No Time For Crocodile Tierce When A Stud Runs For Cover
Sydney Morning Herald
Friday April 4, 2003
The fact that Tierce is ``crocodiling" in China is just another example of the rich diversity of the Golden Slipper and the major players involved in it.
Young horses, some freshly out of nappies in an equine sense, go into the Golden Slipper, touted as the biggest and best two-year-old race, a helter skelter dash at Rosehill Gardens on Saturday week offering $3 million in prizemoney.
After the exertion of the juvenile classic, some go on to become major earners while others go into decline.
Newhaven Park, the magnificent stud at Boorowa, NSW, has a long history with the sprint, dating back to Vain (1969), which was by Wilkes, the resident stallion at the time.
Since then, Newhaven Park, the property of the Kelly family, has specialised in what the Golden Slipper has endeavoured to continue: speed and class. As with most aspects of racing it has often gained little or made heaps from a moderate outlay.
Yet the policy has paid off.
In more recent times, Newhaven Park Stud syndicate, or members of the Kelly family, has won the major Rosehill race with Burst (1992) and Prowl (1998) and should have scored with 1997 runner-up Encounter.
Zeditave, beaten by a wide barrier in 1988, stands at Newhaven Park, as did Luskin Star, later joined by Marauding and Tierce, also Slipper winners.
Not only did Tierce, described as a very compact, neat colt, take the Golden Slipper but the triple crown as well, including the AJC Sires Produce and Champagne Stakes, joining Luskin Star and Baguette, the only other horses to achieve the feat.
Tierce was possibly one of the most controversial of the Golden Slipper winners as he returned a positive sample to lignocaine, a local anaesthetic. Australian Jockey Club stewards created a furore when they didn't take the race off him due to the interpretation of the rules of racing, which wouldn't happen now due to recent rule changes.
Still, with such excellent credentials Tierce was a highly sought after stallion and went to Newhaven Park.
Certainly the stud has had excellent results from Luskin Star and Marauding but Tierce is in the category of a ``a very disappointing sire", according to Richard Kelly, one of the Newhaven Park principles and an Australian Jockey Club committeeman.
The stallion that once stood tall over the two-year-old territory of his season ``was a very effeminate sort of horse", Kelly pointed out, and his progeny had the same look, ``lacking masculinity".
So Tierce was put on the transfer list and picked up by Domeland, the prolific collector of thoroughbreds for China. Kelly recollects the sale price as being about $150,000 to $200,000.
Alas Tierce is proving troublesome in China, where Peter Flynn, stud master of Woodlands Stud (Denman, in the Hunter Valley), saw him earlier this year.
When on holidays, Flynn at times avails his considerable horsemanship to Asia, where recently, with Treve Williams, the noted veterinarian and AJC committeeman, he came across Tierce ``crocodiling".
Williams was mystified by the expression, as was Richard Kelly.
``Crocodiling is what horses do in the wild when trying to claim territory," Flynn explained this week. ``[Tierce] runs around with his head close to the ground with his ears back and head straight out. They do that when they are very cranky about something. It's a threatening motion. They do it around their mares. In the wild they round mares up and get them back to where they belong, making a claim. You accept it in the wild but it's not a nice thing to see in his current environment.
``Next thing to come will be the behaviour and physiological problems," Flynn added. ``It wouldn't take much for him to savage the handler. He's agitated. It's the first time I've seen it come from a thoroughbred stallion in a handling situation."
Flynn figures Tierce could be having ``covering problems", becoming disturbed, but doesn't blame his environment. ``There are a lot of places in Australia a lot worse," he stressed.
Perhaps it could be because Tierce is now living in a barn with other stallions. He is upset when the mares come to be covered and feels others are invading his territory. Flynn has been contacted since he returned home about the worsening attitude of Tierce and has suggested a change in accommodation.
Certainly the best horse Tierce produced before leaving was Encounter, which should have won the 1997 Golden Slipper. The colt reacted badly to a belt with the whip and went down in a close photo. Encounter, too, stands at Newhaven Park.
``Encounter has got to lift his game," Kelly said. ``He's disappointing at this stage."
Tierce isn't the only Golden Slipper winner with a Newhaven Park background to go abroad. Prowl left Australia as a barred bleeder (bleed twice and you're out) for America. He was last sighted in Canada 12 months ago.
By Marauding and a gelding, Prowl contributes to a pattern that could prove a good omen for Resistor, a Danehill colt bred at Newhaven Park. Trained by Bob Thomsen, Resistor is out to quality for this year's Golden Slipper in the Pago Pago Stakes at Rosehill Gardens tomorrow.
Despite being an impressive type, Prowl didn't reach his reserve as a yearling. Encounter didn't get a bid.
Resistor, too, failed to stimulate any interest and didn't make his reserve at the Newmarket yearling sale last year. However, he is a better type than the 1991 Golden Slipper winner Burst, another Newhaven Park-bred horse. She wasn't attractive enough to even be put up for auction. Later, though, the filly proved lucrative.
``Do you believe in omens?" Kelly asked.
Maybe. But then would anyone believe an Australian horse would be acting like a crocodile in China?
© 2003 Sydney Morning Herald