April 14th – Limitless Lodge Racing Stables open for business on May 1st
Finally it appears to be all systems go for the Grand Opening of the new stables at our brand new property which will be known as ‘Limitless Lodge Racing Stables’. Our existing property will continue to be known as Limitless Lodge and will be referred to as “Limitless Lodge Main Barn”. The new property has 66 extra big stables in three separate barns of 22. We have been very happy with all aspects of the building. Our builders have been Glenwood Rural Buildings in Maitland, headed by Bob Schmal.
The track is 1,150m with a starting shute (with barriers) and a straight run of 420m. The surface of the track is a fantastic mix of coarse river sand and Soiltex (www.soiltex.com). It provides a perfect cushion and the surface will never become too heavy as it absorbs water perfectly. This property will be a real showpiece when it is all finished.
We have commissioned Irongate to build an Aquacizer and a ten horse walker. These should be completed by the middle of June. We think we will be able to provide the complete service for all of our clients. We will be the only farm in NSW taking in outside horses for use of the Aquacizer. Obviously it will be a tremendous asset to our existing clients, including the Hong Kong Jockey Club, John O’Shea, David Payne, Les Bridge and Chris Waller.
April 13th - Tim’s new truck is on the road.
We are very happy to have our new 6 horse Hino truck on the road. This beautiful truck was built by Rivenlee Horse Floats (www.rivenlee.com.au). Peter Jakins and his team really did listen to everything that we wanted in our truck and bent over backwards to be helpful. I would recommend them to anyone wanting the best.
April 13th – Burnham Market CIC***
All the big guns in British Eventing brought their best horses to this showcase event in Norfolk to prepare for Badminton. Oliver Townend on his superstar winner of Express Eventing, Flint Curtis claimed the first CIC*** section. In second place was Ruth Edge on P.C Wilson. In the the other section Ruth was able to win on her Gatcombe ’08 British Open winner Marsh Mayfly. In second place in that section was British team rider Sharon Hunt on her top horse Tanker’s Town. Andrew Nicholson claimed the remaining Advanced section on his young horse Nereo. These horses will probably next run at Belton and then on to Badminton (www.badminton-horse.co.uk).
April 13th - Kihikihi CIC-W***
New Zealand’s premier ODE which this year hosted their only World Cup qualifier was won by Australian Olympian Megan Jones on her top horse Kirby Park Irish Jester. Second went to Kiwi Olympian Heelan Tompkins riding her Olympic horse Sugoi and Matthew Grayling riding a young Advanced horse Parklane Hawk was third. Australian hero Shane Rose riding his Olympic horse, All Luck had an unfortunate run out cross country to put him out of the running.
April 12th - The Team at Limitless Lodge.
When you send your horse to us at Limitless Lodge, you are not only sending it to a wonderful facility but you are able to access the experience of our wonderful staff. We have staff from Australia, England, Norway, Ireland, Hong Kong and India at the moment. We are in the lucky position of having many more people wanting to work here than we can accommodate. This means we are able to be very fussy with who we have working here.
We are fortunate to have Nina Lloyd Jones in the office and Vigdis Andreassen as head girl. Our riders, apart from Tim and Sophie, are headed by Amir Attaollahi and Amrinder Singh. Our barn managers are Hajinder Singh and Manpreet Singh. Our property manager is Ken Black who does an amazing job keeping up with everything. Every time we go to Hong Kong, our head travelling girl is Fredrika Miller from Sweden who keeps everything running smoothly until Tim arrives.
April 11th - Tim’s new horses have started the season very well
The three horses that Tim imported from England late last year have all started season 2009 in spectacularly good form. Probably the most experienced horse (and definitely the biggest!) is Mercator Du Ry and he has started with a win at Sydney CNC 1* and a 5th at Albury CIC 1*. He will next be competing at Berrima CIC 1* this coming weekend (April 18-19) and then at Copabella Classic (www.copabella.com) followed by the Sydney CIC 1*. His short term goal will be Melbourne CCI 1* with a start at Camden CIC ** prior to that. If all goes well he will then carry on to Sydney CCI** and Adelaide CCI**.
MacFly is probably the most thoroughbred of the three and a real favourite around the stable. He has started with a bang, and already run 3rd and 4th in the CNC 1* sections at Sydney in February. He will follow an identical path to Mercator Du Ry hopefully. At the moment he is suffering from a foot abscess which will hopefully clear in time to run at Berrima this weekend and not hold up his program.
