23rd April 2012
BENSTUD BRED horses are flying at the moment... SOHO VALENCIA won the BATHURST CHALICE in a class record and extended his prize money to $234,500, 15 WINS & 6 PLACINGS from 25 starts is a phenomenal effort. He's heading over to WA for their $200,000 derby. PHILADELPHIA MAN has $87,000 to his name and had a good win in the REG WITHERS CLASSIC and will be contesting the up coming Derbys, which if his latest run is a gauge he will take some beating. Brothers WAHUSH & SHINDLER continued their winning ways. The last week has seen our 2yr olds READY FIRE win a heat of BATHURST CROWN... READYFORREIGN trained by NOEL & JANE DAVIES won a heat of the APG, the quickest of the heat winners and looks to have a fair bit of ability. 1ST starter BALLDALE won for WAYNE POTTER, he's a really nice colt and like all of WAYNES horses at the moment is flying. There are 3 more BENSTUD horses about to run in the coming weeks and all indicators are they will be in the winners circle very soon.
We're quite proud of our band of mares , since we started BENSTUD we have been breeding about 6 or 8 mares a year. These mares have produced 80% winners to foals. Our broodmare numbers have expanded to 15 last year with the introduction of some really nice mares, MORGAN ABBEY, MENDELICO, HECTIC, VON RITA, ALTA CALYPSO & MY SPARKLING BURGUNDY (dam of GOTTA GO CULLEN) should produce some quality race horses.
Congratulations to ROB AUBER (BELLAS DELIGHT) for her return to racing. And HARVEY KAPLIN bred colt FLY LIKE AN EAGLE, WINNER OF NZ DERBY and almost $300,000, his dam is a resident of BENSTUD and has a stunning full brother to FLY LIKE AN EAGLE & is back in foal to MACH THREE.
23rd March 2012
NEWS......
I haven't had the opportunity to update for a month, for those who follow our website I apologise. It's such a busy time with the yearling sales that everything else tends to come to a stand still.
We are about to start weaning, which is a really enjoyable process. We do an easy lead technique, which entails teaching the foal to lead with the mother. It's nonthreatening as the foal tends to relax instead of panicking because it has mum there; most weanlings will lead with and after ten minutes or so will lead away from the mare. We reinforce this the following day by the end of this process most foals will tie up lead and have their feet picked up.
I will be putting some weanling pictures on the website soon (I will take requests). Anyone that wants to see pictures of their weanlings please email me.
Our breeding season statistics were exceptional again. GV EQUINE are to be congratulated, thanks to ELLEN OOSTELAAR and JIM VASEY for their knowledge and professionalism. ELLEN is one the most highly qualified equine breeding vets in AUSTRALIA and JIM VASEY being here this season was amazing, his knowledge and eye with horse conformation is incredible. We finished the year with a 93% pregnacy rate, which considering we have a couple of the most troublesome mares (MY LIBERTY BELLE) and a few mares that had just retired from the track, was a fantastic result.
Recently we've had floods to contend with, thankfully our place is really high sandy country, only 1 paddock was inundated. But our community was devastated. Apparently the flood water reached areas that had never seen flood water before. It surpassed all of the previous records. I hope to never see another sandbag again. Thanks to all our friends and clients calls of support during this time.
Another update to follow next week.
14th February 2012
THANK YOU to everyone who came and visited our yearlings at BENSTUD and at the sales complex. It was an enormous weekend, I came down to Melbourne on Wednesday afternoon to set up our barn or in our case barns. ELITE TRANSPORT safely delivered the horses down Thursday morning. All the horses settled in quite well considering the huge change of environment for them. It was fairly quiet until late in the afternoon. Friday probably proved to be the best guide to what was about to unfold, hardly a horse came out of their stable until just before the sale started. ALL EYES ON ME was the hype horse of the night, he sold very well but I must admit to thinking he may top the sale at one point. Like all vendors we always hope that the better trainers purchase our horses and we were ecstatic when he was knocked down to LUKE MCARTHY for $65,000.00. TIKA sold for $20,000.00 which I thought was about her mark. The disappointment of the night was MINI MAVERICK / BADLANDS HANOVER colt, only fetching $20,000.00 he was a really special little horse and seemed to be very popular among the prospective purchases, so Ii thought he would have sold for more in the 25 to 30k range. Sunday proved to be very average, there were very few people around and the vibe was very flat.
