Six years after being bought for just $8,500 from New Zealand Bloodstock’s South Island Sale, Live Drama (NZ) (Ghibellines) has retired with more than $330,000 in prize-money to her name and is being sold as a valuable broodmare proposition in the latest fortnightly auction on gavelhouse.com.
Live Drama’s high-class career spanned six seasons, winning on debut as a juvenile in May of 2019 and placing at Group Three level as a seven-year-old in November.
She had a total of 35 starts for nine wins, 12 placings and $332,340 in stakes for her big group of owners. Her best wins came in the Group Three South Island Thoroughbred Breeders’ Stakes (1600m) and Listed Great Easter Handicap (1400m), while her eight black-type placings included the Group Three Canterbury Breeders’ Stakes (1400m), White Robe Lodge WFA (1600m) and Stewards’ Stakes (1200m).
“She’s been a great mare and I’m really proud of what she’s achieved on the track,” trainer and part-owner Lance Robinson said.
“She’s been late-scratched at the gates the last two times we’ve taken her to the races, so we just felt that she might be showing us that she’s had enough of being a racehorse. She’s been so good to us, so the syndicate decided that the best thing to do by the horse was to bring an end to that stage of her career.
“She’s done a fantastic job for us and far exceeded what we were expecting when we bought her for $8,500 as a yearling.”
While her most prestigious win came over 1600 metres, Robinson was particularly struck by Live Drama’s performances in the South Island’s biggest sprints.
“Probably the thing that stood out to me was those performances in the big sprints at Riccarton,” he said. “She ran second in two of them (2021 Stewards’ Stakes and 2021 Pegasus Stakes), just narrowly beaten both times, and then she was fifth in the Stewards’ in November – a huge performance carrying 57.5kg and being badly buffeted all the way. I thought that was probably one of the best performances of her career.
“For her to run such big races in those major sprints, while also being a Group Three winner over 1600 metres, it just shows how versatile she was.”
Live Drama is by White Robe Lodge stallion Ghibellines, who has proven to be a prolific source of racetrack success with 81 winners including six at stakes level. That list is headed by the Group One Turnbull Stakes (2000m) hero Smokin’ Romans (NZ), along with Live Drama and the well-performed Palmetto (NZ) and Markus Aurelius (NZ).
The dam of Live Drama is the three-race winner Sheeza Drama (NZ) (Pure Theatre), whose four foals to race have all been winners. She is a half-sister to the stakes-performed Stage Whisper (Rubiton), while another half-sister is the dam of stakes winner Cherry Creek (NZ) (Monashee Mountain) and granddam of Group Three winner Coulee (NZ) (Gallant Guru).
More than a dozen Australian stakes winners feature further down the pedigree page.
“I have no doubt that she’ll make a lovely broodmare for someone,” Robinson said. “I’m looking forward to following her career and seeing how she goes.
“The syndicate that raced her, none of them are really breeders, so we thought it was fairest for the owners and best for the horse if we sold her as a broodmare. That will give her every opportunity, which is what she really deserves.
“We just hope a good stud or breeder buys her now and gives her those opportunities, and I have no doubt that she’ll do a fantastic job for them, like she did for us.” Live Drama headlines the latest gavelhouse.com fortnightly auction, which is now open for bidding with the first lot closing from 7pm (NZT) on Monday.