I decamped from Magic Millions after the first four days and am back in Sydney for a couple of days before heading up to the Hunter Valley to look at some Sydney-bound yearlings.
In the circumstances, the Gold Coast sale could hardly have been better. Without Patinack it might have been down 15%, but the fact is that Patinack was there. With the EI uncertainty late last year, MM lost some attractive horses to the Sydney catalogue. But the most significant one-off factor this year was the sale’s proximity to Sydney which made many buyers think twice about how deep to go in at the Coast, with all that Sydney quality just three weeks away. With this timeframe, unlike in all other years, there’s no time to buy up big at MM, sell down then re-group for another bash at Sydney. Overall, it was a good result for sellers at MM. There were some huge prices (not just the obvious seven-figure ones) and many breeders would have been pinching themselves, but the unfashionable/unsound combination was punished fairly severely. There were too many fat yearlings and there are still a very small number of consignors who clearly farm theirs and fall well short of a decent standard of presentation.
MM were only kidding that there was any prospect of giving up their January timespot. One thing I ask – could they kindly take March’s weather and less frenetic traffic back with them?
Funniest moment: inspecting Gerry Harvey’s Hussonet filly with the locked patella. Gerry standing over my shoulder telling me the vets say it'll fix itself with time. Me telling Gerry that may be correct but how was he going to get this rigidly immobile horse into the ring to sell it to anyone in the first place? Wisdom prevailed and the filly was withdrawn next day.
Prettiest sight: the raven-haired 30-something-perhaps-40 buxom beauty with the obligatory short black dress in the ground floor members’ bar at the Gold Coast Turf Club all day Saturday. Not one of those flimsy, anorexic clothes horses. I’m in love. Regrettably, the Corona-swigging bloke with the obligatory hairy chest, who was with her, most likely is too, unless she was $300 an hour.
Discomfort Award: the new ringside dining configuration. Sardines. Just emphasizes the inadequacy of the venue.
Bookbinder’s Prize: to the scores of people who ripped the first four days out of their catalogues and made a separate, smaller, book out of them. We shouldn’t have to do that, MM. Next year, please: Book 1 with the top 500, Book 2 with the next 500, Book 3 or Book 4 with the rest. Thank you.
Disregard of Customers’ Opinions Award: David Chester, quoted as saying we should use the catalogue as a door stopper. I agree. BEFORE the sale.
Most practical improvement that can be made prior to next sale: build a shelf above the urinal in the mens’ loos. Somewhere to rest the door stopper while we use two hands thanks.
I’m jealous: In the business centre, above the Xray repository, there’s press clippings from 20 years ago including photos of David Chester. He hasn’t changed.
They have arrived: Chris and Stephanie Waller. The new Gai and Robbie.
Boredom Award: the Gold Coast Bulletin. Take my advice, next year ask your hotel to slip The Australian or the Courier Mail under your door each morning instead. Day after day, the GCB regaled us with picture-spread after picture-spread of MM socialites and party-goers in various states of dress/undress. I didn’t see one of Tom and Kate, which must be a first. Each day they headlined basically the same boring story about how MM threaten to take the sale away (not even Adelaide was ruled out – excuse me while I die laughing) unless the Turf Club reinvents itself out at Palm Meadows. Looks like MM are trying to cash up the site and get a new one for nothing. One day they ran a back page photo with the screamer headline: “Look Who’s Come To Town – Gai (Waterhouse)!!” Surely it would have been news only if Gai HADN’T come to town! If I read one more reference to the Gold Coast as “the glitter strip” I’ll puke. Is that ‘glitter’ as in Gary?? They are trying too hard to be taken seriously by the rest of the world.
New name for the Gold Coast: Silicon City. Supposedly, one third of the population is Brazilian, though I may have misunderstood what I thought I heard.
Ripoff Award: to the hotels. I stayed at a mid-range joint on the ‘glitter strip’. Room service toasted sandwich $24, including weekend surcharge. Previously, I thought $4.20 for a small bucket of scungy chips at the Moonee Valley night races during Melbourne sale time took the prize. Petrol price gouging and Robert Mugabe have nothing on these guys.
Greatest contrast: the silhouettes of two Patinack trainers, Anthony Cummings and Paddy Payne.
Greatest similarity (you complete the sentence): the silhouettes of Nathan Tinkler and ……….
Star of the Show: the white Zabeel filly, Spook. Had more lookers than the Mona Lisa. People even took it upon themselves to go into her box unannounced and unsupervised so as to get up close and personal. She seemed to take it in her stride. She doesn't know she's different, she just thinks she's popular. Her dam Carmina Burana was an absolute snail but this filly is probably her best foal (she’s had five older foals who have won a total of one race). If you didn’t know who Craig Anderson and Amarina Farm were before this sale, you know now. Bet Craig's thrilled to see the back of the filly. She’d be a management nightmare. National Bank in New Zealand have long used a black thoroughbred as their logo and have promoted themselves as ‘the thoroughbred of banks’ (and have had a free ride in so doing); at least Singo has paid decent appearance money to get this actress.
A growing trend: horsemen and women who can’t bear to attend Magic Millions Raceday.
Biggest waste of money: I’m beginning to think it is Magic Millions Raceday. I will give this year the benefit of the doubt inasmuch as the time slot, bang in the middle of the Sydney carnival, probably deprived the meeting of several good horses. To chuck that much money at such ordinary horses as lined up in several of the undercard races is unworthy.
Blessed relief: Tara Reid didn’t attend. For pictures of this class act, see http://images.google.com/images?q=tara+reid&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=ie7&rlz=1I7GGLR&um=1
Seeing is believing: Shane Keating as 'minder' of Miss Australia Kimberley Busteed throughout her duties as Face of MM. Last I heard Shane was heading for Mumbai - possibly the only place on earth Darley doesn't have a stud farm - to find the Maharishi, but I can understand why he deferred the trip.
Rumour but unbelievable: David Hayes had Patinack in his clutches but let him slip.
Most predictable outcome: Gai came away from the sale with a Patinack horse to train.
Biggest certainty: Sydney will be BIG.
Biggest irony: Patrick Sexton, long-time foreman at Tulloch Lodge, loses his best horse, Dirty, back to Tulloch Lodge. Pat was given his marching orders from Tulloch Lodge in 2006 because of his association with Eddie Hayson who has supported him strongly since Pat’s relocation back to the family stables at Oakey, northwest of Toowoomba. I went to Oakey on Friday to check out the 3YO Hussonet filly on behalf of the intending purchaser, a client. Pat is very philosophical and understanding about Eddie’s desire to sell and there is no bad blood. He kicked back in the best possible way with a winner at Doomben on Saturday, Sneaky Long. In a perfect world Pat would rather be back in Sydney but he’s producing the goods at sleepy little Oakey where he's king of the roost with a team of about 25. At 40 bucks a day he gets my vote as the best value trainer in Australia.