I must admit on reflection that our horses sold reasonably well considering the state of the sale. A really pleasing aspect is having owners and trainers purchasing yearlings from us on a yearly basis, and we thank them for their continued support.
MINI MAVERICK $20,000 RUSSELL HOCKHAM
TIKA $22,000 ADAM WILKINSON
ALL EYES ON ME $65,000 LUKE MCARTHY
BENINJURD passed in but sold privately for reserve CHRIS ALFORD / PHIL WALSH
BENDALL ROSE $17,000 GARY QUINLAN
COME TO THE PARTY $15,000 ANDY GATH
ENSIGNS DREAM $16,000 SHAYNE CRAMP
HEAVENLY GRACE 9,500 JAYNE DAVIES
MY BAGATELLE LOMBO $10,000 TOBY RYAN
MONTANA MELODY 9,500
NOSOTROS $10,000 ASHLEY SEIJKA
PRESIDENTIAL NIGHT $21,000 TOBY RYAN
SERENITY FRANCO $9,500 sold privately CRAIG DEMMLER
TISHAFLY FRANCO $20,000 LUKE MCARTHY
TRUE RIGHT $15,000 FREDDY TAIBIA
UNCORK $16,000 VINCE VALLELONGA
14th January 2012
I haven't had the opportunity to update the news page in recent weeks with yearling prep taking over a fair chunk of our time and focus.
Ten mares foaled since our last update. SPITFIRE SHADOW the dam of Christian Shadow and Art Shadow had a LIFE SIGN colt; ALLDATGLITTERSISGOLD, dam of Baby Bling and Hectic, had a Grin colt; ALL EYES ON ME, $350,000+ WINNER, had a magic ART MAJOR FILLY very similar to her older brother thats in the APG SALE 3rd to 5th of Feb, he's an amazing animal, easily the best yearling sale horse we've ever prepared! WISH HE WAS OURS!
Whilst Ii'm on the sales, there are only 2 weeks to the Premier Sale in which we have a big strong FOUR STARZZZ SHARK COLT out of SAVANNAH LOMBO lot 44 . He was going to the COWRA sale a few months ago but ran into a trough the week before. He had a hematoma on his chest which has been a blessing in disguise, as he's grown out really well now. Also we have 16 yearlings in the APG SALE, as I've said before they are a really nice consignment this year. There are 3 yearlings in the PREMIUM sale and 13 on the Sunday. Like a lot of others i still haven't got my head around the criteria for the premium sale, when i look at the quality of some of the horses that missed out and are being presented on the Sunday sale. I'm happy to take the umpire's decision on that 1. A couple of horses that didn't make the Premium Sale 2009 ended up being SOHO VALENCIA & PHILADELPHIA MAN; maybe it's a good sign.
We decided to video our yearlings and are absolutely rapt with the results, a huge job washing 17 horses (thanks Vicki). But the finished product was well worth the effort. It took 2 days, the 1st day probably the worst of the summer. I decided to try and video the horses running in the paddock, hair raising is an understatement. As expected ALL EYES ON ME stole the show with a display fit for the show ring, for a tall horse he has incredible athletism.
TRUE RIGHT paced like he was heading down the home straight. MINI MAVERICK is a really nice horse and looked stunning. PRESIDENTIAL NIGHT & MY BAGATELLE LOMBO showed their class. The fillies were a bit more relaxed. SERENITY FRANCO & little BENINJURD the pick on the day. Videos are now available on the Yearlings page.
