There’s never been a sales year like 2008. So much compressed into so little time. I’m knackered.
Let’s have a bit of fun and start compiling a glossary of sales terms. You know, the sort of things you hear coming from the auctioneers’ rostrum or even out of the mouths of vendors. Your contributions are welcome as long as they are wholesome. Let’s start with a few of my favourites:
“a discerning buyer” - someone running amok with another man’s chequebook.
‘‘just close your catalogues buyers and look at the horse in the ring” – there’s nothing on the bloody page anyway.
“you’ve got one of the bargains of the sale” – it’s the biggest crock. You’re the only mug who doesn’t know.
"just take him home and feed him up and he'll grow into money" - he looks like he's got terminal cancer.
“there’s no better time to be investing in bloodstock” – I need to eat.
“a great judge is on it” – you wouldn’t know faeces from clay but the other guy does, so have another bid.
“a great judge is on it” – someone with a reckless disregard for his client's money
“a likeable horse” – has four legs, a head and a tail.
“I can tell you, the xrays are clean” – you look too miserable to spend $250 checking them anyway.
“he’s my favourite horse in the whole draft” – one bid and he’s yours.
"this is the nicest horse we've ever brought to the sale" - the one you bought last year was crap.
“I thought he’d make his $80 - $100,000” – this vendor needs certifying.
“they averaged $200,000 at the yearling sales, buyers” – one made $380,000, the other $20,000.
“I thought this was one of the colts of the offering” – never actually seen it, but the vendor’s my brother-in-law.
“one of the finest-looking yearlings we’ve had through today” – bid up you mugs, I own it.
“I look forward to re-selling that one for you at the yearling sales next year” – the moment it walks out of the ring I will give you no guarantee whatsoever it will get in.
“they’ve gone to all the best stables” – be a miracle if they can win a race.
“the mare’s got a cracking good foal at home” – in the pit, it died in January.
“she got in foal on one cover” – after 10 irrigations and $5,000 on drugs.
“he’s got some great foals in his first crop” – another deluded optimist.
“thank you Mr Hyundaiflatscreen, she’ll be a great asset up in Korea” – chop suey
“they bring a great draft every year” – but never sell a winner.
“it’s beautifully presented, buyers” – amazing what a downpour of rain can do on the way to the ring.
"Out the gate!" - welcome to Camden.
“it’s great to see you here, sir” – bloody hell, we paid his airfare, put him up at the hotel, and supplied an escort.
"look at the power in the hindquarters on that colt” – so what if the xrays are unreadable?
“it’s your client, Satomi” – I just love saying your name.
“the reserve is $100,000. Take him now before he goes out the ring” – I’m a ventriloquist’s dummy.
"we can't take that, the vendor thinks a lot more of him" - the vendor is on drugs.
"we're not far away but I'm going to have to pass him by I'm sorry" - thanks, I've just spent five minutes practising.
"stick with me, I'll buy you a horse" - stick with me, I'll sell you a horse.
“thank you for your competition, underbidder” – otherwise known as Casper The Ghost.
“no, that’s not your bid in front, the bid’s way out back” – I’ll run you up if it’s the last thing I do.
“they sold so well at the yearling sales” – not true, but you’re all too drunk to remember anyway.
“we’ll deal with you privately on that one” – was that a bat in the rafters bidding on that horse?
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Who is the champion gum-chewer at the horse sales?
Doing the sales must be a very stressful pastime.
John O’Shea is probably the trainers’ champion. He chews a mean gum.
There are several contenders amongst the sales groupies.
Angus Gold has the most finely developed bilateral superficial Masseter muscles on the grounds. Almost looks like John McCain.
Grant Pritchard-Gordon can give the chicle a hammering, too.
But I reckon the winner is a young chap whose name I don’t know who was working as an Inglis intern around yearling sale time. A blond Fabio-lookalike. He had the distinction of non-stop chewing but with his mouth open.
Crimea, 1854
It’s a tough call. Whether to kiss goodbye to jumps racing altogether or do a patch-up job to stem the inevitable tide of public opinion for an indeterminate length of time.
Given the calamitous events of last Saturday’s racing, there couldn’t have been a worse week than last week for steph g’s petititon to be up on my blog, Flemington looked more like the Crimea in 1854 than a racetrack.
Sympathy for racing doesn’t hold much sway amongst the wider public. People like us, within racing, must look at ourselves through the eyes of people on the outside to understand what they think of this activity. Is it unreasonable for outsiders - and there are more of them than there are of us - to interpret racing as a bunch of rich and/or desperate people exploiting horses for gain?
Don’t be seduced into thinking the darling young things on the Champagne Lawn at Randwick represent the force of public opinion. “But”, you counter, “we love our horses”. So why do we whip their asses mercilessly in pursuit of prizemoney, drug them to the eyeballs in some places, breed them with no bone or stamina, run them beyond their endurance and shrug our shoulders at the fatality rate?
“Well, in any sport there’s a drop-out rate.”
Sure, like in cockfighting.
“People die running marathons, mountain-climbing, sky diving, in the surf and in car racing”
Sure, but they have a choice whether to compete or not.
I’ve never ridden a jumper – all I’ve ridden in the last 30 years is the bus and the train. I bred one, once, which the late Queen Mother raced. But I think they’ve stuffed jumps racing in Victoria.
Those yellow toothbrushes are a joke. What respect does a horse show for an obstacle like that? Once it’s been over a couple it thinks it only has to skip through them to land safely on the other side. So horses barely slow down. Toothbrushes don’t encourage proficient jumping. Horses are higher up the intelligence scale than that. Because the obstacles require a minimum of negotiation the races become glorified flat races, with casualties.
I couldn’t care less if they knocked jumping on the head tomorrow if that’s the diet we’re going to be fed. What’s more, I think the public has every right and reason to be up in arms about it.
Jumps races should be geared around stamina, not speed, and place a premium on jumping. The obstacles should require respect. Horses need to be taught to jump, not hop, and they need deep conditioning for the task. The Hunt used to be the basis of good jumps racing. Not every played-out flat horse is a jumps contender. If we can't get it right then we should give it away. Call it progress.
The Ken Brownes and Jock Singers of this world would be turning in their graves.
Given the calamitous events of last Saturday’s racing, there couldn’t have been a worse week than last week for steph g’s petititon to be up on my blog, Flemington looked more like the Crimea in 1854 than a racetrack.
Sympathy for racing doesn’t hold much sway amongst the wider public. People like us, within racing, must look at ourselves through the eyes of people on the outside to understand what they think of this activity. Is it unreasonable for outsiders - and there are more of them than there are of us - to interpret racing as a bunch of rich and/or desperate people exploiting horses for gain?
Don’t be seduced into thinking the darling young things on the Champagne Lawn at Randwick represent the force of public opinion. “But”, you counter, “we love our horses”. So why do we whip their asses mercilessly in pursuit of prizemoney, drug them to the eyeballs in some places, breed them with no bone or stamina, run them beyond their endurance and shrug our shoulders at the fatality rate?
“Well, in any sport there’s a drop-out rate.”
Sure, like in cockfighting.
“People die running marathons, mountain-climbing, sky diving, in the surf and in car racing”
Sure, but they have a choice whether to compete or not.
I’ve never ridden a jumper – all I’ve ridden in the last 30 years is the bus and the train. I bred one, once, which the late Queen Mother raced. But I think they’ve stuffed jumps racing in Victoria.
Those yellow toothbrushes are a joke. What respect does a horse show for an obstacle like that? Once it’s been over a couple it thinks it only has to skip through them to land safely on the other side. So horses barely slow down. Toothbrushes don’t encourage proficient jumping. Horses are higher up the intelligence scale than that. Because the obstacles require a minimum of negotiation the races become glorified flat races, with casualties.
I couldn’t care less if they knocked jumping on the head tomorrow if that’s the diet we’re going to be fed. What’s more, I think the public has every right and reason to be up in arms about it.
Jumps races should be geared around stamina, not speed, and place a premium on jumping. The obstacles should require respect. Horses need to be taught to jump, not hop, and they need deep conditioning for the task. The Hunt used to be the basis of good jumps racing. Not every played-out flat horse is a jumps contender. If we can't get it right then we should give it away. Call it progress.
The Ken Brownes and Jock Singers of this world would be turning in their graves.
The Hard Case Showcase
The concept of the First Season Sire Showcase is worth persevering with but Inglis's inaugural attempt in Sydney last week was a disaster and it needs more than a little tweaking to be made work.
It cannot be a showcase when weanlings 'make' as little as $1,000, $1,500, $3,000 and $4,000, sired by stallions whose fees are as high as $30,000. If I were using this vehicle as a promotion for my stallion I would be doing everything I could to keep these misfits out of public gaze, or persuade my clients to do likewise.
They were a ragtag mob of weanlings. Results as published by Inglis show 35 of the 86 offered were passed in - that's nearly 41%. I estimate 26 sold for prices measurably above the nominal 2007 service fee, seven were right on the mark and 18 didn't make the service fee or even close to it. So that's 53, or 61%, which couldn't find a home or took a hit. That's not a showcase. That's a cull sale.
The problem is 1,200 weanlings had been catalogued and sold at the Gold Coast and Melbourne before this Sydney sale, many of them by first crop sires. So there's no novelty value in a last-cab-off-the-rank weanling sale devoid of physical types and strong pedigrees.
If Inglis are inclined to try this again, then they either have to persuade the owners of better weanlings to bypass those other sales, and/or impose a selection standard so the quality is more even and give buyers something to get their teeth into. Possibly most important of all, a sale like this should come first, ahead of the others, perhaps as a one day appendage to the earlier Easter Broodmare Sale.
It cannot be a showcase when weanlings 'make' as little as $1,000, $1,500, $3,000 and $4,000, sired by stallions whose fees are as high as $30,000. If I were using this vehicle as a promotion for my stallion I would be doing everything I could to keep these misfits out of public gaze, or persuade my clients to do likewise.
They were a ragtag mob of weanlings. Results as published by Inglis show 35 of the 86 offered were passed in - that's nearly 41%. I estimate 26 sold for prices measurably above the nominal 2007 service fee, seven were right on the mark and 18 didn't make the service fee or even close to it. So that's 53, or 61%, which couldn't find a home or took a hit. That's not a showcase. That's a cull sale.
The problem is 1,200 weanlings had been catalogued and sold at the Gold Coast and Melbourne before this Sydney sale, many of them by first crop sires. So there's no novelty value in a last-cab-off-the-rank weanling sale devoid of physical types and strong pedigrees.
If Inglis are inclined to try this again, then they either have to persuade the owners of better weanlings to bypass those other sales, and/or impose a selection standard so the quality is more even and give buyers something to get their teeth into. Possibly most important of all, a sale like this should come first, ahead of the others, perhaps as a one day appendage to the earlier Easter Broodmare Sale.
Trophy Hunting
The $5 million Convert This Price!Milanova sale, plus those others at Inglis’s last weekend, are not a relevant indication of the state of the thoroughbred market.
Milanova and the likes of Lucida, Shindig, Peruzzi, Valourina and Sydney’s Dream, are at the apex of Australian thoroughbred breeding in terms of pedigree, performance and production. The relatively rare opportunity to acquire mares of that calibre via open competition is always going to be seized upon by people fortunate enough to be isolated from the realities of the world the rest of us inhabit.
There is seldom any reasoned critique or debate in the reportage of events by the mainstream media who survive on the PR handout and doctored spin of industry power blocs. One welcome exception to this is Tara Madgwick on Breednet who knows her onions but is going to have to be careful as it’s those power blocs who financially support the website.
It may have escaped me but I’ve yet to read who were some of the other participants in the various bidding sprees. It would be just as interesting to know. I wasn't watching, I was out the back by the parade ring, in the sunshine. In the case of Milanova can I speculate that either or both of her part owners, Tyreel interests and Swettenham, could have been in there bidding with their 50 cent dollars? They acquired her for $700,000 as a yearling and, fortuitously, her little brother Holy Roman Emperor breathed new fire into the family five years later.
I don’t have any quibble with the price but breeders will be making a mistake if they use these top-end sales to ratchet up the values of their own, lesser, stock. The market is trending the other way. Milanova has a pedigree which resonates in every thoroughbred nation and with a mare like her economics flies out the window and it becomes a trophy hunt amongst people who have the means to collect trophies.
Of course Milanova’s three-quarter brother, Mount Olympus, famously made $3 million at Easter last year but I for one can’t accept that as a fair market valuation. I remain unconvinced there wasn’t some engineering involved in reaching that bid. On the one subsequent public glimpse we have had of Mount Olympus, at a barrier trial, he looked more like a molehill than a mountain; let’s hope he finds several lengths between two and three. He is a 13th foal and I can’t ever remember Gai being desperate to buy one of those.
Milanova’s More Than Ready weanling filly was also dispersed by Tyreel at last week's sale, the hammer falling at $625,000 with Coolmore also signing the docket. This was a good-bodied filly, incorrect in front leg conformation like her dam, and she had a non-displaced fracture of the off fore sesamoid just to complicate matters.
In the grounds of where I live in Sydney is the gallery of art dealer and racehorse owner Rod Menzies who held an auction of notable artworks the week before the four-legged pieces-de-resistance went to Newmarket.
Star of the show at the art auction was a Picasso. Curiosity got the better of me so I wandered down to look at it. Reportedly, the Picasso sold for $6.8 million, all add-ons included. The philistine in me scoffs at how people ascribe a value like that to some randomly daubed paint blotches lacking in any particular graphic merit. Apparently, the meaning of life is in there somewhere, though it obviously escapes me. But unlike Milanova I guess you don’t have to feed a painting and if it’s well cared for it will not, also unlike the mare, perish. I’m reminded of the story of the king’s new suit of clothes; this painting will probably be trundled out in another art auction in 10 years’ time and the pseudo-intellectual elite will once again convince themselves it’s something the universe can’t live without.
Which also reminds me of the thoroughbred equivalent of the king’s new suit of clothes, that of the one-time Coolmore imported mare Prawn Cocktail, a daughter of the noted sire Artichoke. She and her daughter Marigot Bay between them have produced 16 foals of racing age. Between 1998 and 2007, 12 of them went through Australian auctions as yearlings for a cumulative $8,255,000, an average of $687,916. Not a single one has won more than two races. Only four of them could be classed strictly as city winners. Until the advent of the bank known as Prawn Cocktail, I used to think the winning post counted for something in establishing and maintaining the value of pedigrees.
I thought Tyreel's Valourina was a sweet mare and I wish the best of luck to the purchaser of Asia which has never produced a live foal in six seasons at stud. My understanding of her problem suggests the bloke’s got the job in front of him but there were enough smarties willing to have a go that she made $70,000. The best of Sue Suduk’s mares, which unlike Tyreel’s draft was a dispersal not a strategic reduction, were exquisite. Lucida, empty, bought by Tyreel's Paul Fleming for $2 million, is high quality as is Fiammarosa ($950,000, Coolmore) and the older girls Peruzzi ($1,250,000) and Shindig ($1,600,000) are gems of the Stud Book - both New Zealand-bred I hasten to add. These two were knocked down to Inglis as agent; we mightn’t know publicly for some time but I wonder who was on the end of the phone? Bob Ingham?
Understandably, we all get off on the spectacle of these thoroughbred aristocrats being scrapped over by the super wealthy. But as I said at the outset, that’s not where the real market is.
The name Ingham brings to mind Ruapehu, lot 475 at the same sale. A lovely daughter of Flying Spur, three-years-old, city-placed but a maiden, sold for $10,000.