Radio fraud: I’m tootling back from the Gold Coast on Sunday, desperately searching the car radio dial for something to listen to. Suddenly it locks on to Power FM (98.1), a station based in Muswellbrook. I’m listening to the contemporary content which is punctuated by a juvenile announcer with really bad diction raving on about the long holiday weekend, going back to work on Tuesday, the lousy weather (it was brilliantly fine as I traveled through the Hunter)….. Then it dawned on me – what we were being fed on this radio station was a wall-to-wall RECORDING of LAST SUNDAY's radio (23 March)! Most of us know that few of these radio stations broadcast live, it’s pre-recorded, formulaic, zero-cost, high-profit, synthetic stuff. Have a listen, they never mention the real time except at the news break. But to recycle last week's programme?! Ye gods, no wonder radio whales John Singleton and Tim Hughes can enjoy themselves at the horse sales! Which brings me to Vega 95.3 FM, a Sydney station whose invention robbed us of Angela Catterns from the ABC. This station is easy on the ear but for the last three months, at least, it has been playing the same two songs every hour of every day of every week: Hey There Delilah (Plain White T’s) and Straight Lines (Silverchair). I calculate that’s 2,184 renditions EACH of these ditties since Christmas. Who said playola was dead? One thing I pray for under Labor is an end to the emasculation of the ABC. Irrespective of its cost, which in global terms is bugger all, it’s a wonderful institution in all its ramifications and anyone caught trying to drag it down to the lowest common denominator should be charged with a crime against humanity.
Who's embarrassed?: A few days after I made a substantial offer in writing, to the trainer, for a well-known race filly, it was said to me by the overseas owner's agent/friend that "I must be embarrassed to have made such a (low) offer". That's his opinion, though I disagree. However, as I have yet to this day to receive any acknowledgement of my offer or response I suspect it has never been presented to the owner. That's embarrassing.
Get Well Greeting: To a German yearling groom/leader I know only as Christoph (spelling guess). One of the most personable and knowledgeable of all sales workers, Christoph was working at MM for Reavill Farm. Another consignor's yearling got cast and Christoph went in to untangle it but caught a flying hoof and had his cheekbone crushed for his trouble. A general word about grooms and leaders: one sees many outstanding young people plying their trade at the sales. I take my hat off to them (I always wear a hat). What is it with those buyers so full of their own self-importance that they are rude and abrupt to these hard workers who have very demanding responsibilities? Get a grip.
Personal highlights: A filly I bought inexpensively in Melbourne last year won her debut impressively at Bendigo on Saturday and looks like she belongs in town. Ortensia (Testa Rossa-Aerate’s Pick, by Picnicker) cost $50,000. From the Eau d’Etoile family. Another I signed for, Latest Flame (Encosta de Lago-After Beune), won her debut at Gosford on Thursday and paid over $100 on the TAB. Astonishing, considering she’s in the Guy Walter stable. Anything that’s 100-to-1 is usually sent home!
A frightening thought: I discovered, walking around MM, that a lot of people read this blog, though no one admits to sending in their views except Jamie. Somebody said I'm the Richard Zachariah of cyberspace.
Today's Rumour - Some Will Hope It's Not True!
Darley has bought Woodlands, lock, stock and barrel. $400m.
The Non-Starting Gates
Has anyone got any figures on the rate of late scratchings owing to mishaps in the barrier?
I’m getting sick of them. After Maldivian in the Caulfield Cup we today had the example of Mimi Le Brock going off prior to the Golden Rose, another highly anticipated runner left lamenting behind the gates. Because they’re high profile we remember these ones, but there are dozens/hundreds more every year.
I watch a lot of races and think there’s an epidemic of barrier incidents in Australia.
Theoretically, Australia should have the second-highest number of scratched-at-the-barrier incidents because the second-highest number of thoroughbreds in the world compete here. But I wonder if Australia’s rate of defections is greater than some other countries?
Adrenalin-laden thoroughbreds aren’t always predictable or controllable so some level of incident is inevitable. Some breeds even seem to have a wired-in disposition towards throwing a wobbly in the gates. For instance, the Nijinsky line can have short fuses.
Are the horses solely at fault, or is there a claustrophobia/clatter factor associated with the type of starting gates used in Australia which help send them off and inflict injuries on themselves?
As someone brought up in New Zealand, I thought the open-top gates used there functioned well. They seemed to fulfil the purpose of the exercise which is to get all the horses standing safely in a line and release them all at the same time. If they have a shortcoming, it’s a lack of somewhere for the sponsor to hang his big sign, or somewhere for the TV soundman to stick his microphone boom. Big deal. Or maybe they just don’t look imposing enough?
Not that every set of gates in New Zealand is of the open-top variety; there are a few places where closed-top, like Australia’s, are used. I wonder if anyone can rustle up any comparative scratching figures between the two types over there?
But it’s my impression that the frequency of barrier scratchings in New Zealand is low. I have no figures, it’s just a feeling in my water.
Someone out at Hawkesbury or in Druitt Street might like to tell us what really killed the trials with the New Zealand gates a few years ago?
Naturally, the chances of an Australian administration embracing holus-bolus a New Zealand model/idea were next to nil. So they tinkered around, made some “safety” modifications then, I think, declared the contraption unsuitable. As they’ve used those gates, or similar, for 50 years in New Zealand, without an epidemic of horses throwing themselves on the ground or going over backwards, I hope someone wised up the Kiwis.
Presumably the reasons for the brief flirtation with the New Zealand-style gates were concerns about the safety of the closed-top variety. What were the problems encountered with the New Zealand gates which rendered them unsuitable and/or what modifications were made to the local variety to allay the concerns?
This scratched-at-the-barrier business is a right pain. I’m not talking through my pocket but I feel for the owners, jockeys, trainers and staff involved and I doubt it’s any good for turnover or makes the racegoing public happy. Plus horses are depriving themselves of winning or placing in important races which indirectly impacts on their place in the breed.
I’m getting sick of them. After Maldivian in the Caulfield Cup we today had the example of Mimi Le Brock going off prior to the Golden Rose, another highly anticipated runner left lamenting behind the gates. Because they’re high profile we remember these ones, but there are dozens/hundreds more every year.
I watch a lot of races and think there’s an epidemic of barrier incidents in Australia.
Theoretically, Australia should have the second-highest number of scratched-at-the-barrier incidents because the second-highest number of thoroughbreds in the world compete here. But I wonder if Australia’s rate of defections is greater than some other countries?
Adrenalin-laden thoroughbreds aren’t always predictable or controllable so some level of incident is inevitable. Some breeds even seem to have a wired-in disposition towards throwing a wobbly in the gates. For instance, the Nijinsky line can have short fuses.
Are the horses solely at fault, or is there a claustrophobia/clatter factor associated with the type of starting gates used in Australia which help send them off and inflict injuries on themselves?
As someone brought up in New Zealand, I thought the open-top gates used there functioned well. They seemed to fulfil the purpose of the exercise which is to get all the horses standing safely in a line and release them all at the same time. If they have a shortcoming, it’s a lack of somewhere for the sponsor to hang his big sign, or somewhere for the TV soundman to stick his microphone boom. Big deal. Or maybe they just don’t look imposing enough?
Not that every set of gates in New Zealand is of the open-top variety; there are a few places where closed-top, like Australia’s, are used. I wonder if anyone can rustle up any comparative scratching figures between the two types over there?
But it’s my impression that the frequency of barrier scratchings in New Zealand is low. I have no figures, it’s just a feeling in my water.
Someone out at Hawkesbury or in Druitt Street might like to tell us what really killed the trials with the New Zealand gates a few years ago?
Naturally, the chances of an Australian administration embracing holus-bolus a New Zealand model/idea were next to nil. So they tinkered around, made some “safety” modifications then, I think, declared the contraption unsuitable. As they’ve used those gates, or similar, for 50 years in New Zealand, without an epidemic of horses throwing themselves on the ground or going over backwards, I hope someone wised up the Kiwis.
