Bargain buy Zakynthos the gift that keeps giving
One of the most inspiring stories of the 2021 Inglis Classic Yearling Sale came on the final day when respected New England horse woman Sam Croft topped the session with a Zoustar (Northern Meteor) filly she bred from a mare she originally picked up online as a December yearling for just $500.
“They wanted $10,000 for her but when we rang around about her a few people told us she had an accident as a foal and had a kinked neck and she couldn’t see properly because her eyes were sticking out.
“She was a complete right off, so we offered $500. We got her home and got her teeth done and a chiropractor to fix her up,” said Croft.
The following May, Croft and her husband Justin Carke sent the filly to the Scone Inglis Select Yearling Sale and made a very tidy profit selling her for $48,000.
After a less than illustrious race career as Empress Zakynthos (Holy Roman Emperor), she was back on the market again, this time as a mare in foal to Zebedee (Invincible Spirit). They decided to buy her back, this time paying $26,000.
The resultant foal, in which Croft has a share, is now racing on the provincial NSW circuit as Navagio Beach and so far been the winner of one race at Casino.
Fast forward to yesterday and Empress Zakynthos delivered her biggest gift yet, a $450,000 filly and huge financial windfall for Clarke and Croft Bloodstock.
“We have started from nothing and slowly developed the farm and you save for the service fees and do it from there. Today it finally happened and we got a very good result,” she said.
Croft still vividly remembers when they first started their Uralla–based racing and breeding operation on what was then just a rundown old sheep property.
“We had low barbed wire fences and we slowly built it up. When the bloodstock agents like Jonathan D’Arcy and Tony Williams first came out they wouldn’t have known what to think.”
Funnily enough, Tony “Tubba” Williams was one of the first to venture over and congratulate Croft back at the barn after the hammer fell on her top selling filly yesterday.
Whilst it was the outcome she has worked so hard for during the past 18 years, Croft will now take a step back from selling yearlings and focus on pre-training her own racing stock.
She says it’s too difficult to compete against the major studs.
“You do this for the love of it. It was never about the money but it’s getting harder to get to the good stallions. I think the whole industry is pushing to mega stables and studs.
“I have to make sure it’s financially viable at a hobby level.”
Croft plans to take her second holiday in ten years at some stage this year and maybe, just maybe, she might return to the fold and keep flying the flag for small-scale breeders.
“I think if we don’t have the little people, what are the inspiring stories that bring in the next generation?” she said.
Meantime, the story of Empress Zakynthos will continue. Now a 12-year-old mare, she’s currently in foal to Pierata (Pierro).