RED MAGIC-Pre-training with Phil Stevens(July-Aug09)

1...Another step has been completed in the education towards
racing for our future racehorse RED MAGIC by doing 7 weeks
pre-training with Phil Stevens at Matamata.

2.. Karen, a Syndicate member of the RED MAGIC racing team
is patting RED MAGIC in the photo above when we went to see
how he was progressing a week or so after he was gelded.


3..Phil Stevens is running an experienced hand over RED MAGIC in
the photo above. When we arrived, the horse was on a WALKING
MACHINE with five very expensive youngsters by Encosta De Lago,
Danehill Dancer and Tale Of The Cat. We still can't understand why
Phil had a big preference for these big, sleek, well-bred, million dollar
colts in preference to our little, light framed gelding.

4..Phil took our horse off the walker and kindly showed how he led,
tied up and how settled, quiet and well handled he was. We were
very impressed. Phil said some horses were knocked by gelding and
RED MAGIC seems to be one of these. He did lose quite a bit of
weight and lightened up considerably with the breaking in process,
in combination with the increased exercise, and the gelding effects.

4..Phil has been developing his property for 15 years and it is very
well appointed with Walking machines, stalls, his own training track,
and all the necessary breaking in lungeing areas, yards , paddocks
and other facilites.

5..Phil has been breaking in and pre-training all Te Akau/Mark
Walker's yearling for many years and Mark Walker has been
New Zealand's premier trainer for several seasons recently.
On our visits and seeing the good attitude of his horses, their
condition and the quiet and sensible response to his knowledge,
understanding and experience, we can see why the horses
leaving his care and moving on to the training stable are doing so
well on the racetrack. He has done a masterly job with our horse.


6..Helen, myself, Barbara and Carl did an early morning trip over
to see RED MAGIC do several rounds of Phil's track. My camera
came up with a memory full message, so didn't get any photo's.
The jockey said he had a nice action. We could see he had a very
long stride for a small horse, so were very pleased. Phil had changed
his mind somewhat and said he was doing everything right. He said
the gelding process had cured all his attitude problems and that he
was actually a very friendly horse and quite people orientated. He
also said he was big enough if he was good enough. Since he has
come home, we can see he has grown over half and inch, and he lies
down a lot and is obviously still growing. Another projected inch or
two will make all the difference when he matures more next year.

7..In the photo above, he is getting hosed down after doing a
couple of rounds of the Matamata racecourse.



8...In the photo above, another person enters the plot. This is
Mary Dodson, a friend who lives in Arapuni right next to the hill
paddock where the horse lives half the time. Mary has owned
horses and been a keen rider on the vast open spaces down in
the South Island on big sheep stations. She is a very knowledgable
person with dogs and has shown distinctive Dalmations and has
a huge number of trophies. Mary has spent many hours grooming
RED MAGIC, feeding him carrots and marshmellows etc. She
considers him her own, and we are just the bill payers. The first
morning we went to Matamata, she didn't sleep all night, and was
so keen she walked a mile down in the dark to our place. We
drove through the dark and fog for 40 minutes but managed to
miss his workout on the Matamata track. However, we enjoyed
seeing him tie up, get hosed down, spoke to Phil and the jockeys
about his education, and took the photo of his hosedown 2 photos
above, plus saw him load nicely into the horsefloat.

9..A week later we were up a lot earlier and saw him do a nice
solid workout over two rounds of the Matamata track. Phil said
he was very pleased with him and that nothing bothers him. He is
always alert in the stalls and calm about everything. looks like he
has the right attitude to take the pressure of racing.

10..We took Mary up to the KARAKA Yearling Sales and she
was overawed by the complex. The 2 yearlings she liked best
were Lot 344, a huge One Cool Cat Black colt that went for
$100,000 to John Wheeler, and Lot 339, a big well built Grey
colt by No Excuse Needed at a cost of $210,000 to David
Ellis, & no doubt will be educated by Phil Stevens in due course.



11..Above is RED MAGIC in the stalls after his 2 lap gallop.



12...Phil had hosed him down after his pacework. The girl rode him
and Phil rode the bigger stronger horse that had been out for a spell
and was nearing the end of its second training session.The girl said
he had a nice action. Phil had 7 horses in his early 5 o'clock float
load to the track and had another 7 horses in this load finishing about
7 o'clock, before heading home to work on other youngsters.

13..The Matamata Track is well equipped to handle lots of horses
and has an excellent set of lights right around the track, with dozens
of horses working all over the place. One person said they had
about 800 horses in work at this time of the year and they thought
it might be only 2nd to the Cambridge track which reportedly has
had about 1500 or so horses in work at one time or another.