Secret Spy is the least experienced of the three but has been produced very well. He has so far won at Wallaby Hill and run 2nd at Sydney in February both at PN. We will take longer to produce this guy but he will be worth the wait. His intermediate goal will be Sydney CCI* in September with several CIC ** starts prior to that.
April 9th - Grand Armee in Parade of Champions at William Inglis’ Gala Cocktail Party.
Grand Armee was one of 4 horses asked to parade under lights during the grand Gala Cocktail party to usher in the Easter Sale. These horses were all champions and were all sold by William Inglis and Son. He paraded with Might and Power (Melbourne Cup, Caulfield Cup and Cox Plate) Eremein (AJC Derby) and Dance Hero (Golden Slipper, Sires Produce and Champagne Stakes). It made us all think how lucky we are to have Grand Armee eventing and to be so successful in both fields.
He was most definitely a legendary racehorse with 7 Group One wins and $5.3 million prize money. We are hoping that he might become a legendary eventer. He has started very well this year with a win at CNC 1* at Wallaby Hill and 8th at Sydney CNC 1*. He will follow a similar path to the other one star horses heading towards Melbourne CCI* and then on to Sydney CCI** and Adelaide CCI**.
April 9th - William Inglis & Son Easter Sale
All in all, the Easter Sale can be considered a success despite the average falling to $241,355. All of the main buyers from around the world were able to access the best types and the best pedigrees in Australia at more realistic prices than the last four years of continuing boom times. Sadly for Inglis, several major purchasers from the last few years were not in attendance. Bob Ingham who was the major buyer last year is keen to see his two year olds run before he ventures back to the market place.
Charles Laird from South Africa remained in SA as this date clashed with their major sale. The Hong Kong Jockey Club team who usually buy 8-10 high profile horses at Easter never bought this year due to the ongoing feud between the HKJC and Racing NSW supremo, Peter V’Landys over the Chris Munce affair. This means for us at Limitless Lodge that our team for Hong Kong this year totals 22 (down from 35 from previous years). We certainly hope that the HKJC and Racing NSW can resolve their differences into the future.
The top buyer at the sale was Darley Stud (Sheikh Mohammed), whose agent John Ferguson signed for 15 yearlings totaling $7.18 million. The second top buyer was Patinack Farm who bought 17 yearlings for a total spend of $5.9 million. At Limitless Lodge we have been chosen to break in several of the high profile lots from the sale for Patinack (including the Redoute’s Choice colt out of Tugela which sold for $1.2 million) and David Payne (including a cracking colt by Anabaa out of the great producer Unison).
March 27th - Albury International Horse Trials
After an absence of two years from the eventing calendar due to EI Albury returned to host the most significant event so far this season in the lead up to Melbourne CCI in June. It turned out to be a Shane Rose benefit. He was able to win the three star on his top horse All Luck in a close finish from Amanda Howell (Koyuna Tora Bora) and Georgia Clifford riding It’s Monty in third.
Unfortunately this class saw the retirement of the Adelaide CCI**** winner Newsprint ridden by Chris Burton with what seems like a repeat of a previous tendon injury. We hope for Chris and his wonderful horse that it is not too bad and he is able to get going again for Adelaide 2009.
The two star was again won by Shane riding APH Moritz in a very close finish from
Young Rider of the Year 2008, Lauren Balcomb on Kootamootoo. Shane was third on his other beautiful ride Taurus.
March 15th - Hong Kong Jockey Club Subscription Draft 2009
Tim and his team took over 14 horses to Hong Kong for the 2009 HKJC subscription draft which was a major success. This is an unusual concept where horses are taken to Hong Kong from NZ and Australia and are basically put into a draft (‘lucky dip’) for owners who have put their $HK1.5 million in and want a horse fully vetted, selected, broken in and ready to go. This is a cheap way to get a permit to race in Hong Kong.
The horse racing population in Hong Kong is limited at any one time to 1,200 horses. Any one owner is only entitled to own three horses. For any owner to be granted permission to own a horse they must have a permit. Horses coming to Hong Kong fall under several categories, and this is probably the cheapest and easiest way to get a horse to the races.
