Rheinwood Pastoral Co.

We ventured up to the Gold Coast in January with some trepidation not knowing what to expect from the buying bench suffering still from the global financial crisis but were pleasantly surprised when we sold a lovely Annaba colt to the Hong Kong Jockey Club for $220,000 and a Magic Albert colt, a full brother to Group 1 Winner Albert the Fat, for $100,000 being purchased by Anthony Cummings. The other horses sold well including an O’Reilly filly for $100,000.

Easter was upon us in early April and we headed off with a lovely draft of colts and a cracking Testa Rossa filly owned by Pancho Pastoral Co P/L. We were not disappointed with the filly making $340,000, sold to Paul Messara. The three Nadeem colts were well received by buyers; the Maestro Bart Cummings purchased the stunning Fly By Night colt for $220,000 and Shane Edwards, from Western Australia, the Can She Fly colt for $180,000.

We passed in a lovely Holy Roman Emperor/Opportune colt at the Magic Millions in January so we decided to send it up to the Magic Millions sale in June under the Yarraman Park banner and he fetched a price that exceeded our expectations. Magus Equine from Hong Kong bought the stunning colt for $240,000 and we look forward to watching him closely on the racetrack.

During the year we steadily built up our broodmare band with a number of purchases and before we knew it was August and the breeding season was upon us. This year we foaled down 22 mares, some stunning foals were born by Northern Meteor (5), Sebring (2), Fastnet Rock (3), New Approach and Lohnro and the list goes on.

In September we commenced walking on our mares to various studs, the stallion selection this year is mouthwatering, following our golden rule of 1st season or proven sires. The mares visited; ‘Wanted’ in Victoria, ‘Nicconi’, ‘Duporth’, ‘I Am Invincible’, and the proven ‘Testa Rossa’, ‘Magic Albert’, ‘Tale of the Cat’ and ‘Redoutes Choice’ just to name a few. All up 34 mares were covered with 30 in foal and still two to test early next week. What a fantastic result - hats off to our wonderful staff!

On the racetrack we celebrated ‘Albert the Fat’s’ Group 1 BTC Cup win early in the year in Queensland and our promising 3 year old crop including ‘Havatryst’ (2 city wins), ‘Smart’ (city winner), Mac Chois (city winner) and stakes placed ‘Howdiddydoit’.

We also watched other 3 year olds run promising races on metropolitan tracks namely ‘Gilded Spur’, ‘Polar Eclipse’, and ‘Gig Guide’. All the above were bred/raised at Rheinwood.

We have our 2011 Magic Millions draft in the barn now, there are some lovely types and hopefully we can repeat our 2010 effort in the New Year!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all!

Ray