Mark this one down: BENINJURD / MCARDLE filly is out of a FULL sister to PHILADELPHIA MAN. Her dam BENINJURD as the name indicates was injured as a foal before being weaned and was never broken in. She was only a small yearling like her brother PHILADELPHIA MAN but jumped out of the ground as an early 2 yr old, which is why we decided to breed her at 2. BENINJURED / MCARDLE FILLY is a January foal and apart from her size (at this stage) is faultless. We won't be giving her away but could sell well below her true value, when you look at PHILADELPHIA MAN who sold for $51,000.00.
NEXT UPDATE AFTER THE SALES
19 December 2011
Rainy day leads to too much thinking time, so I thought I'd go through and see what stallions our clients have chosen for their mares this year... VERY INTERESTING READING!
Leading the way...
SPORTSWRITER & ROCKNROLL HANOVER 14 each
ART MAJOR & ROCK N ROLL HEAVEN 10
COURAGE UNDER FIRE 9
FOUR STARZZZ SHARK 6
MUSCLES HILL 4
MACH THREE, GRINFROMEARTOEAR, REAL DESIRE & LIS MARA 3
AMERICAN IDEAL, ARTISTIC FELLA, JEREMES JET, BETTORS DELIGHT, SOMEBEACHSOMEWHERE, SANTANNA BLUE CHIP, TINTIN IN AMERICA, PEGASUS SPUR, CHANGEOVER, THE PRES, MUSCLES YANKEE, CRAZE , ARTISCAPE,SAFELY KEPT, VILLAGE JASPER, TELL ALL, LIVE OR DIE, MCARDLE, BADLANDS HANOVER, SKYVALLEY, ARMBRO OPERATIVE, SEALED AND DELIVERED, CHRISTIAN CULLEN, ALWAYS A VIRGIN, ANGUS HALL, MAJOR IN ART, GOTTA GO CULLEC , VILLAGE JOLT, BLISSFUL HALL and SAFARI
ALL WITH 1 or 2 BOOKINGS
Obviously I'm not suprised by the demand for ROCKNROLL HANOVER as he is a magnificent horse (some say the best seen in this part of the world). SPORTSWRITER has only enhanced his reputation with the arrival of his quality foals this year. ART MAJOR continues to be popular and 1ST year sire ROCKNROLL HEAVEN has been spoken about in glowing terms for his speed and toughness as a race horse so has been in demand. COURAGE, who I love, has suprised me a little. Also our TROTTNG numbers have increased so we've bred to some of the best STALLIONS available.. .MUSCLES YANKEE, MUSCLES HILL etc. BETTOR'S DELIGHT, who could hardly have done better on the track, has only bred 2 mares which staggered me. Some of the old boys still continue to be used... ARMBRO OPERATIVE, VILLAGE JASPER and even SAFELY KEPT got a ride.
NEXT WEEK.... I,m hoping to compile some breeding % and more pics. Please send any ideas through our contact page.
4 December 2011
BENSTUD are having one of our best ever seasons, pastures are looking fantastic (its geat to have irrigation). We have just oversown a couple of paddocks to ensure that we have ample pasture through to the end of the season.
Fortunately the hot weather hasn't hit yet making working a lot more comfortable. The dry mares are nearly all in foal, only a couple of troublesome mares still being bred. 10 dry mares have had their final preg test and quite a few to come up this week. Only 12 mares yet to foal and at least 4 of them should foal this week. The wait is over for the arrival of BENELISE's foal; she had a really nice SPORTSWRITER filly, yes FILLY. For those who read this column will have noticed that we had 10 foals for 9 fillies(heartbreak for the bank manager).
I know it's hard to make judgement when you only have a handful of foals by a particular sire, but i must say the SPORTSWRITER foals we have here are as good as I've seen. He seems to stamp them, tall, athleltic, intelligent, similar in colour but his best trait seems to be how correct they are, none requiring surgery or even rasping. Some of the mares to have Sportswriter foals that can be viewed on the Broodmares page are BELLA AURORA, MORGAN ABBEY, DERRICO to name a few (have a look).
