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For decades Taranaki dairy farmer Eddie Bourke reckons his vision of the perfect racehorse never quite matched the reality in his paddocks.
That all changed when he cashed up a 180-hectare property on the Waimate Plains last year and went shopping at the national yearling sales at Karaka yesterday.
In less than two minutes, the long-time budget hobby breeder/owner carved his notch on the heavyweight buyers' bench with an $875,000 spending spree.
With long-time mate, New Plymouth trainer John Wheeler, doing the bidding, Bourke nabbed two O'Reilly blueblood gems - colts out of The Grin (for $300,000) and her daughter The Glitter ($575,000).
Both were from the Phoenix Park draft of South Island legends the Dennis brothers whose famous 'The' bloodline Bourke says he could only dream about tapping into. It has produced such turf luminaries as The Phantom, The Phantom Chance, The Fantasy, The Twinkle and The Jewel.
"I've been racing and breeding horses for 35 to 40 years in a different league - out of cash-flow and very much in budget," said Bourke.
"I've battled away with breeding with a lower standard and had to accept the conformation we've bred.
"Now it's nice to be able to picture the perfect horse in your mind and be able to buy it. In my opinion these two horses represent the best families in the New Zealand studbook."
In the current economic climate Bourke, who spent $600,000 for a close relation at Karaka last year, estimated he may have got his O'Reilly pair for $800,000 in total.
But he didn't mind admitting to being wrong on two counts as he celebrated with the Dennis brothers yesterday - he also thought The Grin colt would be the more expensive.
"The second one was probably the best on breeding but on conformation the first was sharp.
"He was the only colt who scored 10 by John Wheeler and a 9.5 by [New Plymouth trainer] Allan Sharrock."
Both O'Reilly colts will be trained by Wheeler and raced by a seven-strong syndicate - Bourke, his partner Jenny Washer, Bourke's daughter Nicola Bourke and her husband Matthew Eliason - son of legendary All Black lock Ian Eliason - Boof Fleming and his son Jason, and top diary industry vet Allan Peircey.
"Allan's never been on a racecourse before; I had to talk him into it over a few beers over Christmas," laughed Bourke.
"But they've all been really good; they respect my judgment and leave it to me. I dare say I'll get a hurry-up at some stage if mistakes are made."
Wheeler has trained such giants of the track as Rough Habit and Our Poetic Prince and prepared Veandercross to run second in a Caulfield Cup.
"I need to win a Melbourne Cup before I die," he joked after yesterday's buys.
"They aren't really Melbourne Cup types," he said in a more serious mode. "They are more like classic types and I hope they will be ready for the classics as 3-year-olds."
Luckily for Bourke, his O'Reilly yearlings weren't on the hit-list of leading New Zealand buyer David Ellis as he continued his hunt for his Te Akau-syndicated Dream Team of five headline colts.
Ellis turned up the heat later in the final session of the two-day premier sale with a $750,000 Encosta de Lago-Wyndam Special colt from Cambridge Stud and a $600,000 Encosta de Lago-Devil's Lair colt from Pencarrow.
They followed on from his opening salvo on Monday for a $700,000 Redoute's Choice-Love Connection colt and a $510,000 Zabeel-Miss Power Bird colt.
All the top-priced Te Akau colts are to be raced by the same 10-share syndicate, which Ellis said was 80 per cent full yesterday and was confident would be completed within the next week.
"These colts have international appeal; people around the world want to race in New Zealand," said Ellis.
"It's about performance on the racetrack - and every Saturday there is a finishing post in our business.
"With seven winners in the last four days we're performing for our owners." Ellis also bought a $600,000 Stravinsky-Ana Zeel filly yesterday.
AVERAGE DROPS 26 per cent
* Aggregate over the two-day sale was $53,330,000, a massive dip from 2008's total haul of $111,148,850 and also well shy of the $81,375,700 spent in 2007.
* The sale average over the 503 Premier lots was $145,710, a 26 per cent fall from the record $199,265 last year and also short of the 2007 mark of $156,567.
* After a sluggish start to day two, a strong afternoon lifted the overall clearance rate to 77 per cent, indicating vendors were at least willing to meet the downturn in the market. Last year the clearance rate was 86 per cent, up two points on 2007's 84 per cent
