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• June 08, 2023
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Byerley Park founder Daniel Nakhle has made a black-type addition to his broodmare band, securing Rose ‘N’ Power for $70,000 on Gavelhouse Plus.

The highly talented mare was trained by part-owners Fred and Lindsay Cornege to win six of her 24 starts and more than $176,000 in stakes. She won four races in succession during 2021, culminating in a Listed victory in the Levin Stakes (1200m) at Otaki – setting a new track record of 1:08.63 in the process.

“I was thrilled to be able to secure this mare,” Nakhle said. “I followed her throughout her racing career, and she was blisteringly fast and also had a great deal of determination.

“Fred and Lindsay always do such a fantastic job with all their horses, so you know you’ll be getting a mare who’s been very well taken care of throughout her career.

“Probably the main thing that appealed to me about her was her pedigree page. Her sire Power is perhaps a little bit unsung, while her dam is by Danroad. It’s not something that many of us may have expected, but Danroad is putting together one of the best records around as a broodmare sire – he’s tracking at 25 percent stakes winners to winners.

“Rose ‘N’ Power also looks like a nice-sized and well-muscled mare, so we’re looking forward to having her arrive here to join our broodmare band.

“There are probably a few stallions in New Zealand at the moment that might suit a mare like her, but noting that her dam is in foal to Proisir, he’s obviously one that’s going to be high on our list. We’ll have a good look at her once she arrives and then make a plan from there.

“I actually bought a Per Incanto half-sister to this mare (Incanto Rose) in Australia last month as well, so it’s a family and a pedigree page that I’m quite interested in. I managed to get that mare for $600, so it’s fair to say I had a bit more in my budget – you have to take the wins when you get them in this game!”

Rose ‘N’ Power was bred by her proud part-owner Elizabeth Pollard in partnership with the late Gloria Graydon.

“I was pleased with the result of the sale,” Pollard said. “This mare’s racing career was certainly beyond any expectations that we had for her. She was such a gallant, game little mare. She was very brave and always tried her absolute hardest. I think she was top-quality, and I’ll be very interested to follow her fortunes as a broodmare.

“I’m delighted that she’ll stay in New Zealand and that she was bought by Daniel Nakhle, who I know is going to give her every opportunity. And I’m full of praise for the team at gavelhouse.com – I think she was promoted particularly well.

“I’m certainly going to miss her, but she gave us so much fun and went well beyond what we could have imagined or dreamt of.”

Rose ‘N’ Power is a daughter of the twice-winning Danroad mare Diamond Rose, who is a half-sister to the stakes winners Perfect Scenario and Queens Rose

They are all out of the prolific Rosetti Bay, whose eight wins included the Group Three Taranaki Breeders’ Stakes (140m). She is the dam of six winners from eight foals to race.

Those black-type results are the latest in a long line of family successes to come from Rosehill Farm’s ‘Rose’ dynasty, which traces all the way back to foundation mare Wee Rose, who was born more than a century ago and was bought by Bill Alexander, whose nephew Joe Pollard is Elizabeth Pollard’s father.

“Our family has been breeding horses for years,” she said. “The Rose dynasty goes back a long way. For whatever reason I don’t seem to breed many colts from this family, but it’s proven to be a very good winning filly family, and Rose ‘N’ Power was a very worthy addition.

“It’s fair to say that she was a bit of a handful early on. Fred Cornege, who does all of my transporting, happened to come along one day and I asked if he’d be interested in her. He got his wife Lindsay to have a look at her as well, because she’s a very good judge of a horse. We all sat down and did a deal, where they took a half share of the ownership and trained her.

“I’m so grateful to them, and to Derek and Lynsey Satherley as well – they all put in a lot of time and hard work in those difficult early days. Eventually she turned the corner and never looked back from there.

“The mare did an exceptional job a couple of years ago, winning four races in a row and setting a new track record when she won the Levin Stakes. Unfortunately that was during COVID, so we weren’t able to be there to see her win those races.

“She ran well in the Foxbridge Plate (1200m) last August, but was tripped up by a very heavy track in the Tarzino Trophy (1400m) and was far below her best after that. It got to the point where I said there was no point carrying on, and we had to sell her to dissolve the partnership. I suggested gavelhouse.com, and at the end of the day we’ve got a very good result and it’s all ended well. Fred’s happy and I’m happy.

“I’ve still got the mother, Diamond Rose, who’s in foal to Proisir. I’ve just weaned a lovely U S Navy Flag filly that I’m going to race myself, and I have a Per Incanto filly out of Queens Rose.

“I’ve had a lot of luck with Rosetti Bay, who was a lovely mare that I raced, and I’ve retained her winning daughters. We’ll keep going with the family, and hopefully we’ll continue to do so for a while yet.”