We had to wait a for our third ready to run sale, but we finally found the value we were looking for. Check out this strong 2YO Gelding by sire of the moment, Reliable Man, selected by John Foote at the New Zealand Ready to Run Sales on Wednesday afternoon. With over 400 lots on offer, John was assigned the mammoth task of finding the right type of horse for the right price, and we were able to keep our powder dry during the bidding and let him pass in for $80k under the gavel. John then negotiated with the vendor who had a reserve of $85k on the horse and managed to snare him for $75K (NZD). Owner of Westbury Stud, Gerry Harvey of Harvey Norman retail outlets, drives a hard bargain, but as John has bought many horses from Westbury over his 30 year career in bloodstock, we managed to get him down. As John says “If you go into Harvey Norman and buy three washing machines at once, they are bound to do you a good deal” Well played Footey!
Reliable Man is a hot stallion right now with two Gr1 3YO Oaks winners this season: the NZ Oaks with Sentimental Miss, and the VRC Oaks just two weeks ago with Miami Bound. He has also sired two stakes-placed performers: 3YO colt Battenberg who was third in the Gr1 Spring Champion Stakes, and 4YO gelding, Sully, placed in a JRA Cup and Herbert Power in the spring.
This son of Reliable Man looks a real athletic 1400m to 2000m and beyond type, and he will be perfectly suited to the 3YO classics in the spring and autumn in 2020/21. His 200m breeze up, which can be viewed at the bottom of the article, shows a horse that did it very easily. John Foote was very taken by the horse’s athleticism and constitution, along with a very strong pedigree on both the sire and dam sides. He’s by a Group 2 winning Royal Academy mare, Regal Kiss, who has had 6 foals to race for 5 winners. Her sixth foal, an El Roca filly called La Joya, ran third in NZ recently. This guy is the perfect combination of great type and pedigree to give him every chance of success on the racecourse. We are putting together our PDS with Racing Victoria so sit tight and we will be adverting him shortly.
