The magic behind Monkey King

As soon as you drive down the beautifully manicured entrance to Dancingonmoonlight Farm at Ohoka, a few minutes north of Christchurch, you can tell something special is happening.

It's the morning after New Zealand Cup and despite a wet and blustery front passing through, everyone has a spring in their step thanks to the feats of the dark little horse they're pampering in the corner of the huge barn.

While Monkey King might be getting a few extra pats for winning the $1 million Christchurch Casino New Zealand Cup, it's nothing out of the ordinary for this operation where kindness to animals is being taken to a new level and no expense is spared to care for them.

Owner Robert Famularo and his private trainer Brendon "Benny" Hill achieved one of their ambitions at Addington last Tuesday but in those faraway paddocks, behind the tall hedgerows, they're hoping there's a cup winner of the future.

It's the farm's nursery, where some of their 30 mares already have newborn foals at foot, and others are awaiting their turn. It's here, not on the pristine 1000 metre training track, that you'll find the real heartbeat of Dancingonmoonlight.

And it's here that you'll find Anna Cox and Famularo's daughter Sara practising the doctrine of undiluted attention from birth.

"Even before they're weaned we treat the foals like they're part of the race team." says Famularo. "They get a lot of handling - they're not just brats that we forget about.

"I think of it like kindergarten, primary school, secondary school and university. If you don't do the right thing at kindergarten you get an attitude that carries right through.

"Brendon wants to deal with academic students, not ones who only want to get drunk and party every night."

Hill and the kindness philosophy fit snugly together, says Famularo. "Brendon's great strength is his love of the animal."

Ensuring the mental wellbeing of the foals starts even before they're born, by pampering their mums. This is the only farm where you'll find a perm and manicure booked for the broodmares on the work whiteboard - "they're ladies after all," says Famularo.

As Sara puts it, "we don't just say goodbye granny and send them to a retirement home.

"We give them a haircut and do their feet constantly, brush them and make them feel good. You find then they want to be your friend because you're doing things to make them happy.

"You don't have to herd them like cows or chase them, they almost follow you out of the paddock. They don't mind coming in for womanly treatment because they know they're not going to be poked and prodded all the time.

"We had a mare a year or so ago who had such an attitude she was like a stallion, she was scary, she wanted to kill you.

"But she learned we weren't going to hurt her and she's great now - it all comes down to patience."

With friendly mares, says Sara, you get friendly foals because they copy their mums.

And if the foals aren't scared you end up with easy yearlings, making breaking-in safer, and setting them up for trouble-free careers on the track.

"Safety is paramount here, for the staff and the horses," says Famularo who flew in an expert from Australia to teach them the intricacies of handling yearlings.

Recognising they're just learners, trying to do a professional job, Famularo says he's also drawn on the help of many of his neighbours, including Wai Eyre Farm's Darryl Brown, who advised them on everything from how to develop the bare paddocks eight years ago, to how to stand a stallion.

Famularo is pinning a lot on Monkey King's sire Sands A Flyin, whom he stands at the farm, taking outside bookings as well as using him on 20 of his mares.

"We served some mares before we went to the races yesterday," said Sara.

Famularo: "More than half of our foals next year will be by Sands A Flyin. Most people say that's a recipe for disaster, but sometimes you've got to back yourself."

Famularo figures he can't afford to send 30 mares to Christian Cullen. He's hoping his own $2500 sire will throw good stock, given access to top mares, many of whom cost him big money in the United States. "I believe the mare is more important than the stallion when it comes to breeding."

ALWAYS TRYING to lift the bar, Famularo is investigating the possibility of using the latest semen sexing technology developed for cattle on his broodmares. He says he's desperate to get fillies out of two of his top mares, Lento and Dinavinetto, whereas it would make commercial sense to have colts from some of his lesser mares.

Famularo, owner of the year for the last three years, says his days of buying and selling yearlings are over.

While buying yearlings got him his start - his farm is named after the first horse his former trainer Steven Reid bought for him, fast mare Dancingonmoonlight - he's going to have a logistical problem pretty soon breeding 25 of his own every year.

And his results in the last couple of years didn't justify continuing to market his horses for the yearling sales - yearling preparation was also too much of an imposition on Hill, whose expertise was in training.

"Our strength is in producing race horses - it's like the difference between dealing with 14-year-old adolescents and 22-year-old athletes. From now on everything we breed will be with the intention of racing."

Famularo hopes he might one day be able to send more horses to America, where he has three racing already.

"That might be a good outlet for our horses. We can produce a low cost item for the States. But it's going to be a real challenge - we might decide we've gone too far and have to reduce numbers."

Famularo does not want to get to the stage where his tightly knit team gets too big, or he has to employ assistant trainers. With just five in the barn and five looking after the property, including a greenkeeper for the landscaping, he says everyone shares a sense of pride.

"A few tears have been shed, saying goodbye to horses, and I'm sure there'll be a few more. You get attached to them emotionally."

ONE THING Famularo won't have to do is scrimp on anything - whereas many people have to do things on a shoestring he says he's lucky enough to be able to afford anything needed on the farm - he even has the wherewithal, if not enough time, to investigate the use of new technology to improve their performance.

Knowing that horses are "an accident waiting to happen" he spares no expense on upkeep of the training and jogging tracks, where Hill spends an hour a day on the tractor maintaining and resurfacing to prevent injuries.

"I can't train a horse, I can't make a contribution in the barn, but I can provide safe facilities," says Famularo who recently removed all the fencing around the track because there were no horses in the surrounding paddocks. "And I can continually try to lift the bar."

Famularo wants to continue improving his race sulky, and is already working on a new version of the revolutionary white cart Monkey King dragged in the cup, which is an American design rebuilt to New Zealand standards.

"I'm keen to do some wind tunnel work on drag and I still want to pursue the lycra," said Famularo of the revealingly tight race suits which his drivers reluctantly wore last season."

Famularo is not one to do things "just because that's the way our parents did it" and continually welcomes new ideas.

"The day you think you know everything is the day you're in trouble," says Famularo. "We're just living the dream - and trying to make sure it doesn't turn into a nightmare - that essentially defines horse racing, doesn't it?"

- © Fairfax NZ News