Presumably the reasons for the brief flirtation with the New Zealand-style gates were concerns about the safety of the closed-top variety. What were the problems encountered with the New Zealand gates which rendered them unsuitable and/or what modifications were made to the local variety to allay the concerns?
This scratched-at-the-barrier business is a right pain. I’m not talking through my pocket but I feel for the owners, jockeys, trainers and staff involved and I doubt it’s any good for turnover or makes the racegoing public happy. Plus horses are depriving themselves of winning or placing in important races which indirectly impacts on their place in the breed.
It's Got A Fractured Sesamoid, But Don't Worry, It's Nothing
I wonder how many buyers at Magic Millions and Sydney ‘Easter’ will give x-rays the flick in light of the findings of the University of Melbourne’s study into yearling x-rays announced at last week’s International Breeders’ Meeting?
Not me, for one. My clients usually insist that the due diligence be done and I’m not about to start dissuading them.
The study, said to be the world’s largest, is reported to conclude that the most common bone abnormalities revealed in x-rays have no effect on subsequent racing performance as two- and three-year-olds. (Does this mean they also know the contributing reasons for horses’ non-performance or career-limiting problems?)
If one accepts this finding, then the value of x-ray scrutiny, surely, is to check for yearlings which have uncommon bone abnormalities, rather than leaving it to chance?
It’s all very well for the researchers to reach their conclusion, but they don’t have to come up with the readies to buy these things. Their conclusions are based on a broad sample and are not specific to the horse you’re just about to spend half a million on.
It's a long bow to suggest that cot-cases don't come to the sales any more. Unless the vendor disliked me (a possibility I admit) then why did one tell me outright in Melbourne last week that his horse had a serious problem on x-ray and that I should save myself the bother? (The yearling sold for a price consistent with its paper value).
With the major sales upon us, I can understand Aushorse jumping at the opportunity to echo these findings though I find it somewhat disingenuous. It sounds like Aushorse is giving good advice to would-be buyers but to my way of thinking its stance serves the interests of its constituents more than the buyers. I don’t see what it stands to gain by subtly devaluing the worth of x-rays.
The way I read the press release, the study’s conclusions were equivocal. There were caveats attached to most of them and it seems to me the only way to know if those caveats apply is to actually look at the x-rays, especially if they reveal conditions for which “time” is the prescribed remedy – a commodity so many owners and trainers are unwilling to invest in. Many young horses are ruined by bad management and if x-ray analyses can prevent that happening then they are worth every cent we pay for them.
In my experience, most buyers get their vets to do both a clinical examination and an x-ray review prior to bidding on a horse likely to cost a substantial sum of money.
The key is how the information is dealt with, relying on the skill, experience and judgment of the practitioner together with the opinion of the intended trainer or experienced advisor.
Since x-rays became routinely available, we may have become over-sensitive to the effect of certain conditions; this study alerts us to that. Time and patience cure many things, and we are familiar with famous examples of x-ray-rejected yearlings, e.g. Elvstroem, Unbridled’s Song etc. But on the other hand would you prefer to buy a horse not knowing if there was a major skeletal problem? Experienced interpretation of x-rays at least gives you the choice. The vendor won’t always tell you.
It’s not a black-and-white matter. There are swings and roundabouts.
From recent personal experience, an adverse veterinary opinion led to my client and I not bidding on All American last year. By the same token I know of a buyer who won’t look at x-rays who paid a very substantial six-figure sum for a filly with a fractured joint, and that filly never raced. Perhaps it was just slow.
Veterinary opinion is subjective. A colt I selected at Sydney Easter last year was vetted by Vet A and ‘failed’ categorically. Because we were keen on the horse, I sought a second opinion from Vet B, without telling him that anyone else had looked at the colt. He reported back that the horse was a low risk pass. Then I asked, “would you be surprised if I told you that another vet had failed him?”. Vet B, one of Australia's best-known, said in his opinion there were no possible grounds for reaching that conclusion. So we had to make the call primarily on the basis of the relationship/history we had with each of the vets. We bought the colt. Time will tell. I’m heartened by the study’s findings!
The report on Breednet quoted researcher Dr Chris Whitton as saying, “There were 8 types of lesions that had no effect on performance including….sesamoid fractures”. It’ll be a great comfort to my client when I tell him I’ve bought a magnificent yearling “but, oh, by the way, it’s got a fractured sesamoid but don’t worry, it’s nothing.” Not every client is a university researcher who understands these things! Most would immediately think of a plaster cast, crutches or wheel-chair for the horse, and a contract killer for me!
For many who would like to know what the x-rays contain, vet fees are proving a disincentive. Often it's the add-on costs which people resent incurring and therefore they cut corners.
It's quite expensive to obtain a professional opinion and there are buyers who feel they are contributing, in effect, to a slush fund for vets.
At Karaka in January/February, I used two Australian vets to evaluate horses. One charged $125 per horse for clinical examination and x-ray review (and later provided a written report) whereas to use the services of a much larger practice cost me or, more correctly, my clients, $225 per horse. The larger practice had one vet doing the clinical and another in the repository reading the plates, so they had double the manpower but presumably they had double the demand on their services. If they've read the plates for Client #1, then get subsequent requests for an opinion on the same horse from several other clients, am I right in thinking they charge full freight each time when all they have to do is refer to their notes? Someone please tell me.
I'd like to see some discussion on standardisation of costs and services.
Not me, for one. My clients usually insist that the due diligence be done and I’m not about to start dissuading them.
The study, said to be the world’s largest, is reported to conclude that the most common bone abnormalities revealed in x-rays have no effect on subsequent racing performance as two- and three-year-olds. (Does this mean they also know the contributing reasons for horses’ non-performance or career-limiting problems?)
If one accepts this finding, then the value of x-ray scrutiny, surely, is to check for yearlings which have uncommon bone abnormalities, rather than leaving it to chance?
It’s all very well for the researchers to reach their conclusion, but they don’t have to come up with the readies to buy these things. Their conclusions are based on a broad sample and are not specific to the horse you’re just about to spend half a million on.
It's a long bow to suggest that cot-cases don't come to the sales any more. Unless the vendor disliked me (a possibility I admit) then why did one tell me outright in Melbourne last week that his horse had a serious problem on x-ray and that I should save myself the bother? (The yearling sold for a price consistent with its paper value).
With the major sales upon us, I can understand Aushorse jumping at the opportunity to echo these findings though I find it somewhat disingenuous. It sounds like Aushorse is giving good advice to would-be buyers but to my way of thinking its stance serves the interests of its constituents more than the buyers. I don’t see what it stands to gain by subtly devaluing the worth of x-rays.
The way I read the press release, the study’s conclusions were equivocal. There were caveats attached to most of them and it seems to me the only way to know if those caveats apply is to actually look at the x-rays, especially if they reveal conditions for which “time” is the prescribed remedy – a commodity so many owners and trainers are unwilling to invest in. Many young horses are ruined by bad management and if x-ray analyses can prevent that happening then they are worth every cent we pay for them.
In my experience, most buyers get their vets to do both a clinical examination and an x-ray review prior to bidding on a horse likely to cost a substantial sum of money.
The key is how the information is dealt with, relying on the skill, experience and judgment of the practitioner together with the opinion of the intended trainer or experienced advisor.
