Kentuckiana Lodge are well into their preparations to find their next racetrack superstars at the 2024 National Yearling Sales at Karaka and Christchurch.
Trainers Cran and Chrissie Dalgety are again preparing to fill their barn with blueblood stock who have the scope to go on to contest Australasia’s biggest races.
The Dalgetys know finding the next Krug, Republican Party, Christen Me or Bit Of A Legend doesn’t just happen.
It takes hours of analysing the yearling sales catalogue, miles of travel across New Zealand and careful inspection of hundreds of young standardbreds when they see them up close.
Cran has been through the process time and again over more than the past three decades.
Yet as the sales come around each year, he doesn’t lose any of his trademark enthusiasm.
“Every year the challenge is there to find the horses that you can take your owners on a ride through to the biggest races," Cran said.
“As the years go on you tend to hone in what you are looking for, but the challenge doesn’t get any easier with the modern yearling being so well presented and prepped for the sales.”
“You have to go in with a discerning eye and be quite a harsh judge of what is in front of you.”
“You never quite know what will happen on sales day, but you can be as prepared as possible and that is always our plan.”
“We know what we want and we know what we don’t want.”
“You don’t bring home every single horse on your list but most years we come home very happy with what we have secured.”
“With the stable being able to compete in many of the good group races in recent seasons, that shows that we have done our job at the sales.”
Cran and Carter headed to Auckland for the northern yearling sales tour.
The Kentuckiana team has been able to do plenty of private inspections in Canterbury while they are booked to head south on the southern yearling sales tour.
So far, Cran has seen plenty of potential buys that have made it to his wider list.
“The standard of presentation is high again this year and there have been a few that have stood out for us along the way.”
“Quite early on we mark our books with the pedigrees we like; we do need to see something we like on the page.”
“Inspecting the yearlings is obviously a crucial next step.”
“After doing this for many years you almost have an automatic checklist in your mind to go through when you see a young horse.”
“You have to know what you like and what you are looking for.”
“So far there have been several that have made the shortlist and a few others that haven’t.”
“We inspect 99% of horses in the book and we are looking forward to getting to Southland to see what they have to offer.”
“From there we can narrow things down even further.”
Kentuckiana invites all existing and new owners to join them on their yearling sales journey.
Shares of all sizes will be available in horses following the National Yearling Sales.
For more information or to register your interest, email c.dalgety@xtra.co.nz or call Cran (027-436-0667) or Chrissie (027-278-9466).
