It's All Over Folks - Resume Normal Sleep Pattern

There’s a very good mate of mine in Auckland – let’s call him Anthony (because that’s his name) - who’ll be spewing if he ever finds out the result of last night’s Gr 1 Golden Jubilee Stakes. Thank heavens he wouldn’t have been up in the middle of the night in NZ tuned into Royal Ascot. He lives a saner life than I do. And he has a partner, which is another good reason.

Anthony and I have bought a couple of horses together in the last few years. After I’d been underbidder on Choisir he gave me a brief that if I saw a cheapie 'special' to let him know and he would put his hand up for it. It’s true that after buying an Encosta de Lago colt in Melbourne (which turned out to be Encosta’s absolutely most horrid horse) we asked the question of John O’Shea if he had any owners for the Encosta colt he’d just ‘stolen’ at the following Easter sale, but naturally he did. That was Racing To Win!

Prior to the 2005 Magic Millions I latched onto an Orpen colt in Attunga Stud's draft which I thought was a great type. I wrote Anthony’s name alongside the horse in my catalogue when I first saw it during pre-sale inspections on 23 November. After second-looking the colt at the sale I liked him every bit as much. I rang Anthony and told him it would fetch nothing because its sire Orpen had a right pox on him.

“That no-good Encosta’s costing me a fortune, I’ll give it a miss,” he decided. The colt made $57,500, went to South Africa and was War Artist who upstaged the higher-profile Antiopdeans when a mighty second in the Golden Jubilee.

I’ve never had the balls to tell Anthony he’s already won a Gr 1 in South Africa. Anthony puts me up when I visit Auckland several times a year, and I'm due over there again next month, so I need to stay in his good books.

The Golden Jubilee winner Kingsgate Native has a tenuous connection with Australia – his fourth dam is the third dam of Aqua d’Amore.

Still a mighty effort by Takeover Target. He looked as if he might have jarred up at the end? Seachange, who has an action uniquely her own to go with the conformation, never got in a blow.

Earlier on Saturday, I took satisfaction from Absolut Glam’s win in the Gr 1 Winter Stakes as she had been bought at the 2006 Magic Millions Sale on my recommendation. She was a bonny, big yearling and cost $150,000 with Danny O’Brien bidding her in for my client. Her prior run in the Stradbroke was exceptional and she looked the best of good things for the mares’ race.

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Even hardened anti-monarchists couldn’t have begrudged 82-year-old Queen Elizabeth her winner, Free Agent, in the Chesham Stakes, Listed, for two-year-olds run last night at Royal Ascot, the racecourse itself owned by the Crown Estate. And a decent win it was too, Free Agent coming from last.

I imagine Her Majesty reflected with a touch of irony on the colt’s pedigree. He is out of a Listed race winner by Unfuwain, a son of the famous mare Height Of Fashion who was herself bred and raced by Queen Elizabeth until sold to Sheikh Hamdan at the end of her three-year-old season, for a reputed million-and-a-half pounds. For the Sheikh, Height Of Fashion produced five stakeswinners including the champion Nashwan.

The Chesham Stakes was also notable for the sire Dr Fong getting the quinella, something I seriously doubt his progeny ever managed in a stakes race in Australia.

Macarthur, winner of the Gr 2 Hardwicke Stakes, is a younger brother to English Derby winner Motivator (Montjeu-Out West, by Gone West). Montjeu's other winner this morning, Honolulu, is out of Gr 1 winner Cerulean Sky, by Darshaan. I've solved the puzzle why Montjeu and Galileo are hugely successful in the northern hemisphere but only moderately so down here. Simply, they represent deep stamina and the races and tracks in this part of the world are just not demanding enough.

The dam of Sugar Ray (by Danehill), winner this morning of the Duke Of Edinburgh Stakes, is American-bred Akuna Bay, by Mr Prospector from the Irish St Leger winning filly Dark Lomond. I wonder how she got her name? Sydneysiders know Akuna Bay as an idyllic spot on the Hawkesbury waterway amid the Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park. The world's a big place; there must be another Akuna Bay?

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In Whobegotyou – why the question? - do we have a young galloper by Street Cry (Ire) who might go on and be something akin to the sire’s better northern hemisphere runners?

Mark Kavanagh’s two-year-old looked pretty impressive keeping his record intact at Moonee Valley, suggesting he has a proper future.

The rise of Street Cry in the northern hemisphere during 2006-07 and the simultaneous decline in interest in Australia meant he didn’t have his ticket punched to return to Darley last season (just as well, with the EI hassle). With his first crop now rising four, Street Cry has just 42% winners-to-starters and one stakeswinner (Sarthemare) from 150 Australian foals of racing age and is 14th on the Two Crop Sires’ list this season.