Since x-rays became routinely available, we may have become over-sensitive to the effect of certain conditions; this study alerts us to that. Time and patience cure many things, and we are familiar with famous examples of x-ray-rejected yearlings, e.g. Elvstroem, Unbridled’s Song etc. But on the other hand would you prefer to buy a horse not knowing if there was a major skeletal problem? Experienced interpretation of x-rays at least gives you the choice. The vendor won’t always tell you.
It’s not a black-and-white matter. There are swings and roundabouts.
From recent personal experience, an adverse veterinary opinion led to my client and I not bidding on All American last year. By the same token I know of a buyer who won’t look at x-rays who paid a very substantial six-figure sum for a filly with a fractured joint, and that filly never raced. Perhaps it was just slow.
Veterinary opinion is subjective. A colt I selected at Sydney Easter last year was vetted by Vet A and ‘failed’ categorically. Because we were keen on the horse, I sought a second opinion from Vet B, without telling him that anyone else had looked at the colt. He reported back that the horse was a low risk pass. Then I asked, “would you be surprised if I told you that another vet had failed him?”. Vet B, one of Australia's best-known, said in his opinion there were no possible grounds for reaching that conclusion. So we had to make the call primarily on the basis of the relationship/history we had with each of the vets. We bought the colt. Time will tell. I’m heartened by the study’s findings!
The report on Breednet quoted researcher Dr Chris Whitton as saying, “There were 8 types of lesions that had no effect on performance including….sesamoid fractures”. It’ll be a great comfort to my client when I tell him I’ve bought a magnificent yearling “but, oh, by the way, it’s got a fractured sesamoid but don’t worry, it’s nothing.” Not every client is a university researcher who understands these things! Most would immediately think of a plaster cast, crutches or wheel-chair for the horse, and a contract killer for me!
For many who would like to know what the x-rays contain, vet fees are proving a disincentive. Often it's the add-on costs which people resent incurring and therefore they cut corners.
It's quite expensive to obtain a professional opinion and there are buyers who feel they are contributing, in effect, to a slush fund for vets.
At Karaka in January/February, I used two Australian vets to evaluate horses. One charged $125 per horse for clinical examination and x-ray review (and later provided a written report) whereas to use the services of a much larger practice cost me or, more correctly, my clients, $225 per horse. The larger practice had one vet doing the clinical and another in the repository reading the plates, so they had double the manpower but presumably they had double the demand on their services. If they've read the plates for Client #1, then get subsequent requests for an opinion on the same horse from several other clients, am I right in thinking they charge full freight each time when all they have to do is refer to their notes? Someone please tell me.
I'd like to see some discussion on standardisation of costs and services.
This Hurts Me As Much As It Hurts You
The blog is going to have to take a back seat for the next couple of weeks while I stick my head down at the Magic Millions. I have to do some real work, occasionally. Might manage a couple of snippets along the way (or short snippets, otherwise known as snippetsons) but I don't promise. For the first time since being solo at the sales I have a female assistant to help me with data entry, so my attention may be diverted.
I'm not sure anyone reads this any more in any case - three 'anys' in one short sentence, good stuff! - judging by the appalling lack of interest in my poll. Perhaps it's just a stupid question?! We know the NSW horses will kick ass.
If you've got some amusing stories, scandals, theories, questions or even facts you wish to share with us, send them in. I can always put them up on the site as long as they won't develop into libel suits.
I'm not sure anyone reads this any more in any case - three 'anys' in one short sentence, good stuff! - judging by the appalling lack of interest in my poll. Perhaps it's just a stupid question?! We know the NSW horses will kick ass.
If you've got some amusing stories, scandals, theories, questions or even facts you wish to share with us, send them in. I can always put them up on the site as long as they won't develop into libel suits.
Today's Rumour Mill
Russell Cameron, in self-imposed exile in New Zealand for several years training for Westbury Stud, will soon return to Melbourne and set up at a private training facility on the fringe of the city. And the incumbent trainer?
Merlene's Magic From The Millions
News that Merlene’s two-year-old daughter Merlene de Lago (by guess???) has won a stakes race on debut in South Africa comes as no surprise to me.
She was a crackerjack yearling ($775,000) at last year’s Magic Millions Gold Coast. On my scale of ratings she was an 8.5, which was the highest rating band I gave for any filly at that sale. To give a yearling 8.5 I have to see it walk on water.
Like her dam, Merlene de Lago wasn’t big but she had an engine room like a tank and my summary was,“she looks like what she’s bred to be”. I noted that her near fore knee wasn’t perfect whereas her Golden Slipper-winning mother had a matching imperfect pair.
There were eight other fillies I rated 8.5. Three others have already raced, these being:
Sugar Babe (NZ) (Exceed And Excel-On Type) – stakeswinner of two of her three starts, trainer Lee Freedman. $500,000.
Kimillsy (Danehill Dancer-Lady Fidelia) – 2nd at her only start, to She’s Meaner, trainer Kim Waugh. $235,000. Regrettably, I was underbidder.
Blue’s Queen (Rhythm-The Baggy Green) – unplaced at her only start, trainer Tony Vasil. $145,000, again underbidder.
Just for the record, those yet to race are:
Zuhoor (Lonhro-Nesnas), trainer Gai Waterhouse, $200,000 (an Emirates Park buy-back).
Saranah Gold (Encosta de Lago-Plaisir d’Amour), trainer Peter Moody, $450,000.
Sweet Inspirations (Flying Spur-Baresque), trainer Gary Portelli, $100,000.
Miss Baker (Reset-Broadway Dance), trainer Bart Cummings, $140,000.
Cavities (Lonhro-De Lollies), trainer John O’Shea, $250,000.
You needed merely a cool $2,795,000 to buy these nine. A bit beyond me but apparently no problem to some people. However, they did range from $100,000 to Merlene de Lago’s $775,000.
I haven’t seen a single Magic Millions yearling yet (not one of the 1,811) but am scheduled to lob there next Sunday and am getting emotionally prepared for the experience.
Last year I stayed until the final Day Eight, only to get knocked off by Kevin O’Brien and Ron Maund on the filly I stayed back for. I’ve done the sensible thing this year and booked out after day four. If I can’t find a good horse in the first 900 I don’t want to know. I'm sure there will be good horses amongst the remaining 911, but how can a mere mortal get to see them all? There are another 1,230 to come in Sydney!
Magic Millions have very kindly sent me two interleaved catalogues. The first contains the first five days’ selling, the second contains the next three. The first book is 7.5 cms thick and weighs more than my kitchen scales can handle.
I can’t wait to see Gai’s version once she’s stuck in all her data labels.
She was a crackerjack yearling ($775,000) at last year’s Magic Millions Gold Coast. On my scale of ratings she was an 8.5, which was the highest rating band I gave for any filly at that sale. To give a yearling 8.5 I have to see it walk on water.
Like her dam, Merlene de Lago wasn’t big but she had an engine room like a tank and my summary was,“she looks like what she’s bred to be”. I noted that her near fore knee wasn’t perfect whereas her Golden Slipper-winning mother had a matching imperfect pair.
There were eight other fillies I rated 8.5. Three others have already raced, these being:
Sugar Babe (NZ) (Exceed And Excel-On Type) – stakeswinner of two of her three starts, trainer Lee Freedman. $500,000.
Kimillsy (Danehill Dancer-Lady Fidelia) – 2nd at her only start, to She’s Meaner, trainer Kim Waugh. $235,000. Regrettably, I was underbidder.