Two years ago the same filly was in the Easter Yearling Sale though on pedigree page she was damned lucky to be there at all. I discovered her on my inspections. I thought no one would be chasing her amongst all the heavy black-type fillies on offer and I harboured visions of being able to buy her for the average or less. But good types are seldom missed. Woodlands beat off the competition to pay $460,000 for her.
From $460,000 to $10,000, in two years. A Milanova in reverse. We don't read about that in the papers or press releases, do we?
P.S. A prediction - we've seen the end of the commission-free broodmare sales.
Milanova and the likes of Lucida, Shindig, Peruzzi, Valourina and Sydney’s Dream, are at the apex of Australian thoroughbred breeding in terms of pedigree, performance and production. The relatively rare opportunity to acquire mares of that calibre via open competition is always going to be seized upon by people fortunate enough to be isolated from the realities of the world the rest of us inhabit.
There is seldom any reasoned critique or debate in the reportage of events by the mainstream media who survive on the PR handout and doctored spin of industry power blocs. One welcome exception to this is Tara Madgwick on Breednet who knows her onions but is going to have to be careful as it’s those power blocs who financially support the website.
It may have escaped me but I’ve yet to read who were some of the other participants in the various bidding sprees. It would be just as interesting to know. I wasn't watching, I was out the back by the parade ring, in the sunshine. In the case of Milanova can I speculate that either or both of her part owners, Tyreel interests and Swettenham, could have been in there bidding with their 50 cent dollars? They acquired her for $700,000 as a yearling and, fortuitously, her little brother Holy Roman Emperor breathed new fire into the family five years later.
I don’t have any quibble with the price but breeders will be making a mistake if they use these top-end sales to ratchet up the values of their own, lesser, stock. The market is trending the other way. Milanova has a pedigree which resonates in every thoroughbred nation and with a mare like her economics flies out the window and it becomes a trophy hunt amongst people who have the means to collect trophies.
Of course Milanova’s three-quarter brother, Mount Olympus, famously made $3 million at Easter last year but I for one can’t accept that as a fair market valuation. I remain unconvinced there wasn’t some engineering involved in reaching that bid. On the one subsequent public glimpse we have had of Mount Olympus, at a barrier trial, he looked more like a molehill than a mountain; let’s hope he finds several lengths between two and three. He is a 13th foal and I can’t ever remember Gai being desperate to buy one of those.
Milanova’s More Than Ready weanling filly was also dispersed by Tyreel at last week's sale, the hammer falling at $625,000 with Coolmore also signing the docket. This was a good-bodied filly, incorrect in front leg conformation like her dam, and she had a non-displaced fracture of the off fore sesamoid just to complicate matters.
In the grounds of where I live in Sydney is the gallery of art dealer and racehorse owner Rod Menzies who held an auction of notable artworks the week before the four-legged pieces-de-resistance went to Newmarket.
Star of the show at the art auction was a Picasso. Curiosity got the better of me so I wandered down to look at it. Reportedly, the Picasso sold for $6.8 million, all add-ons included. The philistine in me scoffs at how people ascribe a value like that to some randomly daubed paint blotches lacking in any particular graphic merit. Apparently, the meaning of life is in there somewhere, though it obviously escapes me. But unlike Milanova I guess you don’t have to feed a painting and if it’s well cared for it will not, also unlike the mare, perish. I’m reminded of the story of the king’s new suit of clothes; this painting will probably be trundled out in another art auction in 10 years’ time and the pseudo-intellectual elite will once again convince themselves it’s something the universe can’t live without.
Which also reminds me of the thoroughbred equivalent of the king’s new suit of clothes, that of the one-time Coolmore imported mare Prawn Cocktail, a daughter of the noted sire Artichoke. She and her daughter Marigot Bay between them have produced 16 foals of racing age. Between 1998 and 2007, 12 of them went through Australian auctions as yearlings for a cumulative $8,255,000, an average of $687,916. Not a single one has won more than two races. Only four of them could be classed strictly as city winners. Until the advent of the bank known as Prawn Cocktail, I used to think the winning post counted for something in establishing and maintaining the value of pedigrees.
I thought Tyreel's Valourina was a sweet mare and I wish the best of luck to the purchaser of Asia which has never produced a live foal in six seasons at stud. My understanding of her problem suggests the bloke’s got the job in front of him but there were enough smarties willing to have a go that she made $70,000. The best of Sue Suduk’s mares, which unlike Tyreel’s draft was a dispersal not a strategic reduction, were exquisite. Lucida, empty, bought by Tyreel's Paul Fleming for $2 million, is high quality as is Fiammarosa ($950,000, Coolmore) and the older girls Peruzzi ($1,250,000) and Shindig ($1,600,000) are gems of the Stud Book - both New Zealand-bred I hasten to add. These two were knocked down to Inglis as agent; we mightn’t know publicly for some time but I wonder who was on the end of the phone? Bob Ingham?
Understandably, we all get off on the spectacle of these thoroughbred aristocrats being scrapped over by the super wealthy. But as I said at the outset, that’s not where the real market is.
The name Ingham brings to mind Ruapehu, lot 475 at the same sale. A lovely daughter of Flying Spur, three-years-old, city-placed but a maiden, sold for $10,000.
Two years ago the same filly was in the Easter Yearling Sale though on pedigree page she was damned lucky to be there at all. I discovered her on my inspections. I thought no one would be chasing her amongst all the heavy black-type fillies on offer and I harboured visions of being able to buy her for the average or less. But good types are seldom missed. Woodlands beat off the competition to pay $460,000 for her.
From $460,000 to $10,000, in two years. A Milanova in reverse. We don't read about that in the papers or press releases, do we?
P.S. A prediction - we've seen the end of the commission-free broodmare sales.
Elvstroem More Likely To Succeed
Readers voted 64% to 35% that Elvstroem was more likely to succeed as a sire than half-brother Haradasun which surprised me as the poll was held straight after Haradasun's Royal Ascot victory. Don't ask me where the missing 1% has gone. As was proved on this blog a long time ago, my math isn't up to much.
Cast your vote in the new poll about Sunday's broodmare values.
Cast your vote in the new poll about Sunday's broodmare values.
Victoria Jumps Racing Petition
Commenting under one of my earlier posts, Execute Had the Killer Instinct, reader steph g wrote to make people aware of a petition being drawn up regarding the future of jumps racing in Victoria. If this subject is near and dear to you, you might like to follow up. Here's what steph g wrote:
I hope this doesn't seem to cheeky but I thought this particular blog was the one to post the link below.
As most of you would be aware our so called Minister For Racing has called for an immediate review of Jumps Racing in Victoria, and from what I can gather the letter had quite negative undertones. Anyway I could go on all day but I won't.
We are putting together a petition to hand to Parliament, so if anyone feels as strongly as I do about not losing Jumps Racing in Victoria it would be much appreciated if you would participate.
PETITION TO SAVE JUMPS RACING
http://www.mediafire.com/?jge0g3xv0dn
Print this as many times as you like, get as many signatures as you can, and send it to:
Daniel Bevan
5 Brentwood Drive
Avondale Heights
VIC 3034
This will be presented to Parliament in the week after the Hiskens, so get as many signatures and as much support for our great sport before then!
I hope this doesn't seem to cheeky but I thought this particular blog was the one to post the link below.
As most of you would be aware our so called Minister For Racing has called for an immediate review of Jumps Racing in Victoria, and from what I can gather the letter had quite negative undertones. Anyway I could go on all day but I won't.
We are putting together a petition to hand to Parliament, so if anyone feels as strongly as I do about not losing Jumps Racing in Victoria it would be much appreciated if you would participate.
PETITION TO SAVE JUMPS RACING
http://www.mediafire.com/?jge0g3xv0dn
Print this as many times as you like, get as many signatures as you can, and send it to:
Daniel Bevan
5 Brentwood Drive
Avondale Heights
VIC 3034
This will be presented to Parliament in the week after the Hiskens, so get as many signatures and as much support for our great sport before then!
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
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
Four Down, The Big One To Go
Prepare yourself for a shock, dear readers. I’m not an expert on Gaelic.
Much debate on AtTheRaces about the correct pronounciation of last night’s Albany Stakes winner Cuis Ghaire, a two-year-old daughter of Galileo out of a Danehill mare.
All I can say is, it’s lucky they didn’t have to contend with the filly’s grandam Smaioneamh. Get your non-Gaelic tongue around that one.
Odds-on Cuis Ghaire is unbeaten in three, though she didn’t win with the ease you expect from a short chalk. The utterly irritating Big Mac insisted the firm ground was against her (just like he wanted to insist the night before that Geordieland could have beaten Yeats – what’s he on, this Paddington bear?). Cuis Ghaire’s jockey said she struggled because she’s looking for more distance. You choose who to believe.
Cuis Ghaire is another above-average product of her sire Galileo, whom I’ve talked about in hopeful tones previously on this blog … I’m waiting! What an enigma he is: so many talented horses in the north – two-year-olds, three-year-olds and older horses - but so slow to find his feet here. With his oldest crop four-year-olds, he’s sitting on 53% winners-to-runners in Australasia with a respectable enough seven Australian-conceived stakeswinners.
Two races after Cuis Ghaire, Galileo had yet another triumph courtesy of three-year-old filly, Lush Lashes, in the feature event, the Gr 1 Coronation Stakes. What an affinity breeder/owner/trainer Jim Bolger (no relation I hope to the ex-NZ Prime Minister of the same name) has with the breed with not only this pair but also the brilliant colts colts Teofilo and New Approach.
Lush Lashes is the first foal of a daughter of Anabaa (shaping like a genuine broodmare sire-to-be) out of an Arazi mare from the family of Arc winner Saumarez. She is one of eight Galileo stakeswinners so far from daughters or grand-daughters of Danzig line stallions. Galileo has struck previously with Cuis Ghaire’s distaff line, being responsible for last year’s Irish champion staying three-year-old Soldier of Fortune, winner of the Irish Derby and the Epsom Coronation Cup. Third dam Fanghorn produced the outstanding sprinter Double Form and she’s also third dam of current top class short-course horse, Captain Gerard (by Oasis Dream).
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The Kingmambo-Sadler’s Wells cross is having a fun meeting at Royal Ascot. Crack three-year-old Henrythenavigator is its main flag-bearer and this morning the Ascot ‘Derby’, the Gr 2 King Edward VII Stakes, was won by the identically bred Campanologist.
The cross demonstrates linebreeding to Special through the three-quarter brothers Nureyev, damsire of Kingmambo, and Sadler’s Wells.
Appropriately-named Campanologist (someone who studies bell casting and ringing) is out of Ring Of Music, a daughter of the wonderful Glorious Song, dam of Singspiel, Rahy and Rivotious (USA), so he’s a colt with a hell of a pedigree. Success, however, didn’t come easily for this Kingmambo-Ring Of Music union, but it was a union someone in Sheikh Mohammed’s pedigree backroom must have been determined to pursue. Campanologist is the fourth Kingmambo foal produced by Ring Of Music. The earlier three, between them, have won one race. In fact, prior to Campanologist, Ring Of Music had produced six foals with just the single solitary racetrack success, a minor race in Dubai.
Blood will out, they say.
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Supaseus, who won the Listed handicap on the card, the Wolferton, provided a boost for a breeder-client of Queensland’s Wattle Brae Stud.
Supaseus is out of Supamova (Seattle Slew sister to Septieme Ciel) whose daughter Supamach (Machiavellian) had her first foal, a Wattle Brae-reared Danzero colt, sell at this year’s Gold Coast Magic Millions Yearling Sale.
This was a cracking good sort. I made several trips over to Z Block to inspect him. I bet the Wattle Brae people had my name written in the catalogue before he went to the ring. But at the death I just couldn’t get my punter on to him.
But the next best thing. He had been found by Gai – I’ve said before, you have to get up early in the morning to beat her – and he was knocked down to Denise Martin’s Star Thoroughbreds. Perhaps he’ll be another Sebring for the purple-and-white stars? He was ‘only’ $100,000. If I had to fault him I’d say a smidgen light in the girth, but a quality individual who as a first foal would only keep improving. His name’s Antiguan. Black book him.
Later in the sale, Gai bought another Danzero colt, out of Global Dance, by Spinning World (sire of Supaseus!). $120,000 this time. I was in love with this horse, in my opinion one of the standouts of the sale. Two of my clients took half each. He’ll be a winner.
Though he’s getting on and can be hard to pick, Danzero has been producing some smart types. With Danglissa, Kingsgate, Miss Bussell and of course Dance Hero all graduates of Tulloch Lodge, Gai clearly knows how to get the best out of this breed.
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Patkai (by Indian Ridge), hollow winner of the Gr 3 Queen's Vase for three-year-olds, is yet another big race winner out of a Sadler's Wells mare. His unraced dam, Olympienne, is a daughter of Gr 1 Yorkshire Oaks winner Hellenic (by Darshaan), one of the great broodmares with three Gr 1 winners and two other stakeswinners to her credit. Four of the five were by Sadler's Wells, the other by Danehill.
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Thank God there's only one more night to go. I'm walking around during the day an even bigger zombie than usual.
Much debate on AtTheRaces about the correct pronounciation of last night’s Albany Stakes winner Cuis Ghaire, a two-year-old daughter of Galileo out of a Danehill mare.
All I can say is, it’s lucky they didn’t have to contend with the filly’s grandam Smaioneamh. Get your non-Gaelic tongue around that one.
Odds-on Cuis Ghaire is unbeaten in three, though she didn’t win with the ease you expect from a short chalk. The utterly irritating Big Mac insisted the firm ground was against her (just like he wanted to insist the night before that Geordieland could have beaten Yeats – what’s he on, this Paddington bear?). Cuis Ghaire’s jockey said she struggled because she’s looking for more distance. You choose who to believe.
Cuis Ghaire is another above-average product of her sire Galileo, whom I’ve talked about in hopeful tones previously on this blog … I’m waiting! What an enigma he is: so many talented horses in the north – two-year-olds, three-year-olds and older horses - but so slow to find his feet here. With his oldest crop four-year-olds, he’s sitting on 53% winners-to-runners in Australasia with a respectable enough seven Australian-conceived stakeswinners.
Two races after Cuis Ghaire, Galileo had yet another triumph courtesy of three-year-old filly, Lush Lashes, in the feature event, the Gr 1 Coronation Stakes. What an affinity breeder/owner/trainer Jim Bolger (no relation I hope to the ex-NZ Prime Minister of the same name) has with the breed with not only this pair but also the brilliant colts colts Teofilo and New Approach.
Lush Lashes is the first foal of a daughter of Anabaa (shaping like a genuine broodmare sire-to-be) out of an Arazi mare from the family of Arc winner Saumarez. She is one of eight Galileo stakeswinners so far from daughters or grand-daughters of Danzig line stallions. Galileo has struck previously with Cuis Ghaire’s distaff line, being responsible for last year’s Irish champion staying three-year-old Soldier of Fortune, winner of the Irish Derby and the Epsom Coronation Cup. Third dam Fanghorn produced the outstanding sprinter Double Form and she’s also third dam of current top class short-course horse, Captain Gerard (by Oasis Dream).
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The Kingmambo-Sadler’s Wells cross is having a fun meeting at Royal Ascot. Crack three-year-old Henrythenavigator is its main flag-bearer and this morning the Ascot ‘Derby’, the Gr 2 King Edward VII Stakes, was won by the identically bred Campanologist.
The cross demonstrates linebreeding to Special through the three-quarter brothers Nureyev, damsire of Kingmambo, and Sadler’s Wells.