14...RED MAGIC getting saddled to do an Official JUMP

OUT. We saw about a dozen lots of youngsters jump out

of the Club Starting Stalls and gallop round about 1200m

to the finishing post in a good educational gallop.

15...Helen and I were the only 2 to go over for this gallop just after

dawn because we were under pressure to fly over to Matamata and

then get back for an all day Bowling Club Bus trip from Putararu,

and just made it.

16...Aboard RED MAGIC is CYRIL, a French jockey riding for

Mark Walker to get a line on the horse. Mark had previously told

me that he thought the horse was going quite well and had a good

stride. In another e-mail he went out to check him at Phil's place

and said he was quite pleased with him, and after the gallop he

would assess him and map out a plan for him.

17..About 3 weeks before this, Phil said the horse was a bit

immature and weak, therefore the best plan was to work him

through all the learning needed at the Matamata Track, spell

him for 3 weeks to mature, rest and strengthen up, then give

him another 4 to 5 weeks of pre-training leading to 1 or 2

trials before a Christmas spell.

18..I spoke to Graeme Boyd about a year ago, the Owner

Trainer of GINGA DUDE, another chestnut lookalike by

ISTIDAAD. I said our one was smallish and light framed,

and that he would probably not mature until a late 3yo, and

possibly be better as a 4yo. He said his horse was small as

a 2yo, but kept growing evan as a 4yo. His advice was to

turn our one out until he was a 4yo.

19...GINGA DUDE won the main Open Class race at Ellerslie

last week and has won 9 races worth $333,625. He beat the

NZ Champion SIR SLICK-20wins$1,897,470 and 4 other

horses that have won amounts in excess of his own earnings.

Last week RED MAGIC'S sire ISTIDAAD ranked SECOND

on the NZ Sires Table to MONTJEU after GINGA DUDE'S

fine fast finishing run for victory at Ellerslie.

20..Both RED MAGIC and GINGA DUDE hit SECRETARIAT

quite well, GINGA through a genetic brother, MAGIC through

2 crosses and 2 genetic sisters. In the photo above, can anyone

else see the strong chestnut coat colour and white blaze like

SECRETARIAT that he is linebred to, the way I can?

21...RED MAGIC'S parents are Brown and Bay, so it seems

likely that he has thrown back to the chestnut Secretariat which

appears in both sides of his pedigree.

22..Phil said he was weak at the moment, but would be better

for the spell, and although immature, did not necessarily lack

constitution. I have always thought he acted and looked like he

would be fine for toughness and constitution when he matured.

230..Here is RED MAGIC going out for his JUMP OUT, with

French Jockey CYRIL up. All the JUMP OUT horses went out for

a short warm up. They had a saddle cloth with a gold identifying

circle on it. I went down from the Track Watchers building several

times to see how the youngsters were stretching out in their gallops

down the main grass track.

24..However, I noticed that several of them tended to shy if a

person was near the rail, so I decided not to use a flash or take a

photo of his gallop down the straight.

25...Here is RED MAGIC after his gallop.He came back very

settled and quietly. Phil was thrilled that he took it all in his stride.

The other horse was puffing and blowing a bit, and had a much

bigger physique. RED MAGIC was very relaxed and not puffing

at all, so was reasonably fit, and being light framed probably does

not need a lot of work. I checked and saw he did not blow up

over the kidneys, so was well prepared for the gallop.

26...I spoke to CYRIL, the French Jockey and he was full of

praise fot the horse. Although he thought he was immature, he

said he was a good horse now, but would be very good later on.

27..Lots of ISTIDAAD'S are slow away, drop back to mid-field

and then come with a run at the finish. CYRIL said he jumped

well, but then didn't know what to do, so he urged him on and he

then got the idea and really went well.

28...CYRIL said they galloped together for the education, but

if he had of kicked him up, he felt as though he would have

accelerated away quite nicely, so that was good to hear.

29..Phil hosed the horse down, scraped him down, towelled him,

covered him and then loaded him for home. He was going to give

him a ride around his track the next morning to see if he came

through the 1200m gallop without any after effects.

30...SUMMARY

Some positive things we learned..Another 5th jockey said he had

a good action. He showed good speed. He jumped well. He was

very settled after the gallop. Phil said he takes everything in his stride.

Nothing ever worries him, so he has the right temperament to

handle the stress of racing. He had a long stride. He doesn't take

much work to get fit.He is very clean winded. Phil said he is a

good doer, and is eating them out of house and home. Overall,

a lot of positives that lead us to believe that when he grows and

matures, he should be able to give us all a lot of fun and pleasure

by winning a race or two.