28 Dec 2014
New Zealand's Leading Second Season Sire Tavistock has four of his first crop three-year-olds well and truly in the market for the $750,000 New Zealand Derby-Gr.1 (2400m) at Ellerslie, 28 February.
In fact, the gun young sire has the favourite, equal second favourite and two others on the fourth line of betting.
Volkstock'n'barrell (ex Volkster, by Volksraad) is a warm favourite on the futures market with the NZ TAB at a quote of $4. In four starts the Donna and Dean Logan-trained gelding has scored three wins and a third, with two of those victories at Ellerslie including the Gr.3 Bonecrusher Stakes (1400m).
The Roger James-trained Tavy (ex The Cat's Whiskers, by Tale of the Cat) shares the market's second line at $10 with Rockfast and Mongolian Khan. Tavy has also won twice at Ellerslie from four starts, the best being the Listed Trevor Eagle Memorial Stakes (1500m). On Boxing Day she produced a sound effort for third in the Group Two Eight Carat Classic (1600m).
Sharing the fourth line of betting at a $14 quote are two more Tavistocks, namely Margin Trader (ex Power and Might, by Zabeel) and Midnitemagicman (ex Keep Alight, by Keeper).
Margin Trader is prepared by Mike Moroney and Chad Ormsby at Matamata and has had an interesting career to date with a debut win at Bendigo in Australia before being returned to NZ and running an excellent second at Ellerslie.
Margin Trader looks every bit a staying type and the same can be said for Midnitemagicman who is another Tavistock prepared by Donna and Dean Logan. Though yet to win in six starts, Midnitemagicman has been placed in three Listed Races, ranging from 1400m to 2100m.
A snapshot of Tavistock's progeny record to 29 December 2014...
* 38 runners
* 11 winners (7 in NZ, 3 in Australia & 1 in Singapore)
* 12 placed horses
* 7 Stakes Performers, namely
* VOLKSTOK'N'BARRELL (Gr.3 winner)
* AVISTO (LR winner on 3 occasions)
* TAVY (LR winner)
* Diamond Valores (Gr.3-placed in Sydney)
* Midnitemagicman (LR-placed on 3 occasions)
* Imperial Lass (LR-placed in Melbourne)
* Longchamp (Gr.2-placed)