With the odds of drawing the 6 winning numbers plus the Powerball sitting at 76,767,600 to 1, you can significantly reduce your odds of landing a huge payday by purchasing a yearling at the Magic Millions National Yearling Sale on the 7th and 8th of June 2016. This will make you eligible to pay up for the Magic Millions Race Series – $11.34 million in prizemoney on offer nationally including the world’s richest sales based incentive raceday which features an unprecedented $10 million in prizemoney on one day.

To give yourself an even better chance of getting hold of some of this rich money on offer – put on your shortlist Abbey Thoroughbreds Lots 1695 and 1731. These two BOB Eligible colts are both part of the Book 1 Magic Millions Gold Coast National Yearling Sale on 7-8 June 2016.

Lot 1695 (June 7) is a chestnut colt by Snippetson out of the Beautiful Crown mare Beautiful Romance.

This athletic BOBS eligible colt (pictured below) is by the proven sire Snippetson.

With in excess of 50% career winners to runners, Snippetson is not only capable of throwing stakes winners such as the recent Doomben Group 3 winner Snippets Land, he consistently has winners across Australia week in and week out.

This is the second foal for Beautiful Romance, a tough mare who won 7 races from 1100m to 1750m (including three in a row). Her first foal is deceased, but she has a weanling colt by Uncle Mo and is currently in foal to Rubick.

This Snippetson / Beautiful Romance colt has x-rays and has been scoped on 19/5/16 with no abnormalities detected (vet certificate available for inspection).

Lot 1739 (June 8) is a colt by I Am Invincible out of the Danehill Star mare Debz Reign.

After hitting the ground running as the leading first season sire by winners, earnings and stakes winners in 2013/14, I Am Invincible continues to run hot.

This outstanding colt (pictured below) looks highly likely to continue this trend. Out of the twice – winning Danehill line mare Debz Reign, he presents with good size and proportion, and will appeal to a wide range of buyers.

This is the third foal from the mare Debz Reign, who also has a 3yo filly who has been placed this season, a 2yo gelding by Trotomondo who has shown a lot of potential in his first prep, and a weanling colt by Casino Prince.

This I Am Invincible / Debz Reign colt has x-rays and has been scoped on 19/5/16 with no abnormalities detected (vet certificate available for inspection).

In January 2016, the world’s richest sales based incentive raceday will be run on the Gold Coast, offering an unprecedented $10million in prizemoney over a nine race card. To be eligible you need to purchase a horse at a Magic Millions Yearling Sale. To give yourself a chance of snaffling some of the rich money on offer you should make a beeline to Abbey Thoroughbreds to inspect our two colts that will be sold at the June 2015 Magic Millions Gold Coast National Yearling Sale 2-4 June.

Lot 1642 (June 2) is a colt by Congrats (USA) out of the Show a Heart mare Myalla Gold. By AP Indy, Congrats was Champion US Freshman Sire, and has 17 Stakes Winners amongst 42 stakes horses.  At in excess of 65% career winners to runners overall, the first Australian crop of Congrats are just starting to emerge and reports from the trainers who have a Congrats is that they can gallop. This a first foal for Myalla Gold, a very handy city winning mare who won 4 races and was placed an additional 3 times in just 11 starts. The colt is also closely related to the very promising Heart of a Warrior (Show a Heart x Repercussions). The Tony Gollan trained gelding has now won 3 races from just 4 career starts, and his latest strong win suggests he has plenty of ability. This very athletic BOBS eligible colt is well worth an inspection.

Lot 1642 – Magic Millions National Sale – June 2015

Lot 1952 (June 4) is a colt by Dane Shadow out of the 7 time winning Beautiful Crown mare Beautiful Romance. Dane Shadow is a vastly underrated sire by those who don’t know him well, having already sired winners of the Group 1 Myer Classic x2, the Group 1 Tatt’s Tiara, the Group 1 Galaxy, and the Group 1 SA Derby. In 2014/15, Dane Shadow has sired 5 new Stakes performers and hardly a day goes by without Dane Shadow having a winner somewhere in Australia across a range of ages and distances. Beautiful Crown mares also boast some very impressive stats, with the now deceased sire building an impressive record as a broodmare sire. This athletic and strong BOBS eligible colt is the first foal of an extremely tough and versatile mare who won from 1100m up to 1750m, and he represents outstanding value.

Lot 1952 – Magic Millions National Sale – June 2015

Yearling buyers have a range of different criteria they use to select their purchases but most buyers put a high emphasis on breeding and type.

Other buyers look for bonus scheme eligibility like BOBS, or an early 2yo that will hit the ground running.

