Colt earns high praise

One of the world's most influential bloodstock figures yesterday purchased ''the best yearling I've seen in my life'' at Karaka.

Shigeyuki Okada, owner of Japanese powerhouse stud Big Red Farm, single-mindedly pursued a Pentire-Amritsar Jet colt, beating off underbidders, including Hamilton's Graeme Rogerson, to secure the colt at $600,000.

Initially speaking through an interpreter before explaining himself in English, Okada said: ''He's the best yearling I have ever seen in my life. I've bought horses in every country and I rate him the best horse so far. His balance is good and he's got high-quality muscle.''

To put that in context, Okada paid 145 million yen (NZ$2.25 million) for a Rock Of Gibraltar colt in Japan last month and paid a then-record A$1.7 million for a Sunday Silence colt at the Australian Easter Yearling Sales in 2003.

Okada bought Pentire in England, raced him in Japan to win a Japanese Cup and has shuttled him to Matamata's Rich Hill Stud for several years.

''[Pentire] is still mine and I still believe in the horse,'' Okada said.

''The cross with Japanese mares might not be so suitable but the cross in the southern hemisphere is very good.''

Rich Hill Stud's John Thompson was rapt with the price for the Pentire colt but said many good judges had rated him the best colt on type in the sale.

''He was a lovely horse. He was probably the colt of the sale,'' Thompson said.

''The best type doesn't always top the sale because he might not be viewed as a stallion prospect but as far as a classic-type colt as an individual, many people felt he was the best on the saleground.

''That's the top-priced Pentire to go through the sales so it's great for the stallion. He's gone to a new level commercially. Early in his career, he probably wasn't quite there commercially but he is now and that should give breeders confidence to breed their K1 mares to him.''

- © Fairfax NZ News