Appropriately-named Campanologist (someone who studies bell casting and ringing) is out of Ring Of Music, a daughter of the wonderful Glorious Song, dam of Singspiel, Rahy and Rivotious (USA), so he’s a colt with a hell of a pedigree. Success, however, didn’t come easily for this Kingmambo-Ring Of Music union, but it was a union someone in Sheikh Mohammed’s pedigree backroom must have been determined to pursue. Campanologist is the fourth Kingmambo foal produced by Ring Of Music. The earlier three, between them, have won one race. In fact, prior to Campanologist, Ring Of Music had produced six foals with just the single solitary racetrack success, a minor race in Dubai.
Blood will out, they say.
---------------------------------------------------------
Supaseus, who won the Listed handicap on the card, the Wolferton, provided a boost for a breeder-client of Queensland’s Wattle Brae Stud.
Supaseus is out of Supamova (Seattle Slew sister to Septieme Ciel) whose daughter Supamach (Machiavellian) had her first foal, a Wattle Brae-reared Danzero colt, sell at this year’s Gold Coast Magic Millions Yearling Sale.
This was a cracking good sort. I made several trips over to Z Block to inspect him. I bet the Wattle Brae people had my name written in the catalogue before he went to the ring. But at the death I just couldn’t get my punter on to him.
But the next best thing. He had been found by Gai – I’ve said before, you have to get up early in the morning to beat her – and he was knocked down to Denise Martin’s Star Thoroughbreds. Perhaps he’ll be another Sebring for the purple-and-white stars? He was ‘only’ $100,000. If I had to fault him I’d say a smidgen light in the girth, but a quality individual who as a first foal would only keep improving. His name’s Antiguan. Black book him.
Later in the sale, Gai bought another Danzero colt, out of Global Dance, by Spinning World (sire of Supaseus!). $120,000 this time. I was in love with this horse, in my opinion one of the standouts of the sale. Two of my clients took half each. He’ll be a winner.
Though he’s getting on and can be hard to pick, Danzero has been producing some smart types. With Danglissa, Kingsgate, Miss Bussell and of course Dance Hero all graduates of Tulloch Lodge, Gai clearly knows how to get the best out of this breed.
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Patkai (by Indian Ridge), hollow winner of the Gr 3 Queen's Vase for three-year-olds, is yet another big race winner out of a Sadler's Wells mare. His unraced dam, Olympienne, is a daughter of Gr 1 Yorkshire Oaks winner Hellenic (by Darshaan), one of the great broodmares with three Gr 1 winners and two other stakeswinners to her credit. Four of the five were by Sadler's Wells, the other by Danehill.
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Thank God there's only one more night to go. I'm walking around during the day an even bigger zombie than usual.
As Aussie As Pork And Puha
The Daily Telegraph’s racing editor Ray Thomas is someone I’ve admired since I became involved in Sydney racing a decade ago. He’s a writing machine with prodigious output, and the nicest of blokes.
But I can’t forgive him for including (or allowing to be included if someone else is responsible) Balmerino (NZ) in the list of notable ‘Australian Horses Overseas’ in Friday morning’s Tele centre spread which focuses on the big races at Royal Ascot tomorrow night.
Fair dinkum you Aussies, you take some liberties. Don’t have such an inferiority complex! Balmerino was as Aussie as pork and puha.
He wasn’t Australian-bred or Australian-owned or Australian-trained other than as a sometime visiting racehorse, just like, for example, Rough Habit was. I've been here 10 years and no one regards me as (or wants me to be!) an Aussie.
Stud groom-turned trainer Brian Smith who I think hailed from Ngaruawahia (see footnote) handled Balmerino until he was finally turned over to John Dunlop in England as a five-year-old. I stand corrected but I think he still has the highest Timeform rating given to any southern hemisphere performer in Europe, 133.
He had the most amazing career between March 1975 and August 1978. In those three-and-a-half years he raced in six countries. Despite the traveling, he only ever had four breaks from racing. Two of those breaks could only be described as ‘fresheners’. Balmerino won 22 races including the Gr 1 Gran Premio del Jockey Club in Italy which he lost on protest. When pretty much written off as a serious horse by the Poms he ran second in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, the Eclipse Stakes and Coronation Cup.
We think it’s a real big deal for Australian and New Zealand horses to be competing on the international scene and the reason for that is two-fold: (1) television - we can watch them every step of the way, and (2) modern-day globe-trotting and truncated quarantine procedures makes it feasible for some of these horses to be campaigned by their ANZ trainers.
But they were commonplace campaigners in earlier decades when that luxury wasn’t available, when only Movietone News was king. You were lucky if the news even came off the wire services.
The Tele listed a few of those earlier stars and I definitely don’t propose to compile a definitive list here. Apart from those in the Tele, others to succeed at a high level come to mind readily, such as the NZers Cadiz and Caterman, Good Lord (My Good Man), Panzer Chief, Braganza, Pride Of Rosewood, Tangent and the gelding gifted to the late Queen Mother by the late Sir Ernest Davis, Bali Ha’i, who won a Listed race at the very same Royal Ascot in 1960, and at Sandown (UK).
Then there were the jumpers. While Crisp (Aus) will go down in history for what he didn’t win owing to the spectacular manner of his loss and the champion who beat him, the Daddy of them all was probably Grand Canyon, an Oakville gelding who couldn’t win a race in NZ in 13 attempts but ended up winning 19 races internationally. He twice won the Camden Colonial Cup Steeplechase in the USA – an invitational of Gr 1 calibre – as well as major races in England, France and Italy. Royal Mail and Chumson won important races in England and then there were the two NZ-bred latter-day winners of the Aintree Grand National, Lord Gyllene and Seagram. And what about Owhata Chief? I think this Kiwi ran 54 times in his homeland before he won a race. Then he took a liking to jumping, won six at that discipline before his export to the USA where he won a further 10, five of which were black-type rated including the important Bolla Hard Scuffle Steeplechase.
What do they say on Anzac Day? Lest we forget? And keep up the good work, Ray!
Footnote: For Aussies, Ngaruawahia is a township a few miles north of Hamilton in the Waikato area of the North Island. Laurie Laxon started his training career there, the Vela brothers were locals as was George Simon the racecaller and I have a suspicion Syd Brown might have hailed from there - I seem to recall his brother Ian, who worked with me on Best Bets in the 1970s, did. If I'm wrong on any of these I'm sure someone will jump down my throat! As a youngster coming to grips with Maori pronounciation and spelling, Ngaruawahia always presented a bit of a challenge until a Kiwi wisehead told me: 'Remember this sentence: the first letter of each word joined together spell out Ngaruawahia - "Nude girls are running under a waterfall and here I am" !
But I can’t forgive him for including (or allowing to be included if someone else is responsible) Balmerino (NZ) in the list of notable ‘Australian Horses Overseas’ in Friday morning’s Tele centre spread which focuses on the big races at Royal Ascot tomorrow night.
Fair dinkum you Aussies, you take some liberties. Don’t have such an inferiority complex! Balmerino was as Aussie as pork and puha.
He wasn’t Australian-bred or Australian-owned or Australian-trained other than as a sometime visiting racehorse, just like, for example, Rough Habit was. I've been here 10 years and no one regards me as (or wants me to be!) an Aussie.
Stud groom-turned trainer Brian Smith who I think hailed from Ngaruawahia (see footnote) handled Balmerino until he was finally turned over to John Dunlop in England as a five-year-old. I stand corrected but I think he still has the highest Timeform rating given to any southern hemisphere performer in Europe, 133.
He had the most amazing career between March 1975 and August 1978. In those three-and-a-half years he raced in six countries. Despite the traveling, he only ever had four breaks from racing. Two of those breaks could only be described as ‘fresheners’. Balmerino won 22 races including the Gr 1 Gran Premio del Jockey Club in Italy which he lost on protest. When pretty much written off as a serious horse by the Poms he ran second in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, the Eclipse Stakes and Coronation Cup.
We think it’s a real big deal for Australian and New Zealand horses to be competing on the international scene and the reason for that is two-fold: (1) television - we can watch them every step of the way, and (2) modern-day globe-trotting and truncated quarantine procedures makes it feasible for some of these horses to be campaigned by their ANZ trainers.
But they were commonplace campaigners in earlier decades when that luxury wasn’t available, when only Movietone News was king. You were lucky if the news even came off the wire services.
The Tele listed a few of those earlier stars and I definitely don’t propose to compile a definitive list here. Apart from those in the Tele, others to succeed at a high level come to mind readily, such as the NZers Cadiz and Caterman, Good Lord (My Good Man), Panzer Chief, Braganza, Pride Of Rosewood, Tangent and the gelding gifted to the late Queen Mother by the late Sir Ernest Davis, Bali Ha’i, who won a Listed race at the very same Royal Ascot in 1960, and at Sandown (UK).
Then there were the jumpers. While Crisp (Aus) will go down in history for what he didn’t win owing to the spectacular manner of his loss and the champion who beat him, the Daddy of them all was probably Grand Canyon, an Oakville gelding who couldn’t win a race in NZ in 13 attempts but ended up winning 19 races internationally. He twice won the Camden Colonial Cup Steeplechase in the USA – an invitational of Gr 1 calibre – as well as major races in England, France and Italy. Royal Mail and Chumson won important races in England and then there were the two NZ-bred latter-day winners of the Aintree Grand National, Lord Gyllene and Seagram. And what about Owhata Chief? I think this Kiwi ran 54 times in his homeland before he won a race. Then he took a liking to jumping, won six at that discipline before his export to the USA where he won a further 10, five of which were black-type rated including the important Bolla Hard Scuffle Steeplechase.
What do they say on Anzac Day? Lest we forget? And keep up the good work, Ray!
Footnote: For Aussies, Ngaruawahia is a township a few miles north of Hamilton in the Waikato area of the North Island. Laurie Laxon started his training career there, the Vela brothers were locals as was George Simon the racecaller and I have a suspicion Syd Brown might have hailed from there - I seem to recall his brother Ian, who worked with me on Best Bets in the 1970s, did. If I'm wrong on any of these I'm sure someone will jump down my throat! As a youngster coming to grips with Maori pronounciation and spelling, Ngaruawahia always presented a bit of a challenge until a Kiwi wisehead told me: 'Remember this sentence: the first letter of each word joined together spell out Ngaruawahia - "Nude girls are running under a waterfall and here I am" !
Three Down, Two To Go
Ladies’ Day at Royal Ascot. Voila, a dyselxic and geographically challenged female presenter, Zoe, on AtTheRaces last night.
Lauding the suitability of American-breds to handle the firm going in light of 2YO South Central’s narrow win in the Gr 2 Norfolk Stakes, Zoe proceeded to laud Exceed And Excel, sire of the second and fourth placegetters, as another Yank product. AUS might look like USA if you’re dyslexic or looking at an atlas upside down. Aushorse/Darley to the rescue! Mind you, E & E is by American-bred Danehill out of American-bred Patrona but I think that’s too long a bow for the lady to draw – we know where he took his first breath and won his races!
Norfolk winner South Central, by Deputy Minister’s son Forest Camp, is the ninth foal and first black-type winner produced by his dam who is by Forty Niner. Never give up.
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The pro-American theory proved spot on in the Ribblesdale Stakes over 2400m for 3YO fillies with the favoured daughter of Dynaformer, Michita, prevailing very easily. Dynaformer, now 23 and still standing at US$150,000 thanks to Barbaro’s heroism last year, has been a really decent sire with in excess of 80 stakeswinners and almost $75 million in progeny earnings – more than half of it on turf.
By Roberto, Dynaformer stands a massive 17 hands. He’s out of an His Majesty mare (like Danehill), often a factor for size. Dynaformer has had little exposure in this part of the world but his broodmare sire stats are also quite impressive. Given his pedigree and turf proclivities, I’d expect his daughters to fit in nicely down here and you mightn’t have to pay an arm, a leg and half your torso to buy one.
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The present day Yeats is made of much, much sterner stuff than his namesake who first graced these shores a quarter century ago amid much euphoria, being one of the first by Nijinsky to make his way down under.
The first Yeats was an Irish Listed winner at two – imagine getting excited about that these days – and soon joined the majority as a sire: disappointing. He got three Group 1 winners amongst his 16 stakeswinners (from 957 named foals) but only one true top-notcher: the magnificent and versatile (Our) Poetic Prince.
Bred in Australia by an American cardiologist, Alex Sywak, and a NZ$16,000 yearling bargain, Poetic Prince finished second in the Cox Plate as a three-year-old then won it the following year, finishing his racing as a four-year-old with 16 wins and 11 placings from 36 runs.
His relegation from first in the Caulfield Guineas which he won by a space remains one of the worst travesties I’ve seen. They ganged up on Kiwi trainer and jockey John Wheeler and Noel Harris and gave the race to Geoff Murphy’s Marwong.
Alas, Our Poetic Prince proved even inferior to his own sire at stud and departed for Korea in 2001.
With jumps racing again on the skids, if the noises coming out of Victoria are to be believed, we’re unlikely to see the modern-day Yeats standing at stud down here; a ‘dual purpose’ National Hunt sire seems likely to be his fate in Ireland. His shortest win was over one mile as a two-year-old, his furthest the two-and-a-half miles of the Ascot Gold Cup.
Not that marathon-running colts can’t make good sires. Forgetting about several useful Melbourne Cup winning entires, Zamazaan (Fr) never won a race short of 2450m, winning up to 3100m. He was outstanding and figures as the sire of the grandam of Haradasun and Elvstroem. Sea Anchor (Ire) finished third in the Ascot Gold Cup, never won shorter than 2000m and won as long as 3800m in top company. He sired the brilliant Horse Of The Year Red Anchor and a NZ gelding virtually unknown in Australia, Weston Lea, which I daresay might have been Red Anchor’s equal. A magnificent type, Weston Lea smashed a hind pastern in an exhibition gallop five days before the Derby which was at his mercy.
The present day Yeats is Ireland/England’s Makybe Diva equivalent. He’s had seven races since finishing seventh in the 2006 Melbourne Cup behind Delta Blues and Pop Rock, carrying 59 kgs, winning six of them.
Lauding the suitability of American-breds to handle the firm going in light of 2YO South Central’s narrow win in the Gr 2 Norfolk Stakes, Zoe proceeded to laud Exceed And Excel, sire of the second and fourth placegetters, as another Yank product. AUS might look like USA if you’re dyslexic or looking at an atlas upside down. Aushorse/Darley to the rescue! Mind you, E & E is by American-bred Danehill out of American-bred Patrona but I think that’s too long a bow for the lady to draw – we know where he took his first breath and won his races!
Norfolk winner South Central, by Deputy Minister’s son Forest Camp, is the ninth foal and first black-type winner produced by his dam who is by Forty Niner. Never give up.
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The pro-American theory proved spot on in the Ribblesdale Stakes over 2400m for 3YO fillies with the favoured daughter of Dynaformer, Michita, prevailing very easily. Dynaformer, now 23 and still standing at US$150,000 thanks to Barbaro’s heroism last year, has been a really decent sire with in excess of 80 stakeswinners and almost $75 million in progeny earnings – more than half of it on turf.
By Roberto, Dynaformer stands a massive 17 hands. He’s out of an His Majesty mare (like Danehill), often a factor for size. Dynaformer has had little exposure in this part of the world but his broodmare sire stats are also quite impressive. Given his pedigree and turf proclivities, I’d expect his daughters to fit in nicely down here and you mightn’t have to pay an arm, a leg and half your torso to buy one.
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The present day Yeats is made of much, much sterner stuff than his namesake who first graced these shores a quarter century ago amid much euphoria, being one of the first by Nijinsky to make his way down under.
