Rowe On Monday – Connie gives Driscoll thrills in two codes, an elite Geegees legacy and NZB bucks weanling trend
In this week’s Rowe On Monday, a Flemington winner whets the appetite of Yabby Dam’s Pat Driscoll, a Group 1 upset caps an amazing Tasmanian legacy and numbers on the up at New Zealand Bloodstock’s National Weanling Sale.
Yabby Dam’s Driscoll hooked on both equine racing codes
When Yabby Dam’s Pat Driscoll was a teenager and “100 kilos lighter” he would ride thoroughbreds around the family farm for his hobby trainer father Pat Snr near St Arnaud in Victoria’s Wimmera district.
In the ensuing more than five decades, the love of the horse has remained for Accountancy Insurance founder Pat Driscoll who has indulged his passion for racing via the standardbred and more recently the thoroughbred.
On Saturday at Flemington Driscoll, who owns a property at Cardigan near Ballarat, enjoyed success with highly promising three-year-old Concord Connie, a six-length winner for trainer Charlotte Littlefield.
Stakes grade looms large for the lightly raced homebred Concord Connie, a daughter of Contributer out of $35,000 Inglis Digital mare Tysonic who Driscoll couldn’t get a bid for at the 2024 Melbourne Premier Yearling Sale.
Now two from two in this her second preparation, Concord Connie races in Driscoll’s colours, having retained the talented filly and leasing her out to Littlefield.
Pakenham-based Littlefield inspected the filly numerous times at Inglis’ Oaklands Junction complex “but didn’t put a bid in”.
“The good thing is, according to Charlotte, because she relaxes so well, she’ll get over a bit of ground, so that always gives you options,” Driscoll, 68, told this column.
“And she said she would be surprised if she doesn’t handle all types of going. There’s a couple of little things in her favour. Provided she stays sound, we should have a bit of fun.”
Concord Connie, the result of Driscoll’s initial foray into thoroughbred breeding, promises to be a breakout horse for Yabby Dams.
While Yabby Dams has for many years been one of the leading standardbred vendors in Australia and New Zealand – Driscoll sold a trotting filly at the Christchurch sale in February for a record $290,000 – selling thoroughbreds has proven more of a challenge.
As Driscoll has taken on a more of a commercial approach to his thoroughbred breeding operation, he has brought in the experienced Jason Robinson, who previously worked at Swettenham Stud and Widden Victoria, and enlisted the services of bloodstock agent Sheamus Mills.
“I love the middle distance type horses, but I appreciate, to be commercial, you’ve got to have sprinters and that type of thing if you want to sell (yearlings),” he said.
“I love my racing, so I am just trying to mix and match and make it work. We’ve put a little bit of time into our fillies leasing program this year, which we think will do well over time.
“The idea is to break them in, have one little prep and then offer them for leasing.”
Driscoll has about 25 thoroughbred broodmares and “way too many” standardbred mares.
“This year, I sold (standardbred yearlings) in Auckland, Christchurch, Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne,” he said.
“We had a couple of sale-toppers, but the trotting market’s pretty small, so it’s much easier to do that (than it is in the thoroughbred game).”
Yabby Dams’ navy blue, red epaulettes, armbands and cap silks are likely to be seen on the racecourse many more times in the future, and not just by Concord Connie.
“We’ll probably try and sell all the colts. That’s generally what I do, as well as sell some of the fillies and lease a bunch of the fillies as well,” he said.
“That will depend on who we have in the family and all that type of thing as to whether we keep a filly or not.”
Geards’ breakthrough Group 1 after two decades of trying
During the late 2000s to the middle of last decade, Geegees Blackflash was the pin-up of Tasmanian racing.
Before the emergence of mainland conqueror Mystic Journey, a Group 1 winner, there was Paul and Elizabeth Geard’s homebred Geegees Blackflash.
He won 22 races, including two Hobart Cups, a Launceston Cup and Tasmanian Derby, and gained a cult following from Tassie punters and from those on the mainland.
The “Geegee” horses were in almost every Tasmanian race; mostly modestly bred horses who won their share of races.
So, it was an emotional result on Saturday for the Geard family and those associated with their horses when Geegees Mistruth scored an upset win in the Group 1 Robert Sangster in Adelaide.
Paul Geard died in March 2023, which led to the scaling back of the family’s breeding and racing operation, but wife Elizabeth has continued to own a number of horses, particularly with young trainer Stuart Gandy.
By the Geards’ resident stallion Wordsmith, four-year-old Geegees Mistruth was trained by Gandy for her first 12 staets, winning six races, before she was transferred to Cranbourne-based Mark Walker early last spring.
“She came over in great order. Stuart Gandy did a great job with her as a young horse. She’s had nothing but doors shut on her,” Walker’s assistant trainer Ben Gleeson said post-race on Saturday.
“Her journey over spring and autumn sums up racing. There’s a lot of lows but the highs are worth it.
“We were wondering when we were going to have some luck and we did when it mattered the most.”
Gandy Racing posted on social media on Monday acknowledging the achievement of the Geards’ maiden Group 1 win.
“It was their dream, their passion and they shared it with us,” Gandy wrote.
“We will forever be grateful to Paul and Elizabeth for believing in us and entrusting their dream to us and our team.
“We didn’t have the fairytale ending of training her G1 win, but we are immensely proud of Bonnie and the 20 year journey it took to breed a G1 winner for Paul and Elizabeth and their Gee Gee legacy.”
Entries up for NZB Weanling Sale
New Zealand Bloodstock will buck the trend of its Australian rivals with a larger National Weanling Sale offering in 2026 with more than 150 foals already committed to the June sale.
The last of the four Australasian weanling sales, the Karaka sale will be preceded by next week’s Inglis Australian Weanling Sale, the Magic Millions on the Gold Coast and the Great Southern Sale in Melbourne in June.
Inglis has catalogued 500 foals for its Australian Weanling Sale in Sydney, down 81 on the corresponding auction in 2025, while Magic Millions has catalogued 354, down 20 year-on-year.
NZB director of business development Mike Kneebone said Waikato Stud was heavily supporting the sale, which had helped increase the number of early entries received for the June 25 sale.
“I just think the way the market’s been, and there was a little bit of confidence at our sale last year, it’s given it a bit of a boost this year,” he said.
“The entries aren’t closed yet, but we’re well over 150 at the moment, so that’s quite encouraging.”
Author
Related Articles
Rowe On Monday – Mystery man unmasked, Price is right on incentives, an embargo relief and a US$10.5 million colt
In this week’s Rowe On Monday, Merrick Staunton reveals himself as one of Home Affairs’ early admirers, new Hong Kong incentives draw a lukewarm response from a major buyer, a Savabeel filly now free to race and expectations high for an eight-figure colt.
Rowe on Monday – Howard gets the bias right, an Irish influence in G1 upset, a Wooded winner and Mills’ new frontier
In this week’s Rowe On Monday, Brett Howard on taking on perception of sex bias in a stallion and picking out a future Group 1 winner, a moment to remember for Hubie de Burgh and Johnny McKeever, good early signs for a Swettenham stallion and a Kiwi stakes win for a couple of ambitious Aussie owners.
Rowe On Monday – A bidding cat and mouse, Messara’s statistical argument and a family formula pays off for Field
In this week’s Rowe On Monday, sales companies’ bidding strategies under the spotlight, John Messara ponders a fairer distribution of prize money and Henry Field’s formula for sire success.