sean Flanagan on Wednesday.    On the first occasion that the always eminently quotable O’Connor appeared in this email he was making mercy dashes to war-torn Ukraine to deliver much-needed supplies under the Irish tricolour.    “The idea is for Ireland to have a bit of a presence and to make it felt, because the Ukrainians will remember who was there when they needed them, and who were the Johnny Come Latelys who arrived when it was safe,” he said.   A few months later he stood aside so that his highly valued stud manager John Fitzell could take the spotlight. Fitzell suffers from multiple sclerosis, but doesn’t let the illness stop him, as he runs the farm and rears all the stock from a wheelchair and specially adapted Jeep.    When I asked O’Connor whether he was ever worried that onlookers might think he employed Fitzell as an act of charity, he replied without hesitation: “I’m the net beneficiary of our relationship. There’s no doubt about that. I couldn’t have done anything at Ballykelly Stud without John Fitzell.”   The last time I interviewed him in this space he explained how he bred the magnificent Marine Nationale, and came out with some crackerjack lines.   “I just love hard-knocking stallions like French Navy, and I like sending them mares who have a bit of class about them, even if it’s close up in their family and they didn’t show it on themselves, so I thought Power Of Future would be ideal for him,” he related. “I suppose you could say my ideal mating is Rocky Marciano meets Helen Mirren’s sister, and that’s what this was.”   O’Connor’s latest out-of-the-box innovation, discovered when I rang to congratulate him on Marine Nationale’s heroics at Prestbury Park this week, might end up being another one for the greatest hits.   He has identified a little-used sire as the one who will deliver him a capable athlete both on the Flat and over jumps, as Marine Nationale was intended to be, and supported him strongly with his small broodmare band.   “My version of Royal Ascot is a horse who’ll run at the Galway Races on the Monday, in the amateur handicap, and again at the meeting at the end of the week, in the Galway Hurdle: that’s what I’m trying to breed, a tough dual-purpose horse,” he says, outlining his ambitions.   “In fact, when I bred Marine Nationale what I was trying to do was produce a bumper winner and dual-purpose horse. So now he’s just got to win the Irish Cesarewitch in order to prove me right.   “The stallion I’m leaning on to achieve that is Tosen Stardom. He’s a Japanese horse by Deep Impact and is a lovely, big, loose-walking individual who raced a lot of times over multiple seasons and won a couple of Group 1s in Australia. He was a tough, tough horse, a French Navy type of horse. He’s my bet.”   Tosen Stardom, who struck in the Toorak Handicap at Caulfield and Emirates Stakes at Flemington at six, first arrived in Ireland two years ago. He stands with Tom Wallace at Zenith Stallion Station in County Westmeath, and covered 32 mares in 2023 and another 24 last year.     O’Connor is sending him three of his mares this season: Caraboss, a winning Cape Cross half-sister to Australian Group 1 hero Kingdom Of Fife descended from Elizabeth II’s blue-hen mare Highclere; Tap Dance Way, a winning Azamour half-sister to stakes scorers Charleston Lady and Live Concert; and Twice Certain, a winning Lawman half-sister to Prix Saint-Alary second Epic Love.   Tap Dance Way has a yearling filly by Tosen Stardom and Twice Certain was covered by the sire last season.   “Tap Dance Way’s yearling is really lovely, and encouraged me to go back,” reports O’Connor. “Twice Certain is from a good family that has done well in Japan, with Epic Love producing the champion two-year-old Danon The Kid and another high-class horse in Mikki Brillante, by Deep Impact's son Deep Brillante. So it made sense to go to another son of Deep Impact, and luckily there was one on my doorstep.    “Caraboss was bought from the Royal Studs. She’s got a really nice yearling colt by Shaman, who needs to pull his socks up as he hasn’t set the world on fire, but you’d have to hope that his stock will be better at three than at two.   “Those are three middle-aged, middle-distance mares who should suit Tosen Stardom and might give me a decent dual-purpose performer. I know he’s not all that popular and the foals won’t be commercial, but I like him and I’ll be more than happy to race them myself and maybe get them sold later. He’s my idea of another Rocky Marciano to introduce to Helen Mirren's sisters.” O’Connor also has belief in connections of Tosen Stardom.   “I first met Tom [Wallace] when I sent a mare to him a couple of years ago and I just thought to myself that he was a real grafter, and that this was the sort of smaller operation I enjoy supporting,” he says.    Among the more commercial Ballykelly Stud mares are Catwalk, a winning Pivotal half-sister to Flying Childers Stakes scorer Sir Prancealot, and Young And Fun, a winning daughter of Lope De Vega and Crimson Rosette, who in turn is a Listed-winning Teofilo half-sister to Gold Cup hero Courage Mon Ami.   “I bought Catwalk because I always wanted a Pivotal mare, and she’s from a really fast family," says O'Connor.   "She has a lovely yearling filly by Inns Of Court, who’s no longer considered commercial and now stands in Italy, but I kind of don’t care, as I’ve always wanted to have a horse by a fast sire out of a Pivotal mare that I can go racing with, and now I’ve got one.   “Young And Fun has gone to Dark Angel, and we’ll find out next week if she’s in foal. She’s from an absolutely beautiful Hascombe and Valiant Studs family, and is probably my one genuinely red-hot commercial mare."   Marine Nationale’s dam Power Of Future died from a severe form of laminitis in the year of his birth and both of her only daughters, Perfect Summer and Ballinderry Moth, were sold. But O’Connor has maintained an association with the family through Arnemviden, an unraced daughter of French Navy and Ballinderry Moth, thus closely related to this week’s Cheltenham victor.   It’s only a tenuous grip on the pedigree, though, as he explains: “We just couldn’t get her in foal last year, we tried everything, and until Wednesday she was on her way to a riding school in Wales for a new career.    “I really was at the point of giving up with her, but seeing Marine Nationale bound up the hill at Cheltenham I said to myself maybe she’s worth holding onto and giving another spin. She’s got to be worth persevering with, as a three-parts sister to him, even if it takes until June to get her in foal.   “I don’t know what stallion I’ll use. I think it'll just be the most fertile one I can find, regardless of who he is and what he’s done. I’m even thinking of sending her off to run loose with Irish draughts. I know from speaking to other people that it’s worked before. Once you’ve got them in foal that way the first time, you can then revert them into a thoroughbred herd.”   Linguists, history buffs and even dog racing fans might have noticed that O’Connor takes great care over naming his equine charges, drawing on a range of sources before making his registrations.   Marine Nationale is, appropriately, the French navy, while Arnemviden was a sea battle fought in 1338 that was the first to use artillery, to continue the theme. Ballinderry Moth was meanwhile a brilliant greyhound of the 1970s trained by O’Connor’s father Barney – “beautiful, bouncy and just too fast for her own good,” wrote Monty Court at the time.   No doubt about it, O’Connor is an original thinker who takes satisfaction in doing things on his own terms. He has had to rely on others’ help a little more this year, though, due to circumstances beyond his control.    “All the broodmares are being boarded with other people in various parts of the country now,” he reports. “The problem is simply that the staffing situation is so dire, especially here in Cashel as we’ve got Coolmore and Aidan O’Brien on the doorstep, and one of Sheikh Mohammed’s studs across the road, so the really good people get spoken for very quickly.   “I’ve therefore had to outsource the breeding. I’ll still pick the matings but I can’t look after the actual conceiving – dealing with vets, getting mares in and out of stocks, putting them to a teaser and so on – or the foaling process any more, without the right kind of assistance.    “They’ll come home when they’re weaned and then I’ll give them what I call the Ballykelly treatment: wintering them out and feeding them hard.   "I don’t bring any of my young horses in, they stay outside, on the basis that if my horse and another horse that’s been mollycoddled all its life turn for home together at Cheltenham, and there’s a blizzard like we've seen this week, I know which one is going to come out on top.”   O’Connor’s right-hand-man isn’t retiring any time soon, despite the need for outside help this season.   “Oh John Fitzell is flying,” he says. “He was in uproarious form when he rang me after the race on Wednesday. We’re always arguing, as ever. If he was in the peak of health we wouldn’t board the mares out, but he’s not, that’s the way it is, and we’ll work around it. There’s always a way.”   I was on the phone to O’Connor for only half an hour but he still managed to fit in a disquisition on the British royal family, extensive quoting of political theorist Isaiah Berlin and some ruminations on the nature of atheism.   It’s a breeder interview, Jim, but not as we know it.    “I don’t think along conventional lines, and I hate following the herd,” says O’Connor when it is put to him that he’s not all that much like other mare owners.   “It’s the same when it comes to breeding. I do what I believe will create an equine athlete. I think more about what will produce an athlete than what will hit in the sales ring, probably to my cost.”   Good Morning Bloodstock endorses free thinking like that. After all, it was by being unorthodox that the likes of Boussac, Tesio and Bolger helped shape the breed.   For that reason, don’t be surprised when O’Connor features in the email for a fifth time – perhaps for an update on those Tosen Stardom foals.

