The long and winding road to Karaka Sales
Three fillies at the New Zealand Bloodstock Select sale will have a unique claim to fame.
The trio who make up White Robe Lodge’s 2017 draft will have clocked up the longest Kiwi road trip by the time they check into Barn I.
Accompanied by White Robe Lodge stud manager Wayne Stewart, the fillies will set out from Wingatui around January 20 with a long and winding trip ahead of them.
"We will travel to Christchurch, stay the night and then, early morning about 4am head to Blenheim," Stewart said.
"Previously we would connect with the ferry and get as far as Bulls that night. Now we stop at Blenheim and get the ferry the next morning."
The decimation of State Highway One during the Kaikoura earthquake has added an extra day to their trip north and will take them via an inland road which a spokeman for Majestic Horse Floats said is not really built for what it is being used for now.
"It is very narrow in parts. It’s a bit of a nightmare," he said.
Once through the three hour ferry trip, Stewart and his draft will head up to the Majestic depot at Bulls for another overnighter and an early morning departure for Karaka.
"I will give them four or five days at a property 10 minutes from the sales complex," he said.
Like any good, keen, southern man, Stewart is fairly pragmatic about the lengthy trip to Karaka, choosing to see the benefits.
"It is a big trip, but they definitely grow up, it sets them up for the future," he said.
"With the floats these days, they are very good with great facilities. And, apart from the mishap this year, the roads are better than they were 10 or 20 years ago."
The Anderton family’s White Robe Lodge has been part of the tapestry of yearling sales history in New Zealand for the past 60 years but in 2016, for the first time, the stud was not represented at Karaka.
"We kept them back for the South Island sale and this year we have kept our colts back for that sale too, but these are three nice fillies so we thought we would target Karaka with them," Stewart said. "They are out of good winning mares, who between them have won 25 races."