Group 2 winner Llanacord to be offered on Gavelhouse
Group 2 winner Llanacord (Contributer) will be offered to the public through gavelhouse.com’s National Online Breeding Stock Sale, which will go live at 5pm on Friday, June 28.
The six-year-old gave trainer Stephen Nickalls and her fellow owners a massive thrill, particularly over a golden couple of months in her three-year-old term.
Bred by Mapperley Stud’s Simms Davison, Llanacord was purchased at Book 2 of the New Zealand Bloodstock’s 2019 Karaka Yearling Sale by Nickalls’ stepfather Kevin Hopson after she caught his eye at an on-farm yearling inspection earlier that year.
“Stu Hale did his yearling tours and Kevin drove the bus. He couldn’t think of anything better, getting able to drive around and look at horses at the same time,” Nickalls said.
“They went to Mapperley and she was one of the later ones to come out. He was sitting there thinking he had to go and get the bus ready, and she came out and he loved the way she walked. He said he was late coming back with the bus because he couldn’t take his eyes off her.
“When he went to the sales, he managed to buy her for $15,000. Initially she went to Glynn Brick, he broke her in and did all the early education with her. He passed away and she came down to us as a late two-year-old, we gave her a jump out and she took us on a ride you don’t get to experience very often.”
Llanacord won her maiden at Wanganui over 2040 metres as a three-year-old before repeating the result in the Lowland Stakes (Gr 2, 2100m) at Hastings at her next start. She backed that up with a third placing in the New Zealand Oaks (Gr 1, 2400m) at Trentham before heading across the Tasman where she was runner-up in the South Australian Fillies Classic (Gr 3, 2500m).
While she didn’t reach the same heights as an older horse, Llanacord still placed in the Wanganui Cup (Listed, 2040m), and Nickalls said she has retired a sound and happy mare ready for an early service in the new breeding season.
“She has been a wonderful mare for us, she has given us all sorts of thrills,” Nickalls said. “She has taken us to Australia, she was Group 1-placed and was a Group 2 winner in the Lowland.
“We are only a family run stable and to share that journey with my mother, step-father, wife and kids, it was amazing. When she won the Lowland, we were stuck under COVID rules so we couldn’t celebrate too much on course. The thrill and joy of doing that was amazing.”