Blue’s Queen (Rhythm-The Baggy Green) – unplaced at her only start, trainer Tony Vasil. $145,000, again underbidder.
Just for the record, those yet to race are:
Zuhoor (Lonhro-Nesnas), trainer Gai Waterhouse, $200,000 (an Emirates Park buy-back).
Saranah Gold (Encosta de Lago-Plaisir d’Amour), trainer Peter Moody, $450,000.
Sweet Inspirations (Flying Spur-Baresque), trainer Gary Portelli, $100,000.
Miss Baker (Reset-Broadway Dance), trainer Bart Cummings, $140,000.
Cavities (Lonhro-De Lollies), trainer John O’Shea, $250,000.
You needed merely a cool $2,795,000 to buy these nine. A bit beyond me but apparently no problem to some people. However, they did range from $100,000 to Merlene de Lago’s $775,000.
I haven’t seen a single Magic Millions yearling yet (not one of the 1,811) but am scheduled to lob there next Sunday and am getting emotionally prepared for the experience.
Last year I stayed until the final Day Eight, only to get knocked off by Kevin O’Brien and Ron Maund on the filly I stayed back for. I’ve done the sensible thing this year and booked out after day four. If I can’t find a good horse in the first 900 I don’t want to know. I'm sure there will be good horses amongst the remaining 911, but how can a mere mortal get to see them all? There are another 1,230 to come in Sydney!
Magic Millions have very kindly sent me two interleaved catalogues. The first contains the first five days’ selling, the second contains the next three. The first book is 7.5 cms thick and weighs more than my kitchen scales can handle.
I can’t wait to see Gai’s version once she’s stuck in all her data labels.
Not Only Rains, It Pours
Bob Scarborough, breeder-owner of G1 Cadbury Australian Guineas winner Light Fantastic (see Super Saturday! post, below), struck a blow on the other side of the world within hours of his Flemington triumph.
Mauralakana, a five-year-old mare he bought through Badgers Bloodstock for a cool US$900,000 at last November's Keeneland Breeding Stock Sale, won her first start in his colours in the G3 Very One Handicap, US$100,000, at Gulfstream Park, Florida.
The French-bred, by Muhtathir-Jimkana, by Double Bed (won't be anyone in the Hunter Valley ever heard of that) was a G3 winner in both France and the USA, as well as multiple G1 placed, at time of purchase. Bob placed the mare with trainer Christophe Clement, bred in the same country as the mare. She has won seven of her 21 career outings for earnings close to US$600,000.
Mauralakana's dam Jimkana is a sister to the amazing globetrotter Jim And Tonic. Jimkana raced 41 times for just one win.
Muhtathir is by Elmaamul, by Diesis. Mauralakana's first three dams are by Double Bed, Jim French and Kashmir II. Bob won't have to worry about too much close inbreeding when he puts this baby to stud.
Mauralakana, a five-year-old mare he bought through Badgers Bloodstock for a cool US$900,000 at last November's Keeneland Breeding Stock Sale, won her first start in his colours in the G3 Very One Handicap, US$100,000, at Gulfstream Park, Florida.
The French-bred, by Muhtathir-Jimkana, by Double Bed (won't be anyone in the Hunter Valley ever heard of that) was a G3 winner in both France and the USA, as well as multiple G1 placed, at time of purchase. Bob placed the mare with trainer Christophe Clement, bred in the same country as the mare. She has won seven of her 21 career outings for earnings close to US$600,000.
Mauralakana's dam Jimkana is a sister to the amazing globetrotter Jim And Tonic. Jimkana raced 41 times for just one win.
Muhtathir is by Elmaamul, by Diesis. Mauralakana's first three dams are by Double Bed, Jim French and Kashmir II. Bob won't have to worry about too much close inbreeding when he puts this baby to stud.
The Man Who Came For Breakfast
I’m late getting around to it, but I can’t let the passing of English bloodstock agent Richard Galpin go without mention. If personalities can be colourful, he was a veritable kaleidoscope.
He was an eccentric savant around horses, one of the great agents of the latter part of the 20th century, nearly always mired in some form of controversy, ill-starred venture or speculation. For a time he lived in Sydney. During his career, it was either fashionable to say you knew him or, conversely, it was fashionable to deny it vehemently.
My (former) wife banned him from our home in New Zealand after an invitation to breakfast one morning during a pre-sale yearling inspection. Stuffing a napkin into the top of his shirt, he slurped and belched his way through the repast with as much food ending up on the tablecloth as went down his throat. It was not the suave, quasi-aristocratic Englishman who got up that morning. My wife adopted the view that the yearlings were good enough to sell themselves without having to put up with that in future. (Now is not the time to say my former wife also ended up banning me!).
I had just a few direct dealings with Richard, all of them satisfactory. The first I can recall was when he sold me (Waikato Stud) a stallion by the name of Kirmann (Ire).
I had been negotiating through Richard to buy Gold and Ivory (USA) but was haggling with the owner over $100,000 – imagine the futility/stupidity of haggling with the late Paul Mellon – but (Sir) Patrick Hogan snapped him up meantime, for whom he became one of the less-memorable chapters in the Cambridge Stud saga. At least I had paddocks full of Zephyr Bay mares which might have suited Gold and Ivory! Perhaps. A dud’s usually a dud.
So Kirmann (Ire) came into the picture. He was a Group-class stayer by Top Ville owned by the Aga Khan. The deal was that Robert Sangster would buy half with us and the horse would be transferred from Fulke Johnston Houghton to Michael Dickinson who had just taken up residency at Sangster’s Manton training centre, where he was short on older horses.
Dickinson, a great trainer of jumpers in concert with his mother, declared to me somewhat arrogantly in a phone call that he would “improve the horse seven pounds”. Kirmann (Ire) had one start for him, at Royal Ascot, being described by interested New Zealand witnesses as “bull fat”, and he ran accordingly. The colt was shipped to John Gosden in Los Angeles to be prepared for their turf marathons but a hock problem limited him to one unsuccessful start after which he was shipped to New Zealand.
My successors at Waikato justifiably didn’t want a bar of him. He was banished to as far south as a horse can go in the South Island without falling into the sea, siring 127 foals in seven seasons for 37 winners and a solitary stakeswinner. He might have done OK as a National Hunt sire.
Another Richard Galpin transaction was the purchase of the racemare Attempting (Ire) in Italy. I had seen a magnificent Sir Tristram (Ire) filly sold through Widden Stud at the 1988 Magic Millions. Our yearlings were stabled in the same block and I watched her at length. Noting she was out of an imported mare I determined to buy a relative as I was convinced this Sir Tristram filly was something special.
Richard tracked down the filly’s half-sister to a stable in Italy. She had won twice at two, at Folkestone and Bath, and was Group and Listed placed, earning a 97 Timeform, but had been banished to the land of Tesio's birth. In partnership with Whakanui Stud, the filly was bought for 40,000 guineas.
The Sir Tristram filly turned out to be Tristanagh. Attempting (Ire) had her 13th and final foal sold at Karaka Premier last month. Her nine foals to race have all won, two are stakeswinners and two are stakes-placed. Which is a heck of a lot more than can be said for Tristanagh who left everything she possessed on the racetrack! Attempting (Ire) has seven fillies to carry on her line.