The first Yeats was an Irish Listed winner at two – imagine getting excited about that these days – and soon joined the majority as a sire: disappointing. He got three Group 1 winners amongst his 16 stakeswinners (from 957 named foals) but only one true top-notcher: the magnificent and versatile (Our) Poetic Prince.
Bred in Australia by an American cardiologist, Alex Sywak, and a NZ$16,000 yearling bargain, Poetic Prince finished second in the Cox Plate as a three-year-old then won it the following year, finishing his racing as a four-year-old with 16 wins and 11 placings from 36 runs.
His relegation from first in the Caulfield Guineas which he won by a space remains one of the worst travesties I’ve seen. They ganged up on Kiwi trainer and jockey John Wheeler and Noel Harris and gave the race to Geoff Murphy’s Marwong.
Alas, Our Poetic Prince proved even inferior to his own sire at stud and departed for Korea in 2001.
With jumps racing again on the skids, if the noises coming out of Victoria are to be believed, we’re unlikely to see the modern-day Yeats standing at stud down here; a ‘dual purpose’ National Hunt sire seems likely to be his fate in Ireland. His shortest win was over one mile as a two-year-old, his furthest the two-and-a-half miles of the Ascot Gold Cup.
Not that marathon-running colts can’t make good sires. Forgetting about several useful Melbourne Cup winning entires, Zamazaan (Fr) never won a race short of 2450m, winning up to 3100m. He was outstanding and figures as the sire of the grandam of Haradasun and Elvstroem. Sea Anchor (Ire) finished third in the Ascot Gold Cup, never won shorter than 2000m and won as long as 3800m in top company. He sired the brilliant Horse Of The Year Red Anchor and a NZ gelding virtually unknown in Australia, Weston Lea, which I daresay might have been Red Anchor’s equal. A magnificent type, Weston Lea smashed a hind pastern in an exhibition gallop five days before the Derby which was at his mercy.
The present day Yeats is Ireland/England’s Makybe Diva equivalent. He’s had seven races since finishing seventh in the 2006 Melbourne Cup behind Delta Blues and Pop Rock, carrying 59 kgs, winning six of them.
Two Down, Three To Go
If you thought John McCririck looked like he’d forgotten to change his clothes between days 1 and 2 of Royal Ascot, then he probably did forget.
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Someone wise me up: what’s the story behind the expression “early doors” that’s creeping into commentaries everywhere like an infectious disease? I’ve heard it used repeatedly in Australia this year, particularly by some Queensland callers, and it cropped up again during Royal Ascot this morning. I’m not so silly that I don’t know what it means but why all of a sudden has it gained such currency? I swear I never heard it more than twice in the previous couple of decades. Next thing you know we’ll be saying “close home” like the Poms.
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Aqlaam, winner of the Gr 3 Jersey Stakes, is by the pure sprinter Oasis Dream (Green Desert) but out of a half-sister to the pure stayer and an old favourite of the Melbourne crowds, Persian Punch. Persian Punch’s shortest win was over 2000m and his longest over 3600m. He won 20 of his 66 starts between the ages of three and 11, 13 of them Group wins – but never a Gr 1 – and three listed races. His seven Gr 1 placings included twice third in the Melbourne Cup which he should have won on at least one occasion. Sadly, he collapsed and died on the racecourse and there is now a lifesize bronze statue in his honour at Newmarket.
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Notice how often horses fighting out the finish lose their compass at the end of their races at Ascot, particularly if they’ve competed on the straight track. It’s a slight uphill climb to the post and clearly the horses are tired but there doesn’t seem to be much emphasis on finding the rail over there (except Haradasun and Equiano!), which usually keeps horses on the straight and narrow. Fields tend to clump rather than string out. One seldom sees horses wandering up the middle of Flemington or swerving home like drunken sailors, uphill, at Sandown. Riding style might have something to do with it?
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Once again Coolmore used a pacemaker to make the play for their heavily-favoured Duke Of Marmalade in the Gr 1 Prince Of Wales’s Stakes over 10 furlongs. Poor Red Rock Canyon, winless in 12 starts but twice Irish Gr 1 placed, just a pacemaker but maybe the best-bred pacemaker in history – by Rock Of Gibraltar out of the Sadler’s Wells Oaks and Guineas winner Imagine, dam earlier of the ill-fated Gr 1 hero Horatio Nelson, and a daughter of Generous’s blue hen dam Doff The Derby. Don’t think we’ll see Red Rock Canyon on the shuttle. But put the ring around Duke Of Marmalade, now a triple Gr 1 winner over a middle distance and not dissimilar to current shuttler Oratorio (Ire) though he lacks that one’s two-year-old record. By Danehill from a Kingmambo mare (those names again), The Duke is from one of the world’s premier families, his third dam being Lassie Dear from whom descend the likes of Weekend Surprise, A.P. Indy, Summer Squall, Wolfhound, Lemon Drop Kid and the good South African stallion Al Mufti. Duke Of Marmalade is named after a peerage created in Haiti in 1804 after the colonial powers were overthrown by a slave insurrection, Haiti then becoming the world’s first independent black state. He was not related to the Prince Of Orange or the Viscount Vegemite. I knew you were dying to know that.
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Where are the boys in Blue? I suppose the week’s young yet.
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Most valuable information gleaned from day two's TV coverage: the size of the weather girl's derriere, as divulged by style guru John McCririck. Just doing his form study.
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Someone wise me up: what’s the story behind the expression “early doors” that’s creeping into commentaries everywhere like an infectious disease? I’ve heard it used repeatedly in Australia this year, particularly by some Queensland callers, and it cropped up again during Royal Ascot this morning. I’m not so silly that I don’t know what it means but why all of a sudden has it gained such currency? I swear I never heard it more than twice in the previous couple of decades. Next thing you know we’ll be saying “close home” like the Poms.
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Aqlaam, winner of the Gr 3 Jersey Stakes, is by the pure sprinter Oasis Dream (Green Desert) but out of a half-sister to the pure stayer and an old favourite of the Melbourne crowds, Persian Punch. Persian Punch’s shortest win was over 2000m and his longest over 3600m. He won 20 of his 66 starts between the ages of three and 11, 13 of them Group wins – but never a Gr 1 – and three listed races. His seven Gr 1 placings included twice third in the Melbourne Cup which he should have won on at least one occasion. Sadly, he collapsed and died on the racecourse and there is now a lifesize bronze statue in his honour at Newmarket.
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Notice how often horses fighting out the finish lose their compass at the end of their races at Ascot, particularly if they’ve competed on the straight track. It’s a slight uphill climb to the post and clearly the horses are tired but there doesn’t seem to be much emphasis on finding the rail over there (except Haradasun and Equiano!), which usually keeps horses on the straight and narrow. Fields tend to clump rather than string out. One seldom sees horses wandering up the middle of Flemington or swerving home like drunken sailors, uphill, at Sandown. Riding style might have something to do with it?
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Once again Coolmore used a pacemaker to make the play for their heavily-favoured Duke Of Marmalade in the Gr 1 Prince Of Wales’s Stakes over 10 furlongs. Poor Red Rock Canyon, winless in 12 starts but twice Irish Gr 1 placed, just a pacemaker but maybe the best-bred pacemaker in history – by Rock Of Gibraltar out of the Sadler’s Wells Oaks and Guineas winner Imagine, dam earlier of the ill-fated Gr 1 hero Horatio Nelson, and a daughter of Generous’s blue hen dam Doff The Derby. Don’t think we’ll see Red Rock Canyon on the shuttle. But put the ring around Duke Of Marmalade, now a triple Gr 1 winner over a middle distance and not dissimilar to current shuttler Oratorio (Ire) though he lacks that one’s two-year-old record. By Danehill from a Kingmambo mare (those names again), The Duke is from one of the world’s premier families, his third dam being Lassie Dear from whom descend the likes of Weekend Surprise, A.P. Indy, Summer Squall, Wolfhound, Lemon Drop Kid and the good South African stallion Al Mufti. Duke Of Marmalade is named after a peerage created in Haiti in 1804 after the colonial powers were overthrown by a slave insurrection, Haiti then becoming the world’s first independent black state. He was not related to the Prince Of Orange or the Viscount Vegemite. I knew you were dying to know that.
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Where are the boys in Blue? I suppose the week’s young yet.
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Most valuable information gleaned from day two's TV coverage: the size of the weather girl's derriere, as divulged by style guru John McCririck. Just doing his form study.
Execute Had The Killer Instinct
In the post below I mentioned a horse named Execute which raced in NZ in the '70s. He was by Head Hunter (GB)-Queen Arma, by Blueskin II (GB). Subsequent to Execute's foaling, IRT's Quentin Wallace part-owned the mare Queen Arma.
Execute was a swimmer. He loved the track when only his ears were above water, as you used to get occasionally in NZ. He won 23 races including a Founders' Plate, which was weight-for-age 1400m, a black-type handicap at Ellerslie as well as a Great Northern Hurdle which was 4200m. Bill Sanders trained him. His son Graeme is tending to Seachange in England right now and chief Queensland steward Reid Sanders is of similar pedigree.
I'm not sure anyone in the 'modern' era races their horses as often, as hard and as well as Bill Sanders did, but by golly he had a lot of good horses, most of them el-cheapos. Probably the horses aren't up to it today, the guts has been bred out of them. Horses, especially those out of the South Island like Eiffel Tower, Kumai and Loch Linnhe, did unbelievable things by today's standards. I'm sure there have been Australian equivalents but my knowledge of Australian racing is much shallower.
Perhaps Toulouse Lautrec is headed in that direction. The erstwhile Derby winner has resuscitated his waning career as a jumper, though those farcical yellow toothbrushes which masquerade as fences in Victoria are more a risk to a horse than a help. Somehow skipping over a dozen or two of them doesn't seem the same as going 6,400m in the deepest bog, three times up the Ellerslie hill, jumping two at the top then having to negotiate a stone wall on the way down each time (don't worry folks, they got rid of the stone wall some years back), not to mention the live stand double, the water jump and several other energy-sappers.
I know - we didn't have satellite TV back then or mobile phones or computers so we needed something to occupy our time. Like crocheting, macrame or watching a long race. Today all we're interested in is the last 600m sectional.
Recent events in the USA spotlighting Big Brown, Eight Belles and Barbaro are causing a lot of teeth-gnashing about just where the breed is going. Americans in general only care about racing for no more than five minutes per year and to be confronted with these calamities one after the other has unleashed an unbelievable fury of anti-racing sentiment. Like John McCririck's diatribe against excessive use of the whip from Royal Ascot this morning (which I agree with; there are shocking examples to be seen every day on Australian TV but nothing's said) - these issues lie simmering just beneath the surface everywhere and if we become too obsessed with win-at-all-costs they will eventually engulf us and destroy us. Mark my words.
Apparently, man can do whatever the hell he likes to his fellow man - and lamentably does, often - but his dignity is measured by how he behaves towards animals subservient to himself.
Execute was a swimmer. He loved the track when only his ears were above water, as you used to get occasionally in NZ. He won 23 races including a Founders' Plate, which was weight-for-age 1400m, a black-type handicap at Ellerslie as well as a Great Northern Hurdle which was 4200m. Bill Sanders trained him. His son Graeme is tending to Seachange in England right now and chief Queensland steward Reid Sanders is of similar pedigree.
I'm not sure anyone in the 'modern' era races their horses as often, as hard and as well as Bill Sanders did, but by golly he had a lot of good horses, most of them el-cheapos. Probably the horses aren't up to it today, the guts has been bred out of them. Horses, especially those out of the South Island like Eiffel Tower, Kumai and Loch Linnhe, did unbelievable things by today's standards. I'm sure there have been Australian equivalents but my knowledge of Australian racing is much shallower.
Perhaps Toulouse Lautrec is headed in that direction. The erstwhile Derby winner has resuscitated his waning career as a jumper, though those farcical yellow toothbrushes which masquerade as fences in Victoria are more a risk to a horse than a help. Somehow skipping over a dozen or two of them doesn't seem the same as going 6,400m in the deepest bog, three times up the Ellerslie hill, jumping two at the top then having to negotiate a stone wall on the way down each time (don't worry folks, they got rid of the stone wall some years back), not to mention the live stand double, the water jump and several other energy-sappers.
I know - we didn't have satellite TV back then or mobile phones or computers so we needed something to occupy our time. Like crocheting, macrame or watching a long race. Today all we're interested in is the last 600m sectional.
Recent events in the USA spotlighting Big Brown, Eight Belles and Barbaro are causing a lot of teeth-gnashing about just where the breed is going. Americans in general only care about racing for no more than five minutes per year and to be confronted with these calamities one after the other has unleashed an unbelievable fury of anti-racing sentiment. Like John McCririck's diatribe against excessive use of the whip from Royal Ascot this morning (which I agree with; there are shocking examples to be seen every day on Australian TV but nothing's said) - these issues lie simmering just beneath the surface everywhere and if we become too obsessed with win-at-all-costs they will eventually engulf us and destroy us. Mark my words.
Apparently, man can do whatever the hell he likes to his fellow man - and lamentably does, often - but his dignity is measured by how he behaves towards animals subservient to himself.
One Down, Four To Go
Royal Ascot began in near-perfect fashion for the southern hemisphere this morning with Haradasun’s epic victory in the Gr 1 Queen Anne Stakes and Takeover Target’s game second in the Gr 1 King’s Stand.
And Exceed And Excel got in the act with a longshot (but impressive) Listed two-year-old winner in the form of Flashmans Papers.
Congratulations to the Coolmore/Arch of Gold team. They took the big gamble to expose Haradasun on the international stage when so much was at stake, that being his huge purchase price and the reputation that goes with it. Their management and skill have now established the ultimate breeding platform for Haradasun who, though he is the shining light sired by the mentally fragile Fusaichi Pegasus, is a great cut of a horse out of clearly one of the broodmares of our times, Circles Of Gold, a Eulogy-line Oaks winning daughter of Marscay who raced on 43 occasions and who was probably better at five than she was at three.
Haradasun has come a long way from 10 June 2006 when Tony Vasil took him to Swan Hill to win the Super Vobis 2YO Handicap by 10 lengths on debut.
Aidan O’Brien won with Haradasun and, two races later, with the outstanding three-year-old Henrythenavigator in the St James’s Palace Stakes. On both occasions he employed pacemakers to ensure these megadollar studs got their races run to suit. Nothing left to chance when $100 million rests on the results.
The pacemakers, longshots Honoured Guest in Haradasun’s race and Minneapolis in the other, were tried to their limits but of course were found wanting. When Honoured Guest, who had been breaking the wind for Haradasun camped behind him on the rail, moved over to give the big colt racing room, jockey David McCabe gave a look over his shoulder which was straight out of the Shane Dye box of tricks, identical to RSD’s effort on Imprimatur when inviting Myocard to come through in the AJC Derby all those years ago. (I remember, I had a racing interest in Imprimatur!).
Years ago I was in charge of a stallion, Diagramatic (USA), who was a good middle distance racehorse on his day but his greatest usefulness in life was as pacemaker for the champion Exceller (USA). Diagramatic was by Sir Wiggle (a son of the brilliant Australian mare Wiggle) out of a Chilean-bred mare. As his breeding might have foretold, he was a sire of little account though he got a freak little filly in Tidal Light (NZ).
There is nothing new to be said about Takeover Target who lines up again on Saturday night. Cynics might say that anyone can train a champion but that’s a load of crap. I’ve never met Joe Janiak but I also know I’ve never met any trainer who could have done a better job with the horse than the low-brow cabbie from Queanbeyan. Horses don’t train themselves, they don’t feed themselves, they don’t travel themselves. Someone has to do it for them. Joe rules.