If you want a good mix of all of the above, you can’t go wrong inspecting Lot 5 at the Scone Select Yearling sale on Sunday 18th May 2014.

This attractive colt by Beneteau out of the Invincible Spirit mare La Petite Coquette ticks all the boxes. Not only does he look athletic, but he has a sound temperament and gives every indication he will be lining up in the early season 2yo races. Abbey Thoroughbreds is a big fan of the ill fated sire Beneteau, so if you want to secure one of his progeny from the first of only two crops, we strongly recommend you inspect this colt (Lot 5). For more information contact Jason Gleeson at Abbey Thoroughbreds on 0418 429 630.

Lot00005 – pedigree information

 

The sale will be conducted on Sunday following the Scone Race Club’s two-day carnival on Friday 16 and Saturday 17 May. All yearlings offered at the 2014 Inglis HTBA Scone Yearling Sale will be eligible for nomination into the $5 million Inglis Race Series including the $100,000 Inglis 2YO Scone Challenge.

Many of the foals born on the Abbey Thoroughbreds property are retained by their owners for racing rather than put through a sale, but we do provide a full sale preparation service for our clients.

One of our yearlings who went through the Scone Select Sale in 2013 has had a fantastic start to his racing career after running second in the first 2yo race in Australia this season, the time honoured Romantic Dream Plate at Tamworth. The colt (now a gelding) races under the name Don’t Tease Me. He is the first foal from the Invincible Spirit mare La Petite Coquette, and is by the ultra consistent sire Beautiful Crown. After being purchased by a long term client of our racing stables, Abbey Thoroughbreds retained a share in Don’t Tease Me with the colt being immediately broken in post sale by Jim Gleeson. Our breaking in process takes approximately 3 months as we are firm believers in needing to fully educate a young horse. This also includes an education at the track and out of the barriers, and after this they are generally ready for a 3-4 week break before we bring them back in again to continue the process. In the case of Don’t Tease Me, he was still proving a handful at the 3 month mark (not uncommon in the Beautiful Crown progeny) so Jim decided to keep him in work in an effort to make him more tractable when he finally made the racetrack. The last thing expected at the time was for Don’t Tease Me to be tough enough to handle the breaking process straight after the sale, a jump out, a barrier trial and then make a 2yo race at the end of September. Not only did he make the first 2yo race of the season, but he nearly overcame a slow start and a wide barrier to run second to Goodbye Kevin, who has subsequently gone on to run a close 3rd in the Group 3 Ken Russell memorial race for 2yo’s on the Gold Coast in May 2014.

 

Having had a lot of success with the Beautiful Crown progeny, his trainer Stephen Gleeson believes his best days are ahead of him as they generally don’t make early 2yo’s. Abbey Thoroughbreds also believes the best days are ahead of Don’t Tease Me’s mother La Petite Coquette, who has another very attractive colt being prepared for this year’s Scone Select Sale in May 2014. By ill-fated sire Beneteau, this striking colt has just entered the stables in preparation for the 18th May sale that will coincide with the rich Scone Cup Carnival. The October foal was never going to be mature enough to sell to his full potential at the January Classic sale, so he was only entered for Scone to allow him a few extra few months to develop. The photo below shows the Beneteau – La Petite Coquette colt on the first day he arrived in the stable for his stable for his sale prep. We look forward to showing you more of him just prior to the sale, and judging by his good looks and temperament, and the results of the Beneteau progeny at this year’s sales, he will prove very popular with buyers.

For Abbey Thoroughbreds the breeding season is the busiest time of the year. We deliberately have a small book of broodmares but despite the small numbers, we keep very busy over the breeding season.

All of our mares foaled down successfully this season with the usual unpredictability of foaling dates. This is particularly the case for maiden mares and always keeps you on your toes, with this season being no exception. Our first mare to foal took her time and decided to foal a few weeks late, one of our maiden mares foaled exactly on the due date (this is rare for a first timer), and one of our own mares due in early December foaled a few weeks early to enable a late season unplanned covering.

Of the foals born on the property, all were by different sires and 80% were colts.

During the breeding we read an interesting article on ‘breednet.com.au’ entitled ‘Free Ranging Foals’ (30/9/13).

The article was by Mick Malone of Kitchwin Hills, who talked about the practice of assimilating the mare and foal back into the herd straight after birth. Kitchwin have moved down this path in recent years, prompted in part by watching the practices of the Archibald’s on a near-by property, who have a long and successful history breeding hardy and sought after polo ponies. By turning out foals from day one they are forced to keep up with the herd, and the abundant exercise quickly helps to overcome any physical deformities that often result in some farms having the mare and foal kept in isolation for extended periods. Added benefits of putting them quickly back into the herd include less stress on the foal as it does not get moved around as much as a mare who is trying to protect the foal after a long period of isolation, the mare cleans up faster, and the foaling yards remain cleaner with reduced risk of disease.