In the northern hemisphere where he is six months ahead he has 15 stakeswinners including the outstanding Street Sense who is on the Darley roster this year. (Street Cry four-year-old Big Timer scored an upset win this morning in Royal Ascot’s Wokingham Stakes). Amongst third crop stallions standing in North America, Street Cry is fourth this year (behind a couple of luminaries like Johannesburg and Orientate) but well ahead on an overall career basis.

Whobegotyou, bred by Canberra’s Lockyer Thoroughbreds and offered by Widden, attracted no interest in the ring at the Inglis Classic Sale last year, being passed in well short of the $25,000 reserve. He has an interesting pedigree being out of a stakes-placed Japanese-bred Carnegie mare, out of a Kris mare out of a Riverman mare. He is bred 3m x 4f to Mr Prospector and 4f x 4f to Riverman. One of Street Cry’s better northern hemisphere horses, Street Sounds, is 3m x 4m Mr Prospector and his Australian stakeswinner Sarthemare is 4m x 4m Riverman.

A few generations back in Whobegotyou’s family, and a few removes in, is an American graded stakes winning filly named Buffythecenterfold, by Capote.

I happened to be at Del Mar, "where the turf meets the surf", in July 2002 when Buffythecenterfold scored her most important win, the Gr 2 Sorrento Stakes. The two-legged Buffythecenterfold, after whom the filly was named, was there, too, the Del Mar publicity department eager to cash in on the two-legged version’s notoriety should the filly, hotly favoured, win.

I cast a discerning eye over both of them. For a change, it was good to see Buffythecenterfold without those pesky staples spoiling the view. She looked pretty good to me.

If you're feeling like a winter getaway in July, go to Del Mar, just north of San Diego, for the meeting. Pretty special.

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Res Judicata (GB), sire of promising stayer Get Up Jude, left only 60 live foals in his four seasons at stud in NSW’s central west before he died in 2006. The son of Rainbow Quest won five races at 2400m and 2500m including a stakes at Lyon in France. Hardly a surefire winner profile for a stallion in Australia so he was rowing against the current from day one.

His sharper and classier half-brother Johann Quatz (Fr) also had modest support here, and poor fertility, and went back to France permanently in 1999. Thirty-six of his 48 starters in Australia were winners and included the admirable Precise Timing. Worldwide, he has a 71% winners-to-runners score including Geordieland who finished second to Yeats in the Ascot Gold Cup earlier this week.

Another half-brother is Hernando (by Niniski), a quality English-based staying sire which I was interested in shuttling to NZ when he was due to retireat the end of a distinguished career. Though we had the contract drawn up, we couldn’t get Lanwades Stud’s signature on the line. Hernando has sired two winners of the French Derby, a race he won himself, and a daughter, Look Here, won this year's English Oaks. He has never shuttled.

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SIRES OF WINNERS AT ROYAL ASCOT, 2008

Sire (and sireline): winners, Gr 1 in bold
* indicates the stallion has stood in Australia/NZ

Acclamation (Royal Applause/*Waajib): Equiano
*Cape Cross (Green Desert/Danzig): Sabina Perdida
*Danehill (Danzig/Northern Dancer): Duke Of Marmalade, Sugar Ray
*Dr Fong (Kris S/Roberto): Free Agent
Dynaformer (Roberto/Hail To Reason): Michita
*Exceed And Excel (*Danehill/Danzig): Flashmans Papers
Forest Camp (Deputy Minister/Vice Regent): South Central
*Fusaichi Pegasus (Mr Prospector/Raise A Native): Haradasun
*Galileo (Sadler’s Wells/Northern Dancer): Cuis Ghaire, Lush Lashes
Indian Ridge (*Ahonoora/*Lorenzaccio): Patkai
*Invincible Spirit (Green Desert/Danzig): Festivale
Kalanisi (Doyoun/Mill Reef): Missoula
Kingmambo (Mr Prospector/Raise A Native): Campanologist, Henrythenavigator
Lear Fan (Roberto/Hail To Reason): Mr Aviator
Lucky Story (Kris S/Roberto): Art Connoisseur
*Montjeu (Sadler’s Wells/Northern Dancer): Macarthur, Honolulu
Mujadil (Storm Bird/Northern Dancer): Kingsgate Native
*Noverre (Rahy/Blushing Groom): Langs Lash
Oasis Dream (Green Desert/Danzig): Aqlaam
*Peintre Celebre (Nureyev/Northern Dancer): Collection
Pivotal (Polar Falcon/Nureyev): Regal Parade
Point Given (*Thunder Gulch/Gulch): Fifteen Love
Sadler’s Wells (Northern Dancer/Nearctic): Yeats
*Spinning World (Nureyev/Northern Dancer): Supaseus
*Statue Of Liberty (Storm Cat/Storm Bird): Colony
*Street Cry (Machiavellian/Mr Prospector): Big Timer