Behind the shiny exterior and the accolades of the Blandford Lodge is the 25 plus years of toiling and hard work of Graham And Helen Gaye-Bax. Graham and Helen took over the reigns of the Blandford Lodge in the late 90’s.
Based near Matamata, this lodge has been standing its ground sincce the 1940’s when it was founded by a man named George Cobb, back then it was called the Duvach Lodge. There is a legacy that this place reeks of. It may have operated under various owners and names but what remains constant is that every owner has put their heart and soul in it.
No one though in all that history has probably put in the amount of work that the Bax’s have in all these years and their drafts at the Karaka Yearling sale are a testimony to that hard work. There are recognised as the stable that brings one of the biggest drafts at the Karaka sale every year.
This year too is no different for the Blandford Lodge. They are all set to dazzle the world with their beautiful lot and we wanted to bring it to you before anyone else does. So we got a bit greedy and asked Graham Bax to grace us with some time and he did. In this interview he spills the beans on this years lot.
Re: Blandford Lodge Karaka Draft 2020 Our draft is made up of around 50% Fillies And 50% Colts. As a Breeder I love a nice filly and this Year we have just that, not one but a few.
The savabeel/Sophia rosa filly, although a first foal of the mare, is very nice. She has a pedigree and the looks with plenty of residual value. She will make a nice 3 year old filly.
The Extreme choice/aura d’Ora Filly is a nice big bold yearling and being by a First year sire, that will be popular and should turn plenty of heads.
Then there is the Astern/Za star filly who has plenty of presence, great walk and scope. This filly is well related with her half sister being a nice Sydney winning mare of 3 races o the bounce.
I must mention the tavaci/maphelane filly, she could be a nice autumn 2 years old type, well balanced and looking like she wants to be a racehorse with her attitude.
The last of fillies the two turn me loose yearling. Both have great walks and conformation to make up into nice race fillies.
Blandford Lodge has been Marketing years at karaka for 18 years. Over that time, they all have been our own home bred yearling.
By doing this you have some control on reserve prices you put on your yearling and the quality of stock you present.
I try to have Australia and New Zealand sires represented in our draft by sires the market will like. We only have 50 broodmares on the farm so the quality as to be a high class to warrant breeding from them, especially if you want to be commercial.
My aim is to breed and sell million dollar yearling and although that hasn’t been achieved to date, my best sales has been several them around the $500k mark.
Most of my top racehorses have been sold at much lower rate – lucia valentina, better than ever, Pasendina girl, danzdanzdance and criterian who did not go through the sale ring.
Most of mating is decided by physical types, pedigree suitability and if the sires will be commercial three years out. This is not easy to get right, so you have disaster at times but generally we seem to get things close to what we are trying to achieve.
New Zealand staying bred horses are known to be very competitive in Australian, hong kong, Singapore. this is what we are good at with our fantastic Climate and year round quality grass. This makes for a sound horse that can race for many year. We do not do well trying to with Australians 2 years old.
New Zealand has some nice staying sires presently, in Savabeel, Tavistock, ocean park and some nice unproven staying sires coming through.
I have been involved with the horses for 30 years. Mainly on the breeding side as that is what interest me, although I have bred many group one winners. I have never bred, owned and raced a group one horse, so this is something I will like to do, and I continue to upgrade the quality of mares on blandford to just stakes winners or dams of group winners.
I hope this helps you put together an article. You can call me on 021-996627 if there is anything further you would like to know.