Spare a thought for Magnus who, like Haradasun, is meant to have run his last race. He didn’t figure in the finish of this morning’s event but he wasn’t disgraced; he’s not won many races but he’s competed honourably in a vintage era of sprinters and he’ll be a valued addition to Victorian stallion ranks. Sir Tristram only won two races!
If the Aussies were proud of the way their horses ran, think how the Spanish (the Spanish??) must have felt when one of their own, Equiano, won the Gr 1 King’s Stand. Actually, Equiano is French-bred and has raced in La Belle France over the last 12 months, trained by his Spanish trainer. A remote relative of Equiano is the plodding Danehill stayer Roanoke which Anthony Cummings cajoled to win a poor Listed Handicap at Randwick one day.
I know jack about Spanish racing but I do recall a marathon runner named Royal Gait (by Gunner B) which hailed from there in the mid-80s. He was remarkable. He had a total of 14 starts in Spain, winning seven of them, but became famous when he crossed the Pyrennees to win some of Paris’s great staying tests. He raced from three years until 10, had 99 starts and his last win was in none other than the Champion Hurdle at the famous Cheltenham National Hunt Festival. There was an unforgettable horse not unlike him in New Zealand in the '70s named Execute, but that story's for another day.
Art Connoisseur’s turn of foot to win the Gr 2 Coventry Stakes was unbelievable. He came from last, straight past a supposedly hot field, to win in a jog. He is by a sire named Lucky Story, a non-Gr 1 winner who is a brother to Dr Fong who stood in Australia almost without trace a few years ago. Art Connoisseur and the second horse in the Coventry, Intense Focus (by the despised-in-Australia Giant’s Causeway), are out of Danehill mares.
Henrythenavigator, on form, had a lot on his rivals in the St James’s Palace, and though he was run close enough at the end by Elusive Quality’s son Raven’s Pass, his win was fairly contemptuous. He and Dolphin Street share some common ancestry; he’s a magnificently-bred son of Kingmambo and when he shuttles (will he shuttle?) will be a natural beau for Danehill mares. Though he’s just 18 years old with still plenty of time to right the picture, Kingmambo has been rather despairing as a sire of sires. Lemon Drop Kid is possibly his best to date. King’s Best was worse than bad in Australia and now we are waiting to see if Dubai Destination will amount to anything. (I hope so, I have 20% of one of his fillies!).
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I spent most of the morning flicking between TVN and Sky to see what sort of coverage they were providing. Both took the same feed from the UK, that of the specialist UK racing channel, AtTheRaces. The British coverage was liberally interspersed with ad breaks which naturally become ad breaks here also. In the case of TVN the breaks were insufferable, filled with those interminable house ads, hour after hour, ad infinitum, promoting themselves, their programmes and their publications. We’re already watching and are committed, nitwits, that’s why we’re up at 2.30 in the morning. Obviously they can’t sell ad time on TVN. I’ve never got up and made so many cups of tea in three hours. You just can’t watch it. On the other hand, Sky used a continuity voice-over, Andrew le Jeune, to fill in most of the gaps. Visually it wasn’t exciting television with static betting markets displayed on screen, but this man is impressively right on top of his subject and what he says is well worth listening to. It’s Sky for me for the rest of the week, no race.
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Apart from some memorable performances on the turf, three images stick in my mind from Day One’s coverage.
Firstly, watching class mare Finsceal Beo going to post in the Queen Anne. If she was walking away from you at the yearling sales with the knees and action she looked to possess in last night’s shots, you’d be putting the line straight through her. I’m constantly reminded that legs are only wheels, not motors, but I’d have to say her wheels looked square. I’d be interested if anyone’s seen her in the flesh and could comment on her conformation. Timeform describe her as an “excellent walker”.
Secondly, Jay Ford won the prize for the worst haircut (apart from John McCririck's of course).
Thirdly, what was that thing on Mrs Magnier’s head?
And Exceed And Excel got in the act with a longshot (but impressive) Listed two-year-old winner in the form of Flashmans Papers.
Congratulations to the Coolmore/Arch of Gold team. They took the big gamble to expose Haradasun on the international stage when so much was at stake, that being his huge purchase price and the reputation that goes with it. Their management and skill have now established the ultimate breeding platform for Haradasun who, though he is the shining light sired by the mentally fragile Fusaichi Pegasus, is a great cut of a horse out of clearly one of the broodmares of our times, Circles Of Gold, a Eulogy-line Oaks winning daughter of Marscay who raced on 43 occasions and who was probably better at five than she was at three.
Haradasun has come a long way from 10 June 2006 when Tony Vasil took him to Swan Hill to win the Super Vobis 2YO Handicap by 10 lengths on debut.
Aidan O’Brien won with Haradasun and, two races later, with the outstanding three-year-old Henrythenavigator in the St James’s Palace Stakes. On both occasions he employed pacemakers to ensure these megadollar studs got their races run to suit. Nothing left to chance when $100 million rests on the results.
The pacemakers, longshots Honoured Guest in Haradasun’s race and Minneapolis in the other, were tried to their limits but of course were found wanting. When Honoured Guest, who had been breaking the wind for Haradasun camped behind him on the rail, moved over to give the big colt racing room, jockey David McCabe gave a look over his shoulder which was straight out of the Shane Dye box of tricks, identical to RSD’s effort on Imprimatur when inviting Myocard to come through in the AJC Derby all those years ago. (I remember, I had a racing interest in Imprimatur!).
Years ago I was in charge of a stallion, Diagramatic (USA), who was a good middle distance racehorse on his day but his greatest usefulness in life was as pacemaker for the champion Exceller (USA). Diagramatic was by Sir Wiggle (a son of the brilliant Australian mare Wiggle) out of a Chilean-bred mare. As his breeding might have foretold, he was a sire of little account though he got a freak little filly in Tidal Light (NZ).
There is nothing new to be said about Takeover Target who lines up again on Saturday night. Cynics might say that anyone can train a champion but that’s a load of crap. I’ve never met Joe Janiak but I also know I’ve never met any trainer who could have done a better job with the horse than the low-brow cabbie from Queanbeyan. Horses don’t train themselves, they don’t feed themselves, they don’t travel themselves. Someone has to do it for them. Joe rules.
Spare a thought for Magnus who, like Haradasun, is meant to have run his last race. He didn’t figure in the finish of this morning’s event but he wasn’t disgraced; he’s not won many races but he’s competed honourably in a vintage era of sprinters and he’ll be a valued addition to Victorian stallion ranks. Sir Tristram only won two races!
If the Aussies were proud of the way their horses ran, think how the Spanish (the Spanish??) must have felt when one of their own, Equiano, won the Gr 1 King’s Stand. Actually, Equiano is French-bred and has raced in La Belle France over the last 12 months, trained by his Spanish trainer. A remote relative of Equiano is the plodding Danehill stayer Roanoke which Anthony Cummings cajoled to win a poor Listed Handicap at Randwick one day.
I know jack about Spanish racing but I do recall a marathon runner named Royal Gait (by Gunner B) which hailed from there in the mid-80s. He was remarkable. He had a total of 14 starts in Spain, winning seven of them, but became famous when he crossed the Pyrennees to win some of Paris’s great staying tests. He raced from three years until 10, had 99 starts and his last win was in none other than the Champion Hurdle at the famous Cheltenham National Hunt Festival. There was an unforgettable horse not unlike him in New Zealand in the '70s named Execute, but that story's for another day.
Art Connoisseur’s turn of foot to win the Gr 2 Coventry Stakes was unbelievable. He came from last, straight past a supposedly hot field, to win in a jog. He is by a sire named Lucky Story, a non-Gr 1 winner who is a brother to Dr Fong who stood in Australia almost without trace a few years ago. Art Connoisseur and the second horse in the Coventry, Intense Focus (by the despised-in-Australia Giant’s Causeway), are out of Danehill mares.
Henrythenavigator, on form, had a lot on his rivals in the St James’s Palace, and though he was run close enough at the end by Elusive Quality’s son Raven’s Pass, his win was fairly contemptuous. He and Dolphin Street share some common ancestry; he’s a magnificently-bred son of Kingmambo and when he shuttles (will he shuttle?) will be a natural beau for Danehill mares. Though he’s just 18 years old with still plenty of time to right the picture, Kingmambo has been rather despairing as a sire of sires. Lemon Drop Kid is possibly his best to date. King’s Best was worse than bad in Australia and now we are waiting to see if Dubai Destination will amount to anything. (I hope so, I have 20% of one of his fillies!).
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I spent most of the morning flicking between TVN and Sky to see what sort of coverage they were providing. Both took the same feed from the UK, that of the specialist UK racing channel, AtTheRaces. The British coverage was liberally interspersed with ad breaks which naturally become ad breaks here also. In the case of TVN the breaks were insufferable, filled with those interminable house ads, hour after hour, ad infinitum, promoting themselves, their programmes and their publications. We’re already watching and are committed, nitwits, that’s why we’re up at 2.30 in the morning. Obviously they can’t sell ad time on TVN. I’ve never got up and made so many cups of tea in three hours. You just can’t watch it. On the other hand, Sky used a continuity voice-over, Andrew le Jeune, to fill in most of the gaps. Visually it wasn’t exciting television with static betting markets displayed on screen, but this man is impressively right on top of his subject and what he says is well worth listening to. It’s Sky for me for the rest of the week, no race.
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Apart from some memorable performances on the turf, three images stick in my mind from Day One’s coverage.
Firstly, watching class mare Finsceal Beo going to post in the Queen Anne. If she was walking away from you at the yearling sales with the knees and action she looked to possess in last night’s shots, you’d be putting the line straight through her. I’m constantly reminded that legs are only wheels, not motors, but I’d have to say her wheels looked square. I’d be interested if anyone’s seen her in the flesh and could comment on her conformation. Timeform describe her as an “excellent walker”.
Secondly, Jay Ford won the prize for the worst haircut (apart from John McCririck's of course).
Thirdly, what was that thing on Mrs Magnier’s head?
No Pictures? Listen on the Net.
If there's anyone who doesn't have SKY/TVN and wants an alternative to 2KY/3UZ etc to listen to Royal Ascot races, crank up your internet, go to http://www.sportinglife.com/racing/news/, click on Racing Radio then click Play. This is what to log on to if you ever want to hear an English race commentary (or an occasional Irish one).
What? A Week Without Sales?
I feel a blog coming on. I might put pen to paper during the week as it seems we have a hiatus between sales. I am thinking of making access to the blog subscription only. That would sort out all of you who complain I haven't written anything for weeks and would also mean I wouldn't need to bother.
Sebring Finds His Home; Vale Woodlands.
Sebring will go to Widden. Shoot me down if I'm wrong. They like Slipper winners there. The deal will be something similar to the Stratum deal and the colt will race on (what else can you do with a rising 3YO?). Valuation: somewhere in the $25 - $28 million range.
As news of the Darley acquisition of Woodlands becomes official, a personal thank you to the Inghams and all those terrific people involved over the decades with the stud and the Crown Lodge enterprise ... you raced in the proper traditions of racing: for fun, for sport, for prizemoney and for profit. You thoroughly testing your breeds and did not molly-coddle or protect them. The game was a heck of a lot better off for having you. When Crown Lodge had a good day we all had a good day.
Here's an observation and prediction: maroon is not cerise. We will never again see colts of the ilk of Octagonal or Lonhro grind out Group 1 glory season after season rather than being bundled off to stud at first defeat. Australian racing, and Australian horses, are in the process of changing to a much less exciting commodity.
Particularly in NSW, racing resembles more and more a showcase for selling stallion noms. Long-term, nothing is likely to alienate the public more than that.
As news of the Darley acquisition of Woodlands becomes official, a personal thank you to the Inghams and all those terrific people involved over the decades with the stud and the Crown Lodge enterprise ... you raced in the proper traditions of racing: for fun, for sport, for prizemoney and for profit. You thoroughly testing your breeds and did not molly-coddle or protect them. The game was a heck of a lot better off for having you. When Crown Lodge had a good day we all had a good day.
Here's an observation and prediction: maroon is not cerise. We will never again see colts of the ilk of Octagonal or Lonhro grind out Group 1 glory season after season rather than being bundled off to stud at first defeat. Australian racing, and Australian horses, are in the process of changing to a much less exciting commodity.
Particularly in NSW, racing resembles more and more a showcase for selling stallion noms. Long-term, nothing is likely to alienate the public more than that.
The Ayes Have It
My Living Spirit poll drew the biggest response of any poll I've run. 31 voted that she was the most over-valued mare they'd ever seen sold, 19 voted that it was a sure sign the world's gone mad, and 7 Darley employees voted that she was cheap at twice the price.
As Judith Durham Once Said, The Carnival Is Over
The sales, the carnival - they're over. The Sydney ones at any rate. So much to reflect on, so little time to do it.
Stallion owners have gone berserk with some of the most unjustified, avaricious service fee increases ever foisted on their customers. Part of the rationale must be that they want the lion's share of future yearling markets just for themselves (the Easter Sale is getting more like the defunct Keeneland July as each year goes by). Or the belief that what is going up will never come down. Or that they can devise no other way of coping with the laws of supply and demand. Or that greed is good. Australia is now the dearest place on the planet to breed a horse if you ask me. Even though it might take 10 weeks to ship your mare to New Zealand, just do it! You'll get NZ$1.20 for your buck. Dozens of breeders, many of whom had 'made' the self-same stallions in their now forgotten lean years, were running around Newmarket panicking about how on earth they were going to breed their mares this year. At one stage I thought we might have a Jonestown on our hands.
I thought Grant Pritchard-Hyphen-Gordon spoke a lot of sense in his post-sale comments reported in ANZ Bloodstock News.
Upstart cheap and unfashionably-bred horses won a truckload of feature races throughout the autumn carnival. What a bloody cheek they had. Who gave them permission? Makes you wonder why people are so keen to pay so much for yearlings, broodmares and service fees.
The Melbourne Cup is now $5.5 million. What a joke. The race no owner of a colt ever wants to win. The race no commercial breeder in Australia ever wants to breed the winner of, nor, I might add, is ever likely to again. Is, say, $4 million not enough? It's a bit like being in the men's loo ... "mine is as big as yours".
Sebring wins the Slipper for 10 Aussie battlers (several of whom just happen to be multi-millionaires anyway). How do you get 10 people to agree to sell The Next Big Thing, for how much and when? (by the way, I have not been asked nor volunteered to facilitate). As each day slips by he probably assumes a different value. It's a mystery how this cheapie eluded Gai's surgeon's knife. When syndicator Denise Martin succumbed to a virus due to the pressure of it all in the days immediately after Sebring's triumph, I diagnosed her malady as a bad case of Sebring Non-Castration Syndrome. Denise well and truly earned and deserved her moment of glory and her handling of the occasion with the media was a model for all her imitators.
Patinack Farm continued on its merry way through the yearling and broodmare sales. Anthony Cummings had a checklist in his catalogue just like you and I take to the supermarket, only longer. Why doesn't Patinack want its name on the sales results sheets any more, preferring to shelter behind its agents' and surrogates'? It wasn't like that earlier in the year. Its buying is an open secret to any informed observer but perhaps Patinack feels it doesn't want to appear omnipresent and frighten the natives too much when it's just about to formally announce its clutch of stallions and their fees.
(Omnipresent reminds me of uberstallion, the term I coined in an earlier post. A lot of people commented to me on that. Seems they like it. It may be my one lasting legacy to the industry.)
