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Sale of Major Star

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Post by barryf Sat Apr 16, 2016 2:05 pm

This morning's meeting resulted in an unanimous vote to sell, 33- 0, with 21 of those proxy votes.
Brent Mangos didn't make the meeting but his comments and recommendation said it all anyway.
Rob Carr said he did  negotiate a small increase on the original offer (probably $30000) and also mentioned that it would cost the buyer another $25000 approximately to land the horse in the U.S.
The sale is subject to a veterinary certificate but this is more of a physical examination and no problems are anticipated.
All going well he will probably fly out next week.
Keith Treadaway is considering putting his "Major Star" cap on the market but has already declined a "generous" $4 offer made at the cafe later ( real money displayed) . Could be a valuable collector's item should Star set the States on fire!

barryf

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Post by ray the beancounter Sun Apr 10, 2016 5:37 pm

The fact that Star is deemed a suitable candidate to benefit from Lasix comes as little surprise to me. His drop in form over the last 12 months seemed either a mental issue with him no longer wishing to be a racehorse, or rapidly progressing physical deterioration.

On occasion he can still “fire” well enough to win a race but all too often his performance has appeared substandard to an armchair critic who thrilled at his juvenile abilities.  His recorded form would imply that he is doing relatively okay, but if you look a bit further into that recent form and consider the fact that several of these recent placings have been against lesser quality horses on grass tracks then you could only conclude that these are significantly inferior compared to a Alexandra Park placing.
In my opinion the writing was on the wall when Star was beaten in a grass track race by Celtic Warrior who is a horse that plies his trade largely running in amateur drivers ranks. I drove this horse at an amateur drivers weekend workshop last year and was unpleasantly surprised that Star could not beat him.

Just as a side issue there has been some recent speculation within the ownership ranks of Sky Major that a move to mile racing in America may also be beneficial for that horse, for the very same reasons as is considered beneficial for Star.
This begs the question of whether more older Art Major horses will move from New Zealand and Australia to see out the sunset of their racing careers in America.  I have previously raised the issue of Art Majors being better juveniles than older race horses, Star and Sky Major just provide further evidence on this theory.

As to the price offered for Star I consider it to be realistic given his current form and in line with say one further years potential racing stakes earnings, so there is no qualm from me in this regard.

A move to Australia for Star’s future racing is never going to be an option – the syndicate would never approve such a move on a permanent basis. Faster more competitive racing will physically take a great deal more out of Star than the “easier” grass track racing that he has been attempting. Any move to Australia, which I would not support in the first instance, would only be a detour on his ultimate destination of America.

As to Major Change I can see his racing career within the current ownership syndicate coming to an end sooner rather than later. He is achieving little and as a 4 year old has had 14 starts for 1 win and 2 seconds with stakes earnings of $9,239.  It has cost a damn sight more than this sum, in training fees, to achieve this result and more often than not we are presented with mediocre performances on the racetrack.  If a vote to sell or retire Change is presented to members in the near future then I will not be opposing it.


Last edited by ray the beancounter on Sun Apr 24, 2016 7:43 am; edited 1 time in total
ray the beancounter
ray the beancounter

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Post by barryf Sun Apr 10, 2016 3:59 pm

The offer to purchase at $33000 whilst not a "wow" one is probably realistic in the current climate and taking into consideration some erratic moments in Star's form.

I believe there are a couple of wins left in New Zealand racing as he is only assessed at C5 but if he were to remain here his prospects thereafter would likely be diminished.

When I consider his record on all weather tracks of 9 wins from 33 starts ( Nil from 11 on grass) I can envisage a highly successful racing career in the U.S.A with the benefit of being allowed to race with "Lasix" on their wide tracks and only over the mile distance.  With some mixed feelings I would like to see him have that chance and have the excitement of seeing him perform there on line as with Awesome Armbro some years back.

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Post by Des Carruthers Sun Apr 10, 2016 2:41 pm

You present a very good case Conwell that outlines the financial side of racehorse ownership and how difficult it is to make an overall profit. The other side of the discussion, touched on by Conwell, relates to the anticipation, enjoyment and occasional excitement of being involved with a highly competitive horse eg The Faithful, Ideal Belle and Major Star. The bit that concerns me most is that the trainer thinks that Major Star has reached his mark and would no longer be competitive at Alexandra Park despite entering the horse in the New Zealand Cup some months ago. Brent Mangos would clearly know better than we lay people but the people involved in ATC2016 and ATC2017 would be lucky to get a horse such as Major Star. Whilst I agree that it is impractical for a syndicate horse to race full time overseas, I hope to see Major Star competing on SKY Racing Channel for a while longer but with a trainer that believes that he has a future. Major Change however ... the clock is ticking.

Des Carruthers

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Post by Conwell Sat Apr 09, 2016 11:52 pm

I personally think that $33K is a very good offer.

Star was purchased at the 2011 Karaka yearling sales as a colt for $34K. He is now a rising 7YO gelding and we are being offered all but the same price that we paid for him when he had a long promising future ahead of him.

Since Star began racing nearly 4 years ago, he has amassed a total stakes earnings of just under $130K. (not including bonuses) While this is a solid effort and well above what most standardbreds will earn in their careers, it still works out to be just less than $33K a year and doesn't even cover the cost of annual training fees.
In his last two seasons his average annual stakes earnings are actually less than $15K per year... Shocked

While the idea of the syndicate racing him in Perth sounds enticing, realistically this is never going to happen in an Auckland based syndicate with so many owners.

I have a 'Major' soft spot for Major Star as the first horse that I've owned to race in Australia and the first horse that I've owned to run in a Group 1 race, but I sadly think that this is too good an offer to turn down.

Conwell

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Post by Des Carruthers Sat Apr 09, 2016 10:42 am

This morning we received an email to notify us of the offer to purchase Major Star for $33,000 to race in America. The manager would receive just over $4,000 and each share of ATC 2012 would receive approximately $577. Whilst I think that Major Star could be bought at the right price, the offer seems way too low when you consider that in the past few weeks he won Palmerstonian Classic and just missed first prize in the Country Cups Final in addition to places in the Parawai, Rotorua and Stratford Cups at his previous three starts. He is an ideal horse to race in Perth as several of his NZ rivals have won many races over here eg The Bucket List, Norvic Nightowl. If the syndicate is prepared to lose him to America for such little money per share, they should consider finding a Perth trainer and continue racing him over here themselves. A new trainer and environment could bring out the exciting racehorse that we have all seen in Major Star. The current trainer, in his recommendation to sell, said that due to his age he has lost some of his speed yet in the USA they race over a mile in the low 1 min 50's and I am sure that they think that he can win over there otherwise they would not have made an offer. A sale would mean that the end for ATC 2012 could be close as a current blog issue being discussed is whether Ideal Belle has an immediate future as a broodmare or as a racehorse.

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