Brendon McCullum (centre) and Hamish Chapman (right) inspect a Pins filly yesterday. Picture / Nick Reed
Question: Who is the prominent breeder who Brendon McCullum went to see a week or so again to look at a potential purchase from the current Karaka yearling sale?
And didn't recognise him.
"We were having a couple of beers afterwards and I said: 'What do you do for a living?'."
The reply was: "I play cricket."
"What, professionally?"
"Yes, I have been paid to play for teams overseas."
"Do you play for anyone else?"
"Yes, I captain New Zealand."
Oh.
McCullum and the breeder laughed about it yesterday as our best-known cricketer looked over potential purchases on the final day of the Premier Session of New Zealand Bloodstock's yearling sale.
McCullum and business partner Hamish Chapman, manager of Vermair Racing, are setting up their own thoroughbred syndication.
On Monday, McCullum bought into a share of the $100,000 No Excuse Needed-Singing Star filly bought by New Zealand's biggest syndicator, Te Akau's David Ellis.
"That's the 18th horse I've got a share in," said McCullum.
He's excited about the path down which he and Chapman are treading.
"The first horse we're going to syndicate is a Volksraad filly. Hamish and I have gone out on a limb and it's all fairly new to us, but it's thrilling and we're going to go steadily."
McCullum was born on the back straight of Dunedin's Forbury Park harness track and understandably his first interest was in that horse sphere.
"Then I started in galloping with small shares in horses and built up."
He says it was a chance meeting with Mark Chittick, principal of the huge Waikato Stud, that thrust him into the big time in the horse business.
"We've become great mates."
The Cricket World Cup and developing thoroughbred yearlings are going to ensure our cricket captain's mind is occupied.
Meanwhile, Queenslander Liam Birchley and his cast of owners have not been shy in reinvesting their Ellerslie proceeds.
The Eagle Farm trainer celebrated his second victory in the Karaka Million with Hardline on Sunday and he was in the action early again on the closing day of NZB's Premier Sale.
Birchley signed for a son of Westbury Stud's Redwood for $200,000 at Karaka, with the colt to be raced by a number of Hardline's owners.
"He's an outstanding type with great balance and strength," he said. "He might not be that precocious - he could be a classic horse."
The colt (Lot 235) is a half-brother to dual group two winner Sound Journey (Crystal Mile, Alister Clark Stakes) with their dam an unraced O'Reilly mare Written By Sound.
His future stablemate Hardline has come through his Ellerslie success in good heart and will be spelled on his return to Queensland.
"I'll get him home and give him a good break and then I might have a look at the winter carnival for him," Birchley said. "Putting the blinkers on him at Ellerslie was the key and hopefully he will go on with it as a 3-year-old."
Birchley had his first crack at the Karaka Million in 2009 with Sarge In Charge, who finished runner-up behind The Heckler. He returned the following year to go one better with the General Nediym filly Sister Havana, a $40,000 Karaka purchase.
- additional reporting, NZ Racing Desk
Life after cricket
• New Zealand cricket captain Brendon McCullum was inspecting yearlings at Karaka yesterday.
• Along with Hamish Chapman he is setting up a racing syndication, Vermair Racing.
• Liam Birchley reinvested some of his winnings from the Karaka Million on Sunday.
It was Matt Dixon's biggest win as a solo trainer.