Horse Proud

Last Saturday I was out on my boat taking a mate and his three sons fishing. When I say fishing, I mean untangling knots, directing traffic in a confined space, baiting hooks at speed while avoiding the pointy ends, and gratefully juggling the odd whiting into the esky. A cracking day.

For a minute or two however, my attention shifted to my phone screen and an 800m 2yo maiden race at Riccarton in New Zealand. A hot tip? No. Last leg of an obscure multi? Not this time, but hopefully the start of an accumulator of sorts that will pay dividends for the next decade.

Fierce Impact's first runner, a plucky and wayward filly named "Zelia" was having her second race start following on from 15-length trial win and a goofy unplaced debut on a mud pile before Christmas.

Old mate Fierce wouldn't have had a clue what his daughter was up to, but those of us that worked to get this stallion's career off the ground were dialled right into the action.

And wouldn't you know it, she won! Check out the replay here courtesy of NZ Racing.

OK, it's a lowly 800m race in New Zealand and she was green and raw and won by a long neck, it was hardly Black Caviar. But it might has well have been a Group race at Flemington - what a relief - they can run! And fast! And in a 2yo race in January! Who knew!

I did know that I'd be stoked when one of Fierce Impact's first runners became a winner, but I had no idea just how good it would feel. Genuine satisfaction. The sort of smile you get when you know you've just done something worthwhile. Bloody proud of a horse currently stood in his paddock up at Seymour blissfully unaware that his genes had been passed on in a winning way.

I shot a text back to Sam White, manager of Lovatsville, the farm that now guides Fierce Impact's career after Leneva Park joined them in partnership in 2024, then put the phone down and put another whiting on the ice. A little win. The first of many.

When Leneva Park ventured into the world of commercial stallions back in 2020 the team had to learn on the run, and fast. I'd never managed a stallion business before, our sales staff had never sold stallion nominations before, our stallion manager Brian Byrnes - the only one with experience in the field - must have wondered what he'd struck.

But we managed to get through a strong first season, then a second, and then a third, handing over the care of Fierce Impact and Royal Meeting to Lovatsville knowing that with over 300 foals on the ground and over a hundred more to be born in 2025, the stallion would have every possible chance to "make it" if his babies were fast enough.

Well, one of them is fast enough, and there will be more. He might just make it after all.

Onya Fierce. Well done old mate.