“Boom boom. Two stakes winners in 10 minutes, for Per Incanto.”
That was the tweet from Sam Williams @Little Avondale that popped up last Saturday.
Casaquinman (Per Incanto[USA] –Puan Silk) (took out the Listed Pegasus Stakes at Riccarton and shortly thereafter Indecision (Per Incanto[USA]-Yeah Nah) the Listed Legacy Lodge Stakes at Te Rapa.
Now that may not be very significant if you are a Darley or a Coolmore Stud, but for a stud on the outskirts of Masterton with only three stallions that’s pretty exciting. What is perhaps more significant is that one of those stakes winners Casaquinman is direct descendant from Sunbride (GB) (Tay-Yang[GB]-Graceful Bride[Fr]) the blue hen mare who helped put the New Zealand breeding industry on the map.
Sunbride was purchased by Sam Williams’s grandmother Nancy in 1942, shortly after she and her husband Alister had established Te Parae Stud in the Wairarapa in 1940. Sunbride had been imported from England and took the eye of Nancy Williams the first time she sighted her. She had four fillies before she produced Straight Draw by Te Parae’s foundation sire Sabeaen(GB), who went on to win the AJC Metropolitan, and the Melbourne and Sydney Cups.
Shortly followed another Sydney Cup winner General Command (Agricola[GB]) and Ilumquh(Sabeaen [GB]) who won the Caulfield Cup and placed in the Melbourne Cup and a host of other stakes winning descendants through the sixties and seventies.
Alister and Nancy Williams ran Te Parae Stud until 1967, when they handed it over to their sons Tom and Buzz and relocated to the nearby Little Avondale. During the 1990’s Tom and Buzz made the decision to split the horse business from the general farming business of Te Parae and Little Avondale became home to the bloodstock with Buzz, his wife Suzie and their children Sam, Anna and George.
These days is run under the careful eye of Sam, and the significance of Casaquinman’s win was not lost on him.
“It was really cool he is out of a Towkay(AUS)- the second sire to stand at Little Avondale - mare from the Sunbride family,” said Williams.
“It’s a family that went a bit quiet on us, and he is the first stakes winning colt since Prosir (AUS) and Divine Prophet(AUS), but blood is permanent, and we also have a couple of mares who are direct descendants.
Casaquinman was recording his sixth win when he won the listed Pegasus Stakes over 1000metres on the big roomy Riccarton track, and is raced by the B Gee Syndicate, a group of like-minded Wairarapa mates including the breeder Kevin Lyford.
He is out of the Towkay(AUS) mare Puan Silk who is out of the O’Reilly mare O’Reilly’s Bride, a daughter of Centrabride, a winning Centaine(AUS) mare who was fourth at stakes level twice. Centrabride is out of Imperial Bride by Imperial March(CAN) out of Bridesmaid, a sister to General Command by Agricola(GB) out of Sunbride(GB).
Per Incanto’s second stakes winner Indecision was recording her fifth win and second stakes victory, when taking out the Lister Legacy Lodge Sprint. She won the listed NZB Finance Sprint in April, and since resuming in September has been there or thereabouts in three starts including a second in the Gr.3 Sweynesse Stakes at Rotorua before her Legacy Lodge Sprint win.
Indecision is the fourth foal from the Kinjite mare Yeah Nah, and thus a half-sister to the multiple group one winning mare Viadana (by Towkay[AUS]). Like Viadana and most of this family she has improved with age and the best is probably yet to come from this mare.
Yeah Nah who is now deceased was a winning half-sister to the Waikato Cup winner Singing Sensation, who also left the group one placed Lowland Stakes winner Miss Selby. Other half siblings were the listed winners Brave Flyer and Written By a Queen.
It was Singing Sensation’s success that prompted Yeah Nah’s owner Nicole Smythe to entrust the welfare of the very recalcitrant mare to Little Avondale very early on in her breeding career. Selecting Towkay(AUS) a half-brother to Danasinga(AUS) the sire of Singing Sensation and Brave Flyer as a likely suitor and subsequently the sire of Viadana.
Due to her aversion to horse transport, along with other confined spaces, she remained at Little Avondale and along with the stud Smythe bred Indecision.
According to Williams she was only the second Per Incanto to be sold in K1, when she went through the ring in 2015, and was purchased for $260,000.
“It’s nice that an expensive yearling ended up with success, especially one that was born and raised here. And it’s good to see good people having success with her. It looks like Brent and Cherry Taylor, and Brent’s mother Faith, his sister Jane, along with her husband Scott Malcom, have got themselves a really nice brood mare for the future.”
Per Incanto(USA) commenced stud duties in New Zealand in 2011 for a mere stud fee of $4000. He is by Street Cry (IRE) the sire of the mighty Winx and also the Melbourne Cup winner and successful stallion Shocking(AUS), and was a Champion Sprinter in Italy.
He is currently placed third on the New Zealand Sires Premiership behind Savabeel for earnings, but is only once place behind him for the number of individual winners this season.
“Timing is everything in this game,” enthused Williams, when discussing Per Incanto’s success this season.
“All of this success is from a $4000 (2011-2013), or $5000 (2014), stud fee, the progeny from his $15000 fee in 2015 are only two-year-olds now and we haven’t had a runner from that crop, but I am hearing from trainers there are some pretty nice horses amongst them.”
Per Incanto stands alongside Nadeem(AUS)(Reboute’s Choice[AUS]- Candide) who is also a descendant of a top Te Parae family and their latest acquisition Time Test(GB) (Dubawi[IRE]-Passage of Time[GB]). - Michelle Saba
