Creating a champion

What does it take to breed a champion racehorse? Michelle Coursey looks at the stages of a race horse's life from foal to the track.

Most horse races last less than three minutes and, with the excitement of stampeding hooves, screaming crowds and the thrill of checking your wee flutter to see if it's won you some extra spending money, it's all about living in the moment.

While a race horse's time on the track may be brief, thousands of hours are put into each horse, from breeding right through to the starting gates, creating the thrilling spectacle and sport of a thoroughbred horse race.

The creation of a champion race horse starts with genealogy and research - planning which mare to breed with which stallion means looking carefully into bloodlines, physical compatibility and the potential commercial value of the resulting foal.

"First and foremost, you are aiming to breed a fast horse - you don't really want a slow one," quips Mark Chitty, managing director of Haunui Farm thoroughbred stud. "There are lots of different theories people have about why a particular stallion will suit a broodmare, but ultimately it's about breeding a horse that will come first."

Once a match is decided, mares are delivered to the stud to be serviced by a chosen stallion for a set fee, but as fellow breeding expert Russell Warwick, the general manager of Westbury Stud, explains the window for getting a mare "in foal" is incredibly short and can prove challenging.

"The gestation period for a horse is approximately 11 months and 7 days, and we serve our mares between September 1 and early to mid-December," says Warwick. "So if a mare doesn't [give birth to a] foal until November or December, it gives only a very short period of time to get them with foal again."

Despite these challenges, throughout the country thousands of thoroughbred foals are bred each year, many of which punch above their weight when it comes to the international market. Born under the cover of darkness, the baby horses are up and walking within 90 minutes, says Chitty, although there is no way to tell on day one whether you're looking at a winning ticket or an almost-ran.

"That's part of the mystery," he says. "What makes a foal want to run through the pain barrier more than once is about having the heart and the will to win, and you can't see that. That's why no one can dominate the sport of horse racing - no one has the absolute answer."

Rearing the foals is a careful matter of balance, ensuring they get the right amount and quality of feed to coincide with the seasons, and don't grow too fast or too slowly so as not to affect their conformation [shape and proportion], says Warwick. "We use vets, farriers, chiropractors and physios to help us look after them and ensure they have the best possible start."

Around the one-year-old mark, although it differs depending on the foal and its progress, the young horse is usually put up for sale. For around 1500 foals every year, the Premier Yearling Sale at the end of January in Karaka is the place where they are bought and sold.

The famous sale is held by premier auction house New Zealand Bloodstock - whose founding company saw the sale of Kiwi-bred champion Phar Lap. "We hold about six sales every year, but the biggest by far is the yearling sale," says New Zealand Bloodstock co-managing director Petrea Vela, who says every horse is catalogued so potential buyers can find out the background pedigree and essential stats before viewing.

"Buyers come on site a few days before the sale to see the horses," she explains. "The horses are then paraded for the buyers so they can have a look at them, and the auction takes place a few days later."

Prices paid for horses at the prestigious sales run a full range, from just a few hundred dollars to the 2000 record sale price of $3.6 million in Karaka for a horse named Don Eduardo. "We catalogue about 3500 horses a year, and it's right across the full spectrum from foals to yearlings to broodmares," says Vela. "From Phar Lap through to modern champions like So You Think have been through our sales."

When it comes to buying a horse, David Ellis of Te Akau Stud & Racing has been breeding, racing and buying for 36 years, and says there are three key steps. "The first is the pedigree research, the second is inspecting the yearling and deciding which are the most likely to win the big races, and the third is actually buying the horse and paying for it," he says. "Unless you do those three things well, you won't be a very successful buyer."

Having been at every New Zealand Bloodstock premier sale since 1982, Ellis estimates he has bought more than 600 horses over his career. However, he says everyone looks for something different when it comes to choosing which horses to spend on.

"Some people are very successful because they can visualise what the horse will look like in 12 months," he explains. "Horses change dramatically between the yearling sales and two years of age, so it's the buyers who can imagine what they are going to grow into that make the money."

The most dominant buyer of horses at the Karaka sales for the past 10 years on behalf of himself and others, Ellis says the ultimate thrill of the industry for him is seeing the joy of a horse's owners when it wins a race. "The thrill of racing these horses is something words can't describe."

Of course, there is a lot of work that must be done before a horse reaches the track. Although leading trainer and co-director of Logan Racing, Donna Logan, says she still gets excited about the potential of each one that comes in the stable doors.

"My favourite time of the year is getting them home and looking at all these babies, thinking 'What will you be like?'" says Logan. "They all have very different personalities, and every one of them has a stable name, a nickname for home - they are a Thomas or a Lulu, something that fits their personality. At our place they all have their own individual diet, and their own workload - they are very much their own individuals, and they become your best buddies."

Initial training includes teaching the horses to have a bit in their mouth, and to have a rider in a saddle on their back. After they learn the basics, they get a two to three-month holiday before their race training begins in earnest. "We practise walking through starting gates, working around a track in a company of horses, teaching them to get their legs in coordination as they get..." explains Logan. "It's not just jump on them and go flat out. The rider is responsible for educating them - it's like going through kindy."

After another "holiday", Logan says it takes 12 weeks of intensive training - every day except Sunday - to get them prepared to run their first race and perhaps start down the path of equine glory. But, no matter how much training and prep a horse has been through, the outcome is never a given, says Logan - which is what she, and many others, love about the sport.

"Money can't buy that feeling when you win a race," she says. "A lot of it is luck - I've seen people get $200 horses and win really big races. It's so much fun, and you just never know what's going to happen."