21 Aug 2018
Promising First Up Winner For Highly Recommended
Highly Recommended three-year-old Notabadidea made his first racetrack appearance a winning one with a dominant win in the three-year-old maiden over 1100 metres at Taupo on Wednesday. Notabadidea was settled midfield by Jason Waddell and once in the clear finished strongly to win in the style of a horse with more in the tank. Trainer Craig Phelan, who also shares in the ownership, sourced Notabadidea from Sam Beatson’s Riversley Park draft at the 2017 NZB Ready To Run Sale.
“We picked him up at the Ready to Run sale for $100,000 which we thought was a nice price for him as he is a good looking horse. My son Shaun and his partner Emily Farr both rode for Sam so we had an insight into how well the horse went. They also had Sumstreetsumwhere at Sam’s the previous year so they were fans of Highly Recommended,” said Phelan.
As to future plans, Phelan said everything is on the table. “A lot of names have been thrown out there including the Guineas but we’ll just let the dust settle and see where we go with him next.”
Notabadidea was bred by Alan Jones and Edwina Morris and is the first foal out of Captain Rio mare Splash. Highly Recommended stood his first five seasons at Jones and Morris’ Berkley Stud before relocating this year to Cambridge Stud where he will stand at a fee of $10,000 + GST in 2018.