We are yet to hear if the FIRB has approved the Darley buy-out of Woodlands. The decision is due 14 May. Are they having the jitters? Has there been some fierce behind-the-scenes opposition and a stack of anti-submissions which closed on 5 May? Surely not. Anyone who saw the memorable Bob Ingham interview on TVN would think it's a done deal. The two people assigned as project staff by the ACCC on Review 31710 as it's known, are a Ms Bull - appropriate given the number of stallions Darley will have under control - and a Ms Wood !
Don't be surprised if I climb on a few more hobby horses in the next couple of weeks. I'll probably reminisce over many irrelevant and now dated tidbits from the carnival. You guys haven't sent in any comments during my hiatus so I'll write whatever takes my fancy, it's therapy. I should have time - the upcoming Karaka and Melbourne catalogues are woeful, breeders bailing out in all directions, so they're not going to be distractions for me.
Meantime, I have a couple of months' bills to sort out. They're about to shut down my phone, gas and electric and evict me from my digs. I've even got some accounts of my own to send out, mercifully, and some food to buy in, some domestics to do and a car to clean - I've been on the road since January and don't have a maidservant - so the blog will have to wait.
Stallion owners have gone berserk with some of the most unjustified, avaricious service fee increases ever foisted on their customers. Part of the rationale must be that they want the lion's share of future yearling markets just for themselves (the Easter Sale is getting more like the defunct Keeneland July as each year goes by). Or the belief that what is going up will never come down. Or that they can devise no other way of coping with the laws of supply and demand. Or that greed is good. Australia is now the dearest place on the planet to breed a horse if you ask me. Even though it might take 10 weeks to ship your mare to New Zealand, just do it! You'll get NZ$1.20 for your buck. Dozens of breeders, many of whom had 'made' the self-same stallions in their now forgotten lean years, were running around Newmarket panicking about how on earth they were going to breed their mares this year. At one stage I thought we might have a Jonestown on our hands.
I thought Grant Pritchard-Hyphen-Gordon spoke a lot of sense in his post-sale comments reported in ANZ Bloodstock News.
Upstart cheap and unfashionably-bred horses won a truckload of feature races throughout the autumn carnival. What a bloody cheek they had. Who gave them permission? Makes you wonder why people are so keen to pay so much for yearlings, broodmares and service fees.
The Melbourne Cup is now $5.5 million. What a joke. The race no owner of a colt ever wants to win. The race no commercial breeder in Australia ever wants to breed the winner of, nor, I might add, is ever likely to again. Is, say, $4 million not enough? It's a bit like being in the men's loo ... "mine is as big as yours".
Sebring wins the Slipper for 10 Aussie battlers (several of whom just happen to be multi-millionaires anyway). How do you get 10 people to agree to sell The Next Big Thing, for how much and when? (by the way, I have not been asked nor volunteered to facilitate). As each day slips by he probably assumes a different value. It's a mystery how this cheapie eluded Gai's surgeon's knife. When syndicator Denise Martin succumbed to a virus due to the pressure of it all in the days immediately after Sebring's triumph, I diagnosed her malady as a bad case of Sebring Non-Castration Syndrome. Denise well and truly earned and deserved her moment of glory and her handling of the occasion with the media was a model for all her imitators.
Patinack Farm continued on its merry way through the yearling and broodmare sales. Anthony Cummings had a checklist in his catalogue just like you and I take to the supermarket, only longer. Why doesn't Patinack want its name on the sales results sheets any more, preferring to shelter behind its agents' and surrogates'? It wasn't like that earlier in the year. Its buying is an open secret to any informed observer but perhaps Patinack feels it doesn't want to appear omnipresent and frighten the natives too much when it's just about to formally announce its clutch of stallions and their fees.
(Omnipresent reminds me of uberstallion, the term I coined in an earlier post. A lot of people commented to me on that. Seems they like it. It may be my one lasting legacy to the industry.)
We are yet to hear if the FIRB has approved the Darley buy-out of Woodlands. The decision is due 14 May. Are they having the jitters? Has there been some fierce behind-the-scenes opposition and a stack of anti-submissions which closed on 5 May? Surely not. Anyone who saw the memorable Bob Ingham interview on TVN would think it's a done deal. The two people assigned as project staff by the ACCC on Review 31710 as it's known, are a Ms Bull - appropriate given the number of stallions Darley will have under control - and a Ms Wood !
Don't be surprised if I climb on a few more hobby horses in the next couple of weeks. I'll probably reminisce over many irrelevant and now dated tidbits from the carnival. You guys haven't sent in any comments during my hiatus so I'll write whatever takes my fancy, it's therapy. I should have time - the upcoming Karaka and Melbourne catalogues are woeful, breeders bailing out in all directions, so they're not going to be distractions for me.
Meantime, I have a couple of months' bills to sort out. They're about to shut down my phone, gas and electric and evict me from my digs. I've even got some accounts of my own to send out, mercifully, and some food to buy in, some domestics to do and a car to clean - I've been on the road since January and don't have a maidservant - so the blog will have to wait.
Bring On The 36-hour Day
Contrary to rumour (or wish), I'm not deceased, just saled out. For those demented souls who still check out this blog to see if I've put up any new ravings, I promise I'll get around to something ... soon. Read This Month's Quotation, immediate right.
Frank You Very Much
To prove no one really takes any notice of what I think, who recalled what I wrote about Falbrav way back on April 6, as follows:
Amongst his first crop, however, were a handful of impressive individuals, in my book none moreso than the colt out of Angelic Smile bred by Ron Gilbert and sold last Easter to Woodlands for $550,000, Falbrav’s top price. He was as a good a type as you’d ever see. He’s named Fravashi and presumably he’ll be one of the new Darley tidal wave. I saw him trial in January; he’ll be worth waiting for.
Out popped Fravashi at Canterbury today and he brained them at $7.50. Thanks for coming.
Amongst his first crop, however, were a handful of impressive individuals, in my book none moreso than the colt out of Angelic Smile bred by Ron Gilbert and sold last Easter to Woodlands for $550,000, Falbrav’s top price. He was as a good a type as you’d ever see. He’s named Fravashi and presumably he’ll be one of the new Darley tidal wave. I saw him trial in January; he’ll be worth waiting for.
Out popped Fravashi at Canterbury today and he brained them at $7.50. Thanks for coming.
I Can't Do Two Things At Once - I'm A Man
OK all you blogaholics - you doubtless understand that there's nothing new on the blog because I'm bogged (not blogged) down with the Sydney "Easter" Yearling Sale at present. Probably won't get my name on the sheets. All hell is going to let loose on some horses, believe me. Hopefully when it's all over I'll be able to put something up which might either entertain, inform or scandalise you - take your pick.
But two things before I sign off:
(1) This coming week's most important event: my first grandchild's first birthday on the 21st - lovely Mathilda (Tilly) Elliot Brem, born in London, now resident of Auckland. I'll see if I can organise a pic for the blog. She's prettier than any filly at Newmarket.
(2) Rumour of the week: a Magic Millions proprietor is selling his stakeholding to Tinkler's Patinack Farm.
Good bidding if you're going to the sales.
But two things before I sign off:
(1) This coming week's most important event: my first grandchild's first birthday on the 21st - lovely Mathilda (Tilly) Elliot Brem, born in London, now resident of Auckland. I'll see if I can organise a pic for the blog. She's prettier than any filly at Newmarket.
(2) Rumour of the week: a Magic Millions proprietor is selling his stakeholding to Tinkler's Patinack Farm.
Good bidding if you're going to the sales.
The Making Of Dance Hero
My piece on Dance Hero’s retirement (see below, April 1), has been a popular read, I’ve been surprised how many have mentioned that they’ve read and enjoyed it. Which is great – I dashed it off quickly and don’t regard it as Pulitzer Prize material!
There’s no doubt these superior horses develop an ardent fan base. No matter how we dress up racing, horses have always been and always will be the stars of the show. Behind every horse – fast or slow – there is a story. Melburnian Danny Power read my blog and got in touch to recount his personal involvement in Dance Hero’s genesis. Danny’s background is not unlike mine in several respects with stints in the media, in racing management and agency work. I asked Danny if I could run his yarn on the blog and he’s agreed. Read and enjoy ….
I immensely enjoyed your piece on Dance Hero – not only for the insight into this wonderful and underrated horse but also for the fact I have a personal involvement.
I bought Dance Hero’s mother Gypsy Dancer as a yearling in 1997 at the Karaka Select Sale. It was my first foray into yearling buying after leaving the Freedmans’ employ as Racing Manager the year before. I decided to try my luck in the bloodstock game rather than return to journalism.
I bought three yearlings at that sale. Gypsy Dancer for $15,000, a colt by Oregon (later named Millswyn, and a very smart multiple city winner before he broke down) for $35,000 and a colt by Stylish Century (for $18,000) from a couple of fledgling vendors in the backblocks of the complex, Bruce and Maureen Harvey. That colt, named Runaway, went on to be beaten a nose by Mossman in the AAMI Vase and finish fifth to Arena in the Victoria Derby. Unfortunately, a shoulder injury restricted his career, but Bart Cummings rated him very highly.
I went to the sale with a plan. I couldn’t afford to buy a Sir Tristram, so I sought out all the yearlings in the Select Sale that possessed an influence of Sir T through their female line. The three I bought were the only ones I bid on.
Runaway looked nothing like Stylish Century but threw to his tough five-times winning dam Lady Tristana (by Sir Tristram). Millswyn was a cracking sort from the Sir Tristram mare Windrift, while Gypsy Dancer was a sister to a smart Melbourne horse at the time ,Racy Dancer, but also she had the influence of her grandam Tristabelle, one of the few Australian stakeswinning two-year-olds by Sir Tristram. She was also out of the Belle family, which appealed to me.
Gypsy Dancer was smallish, lightly framed, immature, but athletic and a good walker. A time job.
I remember Barrie Griffiths wondering at this thin-boned, insignificant filly when she arrived at his Northwood Park property, Nagambie – her home for the next 12 months.
A close friend of mine, Terry Dickson from Adelaide, bought the filly and I stayed in the ownership. David Hall gave her a try as a late two-year-old. He assessed her as having some ability but suggested she be better served trained out of an Adelaide stable. So off to Adelaide she went. Her first trainer was Jeremy Gask, who was just starting out, but he had trouble keeping condition on her so we moved her to Ray Taylor, on the beach at Goolwa. The outdoor lifestyle suited Gypsy. She trained out of a sandy yard and rarely went to the track. Taylor transformed her – along with a helpful dose of maturity.
She only won twice but her record should have been better. She certainly, with any luck, should have won the Oakbank Country Cup. She retired a winner at Victoria Park and Balaklava.
Terry was just starting out in the breeding game. He had bought a couple of off-the-track fillies, and his quota was full. It was decided Gypsy Dancer might have to go to the sales. Around the same time, another friend/client of mine, Tony Akkari, sought my advice to replace a mare who had died at stud while in the early stages of carrying a Danzero foal (his first dabble into breeding). I offered him Gypsy Dancer. He studied her videos and photos, and agreed to buy her. Arrowfield offered him a return to Danzero, so that is where Gypsy went.
Tony kept me informed about his Danzero colt and I still have those photos of him as a foal and weanling. He was an upstanding, strong, independent fellow from the start. An incredible first foal, even with his roman nose (Lee Freedman says that comes from Danzero’s maternal grandsire, Kaoru Star). Danzero had a significant roman nose as a yearling but his head improved as his body grew into itself.
Like you and George, I was in awe of him when he paraded as a yearling for me at Goodwood Farm. I remember going to Arrowfield after that for a parade and telling (fellow agent) Kieran Moore that he should take the time to go to Goodwood to see the Danzero colt because Arrowfield had nothing to match him. I think he thought I was just an upstart!
Terry and I have often pondered what made a mare like Gypsy Dancer leave a horse like Dance Hero.
Certainly family has something to do with it. The Belle family consistently leaves great horses: Belle du Jour, Grand Armee, Absolute Champion in recent years. Obviously Danzero has something to do with it. The mating produced a wonderful athlete (but two subsequent matings to Danzero for Gypsy Dancer have been unsuccessful. A filly didn’t make it to the races while a colt [small and compact] has won a minor race at Moe). I believe Bart Cummings has a two-year-old full sister named Batroun that is much more like Dance Hero in type than the others – and I believe he has an opinion of her.
Another point worth making is that Gypsy Dancer had natural talent. She may not have had a great desire to be competitive, but there was hardly a race in her 28 starts that at one stage approaching the home turn she didn’t look the winner. She had a cruising speed that allowed her to be “traveling” no matter what the tempo, but she lacked the will to exploit it under pressure. I see some of that come out in Dance Hero when he didn’t get his own way in front.
I hope this hasn’t bored you. It’s a story I haven’t told before.
Danny Power
Senior editor, racing
Geoff Slattery Publishing Pty Ltd
There’s no doubt these superior horses develop an ardent fan base. No matter how we dress up racing, horses have always been and always will be the stars of the show. Behind every horse – fast or slow – there is a story. Melburnian Danny Power read my blog and got in touch to recount his personal involvement in Dance Hero’s genesis. Danny’s background is not unlike mine in several respects with stints in the media, in racing management and agency work. I asked Danny if I could run his yarn on the blog and he’s agreed. Read and enjoy ….
I immensely enjoyed your piece on Dance Hero – not only for the insight into this wonderful and underrated horse but also for the fact I have a personal involvement.
I bought Dance Hero’s mother Gypsy Dancer as a yearling in 1997 at the Karaka Select Sale. It was my first foray into yearling buying after leaving the Freedmans’ employ as Racing Manager the year before. I decided to try my luck in the bloodstock game rather than return to journalism.
I bought three yearlings at that sale. Gypsy Dancer for $15,000, a colt by Oregon (later named Millswyn, and a very smart multiple city winner before he broke down) for $35,000 and a colt by Stylish Century (for $18,000) from a couple of fledgling vendors in the backblocks of the complex, Bruce and Maureen Harvey. That colt, named Runaway, went on to be beaten a nose by Mossman in the AAMI Vase and finish fifth to Arena in the Victoria Derby. Unfortunately, a shoulder injury restricted his career, but Bart Cummings rated him very highly.
I went to the sale with a plan. I couldn’t afford to buy a Sir Tristram, so I sought out all the yearlings in the Select Sale that possessed an influence of Sir T through their female line. The three I bought were the only ones I bid on.
Runaway looked nothing like Stylish Century but threw to his tough five-times winning dam Lady Tristana (by Sir Tristram). Millswyn was a cracking sort from the Sir Tristram mare Windrift, while Gypsy Dancer was a sister to a smart Melbourne horse at the time ,Racy Dancer, but also she had the influence of her grandam Tristabelle, one of the few Australian stakeswinning two-year-olds by Sir Tristram. She was also out of the Belle family, which appealed to me.
Gypsy Dancer was smallish, lightly framed, immature, but athletic and a good walker. A time job.
I remember Barrie Griffiths wondering at this thin-boned, insignificant filly when she arrived at his Northwood Park property, Nagambie – her home for the next 12 months.
A close friend of mine, Terry Dickson from Adelaide, bought the filly and I stayed in the ownership. David Hall gave her a try as a late two-year-old. He assessed her as having some ability but suggested she be better served trained out of an Adelaide stable. So off to Adelaide she went. Her first trainer was Jeremy Gask, who was just starting out, but he had trouble keeping condition on her so we moved her to Ray Taylor, on the beach at Goolwa. The outdoor lifestyle suited Gypsy. She trained out of a sandy yard and rarely went to the track. Taylor transformed her – along with a helpful dose of maturity.
She only won twice but her record should have been better. She certainly, with any luck, should have won the Oakbank Country Cup. She retired a winner at Victoria Park and Balaklava.