Having seen many foals born with physical imperfections that correct over time, Abbey Thoroughbreds is also an advocate of moving mares back into the herd soon after birth. As pointed out in the above article, you can always bring them back in if you are not happy with their progress, but like Kitchwin Hills we have not had to do it yet.

 

An unusually warm winter and low rainfall has been the backdrop to a hive of activity at Abbey Thoroughbreds over the past few months.

In May Abbey Thoroughbreds consigned two colts at the Scone Select Yearling sale. The first was Lot 44, a colt by Beautiful Crown out of the Invincible Spirit mare La Petite Coquette. This was a first foal for a mare that was unplaced due to forced retirement but she blitzed them in her first two barrier trials whilst shin sore and her family consistently throw winners. Our confidence that she will prove to be a good producer was shared by one of long terms clients and we have also been lucky enough to retain a share in this lovely colt. Although he is a good 12 months off fully developing he’s currently in full work and showing signs that our confidence will not be misplaced.

Lot 106 was a colt by ultra consistent sire Tale of The Cat from the Fastnet Rock mare Snoozing. This was another first foal from an unplaced mare but this relation to the promising Casual Choice had good bone and was very popular with buyers, many of whom noting he walked a lot like the progeny of his dam’s sire, Fastnet Rock. After some spirited bidding, he was knocked down for $16,000 and we wish his new owners every success with this colt.

The winter months also saw plenty of success for the Abbey Thoroughbred spellers, with almost all of our boarders over the summer and autumn posting wins or placings for their respective trainers when they returned to full work. We put a lot of time and money into our feeding programs and although this won’t compensate for lack of ability, we firmly believe this plays a strong part in ensuring a successful racing preparation when these horses return to full work.

We also believe the same applies to our broodmares and weanlings and we focus closely on making sure our mums-to-be and their offspring are given the best opportunity to develop good bone and muscle in a natural environment.

As we enter another breeding season we eagerly await the birth of our first foal due early September, with arrivals due right out until end of November. If this was not enough to keep us on our toes we are also working on finishing off our new paddock shelters before summer and building an upgraded vet crush which will get plenty of use over the coming months.

If you are interested in talking with us about agisting your mare or racehorse please call Jason on 0418 429 630 or Melanie on 0407 803 746.

Following the end of the sales season many stud farms enjoy a slightly more relaxed pace before the start of the next breeding season. This year Abbey Thoroughbreds used this time to upgrade some of our key infrastructure.

The major project was completion of new shade shelters in each of our large spelling paddocks. As with all aspects of the Abbey Thoroughbreds facility, the safety of our horses is the number one priority so the shelters were designed to avoid potential problems. This included anchoring all RHS posts well below the ground and filling post holes with concrete. The design also features a large roof height and the use of thick rubber conveyor belting to protect against horses being able to kick walls and uprights.

In order to maximise the shade, new trees have also been planted behind each shelter. We hope these Claret Ash trees can grow as quickly as some of our yearlings in future years.

Thanks to the invaluable assistance of Troy (Ory), Red (Craig) and Scott, we think the finished product looks fantastic, and the horses do too judging by the amount of time the horse spend in their shelters in all conditions.

The second major project was to build a new mare crush near our day yards. Safety and practicality were the main design criteria. The key to a functional mare crush is the height of the back gate, and it is essential you don’t make the back gate too high or your vet may not be on speaking terms with you for much longer. Once again we used strong RHS and made sure uprights were firmly concreted into the ground. Thick rubber belting was also used, and although it is never easy to handle and install, rubber belting is a must to reduce the risk of injury especially in a confined space such as a crush. Latches and bolts were welded to the gates and all sharp edges were rounded off.

Thanks to some great welding work from Red (Craig), this crush is extremely sturdy but safe and practical.

The final project over winter was a top up of all of the day yards with high quality river sand. Fantastic shade trees now cover all of these day yards, and horses love spending time in them. They are used mainly for horses in the racing stables that are in work, or for horses being broken in, but they are also used as holding yards for horses requiring rehabilitation, vet work or younger horses when they are being handled and educated. The addition of a thick covering of river sand under these super shady trees now makes it horse heaven.

