Kiwi Breeder Seeking Aussie Black Type

Media Release - Tuesday July 3

The former Stephen Marsh-trained duo Pierrocity and I Am Queen have joined Trent Busuttin and Natalie Young's Cranbourne stable in the hope of gaining black type.

I Am a Queen - Trish DunnellTheir owner, Karapiro dairy farmer Roger Blunt, said it was a tough decision to send his fillies to Australia, but his hand was forced due to the current track conditions and lucrative prizemoney on offer in Victoria.

"From the outset we said if we had horses that were good enough to go to Australia, that was where we were intending to go with them," he said.

"Stephen had done a great job in prepping them, we had reasonably high hopes for one of them recently and the weather has been totally against them.

"That prompted me to think they are not going to race on decent tracks now until the spring, I Am Queen is ready to go, maybe now is the right time to do it.

"The decision to send them both to Australia was a really big call. Hopefully they are good enough to make it there. If they are not, then we can easily bring them home."

Both fillies were bought by Blunt with a breeding career in mind, and both have showed enough promise in their three-year-old seasons to date.

"Stephen very much likes I Am Queen and Pierrocity came sixth in the Guineas, so she has got plenty of ability. She is better over longer distances," he said.

"In the short time that they have been over there, Trent and Natalie have taken a bit of a shine to I Am Queen and she's pretty close to going to the races, so we'll start finding out how good they really are."

I Am Queen holds a nomination for Saturday's Listed A.R. Creswick Series Final (1200m) at Flemington where the likely opposition includes highly-rated sprinter Nature Strip.

Blunt farms two properties in Karapiro and is planning on devoting some of that land to his horse business, where he hopes both fillies will become his foundation mares once they finish their racing careers.

"If they're good enough, black-type is where we are trying to head," Blunt said.

"Our goal is to build up their pedigree and end up with a broodmare band of maybe half a dozen and we'll have them at home here.

"We're out at Karapiro where we have two farms. One is a 170-hectare dairy farm and the other is 150ha, which is directly opposite which I run on my own and is basically a support block.

"The plan is to fence off 30 to 40 acres here and set ourselves up with stables. That is the long-term goal and always has been."

Although familiar with other livestock, Blunt didn't have anything to do with horses until nearly a decade ago when he was farming in Te Kauwhata and said he has relied heavily on the advice of others within the industry.

"I've been in the livestock industry a long time, the thoroughbreds and livestock are a completely different ball game altogether," he said.

"It is other people's expertise really as to how we have ended up with the fillies.

"I bought I Am Queen from the Gold Coast where she was the first Animal Kingdom yearling filly to be offered in the world. She has shown quite a bit of promise at the moment, so we have got a lot of hope for her.

"Pierrocity (a daughter of four-time Group One winner Dane Ripper) was bought for me, even though I was at the sale, by Bruce Perry who obviously has a good eye for a good horse.

"We were fortunate to get her for what we paid for her (A$120,000). She had a superficial injury and Bruce knew that, which was to our advantage."

Although Blunt enjoys horse racing, he said he has set it up as a business and expects it to pay its way.

"We treat it as a business, it's not a hobby or just something we do for Saturday fun. We now have it as a stand-alone (business), we are not robbing the dairy farm to support the horses.

"We have been fortunate to buy some well-bred stock and have got some good money out the other end for doing so, which has helped fund the other horses to keep going.

"We sold Ruthless Lady, a stakes placed horse, that went to an Australian buyer and we sold one recently as a broodmare for top dollar.

"They both made up towards $300,000, so they sold well. But we have invested all the way through at the top-end as far as we could afford to go. Most of the fillies have cost us between $150,000 to $200,000 to start with."

Blunt will look forward to watching how his two promising fillies perform in Australia, while keeping a watchful eye on the development of a couple of home-bred colts he has in pre-training.

"I've got a couple being pre-trained by Trevor Da Cruz, but the racing end of the business for us has been with Stephen and will remain so." – NZ Racing Desk.

Advertisment
More Reading...
El Vencedor wins G3 Balmerino Stakes
El Vencedor is making a habit of picking up major victories at Ellerslie, adding the Gr.3 Balmerino Stakes (2000m) to his burgeoning record at Tuesday’s Melbourne Cup Day meeting.
2024 Melbourne Cup Result - It's Knights Choice
The 2024 Melbourne Cup has been run and won with Knight’s Choice, a five-year-old gelding by Extreme Choice victorious.
Sires With Winners - Tuesday November 5
Here is the full list of 145 stallions which had winners throughout Australasia today with winners and result details.
Coolmore Set Justify Fee for 2025
Coolmore have announced the US fee for Justify in 2025 with the undefeated Triple Crown winner priced at $US250,000 to head  their roster of 16 stallions at Ashford Stud in Kentucky.
Antrim Coast to Fly Flag for The Oaks Stud
The well-renowned colours of The Oaks Stud will feature across two feature Trans-Tasman meetings this week, kicking off with Antrim Coast lining up in the Listed Furphy Plate (1800m) on Melbourne Cup Day at Flemington.
Sires With Winners - Monday November 4
Here is the full list of 21 stallions which had winners throughout Australasia today with winners and result details.
Knights Choice a True Underdog Story
Punters were left stunned when the Queenslander Knight's Choice and Japanese visitor Warp Speed (JPN) emerged from the pack to fight out a dramatic finish to the $8,560,000 Group 1 Lexus Melbourne Cup (3200m) at Flemington.
All Too Hard's Arran Bay Brave in the Furphy Plate
Phillip Stokes admitted his preference was to run Arran Bay in the Listed John Letts Cup at Morphettville but was overruled by the owners, who made the correct decision in favouring the Listed Furphy Plate (1800m) at Flemington.
Melbourne Cup Pedigree Analysis - Do It Yourself
Breednet has produced a great page with click through to five generation pedigrees for all the Melbourne Cup runners, so for amateur pedigree buffs looking to have a Cup flutter based pedigree here’s your chance  to DIY it!
$6million Frankel Mare Tops Fasig -Tipton November Sale
The Fasig-Tipton November Sale, billed as the World’s Premier Breeding Stock Event, was held Monday at the company’s Newtown Paddocks in Lexington, Kentucky. Twenty-five offerings sold for $1,000,000 or more, led by a trio of Grade/Group 1 winners with international appeal.