Richard Galpin was a larger-than-life character, hard to describe unless you knew him. Amongst the people with whom I've had contact, I've always regarded the late Doug Mackenzie in New Zealand as the most adroit operator, armed with an amazing understanding of human psychology. On his good days, Richard Galpin wasn’t too far behind him.
He was an eccentric savant around horses, one of the great agents of the latter part of the 20th century, nearly always mired in some form of controversy, ill-starred venture or speculation. For a time he lived in Sydney. During his career, it was either fashionable to say you knew him or, conversely, it was fashionable to deny it vehemently.
My (former) wife banned him from our home in New Zealand after an invitation to breakfast one morning during a pre-sale yearling inspection. Stuffing a napkin into the top of his shirt, he slurped and belched his way through the repast with as much food ending up on the tablecloth as went down his throat. It was not the suave, quasi-aristocratic Englishman who got up that morning. My wife adopted the view that the yearlings were good enough to sell themselves without having to put up with that in future. (Now is not the time to say my former wife also ended up banning me!).
I had just a few direct dealings with Richard, all of them satisfactory. The first I can recall was when he sold me (Waikato Stud) a stallion by the name of Kirmann (Ire).
I had been negotiating through Richard to buy Gold and Ivory (USA) but was haggling with the owner over $100,000 – imagine the futility/stupidity of haggling with the late Paul Mellon – but (Sir) Patrick Hogan snapped him up meantime, for whom he became one of the less-memorable chapters in the Cambridge Stud saga. At least I had paddocks full of Zephyr Bay mares which might have suited Gold and Ivory! Perhaps. A dud’s usually a dud.
So Kirmann (Ire) came into the picture. He was a Group-class stayer by Top Ville owned by the Aga Khan. The deal was that Robert Sangster would buy half with us and the horse would be transferred from Fulke Johnston Houghton to Michael Dickinson who had just taken up residency at Sangster’s Manton training centre, where he was short on older horses.
Dickinson, a great trainer of jumpers in concert with his mother, declared to me somewhat arrogantly in a phone call that he would “improve the horse seven pounds”. Kirmann (Ire) had one start for him, at Royal Ascot, being described by interested New Zealand witnesses as “bull fat”, and he ran accordingly. The colt was shipped to John Gosden in Los Angeles to be prepared for their turf marathons but a hock problem limited him to one unsuccessful start after which he was shipped to New Zealand.
My successors at Waikato justifiably didn’t want a bar of him. He was banished to as far south as a horse can go in the South Island without falling into the sea, siring 127 foals in seven seasons for 37 winners and a solitary stakeswinner. He might have done OK as a National Hunt sire.
Another Richard Galpin transaction was the purchase of the racemare Attempting (Ire) in Italy. I had seen a magnificent Sir Tristram (Ire) filly sold through Widden Stud at the 1988 Magic Millions. Our yearlings were stabled in the same block and I watched her at length. Noting she was out of an imported mare I determined to buy a relative as I was convinced this Sir Tristram filly was something special.
Richard tracked down the filly’s half-sister to a stable in Italy. She had won twice at two, at Folkestone and Bath, and was Group and Listed placed, earning a 97 Timeform, but had been banished to the land of Tesio's birth. In partnership with Whakanui Stud, the filly was bought for 40,000 guineas.
The Sir Tristram filly turned out to be Tristanagh. Attempting (Ire) had her 13th and final foal sold at Karaka Premier last month. Her nine foals to race have all won, two are stakeswinners and two are stakes-placed. Which is a heck of a lot more than can be said for Tristanagh who left everything she possessed on the racetrack! Attempting (Ire) has seven fillies to carry on her line.
Richard Galpin was a larger-than-life character, hard to describe unless you knew him. Amongst the people with whom I've had contact, I've always regarded the late Doug Mackenzie in New Zealand as the most adroit operator, armed with an amazing understanding of human psychology. On his good days, Richard Galpin wasn’t too far behind him.
Super Saturday!
Light Fantastic’s rise has been meteoric. His ability to race on the speed won him the day in the G1 Cadbury Guineas at Flemington. It’s an overdue result for his sire Danehill Dancer (Ire) who, despite a whopping great service fee, has been living off the deeds of his second-crop champions Choisir and Private Steer for the past seven years.
In four crops of 349 live foals produced from 2000 to 2003, Danehill Dancer did not produce a single G1 winner. The first to get him back up there officially was Arapaho Miss in last spring’s VRC Oaks, but that was a very shallow race indeed, as it has been frequently in the past. In contrast, Light Fantastic looks more like the real deal. (And if you hold his name up to a mirror you get the sire of the Guineas third placegetter, Playwright).
Light Fantastic was bred by Bob and Rosemary Scarborough’s Wood Nook Stud, Nagambie, who experienced a difficult yearling sale in Melbourne, being able to sell only two of their five lots. I wonder if they, as prominent owners, suffer from the suspicion that “the best ones are at home”? Light Fantastic was not offered at auction. His outstanding third dam Leica Show was second in the G1 Newmarket Handicap on this day in 1976.
Danehill Dancer’s barnmate at Coolmore, Encosta de Lago, has been the best all-round sire in Australia for some seasons and Saturday’s racing reminded us why: the quinella in an admittedly substandard G1 Australian Cup, the emergence of Von Costa de Hero in the G2 Sires’ Produce Stakes and the welcome return of his best racehorse, Racing To Win, in the Apollo Stakes at Rosehill.
Encosta de Lago’s black-type stats are much better than Danehill Dancer’s and he deserves to stand for double the fee although given the unremitting number of mares pumped into Encosta de Lago each year – an average of 213 over the last six seasons – he’s over the odds.
Right at the other end of the scale is Greig (NZ) whose six-year-old mare Coniston Gem is now a dual G3 winner with an impressive eight victories in 12 starts. At the turn of the century, Greig got a very good horse, Landsighting, who won a Stradbroke and a George Ryder.
Greig (by Grosvenor) was sold as a yearling at Karaka on behalf of the Moore family during my time at Haunui Farm. I recall him well, he was a good sort and I was disappointed he sold for only about NZ$50,000 to Trevor McKee. Trevor had trained his dam for the Moores, the triple G1 winner Solveig, and I always believed there was an assumption by buyers that he would buy everything related to her, so Trevor was seldom taken on. In his pre-Sunline days, Trevor sneaked Greig across to Sydney as a spring three-year-old and won the G3 Stan Fox Stakes with him at 50-to-1.
The Moores have developed this family, descended from the Gabador mare Gabardine, into one of Australasia’s most consistent sources of good winners. Another good one we sold on behalf of the Moores, to the Inghams, was Sydney Cup winner Cross Swords, a three-quarter brother to Greig. The Moores have nurtured the family for the best part of 50 years – how many young breeders today will be so determined and single-minded? Precious few, I'm picking, in this ‘now’ era of SMS, email and Internet.
But back to Greig at stud. He served 80 mares in his first season, 1994, then it was a rapid downhill slide from there, 48 being the most he ever saw in a single season thereafter. In the eight seasons since 2000, he has covered a total of 99 mares. He was actually sold for $5,000 in a Melbourne sale in 2004.
Another stallion beating the odds is King Of Roses (Fairy King-Stellar Spirit), sire of Saturday’s G3 two-year-old winner Oval Affair.
Another of his daughters, Rose Ceremony, won the same race last year before running creditably in the Golden Slipper.