 

 

February and March have been particularly busy months at Abbey Thoroughbreds. Healthy rainfalls in January and February have produced lush paddocks and the horses are revelling in an abundance of quality grass to supplement their feeding programs. Jim has been busy educating Abbey Thoroughbreds’ horses, helping to educate our foals and yearlings, and attacking any weeds with his customary zeal (and trusty hoe).

This hands on approach to handling our foals and yearlings not only makes the walk-on, breaking-in and yearling sale process much easier, but gives the future trainer a really strong base to build on when the breaking, training and racing process gets into full swing.

Jim reckons that he started riding trackwork when he was as young as 10 years old. Of course, “real” horsemen didn’t wear vests or skull caps then. He rode in several amateur races, and reckons he had 5 rides for 4 wins. The fifth horse ran last after bucking the entire course. At last count he has trained over 870 winners. We haven’t been able to check these stats, so we will have to believe him. He stopped counting after his youngest son, Stephen Gleeson, largely took over the training side of the business about 9 years ago. He only trains now for a small group of friends and long term clients, some of which he has had for over 30 years.

Jim has been passing on his extensive knowledge of handling horses to the rest of our team for many years now. His principal mantra is that when it comes to handling young horses, “no d*!kheads should be allowed anywhere near them”. He handles foals regularly from a young age, having proved the more handling the better for good results later in life. By “groundwork”, Jim means extensive handling including brushing, grooming, hosing down, leading, tying up, rugging, stabling, etc. Foals even need to be taught to be tied up in a safe environment in order to become sensible and safe to deal with. “Mouthing” a horse and getting them used to a bit in their mouths from a young age results in a much easier breaking-in process.

Two very important factors in the handling process are horse safety and discipline.

Ensuring the physical safety of young horses is very important. Young foals and yearlings are very easily frightened and their in-built flight instincts are very strong. If a foal is frightened and cannot flee, it often rears on its’ hind legs as a means of escape. This is very dangerous. Foals with panicked legs can easily topple over and seriously harm themselves. Jim believes that 90% of ‘damaged’ horses are the result of human mistakes and some accidents can result in permanent damage which will affect a horse’s ability for its whole life. He always uses a tail-rope to ensure that horses stay on their feet.

Jim also believes that discipline (and how it is administered) is a very important factor in achieving a well-educated horse. He never hits a horse when he is on the ground. This will terrify a horse and they will lose trust forever. Knowing when to discipline and when not to is vital. Horses need to develop trust over time and understand that people will not hurt them.

This building of trust is also a strong part of the breaking-in process. Jim is shown here breaking in a yearling half-sister to Beautiful Romance, by Mutawaajid. Stephen Gleeson trained Beautiful Romance (by Beautiful Crown) to win 7 races (from 1100m to 1750m) and place an additional 8 times from 41 starts. She is now retired and in foal to Dane Shadow. Steve has had a lot of success with the progeny of Beautiful Crown having also trained Top Crown for 14 of his 15 wins, which we believe to be the highest number won by any of Beautiful Crown’s offspring to date.

Abbey Thoroughbred’s also have our own Beautiful Crown yearling (out of La Petite Coquette), in the upcoming Scone Select Yearling sale on Sunday May 19th 2013. He will be offered along with a lovely Tale Of The Cat colt, but more on this later. It all means no rest for Jim!

If you are interested in talking with us about agisting your mare or racehorse, and educating your horse, please call Melanie on 0407 803 746.

The breeding season is always eagerly anticipated to see the progeny of the first season sires and Abbey Thoroughbreds was lucky enough to welcome the birth of one of our own in early October via a lovely colt by Beneteau from the Invincible Spirit mare La Petite Coquette.

Beneteau is a son of champion sire Redoute’s Choice from a stakes-placed sister to champion filly Alinghi. Beneteau was a $1 million purchase from the 2009 Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale and first impressions of our Beneteau colt indicate these good looks have been passed on to the next generation.

La Petite Coquette is a mare by the highly successful Irish based sire Invincible Spirit (Green Desert x Rafha). Invincible Spirit was the winner of 7 races, including the HAYDOCK SPRINT CUP (Gr.1). His offspring were on fire last season in Europe and his service fee for the new season has just increased to €65,000.

Despite being out of a Zabeel mare (Coquette), La Petite Coquette showed all the early speed of her sire, winning her first barrier trial at Muswellbrook by 4 lengths, and her next trial at Newcastle by 7 lengths. Unfortunately injury prevented her from realising her potential and she was retired from racing after only 5 starts.

Her first foal is a yearling colt by the ever consistent Beautiful Crown who will be offered for sale in 2013.

The Beneteau colt is La Petite Coquette’s second foal and we were so impressed with the foal and the potential of the sire, the mare has been served again by Beneteau this season.