Muswellbrook, NSW (December 30th, 2009) - THIRTEEN years ago a new chum Queensland stud owner, the now deceased Ron Ashdown, was fairly dirty on the sales system when the buyer of a colt bred at his Glengarry stud near Ipswich reneged on his $20,000 successful bid at the1996 Magic Millions Gold Coast yearling sale after the horse suffered an injury on return to his box.
It turned out to be a very fortuitious rejection for Ashdown, an astute businessman who bought innovations to horse rearing on Glengarry, a foothills, creek served, tree studded farm. He went on to race the colt, a representative of the second crop of his imported foundation sire Nediym, with friends under the name of General Nediym and initially stand him at stud.

Both decisions reaped tremendous rewards with General Nediym going on to be one of the outstanding racehorses of his time and then progressively rising from modest initial opportunity at Glengarry to become one of the best sires of recent years. He, regrettably, died at 14 in January of 2009, but appears poised to be a big star through his offspring at the sales and in the rich race for juveniles at the Gold Coast in early January.
One of his current juveniles, the unbeaten filly Military Rose, is highly fancied to take out the $2million BMW Magic Millions 2YO Classic at the Gold Coast track on January 9. It is a race that was won in 2003 by Regimental Gal, a filly by General Nediym who went on to be a champion sprinter. Sold at the Magic Millions yearling sale for only $16,500, she was from a mare Ron Ashdown sold to his stud secretary for about $500 and a free service. She was to have gone to Nediym, but at the last moment was switched to General Nediym.
Early in his stud career, General Nediym went through three studs, starting off at Glengarry, before settling at Hunter Valley’s historic Widden in 2004. It was the dawning of his emergence as a reliable superior sire, resulting in one of the top representations by a sire in the 2010 Magic Millions catalogue. His 30 lots include progeny of mares by Danehill (five), Flying Spur (three), Zabeel (two), Encosta de Lago, Sadler’s Wells, O’Reilly, Anabaa, Last Tycoon, Quest for Fame, Woodman and Belong to Me.
The General Nediym – Flying Spur cross is also found conversely in the catalogue. It is provided through a Flying Spur colt out of Regimental Gal being offered by Cressfield,Scone.
The General Nediym – Flying Spur cross also produced Military Rose. Out of the Flying Spur Sydney winner Bella Maddelena, this Gilian Heinrich Gold Coast trained filly stamped herself as a superior performer with a strong finishing win in the $150,000 juvenile event at Saturday’s Doomben meeting, her third Brisbane success and second Listed victory.
Sold as a yearling for $155,000, Military Rose is another fine runner raised on the David and Verna Medcalfe managed Middlebrook Valley Lodge near Scone for a client and marketed by them at the Gold Coast.  They have three lots for the 2010 sale, including a half-sister by Testa Rossa to Military Rose.
The success of Military Rose also adds to the appeal of 22 second crop yearlings in the Gold Coast catalogue by Jet Spur. Currently second leading first crop sire and fourth on the open juvenile list, this Glenlogan Park sire is nearly a three-quarter brother to Military Rose’s dam. He is by Flying Spur and from a daughter of True Verdict, a sister to champion racehorse and superior sire Zeditave and half-sister to the brilliant Alannon and to Zest, grandam of Military Rose.
The family can also be accessed at the Gold Coast through Alannon’s crack sprinting son Falvelon. Another Glenlogan sire, he has 14 yearlings available including a filly from the Flying Spur mare Beeby Gee.
General Nediym is also represented at the William Inglis Classic sale with two yearlings on offer at Newmarket in Sydney (January 24-25th). A lone colt in Western Australia at the Magic Millions sale (January 28th - 31st).    The next opportunity for buyers to look at his stock will be in New Zealand at Karaka  where he has 4 yearlings catalogued  (February 1st-2nd) and at the  beautiful Oaklands complex in Victoria at the William Inglis Premier sale where ‘The General’ has 11 yearlings on offer  (March 1st - 4th).

Tags: Magic Millions, New Zealand, William Inglis, Yearling Sales
Permalink| Jan 1, 2010

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