Nordic Seal returns to N.Z.

Press, 9 August 1985, Page 21

Nordic Seal returns to N.Z.

Nordic Seal, one of New Zealand’s top two-year-olds of recent years, has returned to this country to join the growing broodmare band of the newly listed Blandford Lodge.

Nordic Seal arrived on a horse charter from England this week having virtually flown around the world since her sale for a considerable sum to American racing interests in 1983. The winner of the group 1 Manawatu Sires’ Produce Stakes, the richest two-year-old race in New Zealand, Nordic Seal tragically never had an opportunity to show her blistering speed in the United States. She did not successfully acclimatise and a virus she caught effectively halted her racing career. The owners of the filly were going to retire her to stud in Kentucky this year, but Blandford Lodge stepped in and successfully negotiated her return sale. The winner of four races and never out of the money in 11 starts at two in New Zealand, Nordic Seal was equal second top-weight on the 1982-83 New Zealand Two-year-old Free Handicap. While the virus halted Nordic Seal’s racing career, the filly has had plenty of time to fully recover and the set-back will not impair her breeding future. Nordic Seal is to be mated with the successful sire, Imposing. While her purchase price was not revealed by Blandford Lodge, the company’s

general manager, Mr David Jewell, said Nordic Seal represented a cheap buy when compared with prices being realised now for group 1 winners in New Zealand and Australia.