Dairy farmer cashes in on bargain homebred Harry Angel colt for $425,000 at Karaka

Hardened Kiwi dairy farmer Mark Stratford couldn’t help but become emotional as he reflected on his years of toil milking cows that have allowed him to indulge his passion for racing and breeding.

That long-desired pursuit reached new heights at the New Zealand Bloodstock Ready to Run Sale early on Wednesday when a Harry Angel colt bred by Stratford and his wife Tania sold for $425,000 to leading Hong Kong trainer Mark Newnham.

The return was 100 times the figure Stratford paid for the Harry Angel colt’s mother Ocean Spray, a Sydney-winning Fastnet Rock mare, give or take the New Zealand-Australian dollar exchange rate, a little over three years ago.

And in the minutes after the sale of the colt as Lot 12, via the draft of Gordon Cunningham’s Curraghmore, Stratford was almost brought to tears.

“My grandfather always used to talk about Ian Bradbury and the Bradburys who used to train at Woodville. But we were brought up quite poor, so we never had the money to do it,” Stratford said at Karaka, having made the trip from Manawatu to watch his pride and joy be sold.

“And we had ups and downs in our lives, so once we had some money, I thought, ‘you know, we can do it’ and I’ve been wanting to do it for years.”

When Stratford made his initial foray into the bloodstock world, about five or so years ago, he called Regan Donnison, then working for NZB, for advice.

“(When I rang) Regan said, ‘I’ll ring you at 10 o’clock on sale day’ … and at bloody 10 o’clock, he rang and we’ve been good mates since.”

Donnison, now the general manager of Matamata Racing Club, was seated ringside at Karaka next to the Stratfords as the bidding quickly went from $150,000 to $425,000.

The advice from Donnison was also crucial in Stratford acquiring Ocean Spray and sending her to Harry Angel in 2022.

“I’m addicted to Inglis Digital. I pick out what I like and he will say OK or no. With her, he said to me, ‘you could be on to something here because she’d won twice in Sydney, so give her a go’. We got her cheap.”

Stratford credited Cunningham for raising the Harry Angel colt at Curraghmore near Hamilton.

The pair agreed to bypass the weanling and yearling sales with the horse and instead target the Ready to Run Sale, which has turned out to be a masterstroke for the November 13-born foal.

“The thing I think about Gordie is, I just respect how honest he is and he works for you. He’s not in there for glory. He’s just in there to help you out,” Stratford said.

“He had to mature because his birthday’s actually tomorrow and Gordie looked at him and said, ‘nah, let’s Ready to Run him’. He nursed him along, did his feet, because he had small feet and Gordie’s brought the best out of him. 

“I couldn’t be happier with him.”

Newnham will take his time with his new purchase, whom he bought in conjunction with Sweetbriar Equine, and patience will also be the mantra for the owners of a $420,000 colt by the late Wootton Bassett.

A $180,000 Inglis Premier pinhook by Barry Donohue’s BMD Bloodstock, the colt was bought by Wattle Bloodstock’s Peter Twomey on behalf of a Western Australia client.

“My analysis of this sale is that a lot of the better horses are the later sort of three-year-old, four-year-old miler-plus, and that’s what this guy looked like,” Twomey said. 

“He might be able to sprint, but sort of pedigree and what Wootten Bassett’s doing over Fastnet Rock mares in Europe, the aim was to come here and find a miler, really, a miler-plus.”

Twomey outlasted Victorian trainers Trent Busuttin and Natalie Young in a bidding duel to land the colt, who is the first foal out of stakes-performed mare Raptures, who won up to 1880 metres.

“There were a couple of Kiwi (bred) horses we’ve looked at, but he was one that just popped up and we just said, ‘well, if he runs through his pedigree, he could be anything’. So I think at $420,000 Kiwi at the moment, given the exchange rate, it’s pretty reasonable.”

A trainer for the Wootton Bassett two-year-old has not been decided.