I've also included a pic here of the NO MORE TROUBLES/GRINFROMEARTOEAR filly and some pic's of DODO ROCKET/EILEEN DONAN colt and MAPLE EVE PHOENIX /SUNDON colt representing the GROWTH sector of the industry; the TROTTERS. More updates next week and pictures of yearling sale horses will be on here soon.
29 November 2011
Another busy week 9 foals safely delivered and 18 yearlings have been brought in to start their yearling preperation.
Latest foals...
LOOK AT LITTLE SISTER... OUR SIR VANCELOT colt
SPARKLING BURGUNDY... GOTTA GO CULLECT filly
VELVET SKY... FOUR STARZZZ SHARK colt
FLUORESCENT LOMBO... ARTISTIC FELLA colt
MAPLE EVE PHOENIX... SUNDON colt
MY BAGATELLE LOMBO... GRINFROMEARTOEAR filly
REBEKAH... BETTORS DELIGHT colt
ARTY ALICE... BETTORS DELIGHT colt
13 mares left to foal. We've started the count down.
We are waiting with much excitement for the arrival of BENELISE's foal, a 1/2 sibling to SOHO VALENCIA/YRUBLA and hopefully a colt!
22 November 2011
Well, another busy week at BENSTUD; another 8 foals since I last updated and more fillies. CURRENTLY we have 26 fillies and 13 colts and of our lot 6 fillies from 7 foals.
The much anticipated arrival of our first foals from MORGAN ABBY and BELLA AURORA (dam of BELLAS DELIGHT) resulted in 2 magnificent SPORTSWRITER FILLIES.
There are now 3 SPORTSWRITER FOALS on the ground and they are magnificent; tall, athletic, and very correct.
Other foals born were:
Monica Stride... Jeremes Jet
Tishafly Franco... Courage Under Fire
Lets Be Happy... Kadabra
Derrico... Sportswriter
Carinya Wood... Always A Virgin
Sassi Gert... Grinfromeartoear
Yearlings are only 2 weeks from coming in to be prepared for upcoming sales, we are preparing 18 this year.
Three made the premium sale... Not that I'm really that concerned whether they make it or not. In fact I don't think we will be nominating any horses for the premium sale next year.
There are 12 colts and 6 fillies, they are definately the most even group we have prepared. They have already been on the jogger/walker and have been handled so I dont anticipate too many problems when they come in.
During this year we have posted pictures of these sale horses as foals/weanlings and yearlings and will be putting pictures of them on here for everyone to see their (NATURAL) progression .
WE WELCOME YOU TO COME AND SEE THESE YEARLINGS IN THE PADDOCK or WHILST BEING PREPARED .... please call Craig for inspection 0458 658 273.
7 November 2011
Well things seem to have turned in the breeding barn this week; of the 46 dry mares all but 7 have been bred and 18 have had positives. Nearly all mares that haven't been up for PT1's yet have ovulated, so hopefully more good news to come. Earlier in the season the results weren't that flattering but of the last 11 mares that have come up for preg tests 9 have been positive which is fantastic.
So far we've bred 17 wet mares, bringing the total to 56 mares bred. We are hopeful of equalling or beating our best season of 130 mares. Dare I say it but of the negatives we have had, there seems to be a pattern emerging with a couple of stallions... shshshsh...
In the foaling yards we've had 8 foals in the last week, 2 stunning ART MAJOR colts, one out of SERENITY FRANCO and the other out of TIKA as well as a magic CHANGEOVER filly out of VON RITA who are the pick of these. This week we are holding our breath waiting for the foals of BELLA AURORA dam of Vicbred / Breeders Crown winner BELLAS DELIGHT and also the 1st foal due from our beautifully bred and $100k+ winner MORGAN ABBY; hopefully a colt. Of our own mares we've had 6 foals for 5 fillies. This hasn't been a pleasing result as we breed to sell!
More news next week, anyone interested in anything to do with the website (possible improvements) or BENSTUD please email Craig, I welcome all comments.
