Racing: Back to real nitty-gritty chasing colt

Patience coupled with a dash of daring paid off for John Street and Graeme Blackburn yesterday.

The business partners own one of New Zealand's leading standardbred stables, Lincoln Farms, and have become two of the most feared buyers at the annual yearling sales.

So it was a major surprise to many in the harness racing industry when the pair were restrained, by their standards, at the first day of sales at Karaka on Monday.

With their financial firepower and love of a good colt the pair were widely expected to be in the market for the much-hyped half-brother to Elsu who topped the Karaka sale at $155,000.

Yet on the day Street and Blackburn were merely support players, happy to dabble in the shallow end of the pool.

But when the sales moved south to Christchurch yesterday they were straight back in at the deep end.

They provided the star turn of the day when they went to $105,000 for an Atiscape colt out of the unraced mare Lillian. The colt, named Tuapeka Tiz, is from the Iraklis family and was the talk of yesterday's sale long before he entered the ring.

That meant he wasn't going to come cheap though, which is where the daring came in.

Street and Blackburn had agreed to go to $100,000 for the colt but that bid went to a rival, bringing crunch time.

"Well there was no chance I was going to lose him for just another $5000," said Street, explaining his winning bid. "He was the one we came down here to buy today and that was always the plan.

"We weren't that interested in the colts at Karaka even though they were very good. We knew what we wanted and so far we have got them."

Lincoln Farms have already purchased six yearlings in two days and the pair say they will return for the final day of the sales today.

The top lot was the clear highlight on a day with plenty of apparent bargains as the heat generated by Monday's record sale at Karaka started to cool.

Several leading North Island buyers did not even make the trip south and yesterday's average was around the $17,500 mark, well short of the $24,600 at Karaka.

That will pick up today as trainers with orders to buy start chasing the remaining lots.

The day proved to a difficult one for visiting trainers, because the sheer weight of the catalogue made selection difficult.

With more than 400 horses going under the hammer over two days there was no time for a parade.

That meant trainers had to try to inspect yearlings in between bidding.

That drew some criticism and suggestions the sale will have to scale down, even to the extent of possibly having a secondary, lower-quality section a few days after the main sale, as the Karaka thoroughbred sales do.

Most of the leading trainers were busy yesterday, with Barry and Mark Purdon buying, as well as Tim Butt, who failed to purchase a lot at Karaka but left with a horse float full yesterday.

Young South Auckland trainer Gareth Dixon, who got some of the star lots at Karaka, was also on the buying sheet again and Geoff Small, John Green and Cran Dalgety also had plenty of ammunition left.

Yearling sales

* The annual standardbred yearling sales moved to Christchurch yesterday.

* Auckland businessmen John Street and Graeme Blackburn purchased the top lot for $105,000.

* Most of the leading northern trainers were busy.

* The final day of the sales is today.