Leading breeding farms and other contenders have started to act quickly and jump on the bandwagon, otherwise get left behind.

It is hardly surprising then that Australasia’s leading standardbred nursery Nevele R Stud, Prebbleton, has snapped up a 50 percent interest in boom Christian Cullen colt Pay Me Christian, the raging hot favourite for Friday’ night’s Group One $125,000 Great Northern Pacing Derby (2700 metres).

Earlier this year live wire and entrepreneurial Christchurch harness racing identity Ian Dobson paid a record price for In The Pocket to stand alongside his star son Christian Cullen at Wai Eyre Farm in Canterbury.

Nevele R Stud marketing manager Danny Boyle agreed that the In The Pocket-Christian Cullen male line possessed the “wow’’ factor or “X-factor’’, take your pick.

Nevele R was well placed, he said, in that it had In The Pocket’s finest juvenile son Courage under Fire, Christian Cullen’s most gifted juvenile son Pay Me Christian and champion sire Falcon Seelster’s best performed son McArdle in its siring ranks.

The winner of a whopping $2,455,609 McArdle posted the fastest last quarter ever at the Meadowlands of 25.4sec when winning at the major USA track.

Nevele R on Monday (12 December) spent $500,000 to acquire a half share in Pay Me Christian that also includes his racing campaign for the rest of this season and certainly next season before further decisions are made.

Boyle said the trend of major breeding farms buying into a racehorse while he was still on the track was an effective means of clinching a deal to later stand him at stud.

In any case, the colt was not over priced at $1,000,000 and may well turn out a bargain before he even finishes racing, particularly with Grand Final Inter Dominion purses racing to $1.5 million.

The new found respect for the best “colonial’’ strains has also resulted in a marked increase in demand and value for the best bred New Zealand colts. Cran Dalgety paid top price of $150,000 for Mombassa, a ½ brother by In The Pocket to Elsu, at the 2005 Australasian Classic Yearling Sale in Auckland.

Noodlum and Lordship, both premier sires, did much to break down the prejudice of New Zealand bred sires at stud. So did Scottish Command, Young Charles, Johnny Globe, Fallacy and Local Light, others who topped the premiership or went close to it.

Nevele R Stud has already had experience racing colts in partnership with top studs before they have been retired to the breeding barn. There was no better example than McArdle (1:49) whom Perretti Farms in New Jersey bought a share in before he was retired.

Perretti Farms also did likewise with Rock an’ Roll Hanover before he was retired.

Perretti Farms, a major player, also stands the likes of Muscled Yankee and Artiscape.

“We presently have a half share in Pay Me Christian with the Syndicate that owns him and we also have the right to later buy their share in the horse,’’ Boyle said.

The popularity of In The Pocket’s son Courage Under Fire at Nevele R had inevitably played its part in urging the stud to snap up a gifted grandson of In The Pocket in Pay Me Christian.

Pay Me Christian was “doubly appealing’’ in that he was a son of In The Pocket’s greatest son Christian Cullen.

Trainers have been raving about the precocious qualities of Courage Under Fire’s first crop (now two) and they are expected to exert a major influence on juvenile racing later this season.

Nevele R co founder Robert McArdle said the stud could have received between 700-800 applications for services to the horse this season if it had not shut his book.

Trainer Paul Kerr told Harnesslink earlier this season he believed Pay Me Christian possessed all the qualities to later make a fine sire.

He has also stressed all along that the horse will continue to improve as he matures and gains ring craft. Driver David Butt recently told Harnesslink the colt was not yet perfect in that respect but was “not far away.’’

That augurs well for Nevele R from an earning perspective before he even goes to stud. It is quite within the realms of possibility that the respected nursery will get a half share in a fine young stud prospect for nothing down the track.

Nevele R will not have to compete with other players and inflation either. It has got in on the ground floor, so to speak.

The sum of $500,000 for a half share in a top young stud prospect might not seem half as much as now in a couple of years. It never does in business. There’s an old business adage in life that reminds us “nothing is as cheap as today.’’

How true that would be.

In the final analysis, the well thought out Pay Me Christian deal is logical and beneficial for both parties and it keeps a star attraction on New Zealand tracks as a marketing tool and draw card.

Now, did anybody think of that?

Christian Cullen wooed Kiwis and Pay Me Christian is going to do the same.

Trainer Kerr said one of the reasons the colt would later make it as a sire was the class of his dam, grand dam and depth of maternal line.

His grand dam Pay Me Back performed with distinction in open New Zealand ranks and his dam and her daughter Pay Me Tu (by Tuapeka Knight) had her career nipped in the bud after winning five races and revealing high promise.

The maternal line has always possessed the ability to produce fine mares. A good earlier example was On Credit (by Royal Dollar), the third dam of Pay Me Christian, who won the Victorian Mares Championship and Classic Stakes.

As his own sire Christian Cullen is a distinguished progenitor of top fillies and he claims outstandingly well performed first three dams, Pay Me Christian will one day surely leave good fillies also. That would seem a certainty and was obviously a key pointer in Nevele R buying into him because the stud never leaves any stone unturned in seeking new sires.

By Don Wright