Equestrian: Eventing legend reduced to rookie status at Karaka

Eventing legend Blyth Tait feels like a rookie at his first day of pony club.

He knows his haul of Olympic and world championship medals will count for little when lot 102, a Minardi-Razqee filly, appears at the start of the National Yearling Sales at Karaka today.

But a road-weary Tait, looking for a new challenge after 15 years at the top of the dressage-cross country-showjumping world, wouldn't have it any other way.

"I feel as excited now as I did when I first started out in eventing and that's what I missed towards the end," said the 44-year-old, who retired from competitive riding last year.

"I wanted to come home after 15 years in England but I did feel like I was doing the same thing over and over again."

The first-time vendor has been putting the sales polish on 10 youngsters, four in the Premier section and six in the Select sessions, at his Karaka property Chesterfields, named in honour of the ill-fated eventer he rode to bronze at the Atlanta Olympics.

The three colts Tait has in the Premier Sale, by O'Reilly, High Yield and Montjeu, are owned by another Olympic icon, his equestrian team-mate Mark Todd, who is now training from a Cambridge base.

The Atlanta gold medallist admits the yearling business has been a steep learning curve and he's coming in with low expectations on debut.

"I'm in this for the long haul but I don't want to set too many specifics for my first sales," Tait said.

"I've been around horses for too long to know it's not the smartest thing to do."

Tait aims to keep his operation small and strictly hands-on, training and racing a few fillies of his own, who will eventually join a select broodmare band.

"I have four or five mares at the moment who I share with my dad [Bob] and I hope to be adding to that every now and then.

"I'd rather have 10 premier horses than have 15 others."

Tait's pick of his Pemier draft is lot 319, the O'Reilly-Chablis colt, an athletic type who has walked into the minds of plenty of prospective buyers in the last few weeks.

But Tait suspects that one of the last yearlings to appear at this week's three-day Premier Sale, lot 516, a Montjeu-Little Gem colt, will attract most heat from the hammer.

"He's a bit more precocious and stronger, a bit more ready than the others.

"I'm only guessing though, I'm still a bit green at all this and I don't want to go blowing myself up at this stage.

If I hadn't been a successful eventer I would have been completely unnoticed coming in here."

And that might have made it a lot easier on the nerves.

For many of the heavyweights of the buyers' bench, however, most interest this week centres on the final 20 Southern Hemisphere yearlings by rock-star sire Danehill.

The headline act in the world breeding scene for the last decade died in a freak paddock accident in Ireland in 2003.

But his legend lives on, with 264 individual stakes winners, including 64 at the coveted group one level. Last year alone he had 51 individual black-type successes.

Transtasman trainer Graeme Rogerson, who will be a major force again at Karaka this week, unleashed another potential superstar by Danehill in impressive Trentham juvenile winner at the weekend, Love Diamonds.

Last year's sales topper, the $1.1 million Danehill-Grand Echezeaux colt Darci Brahma, makes an eagerly awaited race debut at Avondale today.

But Te Akau Racing boss David Ellis, who wrote the seven figure cheque in 2004, said the 2-year-old's appearance wasn't orchestrated as a marketing tool for New Zealand Bloodstock.

"We are not training him for the sales, we are getting him ready for the Sires' Produce and this just happens to be the first race that he's ready for," said Ellis.

"In an ideal world, we'd prefer not to have him racing at Avondale - it puts undue pressure on us and the horse to perform."

Ellis doubts he'll buy as many as the 38 yearlings he snapped up last year, but the unprecedented depth of the 79th catalogue may mean he spends just as much.

Leading candidates for top-priced Premier Sale lot include a Danehill-Encens filly, a Danehill-Beyond The Sunset colt, a Giant's Causeway-Champagne colt and a Zabeel-Marquise colt.

But Ellis is staying coy about which one he's saving his biggest cheque for.

"All I can say is that we have our eye on a colt with the potential to be a stallion for the New Zealand breeding industry."