\u201cSome of them are from as far north as Kerikeri and as far south as Invercargill, not to mention mates abroad in America and another friend at college in Amsterdam.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s something like 75 owners in the horse and 45 to 50 of them would be under 30.\u201d<\/p>\n
Herd returned from travelling abroad and completing the Sunline Trust International Management Scholarship to take a senior hands-on role at Latta\u2019s Awapuni stable and his longer-term ambition is to be a trainer in his own right.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was great being able to travel the world and see different facets of the thoroughbred industry through breeding, racing and even working for a sales company like Goffs in Ireland,\u201d Herd said. \u201cI was able to learn things that I usually wouldn\u2019t have been exposed to.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s great to be home and I have settled in well. It is always enjoyable when the team is going well.<\/p>\n
\u201cMum and I have a terrific relationship, so we both know what we have to do, and it just gets done. There aren\u2019t too many arguments or any of that carry-on.\u201d<\/p>\n
In addition to being hands-on with the horses, Herd is also heavily involved in race planning and jockey bookings.<\/p>\n
\u201cMum allows me to put in my 10 cents worth, which is good and we have a great bunch of staff as well,\u201d Herd said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI definitely want to end up training, but I don\u2019t think it\u2019s any time in the near future and I\u2019m keen to get some more international exposure.\u201d<\/p>\n
Midnight Dart is by Grangewilliam Stud\u2019s headline stallion Derryn, with his mother Ambitious Beauty a full sister to the Group 1 Levin Classic (1600m) winner Ambitious Owner. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe was a strong precocious yearling and his full sister Shoes had run in the Karaka Millions 2YO and that was the goal when I was going to the sale, to try and purchase a horse to run in the race,\u201d Herd said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou never really know until you go to the races with 2-year-olds as it\u2019s always a bit of a lottery when they\u2019re having their first start.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we were pleased with what he had shown us and it definitely wasn\u2019t a surprise to see him win on debut.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a thrill just to have a runner in the race and I\u2019m sure it will be a good night, win, lose or draw.\u201d<\/p>\n
Herd is keen to see more young people get involved in racehorse ownership and believes small shares in syndicates make it far more attainable.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like racehorse ownership is something that older people get involved in once they have a bit more money, but through syndication, it has certainly become a lot easier for people of all ages to get involved,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a lot of good syndicators in New Zealand but I\u2019d love to see a pathway for the next generation.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll be looking to purchase another horse at the Karaka Sales next week with the aim to get back to the Millions again next year and hopefully, we get a good crew of young people involved again.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe more the merrier.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 LOVERACING.NZ News Desk<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cSome of them are from as far north as Kerikeri and as far south as Invercargill, not to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":244846,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[46871,45721,9436,29382,7875,299,8500,14568,9258,91125,143265,12001,28065,14733,1132,4380,111,139,34520,69,9769,4762,13673,3512,1534,213,11555,143264,1528,1316,1533,102],"class_list":["post-244845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-46871","tag-bargain","tag-chase","tag-contests","tag-dart","tag-dream","tag-ellerslie","tag-horse","tag-juvenile","tag-karaka","tag-lattatrained","tag-lisa","tag-mates","tag-midnight","tag-million","tag-millions","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nextgeneration","tag-nz","tag-owners","tag-party","tag-purchase","tag-racing","tag-saturday","tag-sports","tag-started","tag-throng","tag-university","tag-when","tag-will","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244845"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244845\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}