Oval Affair comes from King Of Roses’s fourth ‘crop’ – the four ‘crops’ totaling no more than 48 live foals! He’s had 20 to the races, 11 have won, two are Group winners, Amerryking won a quarter of a million and is stakes-placed, and Mr Scribble was threatening black-type company until his sale overseas.
King Of Roses was used as a private act of faith by his breeder David Hains at his Kingston Park Stud. On the back of these encouraging early results, from such a miniscule sample, the one-time winner (beat Fields Of Omagh by six lengths in a maiden) transferred last season to Independent Stallion Station where he covered 76 mares – two thirds as many as he had covered in the previous six years combined.
In four crops of 349 live foals produced from 2000 to 2003, Danehill Dancer did not produce a single G1 winner. The first to get him back up there officially was Arapaho Miss in last spring’s VRC Oaks, but that was a very shallow race indeed, as it has been frequently in the past. In contrast, Light Fantastic looks more like the real deal. (And if you hold his name up to a mirror you get the sire of the Guineas third placegetter, Playwright).
Light Fantastic was bred by Bob and Rosemary Scarborough’s Wood Nook Stud, Nagambie, who experienced a difficult yearling sale in Melbourne, being able to sell only two of their five lots. I wonder if they, as prominent owners, suffer from the suspicion that “the best ones are at home”? Light Fantastic was not offered at auction. His outstanding third dam Leica Show was second in the G1 Newmarket Handicap on this day in 1976.
Danehill Dancer’s barnmate at Coolmore, Encosta de Lago, has been the best all-round sire in Australia for some seasons and Saturday’s racing reminded us why: the quinella in an admittedly substandard G1 Australian Cup, the emergence of Von Costa de Hero in the G2 Sires’ Produce Stakes and the welcome return of his best racehorse, Racing To Win, in the Apollo Stakes at Rosehill.
Encosta de Lago’s black-type stats are much better than Danehill Dancer’s and he deserves to stand for double the fee although given the unremitting number of mares pumped into Encosta de Lago each year – an average of 213 over the last six seasons – he’s over the odds.
Right at the other end of the scale is Greig (NZ) whose six-year-old mare Coniston Gem is now a dual G3 winner with an impressive eight victories in 12 starts. At the turn of the century, Greig got a very good horse, Landsighting, who won a Stradbroke and a George Ryder.
Greig (by Grosvenor) was sold as a yearling at Karaka on behalf of the Moore family during my time at Haunui Farm. I recall him well, he was a good sort and I was disappointed he sold for only about NZ$50,000 to Trevor McKee. Trevor had trained his dam for the Moores, the triple G1 winner Solveig, and I always believed there was an assumption by buyers that he would buy everything related to her, so Trevor was seldom taken on. In his pre-Sunline days, Trevor sneaked Greig across to Sydney as a spring three-year-old and won the G3 Stan Fox Stakes with him at 50-to-1.
The Moores have developed this family, descended from the Gabador mare Gabardine, into one of Australasia’s most consistent sources of good winners. Another good one we sold on behalf of the Moores, to the Inghams, was Sydney Cup winner Cross Swords, a three-quarter brother to Greig. The Moores have nurtured the family for the best part of 50 years – how many young breeders today will be so determined and single-minded? Precious few, I'm picking, in this ‘now’ era of SMS, email and Internet.
But back to Greig at stud. He served 80 mares in his first season, 1994, then it was a rapid downhill slide from there, 48 being the most he ever saw in a single season thereafter. In the eight seasons since 2000, he has covered a total of 99 mares. He was actually sold for $5,000 in a Melbourne sale in 2004.
Another stallion beating the odds is King Of Roses (Fairy King-Stellar Spirit), sire of Saturday’s G3 two-year-old winner Oval Affair.
Another of his daughters, Rose Ceremony, won the same race last year before running creditably in the Golden Slipper.
Oval Affair comes from King Of Roses’s fourth ‘crop’ – the four ‘crops’ totaling no more than 48 live foals! He’s had 20 to the races, 11 have won, two are Group winners, Amerryking won a quarter of a million and is stakes-placed, and Mr Scribble was threatening black-type company until his sale overseas.
King Of Roses was used as a private act of faith by his breeder David Hains at his Kingston Park Stud. On the back of these encouraging early results, from such a miniscule sample, the one-time winner (beat Fields Of Omagh by six lengths in a maiden) transferred last season to Independent Stallion Station where he covered 76 mares – two thirds as many as he had covered in the previous six years combined.
When You're Hot, You're Hot
It surprised no one to see a yearling by Exceed And Excel make the top price at the Melbourne Premier Sale despite the whitewash of his juveniles in the G1 Blue Diamond Stakes eight days previously. Temporary setback only – Sugar Babe took up the slack at Rosehill today.
His only serious opposition at the sale was Hussonet (USA) who sired the G1 Blue Diamond/Oakleigh Plate double and he did indeed come up with the second top priced lot. The three Redoute’s Choices in the sale were designed by a committee – unworthy of a place in a ‘select’ sale – I doubt there was a live bid on either of his colts.
What was surprising, however, was the value - $750,000 paid by Darley – placed on the top lot, the colt out of Gentle Call (NZ), sold by Peter and Pauline Liston’s Three Bridges Thoroughbreds.
It’s been well documented that the Listons bought the colt alongside his dam, who was in foal to Choisir, paying $140,000 for the 3-in-1 package at last year’s Sydney Easter Broodmare Sale. You’d have to say, with 20-20 hindsight, that John Muir’s Neapean Stud Farm moved them on one year too early. Moral of the story – never sell a weanling from a sire’s second crop.
The $750,000 price tag more than doubled the amount paid for any yearling member of this family, the next closest being $360,000 for the colt’s three-quarter sister Unfinishedbusiness (by Redoute’s Choice) at Easter 2005. Before that, $150,000 was the best paid, for a Postponed (USA)-Tough Call (NZ) colt at Melbourne 2005, and before that $135,000 for a Zabeel (NZ)-Aggressive (NZ) colt at Easter 2004. To date, these three horses have won a total of two races.
Despite a superficially impressive catalogue page, the reason why this family has been a modest seller is because virtually all of them have been dedicated wet trackers, racing almost exclusively in New Zealand. This family eats mud.
Of the 51 New Zealand wins clocked up by the horses mentioned on the catalogue page, 33 have been on tracks registered as ‘slow’ or ‘heavy’. Bear in mind that’s New Zealand slow and heavy – New Zealand ‘heavy’ often means ‘abandoned’ in Australia.
Gentle Call and her two Listed winning half-siblings Call Spades and Tough Call won 15 races, 12 of them in a bog. The sting has also been out of the ground when Gentle Call’s two winning progeny have scored. (One of them is named Tough Call, the same name as its auntie - go figure).
Classic Fame (USA), the sire of the dam of the top priced yearling, was a disappointing sire in New Zealand, getting just five stakeswinners of handicapping quality (1.5% of his foals). As a broodmare sire, he hasn’t yet produced a stakeswinner. The best of his daughters’ progeny so far, Venus Serena, was herself a swimmer, winning three of her four races on slow.
All of which goes to show the commercial pulling power of a sire like Exceed And Excel. When you’re hot, you’re hot. My bet is the colt stays in Melbourne where they produce wet tracks to order.
His only serious opposition at the sale was Hussonet (USA) who sired the G1 Blue Diamond/Oakleigh Plate double and he did indeed come up with the second top priced lot. The three Redoute’s Choices in the sale were designed by a committee – unworthy of a place in a ‘select’ sale – I doubt there was a live bid on either of his colts.
