Rodney Schick believes the spring could be the making of his young stallion Turn Me Loose, whose first two crops of runners have turned heads in both New Zealand and Australia.
The Windsor Park Stud front man watched on as, in the space of a week in March, Turn Me Loose sired his first Group One winner in New Zealand, as well as feature victories in Melbourne and Adelaide.
Two-year-old filly Lickety Split (NZ) won the Gr.1 Sistema Stakes (1200m) at Ellerslie, while Matt Brown’s three-year-old Prix De Turn (NZ) and Clinton McDonald’s filly Ancient Girl (NZ) added brilliant Stakes wins only days later.
With an expectation that, like the stallion himself who was a Group One winner of the Cantala Stakes and Futurity Stakes as a four-year-old, his progeny will continue to improve as they get older, Schick can’t wait to see what the next 12 months holds for Turn Me Loose.
“We’re very excited with Turn Me Loose,” Schick said.
“He was a top class galloper in Australia and to be able to win at weight-for-age in those short-course races was very hard to do.
“We’re very happy with the way he’s kicked off – I think he’s had eight Stakes horses including five Stakes winners and his first Group 1 winner so it’s pretty exciting really.
“The market now is such that they’ve got get up early and go and even with the New Zealand-bed horses that people are happy to wait a little bit of time for, they’ve still got to operate at two at some level.
“To get a two-year-old Group One winner this year with Lickety Split was fantastic and he’s obviously had Prix De Turn over there who has done a really good job and looks like an exiting horse for the spring.
“Ancient Girl is another Stakes winner over there and I’m sure she’s going to do a good job this spring as well.
“They’re tough horses and they’ll just get better with time.
“I reckon he’s going to have a really exciting spring and be a horse to follow.”
Schick is also bullish about the prospects of two sons of Galileo that have been recent additions to Windsor Park’s stallions roster.
Three-time Group One winner Circus Maximus shuttled from Coolmore for the first time in 2021, serving 160 mares – more than another other stallion in New Zealand last season.
And Cox Plate runner-up Armory, who was purchased in conjunction with Mapperley Stud, will debut in the covering shed this spring.
“We’ve had a great relationship with Coolmore over many years so to get another triple Group One-winning miler in Circus Maximus – we’ve had the High Chaparrals and the Montjeus – is really exciting,” he said.
“He served the biggest book of mares of any stallion in New Zealand last year.
“He’s a really exciting horse for us.
“And it’s quite an exciting arrangement there (with Armory).
“Simms Davison who owns Mapperley Stud is actually my step-brother, we’re great friends and we’ve been looking at horses together for a long time.
“My father and his father actually bought Volksraad and stood him in partnership so this is quite a cool venture to do together.
“He’s actually going to stand at Mapperley but we’ve bought him together.
“He’s a really exciting horse with a beautiful pedigree.”
Turn Me Loose will stand the 2022 season at a fee of $20,000 + GST, while Circus Maximus ($20,000 + GST) and Armory ($10,000 + GST) are also affordably priced.
