Murray Andersen (with wife Jo in the background) receives the Cerrone Championship Trophy pave set with more than 2000 emeralds, black diamonds and pink argyle diamond eyes. Photo/Sportpix
All expenses paid to the Royal Ascot in July, Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe in Paris in the first week of October and then an invite to the Breeders' Cup in the United States in November ...
No it wasn't easy, but Hawke's Bay racehorse breeders/co-owners Murray and Jo Andersen say it's all for the the best that champion racehorse It's A Dundeel is retiring to Arrowfield Stud.
"It was a very hard decision to make for the trainer because he's [horse] not at his peak yet," Murray Andersen, of Havelock North, said last night after the 4-year-old Bay-bred horse won the $4 million Queen Elizabeth Stakes at the Royal Randwick in Sydney.
"It's A Dundeel is a top-rated horse in Australia so we had nothing else to prove."
Back home from Australia this week, Andersen revealed he had lunch with Arrowfield Stud managing owner and "top man" John Messara to discuss the future of It's A Dundeel who, with James McDonald in the saddle, clinched his sixth group-one victory in Australia on Saturday.
"He's the best horse from New Zealand in at least 25 years. He's certainly the best since Sunline," he said, juxtaposing him with the world's highest-earning thoroughbred racemare of her time (Trevor McKee-trained Sunline won two Cox Plates in 1999-2000, earning more than A$11 million).
It's A Dundeel, by High Chaparral out of Zabeel mare Stareel, has had 10 placings, including six group one wins, from 19 starts to help his syndicate of owners pocket A$5.35 million in stake money.
"It's a pretty massive record," said Andersen who in November last year sold their majority share in the horse.
The Andersens, daughter Tracy Andersen and husband Gavin Chaplow, Michael and Sharyn Craig (Murray's sister), and the Craigs' neighbours, Jenny and Dave Morison, are the Bay contingent among the 18 syndicate owners who pocketed 20 per cent of the $2.4 million prizemoney.
Apart from putting the Bay on the map for breeding elite thoroughbreds, he said the stellar, albeit abbreviated, career of It's A Dundeel gave him and wife Jo "a lot of creditability".
Arrowfield Stud has announced the horse's fee for the impending breeding season - at A$27,500, including GST.
The Murray Baker and Andrew Forsman-trained bay made his debut with a win at Ellerslie, a little more than two years ago with jockey James McDonald.
Andersen said McDonald was in the saddle during 18 of the horse's 19 starts, missing out once because the jockey was serving a suspension.
It wasn't all hunky-dory for the Bay contingent in Sydney last Saturday.
"Just before the race something spooked him and he fell over," he said, adding the stipendiary stewards inspected the horse to discover he had lost some skin off a hind legs but eventually cleared him to race.
"It was a very nervous time because we were upstairs and they announced it on the loudspeakers. Once he got on the track he had beautiful balance and raced just the way we wanted him to."
He beat NZ-bred Sacred Falls by three-quarters of a length with Carlton House three lengths back in third.
Andersen proudly pointed out the Queen owns Carlton House, but tempers that with missing out on taking a horse to the Royal Ascot where the monarchy watch the big races.
"There's nothing better than being at the Royal Ascot racing in front of the Queen.
"It would have been an exciting thing to do."
NSW Horse of the Year last year, It's A Dundeel went to Australia in the spring of 2012, making an impact with his first group one race in the Spring Champion Stakes in Sydney.
The following autumn he won Sydney's 3-year-old triple crown - the Randwick Guineas, Rosehill Guineas and Australian Derby.
Last spring, he inflicted the only career defeat on Atlantic Jewel in the Underwood Stakes in Melbourne.
No doubt the Bay brigade burned the town red on Saturday after a race that had been upgraded from $500,000 to $4 million this year.
"He's a one-in-a-generation-type of horse so he's exceptional."
The syndicate has already bought a horse from England, 8-year-old Michikabu, who will be jetted straight to Arrowfield Stud.
"She's already had a few foals and she'll suit Dundeel's pedigree."
The Morisons and the Craigs are in the process of gathering some brood mares.
So what's next on the Andersens' pedigree production line in the Bay?
"We're trying to get another good horse," he revealed.
Stareel, the 13-year-old dam of It's A Dundeel, is jetting off to Hunter Valley, in NSW, this year to be served by Redoute's Choice, the leading stallion in Australia. That means Stareel will be expecting a foal in September next year.
It's A Dundeel has a half-brother weanling who will be up for grabs at the Sydney Yearling Sale soon. He also has two half-sisters - a yearling to be kept for racing and 5-year-old mare Vaayala.
For the record, another star in the making is Saavoya, a 2-year-old filly, who finished second to Exquisite Jewel in race one of the Windsor Park Hawke's Bay Gold Cup.
"We think she's going to be pretty good. Murray has a high opinion of her," Andersen said of the Baker/Forsman training combination from Cambridge.
The Andersens have two other daughters, Donna and Louise, who are also shareholders in the Saavoya syndicate.