Racing: Success comes too late for exported sire

A couple of years ago you could probably have tied yearlings by Traditionally up in bundles of 10 and struggled to sell them.

On Saturday at Ellerslie, one of Traditionally's daughters, Smoulder, showed she was a filly to be taken very seriously by winning the listed Great Northern Foal Stakes and at Trentham, Fives'a Diamond, a son of Traditionally, was hugely impressive making a winning debut against what could prove in time to have been a smart bunch of juveniles.

It is no real surprise to Rick Williams, who manages for Queenslander Dick Karreman The Oaks Stud which housed Traditionally.

"He was unsuccessful commercially and we sold him to France in 2006," said Williams.

"These horses running around now are his last New Zealand crop.

"When Traditionally went to France I cleaned out the horses at the stud by him and kept the best six weanlings by him out of the best mares.

"It was a waste of time taking them to the sales because they wouldn't have been commercial.

"Smoulder and Fives'a Diamond are two of them and another is a horse I trialled from the Pike stable at Cambridge recently. He charged home for second and was immediately sold to Hong Kong.

"Another is a 2-year-old out of Natalie Wood with Ralph Manning, which is showing promise, but will need another year."

Williams says that although these results are impressive, Traditionally became a commercial failure because of his first couple of crops.

"You can never resurrect them, regardless of how well they do later.

"If they start off badly they're doomed."

Traditionally is doing reasonably well in France.

"He stands at €5000 and his books are pretty good, apparently," said Williams.

Co-trainer Graeme Sanders has a lot of admiration for Smoulder, whose professionalism and determination have impressed everyone.

"She just gets in there and does it," said Sanders.

Williams loves the filly's sheer guts.

"When she won at Tauranga she looked to be tightened up for room and I remember thinking: 'You're not going to be able to get through there love.'

"But she just put her head down and barged through.

"She's got the courage to get out of a tight spot, just like Sea Change did. I'm not saying she's a Sea Change, but she's got her determination.

"She's improved with every run and it doesn't matter if it rains or not.

"I love sending a horse away when you don't have to worry about the weather.

"It's great to have a horse that doesn't worry what the footing is because when it rains it levels out a lot of the class in a race."

When Dick Karreman first came into horse racing in New Zealand with his purchase of The Oaks Stud he used to lease a number of yearlings out each season, mostly the fillies.

He decided to change that policy and race all the retained horses himself, which is why his white colours with the blue band and white pompom have become one of racing's iconic sights.

"We used to have 12 to 15 in work. At the moment we've got 24 in training and at the peak of the season we had 30."

Allan Sharrock has an opinion of Fives'a Diamond, who showed plenty of grit on debut in Trentham's very testing ground on Saturday.

"Hayden [Tinsley] said when he took him down in his preliminary he was looking around at everything, but in the final stages of the race he didn't have to ride him right out because he was doing it professionally and comfortably."

Rick Williams said several bloodstock agents have been sniffing around the youngster in the last 24 hours.

"That was a $15,000 race so he's qualified for Hong Kong.

"If he's sold he's sold. We're traders."

It was good to see Chad Ormsby get a stakes race on Smoulder as reward for the desperately difficult battle he has with keeping his weight at a rideable level.

Ormsby had to ride Smoulder at half a kilo overweight and knows he's probably only one lengthy suspension away from retirement, something he says he will do anything to avoid.

Inexperience cost the favourite, We Can Say It Now, dearly in the Foal Stakes.

Michael Coleman had her in the perfect position behind the leaders on the home turn, but when he asked the big filly for an effort she seemed to lose concentration.

She drifted back to sixth place before getting going again with 100m to run to get into second.