Volksraad: A Dying Breed

The passing of Windsor Park stalwart Volksraad last week may have closed a chapter in New Zealand thoroughbred breeding. Prior to the arrival here of the unheralded son of Green Desert in 1993, our studmasters still had something of a reputation in the breeding world for their ability to find highly successful stallions from humble backgrounds, but in more recent times the art seems to have been lost, or just not pursued, as the realities of the modern world seem to have woven their way into thoroughbred breeding.

It was a balmy windy Waikato day in late August 1993 when I first laid eyes on Volksraad. He was been paraded at his new home at Mapperley Stud as part of a stallion tour organised by the local branch of the NZTBA. Although it was his first public parade - he had only been in the country a month I recall -most of the seventy or so breeders in attendance seemed far more interested in Stylish Century, who was about to embark on his second breeding season.

Ignoring the wind which had clearly unsettled his three barn-mates, and showing no real interest in the crowd of breeders, the strongly made bay walked with a looseness and a sense of purpose and confidence that almost bordered on arrogance. My admiration for the stallion increased even further when the Mapperley studmaster, Irishman Patrick Connell, who was compering his quartet, explained to us how through an association he had with the horses Newmarket stable, he was aware how highly the yard rated the horse before he succumbed to the leg injury which bought about his sale at auction.

The Timeform Racehorses of 1992 annual had this to say about Volksraad:

Stocky, powerful colt: type to carry condition: very good mover: half-brother to

1m winner In Unison (by Bellypha): dam 10.6f winner out of Welsh Garden, top
2-y-o filly in Ireland in 1975: operated on for knee injury in spring 1991: odds
on, won minor event at Ascot in September later that year in workmanlike fashion by 1½ lengths
from Fairy Flax, leading over 2f out: second favourite, 3½ lengths third of 7 to
Mystiko in Challenge Stakes at Newmarket 3 weeks later, soon under pressure but
keeping on really well: should be better suited by 1m: sold 23,000 gns
Newmarket December (1992) Sales.

Armed with some inside knowledge and more than a little bit of Irish gumption one imagines, Connell and his new employers purchased Volksraad, however despite the relatively cheap price, a budget is always a budget and there were a few anxious moments at the auction, as Windsor Park's Steve Till recounted to me last year. As the story goes, the auction took place in the middle of the night our time and Connell, who was ringside and bidding, rang Till, who sleepily sat on the end of the phone as the bidding crept up in 500 guinea increments almost from the start. Apparently on at least one occasion the anglo Irish/New Zealand partnership thought they had missed out on the young entire, only for fresh bidders to disappear as quickly as they had entered the bidding.

And so spawned from humble beginnings, a wonderful stallion career that has delivered to date, eight New Zealand Stallion Premierships and 14 individual group one winners, including two in Australia at 1200 and 1400m - a rare achievement for a New Zealand stallion. While he never truly commanded the same commercial appeal as the likes of Zabeel, O'Reilly, Pins, Montjeu, or even Pentire and Stravinsky, he became a favourite cohort for the fledgling mares of a lot of astute breeders, who recognised the stallion's ability to consistently sire winners and stakes performers - often at an early age - a great fillip for the profile of a young broodmare.

Standing the likes of a Volksraad at stud these days in New Zealand where the stallion is going to get a level and type of mare that at least gives him a starters chance is getting more and more difficult. The larger commercial operations focus is rightly or wrongly on the sale ring, where the competition is intense and the marketing budgets of some are equivalent to a small pacific nations GDP. Yes a truly prepotent stallion should be able to make it next to anywhere, but the significantly reducing number of opportunities domestically will mean that almost all of the potential heir apparent's to the likes of Volksraad, Sir Tristram, Noble Bijou, War Hawk II, Pakistan II and many famous names before them will sadly never be in a position to contribute to our breeding industry.

Footnotes: 1.Shares in Volksraad were offered for sale at the stallion parade, for $10,000 if I recall correctly, and I spent most of my trip back to Auckland later that day trying to work out how I could coerce my father into "investing" in a share. Alas it was not to be as our broodmare pool numbered exactly zilch and after dads only previous dabble into thoroughbred breeding had concluded in less than salubrious circumstances at a Claudelands winter Sale post the sharemarket crash, it was an argument I was never destined to win.

2. In an irony many participants in the thoroughbred industry will be accustomed, Stylish Century's stud career and life ended courtesy of a spider bite suffered at Queensland's Valentine Park in 2002, the black stallions fourth home since departing Mapperley Stud in 1997. Stylish Century left just four stakeswinners in his ten seasons at stud.