Roi Lear for N.Z.

Press, 14 August 1976, Page 19

Roi Lear for N.Z.

Wellington The vagaries of British property speculation have resulted in a Wairarapa Stud purchasing the most expensive stallion to be imported to New Zealand. The horse is the highlyI performed Roi Lear, the French Derbv winner of 1973. Ardsley Park, a relatively new stud located near Masterton is iin the final stages of syndicat- | ing Roi Lear at a record $12,000 a share Roi Lear's share price is believed to be at least $4500 higher than anv previous syndication and gives the stallion a syndicated value of $480,000. Roi Lear was bred by Mrs Pierre Wertheimer, whose familv has been a major influence in French racing for several decades.

i Roi Lear won $278,000 in the i I Wertheimer colours and at the I lend of his three-year-old year | was sold to an English property ' developer. Roi Lear's price in that trans-; [action was 400,000gns. After he j had stood one season in Eng-| [land, however, economic difficul-! ties forced his owner to dispose 'of his breeding interests and ! Roi Lear was sold back to Mrs •I Wertheimer—-for 200,000gns. i| Roi Lear has stood the last [two seasons in France at the[ lianas Du Quesnay, which is' ■I owned by the leading trainer. J Alec Head, but earlier this year the elderly Mrs Wertheimer de- ■ elded to deplenish her breeding j stock and Roi Lear went back on the market. The Wallace family, which es-i tablished Ardsley Park only four years ago, told the Wellington jagent, Mr Glyn Tucker. last month that it required a stallion of top performance and I good breeding, two days later Mr Tucker offered them Roi Lear.

“The experts thought a horse would be hard to sell at $12,000 a share,” said James Wallace Jun. of Ardsley Park. “But we have long felt that ! the only way to go in New (Zealand was to try for a horse with top-class performance as long as he had a reasonable pedigree. This horse’s pedigree is rather better than reasonable, and we have had no difficulty selling the shares, basically in the lower half of the North Island.”