22nd October 2011
It was fantastic to have SOHO VALENCIA return to the farm for a spell after having a long successful 2yr old season winning 10 and placing 5 times from 17 starts and $195,000. He turned up looking incredible and I'm in awe of JAYNE DAVIES as a trainer. SOHO seemed to improve with every start and was unlucky in the Breeders final (flat tyre). At the end of a long year JAYNE still had him looking great and he was in perfect shape when the last feature was on. LOOK OUT 3YR OLD SEASON...
Also we had BREEDERS CROWN CHAMP BELLAS DELIGHT come home for a long well earned spell. Out of the MALES camp and owned by long time client and friend ROB AUBER she won the 3yr old Vicbred and Breeders Crown finals which i know was a well planned out campaign. She turned up looking great and has put on plenty of weight and has grown quite alot. I'm sure plans are already being made for her 4yr old season.
21st October 2011
Well the season is upon us, the warmer weather is seeing the pastures grow and the mares foaling. All our dry mares have spent a month under lights which has seen them cycling really well. There are about 40 dry mares on the farm and at least 30 of them have already been bred with some already having positive preg tests. Proof that the lights work as mares coming from other farms are well behind our mares that were under lights.
We have 25 foals on the ground at the moment and unfortunately only 7 of them being colts. Some absolute slashing types PRESIDENTIAL NIGHTS, NO MORE TROUBLES and BENDALL ROSE are leading the pack at this early stage for the fillies. FLY LIKE AN EAGLE's full brother and an ART MAJOR colt out of SERENITY FRANCO are stunning colts. We're still awaiting the arrival of our 1st SPORTSWRITER foals which I think will be really exciting! SHADOW PLAY seems to be stamping his foals and there is a ripper EILEAN DONAN colt, a very attractive muscular type who is the pick of the trotting band. LA COOCARACHA also has a nice colt on her.
4th October 2011
Filly foal by Falcon Seelster out of Bendall Rose.
28th September 2011
Filly foal by Dawn Of A New Day out of Armbro Prevails.
27th September 2011
Our 2nd foal on the ground! A colt out of Dashing Dollars by Courage Under Fire.
20th September 2011
First foal on the ground out of Keystone Black by C R Commando.
30th August 2011
It's an exciting time of the year at the Stud, the September foaling mares are getting closer to foaling and the dry mares are under lights. Some studs will have semen available by mid Sept and with this warm weather mares are starting to cycle. Our weanlings are looking sensational and the grass is growing like mad! Keep an eye on our website for foal pics and further updates.
17th August 2011
SOHO VALENCIA and PHILADELHIA MAN made the BREEDERS CROWN Final! Added to that BENSTUD-bred WAHUSH made the 3 year old Final!
18th July 2011
Congratulations to HARVEY KAPLIN part-owner and breeder as well as to trainer LUKE MCARTHY for BABY BLING's win on Saturday night in the Australian
Oaks Group 1. BABY BLING has now won 8 from 14 Australian starts and has already won the Gold Coast Oaks as well. BABY BLING's dam Alldatglittersisgold is on our property.
11th July 2011
SOHO VALENCIA ran an enormous race on Friday night in the Vicbred Final coming from the back of the field to run 2nd. He has now won or placed in every race he's had including 1st in the BATHURST GOLD CROWN FINAL, 2nd in the QLD NURSERY PACE FINAL, 3rd in the APG GOLD FINAL and now 2nd in the VICBRED FINAL. Amazing horse to watch and a great buzz to have bred him.
6th July 2011
Benstud recently purchased My Sparkling Burgundy, dam of Gotta Go Cullen, see our Broodmare Page for her details.
We will be presenting a magnificent colt by Gotta Go Cullect at the upcoming Graeme Board yearling sale on September 16th.
1st July 2011
A great night for our Stud/Business. Soho Valencia semi winner Philapelphia Man 4th and Fly Like An Eagle 3rd all qualified for the $100,000.00 Vicbred 2yr old final next Friday night! |
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