NZ HARNESS NEWS
Three-time New Zealand Cup winner Terror To Love is on the board as a sire.
From his first crop of 61 live foals, 10 have qualified and the first of those to win came across the ditch on Saturday night.
Millwood Tilly, a New Zealand-bred filly, won her debut at Newcastle for Christchurch trainer/driver Mark Jones, who is based in Sydney with a team of horses at present.
He selected her at last year’s Karaka yearling sale from the draft of Katie Carville, paying just $13,000.
She’s owned by three clients of leading Queensland trainers, Peter McMullen and Chantal Turpin, who have purchased numerous good horses off Jones in recent seasons.
“I’ve had a long association with Peter McMullen and Tony Turpin and sold Mattgregor (A$141,374; 1.50.6) to them,” said Jones.
“She’s from the same family as him and when I liked her at the sales, they bought her.
“She’s big and a good-gaited type of filly. I didn’t think much of her early on but she keeps improving.
“Perhaps lacking in sheer speed but keeps going.”
Jones rushed her off the arm in the six-horse field and never looked like getting beaten, running 2.00.8 for the mile in the A$6,120 event.
Millwood Tilly tackles the Group 2 A$50,000 Sapling Stakes at Menangle on Saturday night, where she will strike a field of quality colts.
She’s joined by stablemate Lulu Le Mans while another Jones juvenile. Mister Finnigan, is second emergency.
“It’s a tough race against the colts, but she needs a run before the Pink Bonnet the following week.
“Ultimately, though, she’ll keep getting better and make a nice horse.”
Jones hasn’t had a big sample size of Terror To Love’s stock, but says if she is typical of them, he’ll do ok as a stallion.
“She’s the only Terror I’ve had and I can’t fault her gait or attitude-wise.”
Jones took the three juveniles over to Aussie earlier this month and they linked up with The Bus and Life Lavros at his satellite stable in Whittingham, Sydney.
He views the experiment as successful as this stage, The Bus now well over A$100,000 in earnings and the likes of Whittaker and Delightful Memphis doing a job before going to America.
“The Aussie team is going great. The two-year-olds are winning and earning money when they would have struggled to earn anything at home, so financially it’s been successful.
“We have so many options.
“The plan is to have a fulltime stable based at a new training farm run by Aaron Goadsby and numbers will continue to rise.
“Aaron is a high strike-rate trainer so I have a very capable horseman running it and where we are based, we have many options.
“I will still be based in Burnham a majority of the time but travel over for major races.
“It’s a great option for my owners to earn a lot more money with their horses.”
Jones has trained 18 winners in New Zealand this year, down on previous seasons, but that’s a result of having a small racing team and over 40 juveniles.
- NZ Harness News
Approved By Dean Baring www.harnessbred.com
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