Manawatu Stallion Parade 26 July

Palmerston North is a way from Auckland but there was an air of anticipation as I headed south.

I guess a lot of that feeling had to do with visiting farms I hadn't been too before, in particular the history ladden Fairdale establishment and the new kid in town Wellfield Lodge. Oh and of course, the chance to see Fully Fledged and Alamosa, two of the more interesting colonial bred stallions to go to stud in a while.

First stop Fairdale has seen much quieter times since the halycion days of Pakistan 2, but Fully Fledged gives them cause for optimism. First out though we saw Howbaddowantit. Looking taller than his advertised 16.1 hands he does'nt carry a lot of condition - maybe that's the nervous Nijinsky disposition coming through - he nevertheless looked in good condition for his 14 years.

Deep rich chestnut horses with white socks grab anyones attention but the next thing that struck me about Fully Fledged was his lovely kind honest eye. Having Bjorn Baker, on hand to extoile his former charges virtues was a nice touch and he certainly emphasised "Freddies" personality and nature.

Preconceptions are horid things and if you were like me, you were asking yourself whether Freddies tussle with the running rail at Trentham and some chicane manouveres at Ellerslie one day were a sign of some waywardness and dare I say it that word that no studmaster wants to hear -ungenuineness. His campaign in Sydney this autumn had shown me he was far from 'soft' and Sunday confirmed that these early indiscretions were simply maturity pains.

Not yet four years of age and only a little over two months out of training, Fully Fledged was un derstandibly not carrying a great deal of condition. This time next year I expect you'll see a different model.

A little light on pedigree but if you are looking for a good looking, sweet moving racehorse with a great temprament, Fully Fledged warrants consideration in todays stallion market.

Chinese Dragon and Goodwood Park were next. A more typical built sprinting type than the Fairdale pair, quite low slung with good strength in front of the saddle and a wide masculine head, the deep bay was not as tall as I had expected from the photos I had seen.

I like to play a little game when I see stallions and work out what ancestors they've thrown too. Chinese Dragon seemed to have picked up charcateristics of a number of his forbears significantly the Mill Reef head and the Stravinsky jowl.

At Newmarket Lodge we saw Columbia, Danger Looms and resident stallion Gold Circle. Despite his advancing years its not hard to see why Columbia was a one million plus yearling and Danger Looms is a strongly made short coupled type.

As a full brother to Elvstroem and half to Haradasun, Gold Circle has a fair bit going for him, however he's also an attractive looking horse, only medium sized at best but in proprtion with a good over reach and strong quarters.

Lucky enough to see "Elvis" when he was racing in Melbourne their are definite similarities between the two brothers in physical makeup, particularly behind the saddle.

Viewing a collection of Gold Centre's weanlings in their boxes he certainly stamps them with strong quarters and they are a bit longer in the body than dad.

Talking to a breeder on the day there are a few Gold Centre's going well in their early prepartions and it would not be a surprise to see a few out early. Apparently Laurie Christansen has a speedy type he is quite taken with.

The crowd had swelled to about 150 by the time the parade reached Wellfield, no doubt eager to see the public debut of Alamosa as a stallion.

Firstly we saw Hansome Ransom who was a tad shorter than I had imagined from photo's. Blessed with a strong middle you could see the engine room that contributed to his early speed on the racetrack.

I had last seen Alamosa live at Ellerslie in his two-year-old season and the charcateristics ( character being the operative word) that struck me then came flooding back; the lovely intelligent O'Reilly head and an air of confidence or more explicity, charcater.

Alamosa won't ever be a bulky stallion and I thought there was a lot more Centaine coming through on physical type than O'Reilly.

Most of the crowd stayed around to see the LA stallions that had come up from Masterton.

The regally bred Zed who was first away, has let down significantly since starting stud duties in 2007. LA studmaster Sam Williams was on the money when he described him as a mesh of Zabeel and Danehill. He reminds me of a smaller version of his father Zabeel with some of the more refined Danehill charcteristics including markings, merged in.

With my work for LA I have seen a great deal of Towkay over the last two years but I haven't seen him looking any better than he was on Sunday. He's a well balanced and bodied individual who captures all the best attributes of the very successful Last Tycoon sireline.

Judging by John Cleese's frame, he doesn't eat a lot of pies but he would have been contemplating eating one of the humble variety should he have been on Sunday's annual event in an area much maligned by the British comedian. Conducted in glorious winter weather, the crowd were an enthusiastic and appreciative bunch. Talking to a few studmasters and nominations staff at the end of the day there was a good level of enquiry.

My only brickbat for the day was the absence of food to go with the refreshments at Wellfield. It had been a long day and some snacks would have facilitated more activity and ultimately business for the studs, instead of people having to rush off to the cheesecake shop in Woodville..

Thanks to the Manawatu branch and Hugh Taylor for putting on the event.