Jenna McLeod got a massive thrill when watching the latest generation of her family’s breed score at stakes level at Te Rapa on Saturday.
Gr.2 Hawke’s Bay Guineas (1400m) victor Magic Carpet hails from the same lineage that has been in her family’s care for nearly 70 years, and she is delighted to continue that legacy.
“The original mare was bought by my great-great-grandfather in 1957 at the Trentham sales,” she said.
“My grandfather, Gerald Shand, has raced and bred a number of this family and my parents, Phil and Jackie (Rogers), have raced a number of this family, and now myself and Dane, my husband, are racing and breeding from a number of the family as well.
“It is really neat and the horses have done really well over the years. That has made us feel confident about continuing. We do it for the love of it – we love breeding and racing horses.
“It is the side hobby away from the dairy farm, all of us are involved in the dairy farm.”
One of the family’s more notable graduates, Group One winner Stolen Dance, was bred by McLeod and her husband, along with her brother Brian.
The McLeods initially raced the mare out of David Greene’s Te Rapa stable, for whom she won the Gr.3 Eagle Technology Stakes (1600m), Gr.2 Cal Isuzu Stakes (1400m), and was runner-up in the Gr.1 Zabeel Classic (2000m), Gr.1 Thorndon Mile (1600m) and Gr.1 Herbie Dyke Stakes (2000m).
She was subsequently sold to Shand and joined Murray Baker and Andrew Forsman’s Cambridge barn and won the Thorndon Mile at her final start.
“Stolen Dance was the first horse Dane and I bred ourselves, and the first time we had friends come into the ownership with us,” McLeod said. “You don’t get many like her that come along every day.
“She was an absolute gem and David (Greene, trainer) and Heidi (wife) did such a great job with her from a young age because she was always a fiery wee thing.
“Gerald purchased her off us for a broodmare and she went on to win the Thorndon Mile. Gerald has just turned 90, so we help him out with the matings, we all work it in together.”
While the family typically breed to race, last year McLeod decided to send a couple of yearlings to New Zealand Bloodstock’s yearling sales, including Magic Carpet.
By Rich Hill Stud shuttle stallion Satono Aladdin, Magic Carpet is out of Tavistock-winning mare From Eden, a half-sister to Group Two winner The Fuzz and Songbird, the dam of Stolen Dance.
McLeod was impressed with the colt from the day he was born and placed him through Nick Fairweather and Nicole Brown’s Carlaw Park draft at New Zealand Bloodstock’s Book 1 Yearling Sale, and he subsequently sold to trainer Stephen Marsh and Dylan Johnson Bloodstock for $320,000.
“The mare did really well with him and he was a lovely foal. He has always been quite a good-looking chap right from the get-go,” McLeod said.
“He was born at Windsor Park and then came home. He always had a great temperament, did everything right and was an absolute breeze.
“Generally, we are a breed to race family and it took a little bit of convincing for my Mum and Dad to go to the sales.
“We sold two that year, the Satono Aladdin (Magic Carpet) and the other one was by Proisir (Rose Symphony, $150,000). They are the right stallions for the sales and they were nice types as young horses.
“They developed the right way and Nick and Nicole did a fantastic job with them.”
Magic Carpet carries the silks of majority shareholder, Bourbon Lane Stables, but McLeods parents have retained a share in the colt, and they are enjoying the ride he is taking them on, having placed in his two prior starts to Saturday’s triumph.
“Stephen (Marsh) has always been such a big fan of Magic Carpet,” McLeod said. “We always wanted to keep a share in one or both (of the yearlings), and we were lucky enough to keep a share in him with Stephen.”
McLeod said her family are breeding from seven mares this season, and while their ownership varies amongst the mares, they all work as a cohesive unit.
“We are breeding from seven mares this year and even though there are different ownership with the horses, we all do it together,” she said. “They all stay at our home farm in Taupiri.”
While they continue to enjoy racing their own horses, McLeod said they will try and replicate their past success at the sales when they head to Karaka next year with three yearlings.
“Three of our yearlings got accepted for Book 1 at Karaka, so that was really exciting,” she said.
“We are selling a Profondo-Songbird filly, an Almanzor-Just Dance filly, and a Noverre-Finest Wine colt. They are all with Carlaw Park.”