Terry was just starting out in the breeding game. He had bought a couple of off-the-track fillies, and his quota was full. It was decided Gypsy Dancer might have to go to the sales. Around the same time, another friend/client of mine, Tony Akkari, sought my advice to replace a mare who had died at stud while in the early stages of carrying a Danzero foal (his first dabble into breeding). I offered him Gypsy Dancer. He studied her videos and photos, and agreed to buy her. Arrowfield offered him a return to Danzero, so that is where Gypsy went.
Tony kept me informed about his Danzero colt and I still have those photos of him as a foal and weanling. He was an upstanding, strong, independent fellow from the start. An incredible first foal, even with his roman nose (Lee Freedman says that comes from Danzero’s maternal grandsire, Kaoru Star). Danzero had a significant roman nose as a yearling but his head improved as his body grew into itself.
Like you and George, I was in awe of him when he paraded as a yearling for me at Goodwood Farm. I remember going to Arrowfield after that for a parade and telling (fellow agent) Kieran Moore that he should take the time to go to Goodwood to see the Danzero colt because Arrowfield had nothing to match him. I think he thought I was just an upstart!
Terry and I have often pondered what made a mare like Gypsy Dancer leave a horse like Dance Hero.
Certainly family has something to do with it. The Belle family consistently leaves great horses: Belle du Jour, Grand Armee, Absolute Champion in recent years. Obviously Danzero has something to do with it. The mating produced a wonderful athlete (but two subsequent matings to Danzero for Gypsy Dancer have been unsuccessful. A filly didn’t make it to the races while a colt [small and compact] has won a minor race at Moe). I believe Bart Cummings has a two-year-old full sister named Batroun that is much more like Dance Hero in type than the others – and I believe he has an opinion of her.
Another point worth making is that Gypsy Dancer had natural talent. She may not have had a great desire to be competitive, but there was hardly a race in her 28 starts that at one stage approaching the home turn she didn’t look the winner. She had a cruising speed that allowed her to be “traveling” no matter what the tempo, but she lacked the will to exploit it under pressure. I see some of that come out in Dance Hero when he didn’t get his own way in front.
I hope this hasn’t bored you. It’s a story I haven’t told before.
Danny Power
Senior editor, racing
Geoff Slattery Publishing Pty Ltd
The Long Distance Curse
Perth’s Karrakatta Plate (Gr 2) is not exactly the Golden Slipper but Sunday’s result was significant inasmuch as it provided ex-Arrowfield sire Falbrav (Ire) with his first black-type success per courtesy of the filly Brava Fortune. She’s the second first-crop winner from seven to run by the sire, a near-champion middle distance performer in anyone’s language.
Breeders were very lukewarm over Falbrav and in three seasons at Arrowfield he covered only 215 mares – about as many as his paternal half-brother Encosta de Lago serves in one season – and understandably he remained in Japan last year rather than return to severely test the formidable Arrowfield marketing skills once again.
Poor Falbrav committed the mortal commercial sin of winning over 2400m. In fact all his 13 wins were 1600m or longer, in exotic places like Italy, Hong Kong and Japan as well as England and France. Yet he gets a Karrakatta Plate winner.
When his first yearlings came to the market in 2007 (Brava Fortune was a buy-back at $80,000 in Perth) the reception was also mixed. Fifty-four averaged $110,435 with the median price less than $100,000. Breeders were obviously keen to quit them: only three were passed in, breeders taking as little as $5,000 for them.
Falbrav regularly passes on a fault, long and sloping pasterns, deemed pretty undesirable in a country of predominantly firm-track racing (how will the artificial tracks affect the paradigm?).
Amongst his first crop, however, were a handful of impressive individuals, in my book none moreso than the colt out of Angelic Smile bred by Ron Gilbert and sold last Easter to Woodlands for $550,000, Falbrav’s top price. He was as a good a type as you’d ever see. He’s named Fravashi and presumably he’ll be one of the new Darley tidal wave. I saw him trial in January; he’ll be worth waiting for.
I was involved with the original importation of Carnegie (Ire) to New Zealand in 1997. This guy won all his races at 2000m and 2400m and there was great scepticism amongst Kiwi breeders that he would be too stout for Australian buyers to stomach so we really struggled to get mares to him, only 59 in the first season. It was a battle again in the second season then financially unviable to bring him back for his third season so he was absent in 1999. In the event, the scepticism was unfounded; Carnegie was easily the leading first-season sire on averages at Karaka in 2000. From his 37 New Zealand-born first crop foals he got four stakeswinners including Carnegie Express and VRC Derby winner Amalfi. While Carnegie’s pedigree screams stamina – Sadler's Wells ex same taproot as Zabeel and Le Filou (Fr) - my appraisal of his racing convinced me he was not a dour stayer. If you ever see his Arc de Triomphe run, he has the softest passage in history; he only has to exert himself for the last 200m, and he only just gets home.
Few stallions which make their name initially in New Zealand subsequently live up to expectations when transferred to Australia. One of the few who did was Success Express (USA). From his first two Australian-conceived crops (now 4YO and 3YO) Carnegie has sired three stakeswinners. One of these, Tuesday Joy, is officially New Zealand-bred as Joie Denise foaled her there whilst visiting Zabeel. These three stakeswinners are from a two-crop output of 179 live foals, compared with 229 live foals and seven stakeswinners produced from Carnegie’s four New Zealand seasons.
I saw Tuesday Joy at Tulloch Lodge on Sunday, the day after her Canterbury Gr 1 Ranvet score. She is a queen, a big mare, narrow in the chest but with a huge depth of girth. Her neck appears a bit weak and she wears the shadow roll to reduce its angle whilst racing. There is nothing butch about her at all and she has the most beautiful big eye. She may not be a champion but this is one very precious individual.
Another result out of Western Australia on Sunday was also significant for Arrowfield – what’s going on here, am I writing their press releases? – as Grand Journey’s success in the Gr 1 W.A. Derby credited uberstallion Flying Spur with his first Gr 1 winner as a broodmare sire. He’s also broodmare sire of Sebring.
Victorian-trained Grand Journey took six races to clear maidens then another six before she won again but she has found Perth’s Mediterranean climate and lack of stayers most agreeable, completing the Natasha/Oaks/Derby triple and taking her earnings to more than $600,000. She is out of an unplaced sister to the good mare Joy Of Flight.
Grand Journey has three lines of Northern Dancer and her third and fourth dams are by the English St Leger winner Boucher and the excellent source of stamina Busted, respectively.
How good a sire Good Journey (USA) might have been we’ll never know but the early evidence suggests this Best In Show descendant was an inspired importation. Pity he was locked up in the weird Written Bloodstock scenario. Good Journey has a maximum 23 three-year-olds; 13 have raced, nine have won and in addition to Gr 1 winner Grand Journey there’s the super-smart Gr 2 winning colt Sound Journey.
It’s a record Good Journey’s much-vaunted Mr Prospector half-brother Aldebaran would covet. He’s proving one of the more stellar failures in Kentucky at the present time. Interestingly, both horses were late bloomers. Good Journey did all his winning from four to six years (and put US$1.7 million in the bank) while Aldebaran won five of his six stakes races as a five-year-old in which year he was the Eclipse Award winning sprinter.
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I was pleased to see Raise (Arena-Boisterous Lady, by Rivotious) race so well and earn black-type in Sunday’s Keith F Nolan Classic at Kembla Grange. She was a filly I recommended to the Kelly family at the 2006 Inglis Classic Sale and they purchased her for $72,500. A couple of months later her then-unheralded sister Rena’s Lady won the Gr 1 AJC Oaks.
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Just to prove I’m not a black-type snob, I got a great kick reading Sunday’s results from Coonamble where the old warrior Velsontas (11yo by Star Way-Merry Maiden, by Crested Wave) bobbed up again, win number 23.
This old guy began his racing life at Tulloch Lodge and looked a serious horse, winning five races fairly quickly. I recall he had feet trouble. After 16 starts he changed hands cheaply and was taken over by the one and only Malcolm Ayoub and appeared in Perth where the best he could do was one distant fourth from six starts.
Malcolm must have shares in a horse transport company because he sacked Velsontas from Perth and trekked him all the way to Baradine in outback NSW to be trained by his cousin Philip who first produced him at the Tamworth races 64 weeks after his last Perth race.
Philip has coddled the one-time Randwick rising star for a further 70 starts resulting in 18 wins. Velsontas has won more cups than you’ll find in Dolly Parton’s bra collection. He has saluted in Binnaway, Carinda, Collarenibri, Come-By-Chance, Coonabarabran, Coonamble, Gilgandra, Gulargambone, Lightning Ridge, Moree, Narrabri, Narromine, Scone and Warren. There's no romance like that of the Australian turf.
They’ve tried retiring him but the horse doesn’t like it. Even if Patinack wanted to buy him they wouldn’t let him go.
Breeders were very lukewarm over Falbrav and in three seasons at Arrowfield he covered only 215 mares – about as many as his paternal half-brother Encosta de Lago serves in one season – and understandably he remained in Japan last year rather than return to severely test the formidable Arrowfield marketing skills once again.
Poor Falbrav committed the mortal commercial sin of winning over 2400m. In fact all his 13 wins were 1600m or longer, in exotic places like Italy, Hong Kong and Japan as well as England and France. Yet he gets a Karrakatta Plate winner.
When his first yearlings came to the market in 2007 (Brava Fortune was a buy-back at $80,000 in Perth) the reception was also mixed. Fifty-four averaged $110,435 with the median price less than $100,000. Breeders were obviously keen to quit them: only three were passed in, breeders taking as little as $5,000 for them.
Falbrav regularly passes on a fault, long and sloping pasterns, deemed pretty undesirable in a country of predominantly firm-track racing (how will the artificial tracks affect the paradigm?).
Amongst his first crop, however, were a handful of impressive individuals, in my book none moreso than the colt out of Angelic Smile bred by Ron Gilbert and sold last Easter to Woodlands for $550,000, Falbrav’s top price. He was as a good a type as you’d ever see. He’s named Fravashi and presumably he’ll be one of the new Darley tidal wave. I saw him trial in January; he’ll be worth waiting for.
I was involved with the original importation of Carnegie (Ire) to New Zealand in 1997. This guy won all his races at 2000m and 2400m and there was great scepticism amongst Kiwi breeders that he would be too stout for Australian buyers to stomach so we really struggled to get mares to him, only 59 in the first season. It was a battle again in the second season then financially unviable to bring him back for his third season so he was absent in 1999. In the event, the scepticism was unfounded; Carnegie was easily the leading first-season sire on averages at Karaka in 2000. From his 37 New Zealand-born first crop foals he got four stakeswinners including Carnegie Express and VRC Derby winner Amalfi. While Carnegie’s pedigree screams stamina – Sadler's Wells ex same taproot as Zabeel and Le Filou (Fr) - my appraisal of his racing convinced me he was not a dour stayer. If you ever see his Arc de Triomphe run, he has the softest passage in history; he only has to exert himself for the last 200m, and he only just gets home.
Few stallions which make their name initially in New Zealand subsequently live up to expectations when transferred to Australia. One of the few who did was Success Express (USA). From his first two Australian-conceived crops (now 4YO and 3YO) Carnegie has sired three stakeswinners. One of these, Tuesday Joy, is officially New Zealand-bred as Joie Denise foaled her there whilst visiting Zabeel. These three stakeswinners are from a two-crop output of 179 live foals, compared with 229 live foals and seven stakeswinners produced from Carnegie’s four New Zealand seasons.
I saw Tuesday Joy at Tulloch Lodge on Sunday, the day after her Canterbury Gr 1 Ranvet score. She is a queen, a big mare, narrow in the chest but with a huge depth of girth. Her neck appears a bit weak and she wears the shadow roll to reduce its angle whilst racing. There is nothing butch about her at all and she has the most beautiful big eye. She may not be a champion but this is one very precious individual.
Another result out of Western Australia on Sunday was also significant for Arrowfield – what’s going on here, am I writing their press releases? – as Grand Journey’s success in the Gr 1 W.A. Derby credited uberstallion Flying Spur with his first Gr 1 winner as a broodmare sire. He’s also broodmare sire of Sebring.
Victorian-trained Grand Journey took six races to clear maidens then another six before she won again but she has found Perth’s Mediterranean climate and lack of stayers most agreeable, completing the Natasha/Oaks/Derby triple and taking her earnings to more than $600,000. She is out of an unplaced sister to the good mare Joy Of Flight.
Grand Journey has three lines of Northern Dancer and her third and fourth dams are by the English St Leger winner Boucher and the excellent source of stamina Busted, respectively.
How good a sire Good Journey (USA) might have been we’ll never know but the early evidence suggests this Best In Show descendant was an inspired importation. Pity he was locked up in the weird Written Bloodstock scenario. Good Journey has a maximum 23 three-year-olds; 13 have raced, nine have won and in addition to Gr 1 winner Grand Journey there’s the super-smart Gr 2 winning colt Sound Journey.
It’s a record Good Journey’s much-vaunted Mr Prospector half-brother Aldebaran would covet. He’s proving one of the more stellar failures in Kentucky at the present time. Interestingly, both horses were late bloomers. Good Journey did all his winning from four to six years (and put US$1.7 million in the bank) while Aldebaran won five of his six stakes races as a five-year-old in which year he was the Eclipse Award winning sprinter.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I was pleased to see Raise (Arena-Boisterous Lady, by Rivotious) race so well and earn black-type in Sunday’s Keith F Nolan Classic at Kembla Grange. She was a filly I recommended to the Kelly family at the 2006 Inglis Classic Sale and they purchased her for $72,500. A couple of months later her then-unheralded sister Rena’s Lady won the Gr 1 AJC Oaks.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Just to prove I’m not a black-type snob, I got a great kick reading Sunday’s results from Coonamble where the old warrior Velsontas (11yo by Star Way-Merry Maiden, by Crested Wave) bobbed up again, win number 23.
This old guy began his racing life at Tulloch Lodge and looked a serious horse, winning five races fairly quickly. I recall he had feet trouble. After 16 starts he changed hands cheaply and was taken over by the one and only Malcolm Ayoub and appeared in Perth where the best he could do was one distant fourth from six starts.
Malcolm must have shares in a horse transport company because he sacked Velsontas from Perth and trekked him all the way to Baradine in outback NSW to be trained by his cousin Philip who first produced him at the Tamworth races 64 weeks after his last Perth race.
Philip has coddled the one-time Randwick rising star for a further 70 starts resulting in 18 wins. Velsontas has won more cups than you’ll find in Dolly Parton’s bra collection. He has saluted in Binnaway, Carinda, Collarenibri, Come-By-Chance, Coonabarabran, Coonamble, Gilgandra, Gulargambone, Lightning Ridge, Moree, Narrabri, Narromine, Scone and Warren. There's no romance like that of the Australian turf.
They’ve tried retiring him but the horse doesn’t like it. Even if Patinack wanted to buy him they wouldn’t let him go.
Musings From a Glorious Day At Canterbury
Hard to see any colt which ran in Saturday’s Todman Stakes, other than Related, having much chance in the Golden Slipper unless the race falls away unexpectedly. Related (Elusive Quality-Cousins, by Danehill) should have won by three lengths. If he had, he would have become only the second stakeswinner in his family in four generations. He’s the eighth foal of his dam and the fifth to earn minor black-type – but on this debut performance it’ll be capital letters for him soon.
