any opinions on Revoque as a NH stallion?

Sorry you haven't had a reply Jungle, but I suspect quite a few contributors are Flat orientated and as such Revoque would not stir us into action much - other than to have a moan - but good luck with your 5yo!

I think he falls into the same boat as Turtle Island in that he started off as a flat stallion and has ended up as a national hunt stallion. His book of mares are likely to have been weak enough as a result but you don't see too many of them jumping fences so not sure how robust they are.

If I could throw a question back. I presume you didn't buy a five year old through the sales ring. So how have you valued him?

cashmans had good few runners during the point to point season by him. they had a nice 4 yr old winner in lismore by him with a horse called storming gale and he looked one of the better 4 yr olds this season.is one to keep an eye out for. presumably has been sold privately

Donald McCain bought Storming Gale

If I could throw a question back. I presume you didn't buy a five year old through the sales ring. So how have you valued him?

We never buy through the sales ring,always privately.
His 1/2 brother won 7,including grade3.Other 1/2 brother wom p2p & beginners chase(he sold for 38k through the ring).
They turned down 10k for him as a 3 year old,but people who had him ran into financial difficulties so we stepped in & bought him at a bargain basement price.

He'll be broken over next 6-8 weeks..so lets hope he turns out ok.

Is it not unusual to have an unbroken 5 year old? Why wasn't he broken? He was hardly sitting in a field for 2 years since he went through the ring?

BI,what,u never heard of an unbroken 5 year old?
Mmmm...not everyone goes to the sales & buys expensive 3 & 4 year olds!
Wont go into details but family ran into financial difficulties & also one of them had health issues,which meant horse missed a few sales.

he'll be started to be broken this week so lets see how we get on.

Hey Jungle, I wasn't having a go. I've just haven't heard of a racehorse not being broken until June of their fifth year unless it had a problem (a big brute of a horse, or picked up an injury as a three/four year old and needed rest). It has nothing to do with buying an expensive or a cheap three or four year old. Most people just like to kick on with them when they reach three or four. Get them broken and decide then whether to leave them in a field or keep going with them. Obviously there were mitigating factors here.

yeh.no prob BI.
I know ur invloved in the winningways syndicate so best of luck with your purchases.

Your probably heading to derby sale next week so will be interested to know how you get on.

Got phonecall about an hour ago from a breeder that knows a builder in serious trouble who might have a well breed fleminsfirth 4year old mare going cheaply.so might try & pick that up as well

theres plenty of value out there at the moment so its good news for guys running syndicates!

btw I post on neigh forum the odd time but diff username like urself.

Yeah there's plenty of value out there. With our budget, we could have bought all bar 30 of the horses sold last week at Goffs. hoping the derby sale is like that too but fancy there will be a lot more english interest.

On the syndicate front, unfortunately a lot of people are wary of spending money, even if they have the money to spend. The demographic has certainly got older with a lot of the 20 something, bonus spending members gone. Thankfully, I have a few members who have come into a second horse with me so that helps fill a couple of spaces. Must mean we are doing something right too!! all I'll say is that there has never been a better time to own a horse. Sales prices very reasonable, training fees going no-where, prizemoney in Ireland hopefully secured for the future.

BI, would you lease a mare off the itba?

Leasing is the most cost effective method of syndication. You get a runner on the track straight away and only pay the training/racing costs and if something goes wrong you have no capital outlay lost.

However, I have a few members that were involved in some Irish syndicate operations that leased horses and they joined me because they wanted to feel they really owned the horse as opposed to having to hand him (or more likely her) back at the end of a year or two.

So it's not something I would really do unless there was sufficient appetite from people for it. also, those that make a capital investment are more likley to stick around for the long term. Those involved in leasing could decide to pull out after three months if the horse is not up to their required standard.....although still coming along nicely. since I've had ads in the RP and Irah Field, I've received a fair few calls to lease decently bred fillies/mres but just not for me.....yet.