Jim and Veda's Work Lives On

If recent races are anything to judge by, stayers in New South Wales are a woeful mob. But in saying that you can’t take anything away from G3 Newcastle Cup winner Bianca who added this trophy to the Wyong and Ipswich Cups won recently. She's a tough cookie.

Just because she can stay and is trained by the past-master at making them stay, Bianca has already won a staggering $451,400 (gross) for the Cloros family who have enjoyed much success with mares Gai has sourced out of New Zealand, such as Coca Cobanna, In Joyment, Altiero and Pop’s Dream.

Yesterday Bianca showed a new dimension: ability to win on top of the ground. All her previous wins were on affected tracks, including the race off the back of which she was bought: the Great Northern Foal Stakes for two-year-olds at Ellerslie just over two years ago. The track was a swamp that day and Bianca won by 9.8 lengths, running the 1400m in 1:33.89 (not a misprint). Many people might have dismissed this, from an Australian point of view, as irrelevant NZ bog form, but here’s Bianca now with $451,400 already in the bank.

Bianca’s form pattern fits that of the majority of NZ tried horses with which Gai has had so much success, although, Bianca apart, it’s been lean pickings for her in that department for a while. Gai soon found horses coming from a NZ training environment took a long time to adjust to the different ways in Sydney. She was never too despondent if their first preparation was unrewarding; she knew they would improve through their second and even third preparations and invariably they did. This is Bianca’s fourth Sydney preparation – a helluva long one as it started back in February and the mare has raced every month since except July.

Kiwis can ask pretty much what they like for their up-and-comers and there’s a good chance they’ll get it. Tried buying a nice young horse out of a Sydney or Melbourne stable lately? Gai is as much to blame for that situation as anyone. As the number one NZ tried horse buyer through the 90s and early 2000s, she met the outrageous valuations placed on a few likely sorts; everyone got wind of this and upped the ante accordingly. For a while sales virtually ground to a halt; even Gai was priced out of the market. A few that she did secure in the early 2000s might have won a NZ maiden race impressively but they came from families thinner than Nicole Richie and after a win or two around Sydney they had delivered everything they had to offer.

Not so Bianca who has great depth to her female family though her sire Painted Black (JPN) flies below the radar. Painted Black is a Shadai Farm product, a Japanese G2 winner over 3600m and a G3 winner over 2400m, by Sunday Silence. Despite his name, he’s a chestnut – obviously they’re colour blind in Japan. With such an arresting background, and standing these days in the South Island where there can’t be many mares left, it’s little wonder he has served just 116 mares in six stud seasons. He’s had only 15 runners and Bianca is the only one to win a city race.

Quite how a mare like Blanche Amelia (by Grosvenor (NZ)) gets to Painted Black is a cause for wonder as she is a daughter of a top class mare, Cariere, winner of the G1 Avondale Cup when that race was almost as hard to win as the Caulfield Cup. The breeder is no longer alive to tell us but I suspect it was because of the relationship they had with the studmaster standing Painted Black who had once worked for them – probably no more than a token of support (however, I’m sure Bianca has a A+++ Werk nick rating and is 110 on Brain!).

The breeder was the late Mrs Veda Morris whose husband Jim predeceased her by many years. The Morrises had Rodmor Stud on the main road between Hamilton and Cambridge, distinguished by its neat hedgerows and the white cap rail, and were breeders of the old school, people of the land and stock. I recall Robert Sangster's mares used to board there. The Morrises developed this branch of what is known as the Volifox family for 40 years, producing a slew of good horses from it. From Fleetmistress, a daughter of Volifox (by Foxbridge (GB)), Jim bred one foal in 1965 by his own stallion Gold Sovereign (GB), a filly by the name of Gold Fleet. She in turn went to his own stallion, the moderately successful Rocky Mountain (FR), to produce the stakeswinner Ascending who in turn went to another Rodmor stallion, the disappointing Funny Fellow (GB), to produce a real gem, the G1 winner Cariere.

Gold Fleet is Bianca’s fourth dam. It just so happens she’s Samantha Miss’ fourth dam also.

That would make the Morrises very happy.