Outsmarted them again . Great drive on Rubira 

I expected Merlin to be the best pacer in NZ this season, but his form has tapered right off. I'd place The Pub Party above DSD however. DSD largely disappointing other than his NZ Cup run for 2nd to Swayzee.  

The list is - The LONGINES World's Best Racehorse Rankings for 3yos and upwards which raced between 1st January 2025 - 9th March 2025 - so it is a bit skewed but still quite an achievement for an owner breeder in NZ. Congratulations to them.

Ferguson would do 6 months for that drive on a 1.40 favourite in Australia. Only had to mooch around and sit parked to win that by lengths.

The list doesn't include Via Sistina or Mr Brightside who I thought would have been rated up there  

https://www.ifhaonline.org/resources/WTRRankings/LWBRR.asp?batch=128 link to the top 20

10th best rated horse in the world? Really?

Don't Stop Dreaming the best mate. Left Mo'unga well behind in the last NZ Cup. Can't see him making up the difference. DSD was excellent at Menangle last week too. The Whale on the money tonight . Was carrying on about MISS BEBE on his Whale Watch and I was about to write it off and Lo and Behold, it zips down the outside and wins well at 6-1. His best of night won the first as well. Mo'unga might be left out to dry tonight . Craig Ferguson not a right-handed expert either. How about Maurice from the pole draw in that, at 40-1 ? 🤣👍💰

If that was their reasoning for leaving them in tomorrow then fair enough.....still hard to frame an "actual" market though

Probably left them in tomorrow in case the races got called off today before the last ,it does happen "occasionally". Race was after 5pm so no one in the office to scratch. Alot of the trainers are punters so there is no conspiracy against punters from them

There were 3 horses that ran in the last race today at Pukekohe entered for Race 1 at Tauranga tomorrow. None of them are scratched as yet and all 3 are well in the market...so we have to guess what the actual market is for this race and what the deductions will be when they are inevitably withdrawn. Begs the question..... do trainers really care about punters ?....without who they would not have a job....  

What? It's not just granny. It's the BBC, The Guardian, The Sun, TDN etc. and based on a news release from Frankie himself. He stuffed up. He admits it and is paying the consequences at the same time as warning others to be careful. Full credit to the man for that.

Do you really think old granny Herald would really be interested in writing a story of Frankie Dettori to leak? Really? With quotes from the man himself, it's hardly a "media beat up" or "pure nonsense". 

I would think the book has many pages, and many missing. Not for a moment is Frankie destitute and receiving Trumps food stamps, which Donald hasn’t removed yet Media beat up, pure bloody nonsense … Granny Herald probably leaked it

It is early in the 2 yearold season. Best to have small fields while the horses get 'race' educated and become accustomed to racing. All  harness horsepeople know this and prefer it to racing in the tighter quarters of 10 horse + size fields.  That would the Stupid thing lol.  It doesn't take Einstein to realize this is best for the horses to avoid things going wrong. A wayward 2 yearold knocking the others down would/could severely dent their confidence and not help in getting them race-sound. A lot of young horses are not great at holding gait at high speed just yet. get better with practice.  So you can see Why the Smaller fields are ideal for giving them a little room . There you go , you learned something today. Maybe the Policy Not so Stupid afterall. .  Thankfully the policy in place means Ray Green and Telfers in the North in some 2 year old  races already , and most 2 year old races in Aus have had about 6 starters and therefore no incidents.  

Race 2, was a Non-Win  MOBILE  Trot with 6 starters, this was probably held to give this grade of horse opportunity to race, as they last raced on the 28th February. Race 6, Non-Win 2YO, 5 starters because HRNZ/Entain have allowed 2YO racing with a minimum of 5 starters, a stupid policy in my opinion. Race 7, originally had 7 starters, but with scratching, final field of 6.