What was surprising, however, was the value - $750,000 paid by Darley – placed on the top lot, the colt out of Gentle Call (NZ), sold by Peter and Pauline Liston’s Three Bridges Thoroughbreds.
It’s been well documented that the Listons bought the colt alongside his dam, who was in foal to Choisir, paying $140,000 for the 3-in-1 package at last year’s Sydney Easter Broodmare Sale. You’d have to say, with 20-20 hindsight, that John Muir’s Neapean Stud Farm moved them on one year too early. Moral of the story – never sell a weanling from a sire’s second crop.
The $750,000 price tag more than doubled the amount paid for any yearling member of this family, the next closest being $360,000 for the colt’s three-quarter sister Unfinishedbusiness (by Redoute’s Choice) at Easter 2005. Before that, $150,000 was the best paid, for a Postponed (USA)-Tough Call (NZ) colt at Melbourne 2005, and before that $135,000 for a Zabeel (NZ)-Aggressive (NZ) colt at Easter 2004. To date, these three horses have won a total of two races.
Despite a superficially impressive catalogue page, the reason why this family has been a modest seller is because virtually all of them have been dedicated wet trackers, racing almost exclusively in New Zealand. This family eats mud.
Of the 51 New Zealand wins clocked up by the horses mentioned on the catalogue page, 33 have been on tracks registered as ‘slow’ or ‘heavy’. Bear in mind that’s New Zealand slow and heavy – New Zealand ‘heavy’ often means ‘abandoned’ in Australia.
Gentle Call and her two Listed winning half-siblings Call Spades and Tough Call won 15 races, 12 of them in a bog. The sting has also been out of the ground when Gentle Call’s two winning progeny have scored. (One of them is named Tough Call, the same name as its auntie - go figure).
Classic Fame (USA), the sire of the dam of the top priced yearling, was a disappointing sire in New Zealand, getting just five stakeswinners of handicapping quality (1.5% of his foals). As a broodmare sire, he hasn’t yet produced a stakeswinner. The best of his daughters’ progeny so far, Venus Serena, was herself a swimmer, winning three of her four races on slow.
All of which goes to show the commercial pulling power of a sire like Exceed And Excel. When you’re hot, you’re hot. My bet is the colt stays in Melbourne where they produce wet tracks to order.
Redistribution Of Wealth In Its Purest Form
Alfred Grant’s ghost is not amused.
He didn’t think he’d see the day when his reputation as the last of the Queensland big spenders would be usurped.
Well, it’s been left in tatters by Nathan Tinkler’s Patinack Farm which spent about $11 million at Karaka and Melbourne yearling sales (mere practice runs for the real thing coming up) plus racing stables and studs, plus a raft of potential stallions - each delighted to find a home - plus broodmares and untold private purchases … if the bloke’s got any change out of $45 million so far he and his advisers are not really trying.
I raised my eyebrows when I noticed Patinack bought the top-priced mare at Deauville late last year (for about A$1.25m), by a sire which has never sired a stakeswinner (oldest progeny are now five) out of a dam which was 22 when she produced it, and the mare in question raced twice, finishing out of sight both times. Here is a serious player. Mr Tinkler is cashed up and obviously in a hurry.
The forthcoming MM/Sydney yearling and breeding stock sales might be great spectator sport.
Patinack’s also stolen the thunder of the originally Queensland-based Wadham Park, the 2003 lovechild of former Toll Holdings chairman Peter Rowsthorn. Wadham Park has spent well over $20 million on yearlings as well as entering the stud business with Econsul and Grey Swallow (after the Cox Plate debacle) and setting up a number of elaborate complexes, some of which are now on the market. I’d only be guessing but the total spend must be in the order of $60- $70 million. Most of Wadham Park’s serious purchases are just three- and two-year-olds of the current season so plenty can still happen, but the outfit’s a black hole up to this point. Standing Ovation ($1.3 million worth of Sadler’s Wells-Ha Ha colt), judged by his fifth of eight at Bendigo on Thursday, has a way to go.
At every gathering of racing/breeding types these days, I hear them tut-tutting under their breath, wondering out loud how come the likes of Tinkler and Rowsthorn don’t realise they are wood ducks. Despite my reservations about the Deauville mare (above), I’m definitely not one of those people. I hold the view that anyone smart enough to have made as much money as Tinkler and Rowsthorn are nobody’s wood ducks. Not even in racing, where rich men and their money are so easily parted. To the contrary, these guys will be as they were in their other business: in control, aided by trusted advisors, calling the shots and buying only what they want and happy with the prices, irrespective of how it might look to the casual observer. They will be fully aware they are a mark.
Tinkler and Rowsthorn are the best thing to have happened to breeding/racing in the last five years. They are spreading their largesse and enriching a helluva lot of people on the way through. It’s redistribution of wealth in its purest form. They should be on everyone’s Christmas card list.
He didn’t think he’d see the day when his reputation as the last of the Queensland big spenders would be usurped.
Well, it’s been left in tatters by Nathan Tinkler’s Patinack Farm which spent about $11 million at Karaka and Melbourne yearling sales (mere practice runs for the real thing coming up) plus racing stables and studs, plus a raft of potential stallions - each delighted to find a home - plus broodmares and untold private purchases … if the bloke’s got any change out of $45 million so far he and his advisers are not really trying.
I raised my eyebrows when I noticed Patinack bought the top-priced mare at Deauville late last year (for about A$1.25m), by a sire which has never sired a stakeswinner (oldest progeny are now five) out of a dam which was 22 when she produced it, and the mare in question raced twice, finishing out of sight both times. Here is a serious player. Mr Tinkler is cashed up and obviously in a hurry.
The forthcoming MM/Sydney yearling and breeding stock sales might be great spectator sport.
Patinack’s also stolen the thunder of the originally Queensland-based Wadham Park, the 2003 lovechild of former Toll Holdings chairman Peter Rowsthorn. Wadham Park has spent well over $20 million on yearlings as well as entering the stud business with Econsul and Grey Swallow (after the Cox Plate debacle) and setting up a number of elaborate complexes, some of which are now on the market. I’d only be guessing but the total spend must be in the order of $60- $70 million. Most of Wadham Park’s serious purchases are just three- and two-year-olds of the current season so plenty can still happen, but the outfit’s a black hole up to this point. Standing Ovation ($1.3 million worth of Sadler’s Wells-Ha Ha colt), judged by his fifth of eight at Bendigo on Thursday, has a way to go.
At every gathering of racing/breeding types these days, I hear them tut-tutting under their breath, wondering out loud how come the likes of Tinkler and Rowsthorn don’t realise they are wood ducks. Despite my reservations about the Deauville mare (above), I’m definitely not one of those people. I hold the view that anyone smart enough to have made as much money as Tinkler and Rowsthorn are nobody’s wood ducks. Not even in racing, where rich men and their money are so easily parted. To the contrary, these guys will be as they were in their other business: in control, aided by trusted advisors, calling the shots and buying only what they want and happy with the prices, irrespective of how it might look to the casual observer. They will be fully aware they are a mark.
Tinkler and Rowsthorn are the best thing to have happened to breeding/racing in the last five years. They are spreading their largesse and enriching a helluva lot of people on the way through. It’s redistribution of wealth in its purest form. They should be on everyone’s Christmas card list.
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