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The Todman winner Krupt has an interesting pedigree. He is 3f x 3f Grand Luxe. A former smart two-year-old, the tiny filly French Braids, was 4f x 3f to Grand Luxe’s dam Fanfreluche. With the crossing of Encosta de Lago and Flying Spur common enough now, we'll see what strike rate this pattern comes up with. Almost all the Fanfreluche family must be in the southern hemisphere by now.
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Beadman is a freak.
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Am I right in thinking Hips Don’t Lie (Stravinsky-Procure, by Centaine) is the first New Zealand-bred winner of the Reisling Stakes in 36 years? I remember her full-sister going through Sydney Easter in 2004, in the Trelawney draft. She was a 'talking horse' and made what seemed a staggering sum, $625,000. Named Luna Belle, she never got to the races and was sent to the USA as a three-year-old. James Bester picked up the younger, faster, version for $200,000.
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If you knock two zeros off the amount paid for Hips Don’t Lie you get the amount paid for Acey Ducey as a yearling at the Magic Millions Winter Sale in 2006. Goodwood Farm’s Kerrie Tibbey, who reared Dance Hero and who consigned Acey Ducey (Xaar-Deduce, by Known Fact), couldn’t get a bid for him so she and her partner stumped up the two grand. Moral of the story: don’t let Patinack, Darley, Inghams et al throw you off your game.
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Krupt, Mentality and Acey Ducey, three of the first four winners at Canterbury, are all out of USA-bred mares.
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Gelding Hoystar last year has made a racehorse out of him. He and Hips Don’t Lie are out of Centaine mares. How good are they! With four stakeswinners by four different sires, Professionelle (NZ) may be the best of them. She did the impossible – she left a triple Gr 2 winner to Supremo. Centaine, yet another non-Group 1 winner to make a decent sire.
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The Fuzz was a horse I quoted to two leading Sydney trainers, supposedly on the lookout for a good potential stayer from New Zealand, when he had raced just four times over there in 2006. They didn’t bite so he ended up at Lindsay Park where they are having a lot of fun with him with now more than half a million in earnings. He should pay his way in Sydney. His NZ breeder/owners are still in him. I won't dob in the two Sydney trainers but Gai and Anthony are clues.
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In the next few weeks we are going to see some ridiculously over-valued mares go through sales rings in Sydney, the Gold Coast and Melbourne. Pull the pedigree out and have a think what Tuesday Joy or her half-sister Sunday Joy might be worth. Including themselves, 10 Group 1 winners in the first two dams.
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Forensics’ finishing speed is awesome. At track record pace, she put that field away in a matter of strides at Canterbury, continuing a banner day for her sire Flying Spur – where has he been all these years? – and Arrowfield sires in general. The more I think about it, the more I’m inclined to believe that Darley have got an absolute bargain in Woodlands and all it embraces. Selling it off lock-stock-and-Lonhro averted the Ingham family from having to confront inevitable future issues but when the Forensics presentation was taking place, the poignancy of the moment was palpable. I’ll be able to tell my grand-daughter that I was there when the cerise legend was dismantled, like when Jack Kennedy was shot. It’ll take a while to feel the same way about the maroon. One person whose stature has grown a thousandfold is Peter Snowden, a class act.
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Forensics (bred by Vinery) is out of the Dehere mare Prove It, from the family of Snippets. Sean Buckley got a rare bargain when he bought Prove It in 2005, in foal to Flying Spur, for $380,000. But after producing a colt that October she died six weeks later. The colt was earmarked for the yearling sales – he would have been offered at Easter last year, just a couple of weeks after Forensics had won the Slipper – but he had an injury on the near side rump and hock early on and never underwent a sales prep. Now named Anton Pillar, the colt has been over with David Hayes but is yet to race. The colt’s name is apt. According to Wikipedia, in British and British-derived legal systems, an Anton Piller order (frequently misspelt Anton Pillar order) is a court order which provides for the right to search premises and seize evidence without prior warning. This is used in order to prevent the destruction of incriminating evidence, particularly in cases of alleged trademark, copyright or patent infringements. Sean’s latest South African recruit, the four-year-old mare Dane Julia (by Caesour, the same sire as his other South African Gr 1 winner Perfect Promise), was unleashed at Caulfield yesterday and was a mightily impressive first-up third. If we think the Dubai World Cup meeting is all it’s cracked up to be, then recent results suggest the standard of the better South African horses is very high indeed. They have been knocking off good races internationally for a few years now.
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New Zealand’s only Gr 1 race for fillies and mares, the New Zealand Bloodstock Breeders Stakes, 1600m, was won Saturday by three-year-old filly Special Mission, a 16-to-1 shot. Previously a dual Listed winner, Special Mission is by Tracy’s Element’s brother (and Danasinga’s half-brother) Towkay. She’s the third Gr 1 winner for the sire who started off in 1999 as an el-cheapo at $3,000 fee, inching his way up to $10,000 in 2007. He currently has 5.4% stakeswinners-to-runners. He’s only had 18 career runners in Australia and 11 of them have won. Special Mission is from the family of Chris Waller’s durable gelding Double Dare.
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A couple of horses whose names are kind of familiar went around at meetings on Saturday. Lloyd Williams has a colt named Meld whose earlier incarnation was a filly of 1952 by Alycidon from Daily Double and regarded as one of the best fillies ever to race in England. Unbeaten at three, she won the Thousand Guineas, Oaks, St Leger and Coronation Stakes. Five of her sons were imported to Australia and New Zealand with one standout: Mellay (by Never Say Die) a marvelous sire based in the deep south of the South Island of New Zealand. I recall some years after Mellay’s death visiting the Anderton home at White Robe Lodge, Mosgiel, only to find that Mellay was still there – his head was mounted on the living room wall!
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The other name to catch my eye was Mainbrace, a three-year-old colt by Principality who sneaked into third place at Ararat on Saturday. His earlier incarnation is rated one of the greatest New Zealand thoroughbreds in history. A 1947 chestnut colt by Admiral’s Luck-Maneroo, the earlier Mainbrace wiped the board in 23 of his 25 starts including 15 of 16 as a three-year-old. He never set hoof in Australia. Just as well, as he belonged in the league of Carbine, Phar Lap, Desert Gold, Kindergarten and Tulloch and it would have needed arsenic to stop him. (Apollo Eleven?). Legendary American jockey John Longden came out to New Zealand to test drive the colt pending his sale to the USA but the sale fell through. Put to stud, Mainbrace was a failure though it’s fair to say ‘colonial’ horses even as great as Mainbrace weren’t joyfully embraced by breeders in those days. He had a sod of a temperament and hated the starting gates. In all but one of his starts he was positioned actually outside the widest gate – being ‘sent to the outer’ was a common enough practice with rogues until the seventies – or in a special double-space gate within the structure. It’s fortunate he lived when he did – a horse like him would be on the scrap heap today in the name of fair play for the punter.
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Though I only listened with one ear, I thought I heard at least two of the three finalists in the Myer Fashions On The Field at Canterbury say their winning outfits were inspired by the '40s look. I must admit they looked a whole lot snazzier than the usual gargoyles paraded on these occasions. Here's a thought: if the '40s are back in fashion, is there a chance for me?
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The Todman winner Krupt has an interesting pedigree. He is 3f x 3f Grand Luxe. A former smart two-year-old, the tiny filly French Braids, was 4f x 3f to Grand Luxe’s dam Fanfreluche. With the crossing of Encosta de Lago and Flying Spur common enough now, we'll see what strike rate this pattern comes up with. Almost all the Fanfreluche family must be in the southern hemisphere by now.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Beadman is a freak.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Am I right in thinking Hips Don’t Lie (Stravinsky-Procure, by Centaine) is the first New Zealand-bred winner of the Reisling Stakes in 36 years? I remember her full-sister going through Sydney Easter in 2004, in the Trelawney draft. She was a 'talking horse' and made what seemed a staggering sum, $625,000. Named Luna Belle, she never got to the races and was sent to the USA as a three-year-old. James Bester picked up the younger, faster, version for $200,000.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you knock two zeros off the amount paid for Hips Don’t Lie you get the amount paid for Acey Ducey as a yearling at the Magic Millions Winter Sale in 2006. Goodwood Farm’s Kerrie Tibbey, who reared Dance Hero and who consigned Acey Ducey (Xaar-Deduce, by Known Fact), couldn’t get a bid for him so she and her partner stumped up the two grand. Moral of the story: don’t let Patinack, Darley, Inghams et al throw you off your game.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Krupt, Mentality and Acey Ducey, three of the first four winners at Canterbury, are all out of USA-bred mares.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gelding Hoystar last year has made a racehorse out of him. He and Hips Don’t Lie are out of Centaine mares. How good are they! With four stakeswinners by four different sires, Professionelle (NZ) may be the best of them. She did the impossible – she left a triple Gr 2 winner to Supremo. Centaine, yet another non-Group 1 winner to make a decent sire.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Fuzz was a horse I quoted to two leading Sydney trainers, supposedly on the lookout for a good potential stayer from New Zealand, when he had raced just four times over there in 2006. They didn’t bite so he ended up at Lindsay Park where they are having a lot of fun with him with now more than half a million in earnings. He should pay his way in Sydney. His NZ breeder/owners are still in him. I won't dob in the two Sydney trainers but Gai and Anthony are clues.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In the next few weeks we are going to see some ridiculously over-valued mares go through sales rings in Sydney, the Gold Coast and Melbourne. Pull the pedigree out and have a think what Tuesday Joy or her half-sister Sunday Joy might be worth. Including themselves, 10 Group 1 winners in the first two dams.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Forensics’ finishing speed is awesome. At track record pace, she put that field away in a matter of strides at Canterbury, continuing a banner day for her sire Flying Spur – where has he been all these years? – and Arrowfield sires in general. The more I think about it, the more I’m inclined to believe that Darley have got an absolute bargain in Woodlands and all it embraces. Selling it off lock-stock-and-Lonhro averted the Ingham family from having to confront inevitable future issues but when the Forensics presentation was taking place, the poignancy of the moment was palpable. I’ll be able to tell my grand-daughter that I was there when the cerise legend was dismantled, like when Jack Kennedy was shot. It’ll take a while to feel the same way about the maroon. One person whose stature has grown a thousandfold is Peter Snowden, a class act.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Forensics (bred by Vinery) is out of the Dehere mare Prove It, from the family of Snippets. Sean Buckley got a rare bargain when he bought Prove It in 2005, in foal to Flying Spur, for $380,000. But after producing a colt that October she died six weeks later. The colt was earmarked for the yearling sales – he would have been offered at Easter last year, just a couple of weeks after Forensics had won the Slipper – but he had an injury on the near side rump and hock early on and never underwent a sales prep. Now named Anton Pillar, the colt has been over with David Hayes but is yet to race. The colt’s name is apt. According to Wikipedia, in British and British-derived legal systems, an Anton Piller order (frequently misspelt Anton Pillar order) is a court order which provides for the right to search premises and seize evidence without prior warning. This is used in order to prevent the destruction of incriminating evidence, particularly in cases of alleged trademark, copyright or patent infringements. Sean’s latest South African recruit, the four-year-old mare Dane Julia (by Caesour, the same sire as his other South African Gr 1 winner Perfect Promise), was unleashed at Caulfield yesterday and was a mightily impressive first-up third. If we think the Dubai World Cup meeting is all it’s cracked up to be, then recent results suggest the standard of the better South African horses is very high indeed. They have been knocking off good races internationally for a few years now.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
New Zealand’s only Gr 1 race for fillies and mares, the New Zealand Bloodstock Breeders Stakes, 1600m, was won Saturday by three-year-old filly Special Mission, a 16-to-1 shot. Previously a dual Listed winner, Special Mission is by Tracy’s Element’s brother (and Danasinga’s half-brother) Towkay. She’s the third Gr 1 winner for the sire who started off in 1999 as an el-cheapo at $3,000 fee, inching his way up to $10,000 in 2007. He currently has 5.4% stakeswinners-to-runners. He’s only had 18 career runners in Australia and 11 of them have won. Special Mission is from the family of Chris Waller’s durable gelding Double Dare.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A couple of horses whose names are kind of familiar went around at meetings on Saturday. Lloyd Williams has a colt named Meld whose earlier incarnation was a filly of 1952 by Alycidon from Daily Double and regarded as one of the best fillies ever to race in England. Unbeaten at three, she won the Thousand Guineas, Oaks, St Leger and Coronation Stakes. Five of her sons were imported to Australia and New Zealand with one standout: Mellay (by Never Say Die) a marvelous sire based in the deep south of the South Island of New Zealand. I recall some years after Mellay’s death visiting the Anderton home at White Robe Lodge, Mosgiel, only to find that Mellay was still there – his head was mounted on the living room wall!
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The other name to catch my eye was Mainbrace, a three-year-old colt by Principality who sneaked into third place at Ararat on Saturday. His earlier incarnation is rated one of the greatest New Zealand thoroughbreds in history. A 1947 chestnut colt by Admiral’s Luck-Maneroo, the earlier Mainbrace wiped the board in 23 of his 25 starts including 15 of 16 as a three-year-old. He never set hoof in Australia. Just as well, as he belonged in the league of Carbine, Phar Lap, Desert Gold, Kindergarten and Tulloch and it would have needed arsenic to stop him. (Apollo Eleven?). Legendary American jockey John Longden came out to New Zealand to test drive the colt pending his sale to the USA but the sale fell through. Put to stud, Mainbrace was a failure though it’s fair to say ‘colonial’ horses even as great as Mainbrace weren’t joyfully embraced by breeders in those days. He had a sod of a temperament and hated the starting gates. In all but one of his starts he was positioned actually outside the widest gate – being ‘sent to the outer’ was a common enough practice with rogues until the seventies – or in a special double-space gate within the structure. It’s fortunate he lived when he did – a horse like him would be on the scrap heap today in the name of fair play for the punter.
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Though I only listened with one ear, I thought I heard at least two of the three finalists in the Myer Fashions On The Field at Canterbury say their winning outfits were inspired by the '40s look. I must admit they looked a whole lot snazzier than the usual gargoyles paraded on these occasions. Here's a thought: if the '40s are back in fashion, is there a chance for me?
The Last Great Magic Millions Winner
Dance Hero has been retired. Fantastic news.
It’s possible that this horse’s patchy record over the last couple of seasons has taken the shine off his overall achievements, which is a pity if it has. I think he’s entitled to be regarded as the best Australian two-year-old of the past 15 years.
He raced seven times at that age. His only defeat came at his first start, in the AJC Breeders’ Plate in which he started $2.10 favourite. Under Len Beasley, he blundered badly at the start, didn’t get the lead and finished third behind Charge Forward, the colt who was to run second to him in the Golden Slipper six months later. Splitting this fine pair was Wenceslas Square who finished up winning only three little races from 38 career starts. Use that one at your next trivia night.
Dance Hero’s six-race picket fence included the Magic Millions in race record time, the Golden Slipper in race record time, the AJC Champagne Stakes in race record time and the AJC Sires’ Produce Stakes.
It’ll be a long while till we see that feat equaled. Perhaps never. And Dance Hero raced in a vintage year, a class headed by the likes of Charge Forward, Alinghi, Fastnet Rock, Wager and Genius And Evil, the horse who became known in Hong Kong as Absolute Champion.
Dance Hero never won a race he didn’t totally dominate with his crazy brand of speed. Basically, he was never headed in any of the 10 races he won. If he couldn’t get the lead then you could rip up your tickets. No point in laying into him with the whip - he was always going full speed, that's why he'd swish his tail when he received a smack, he was already in overdrive. He coped with a dead track but nothing worse.
He was a fantastic sight in full cry. He got straight into the bridle and his legs seemed barely to touch the ground. It sent a chill up my spine.
A horse which has dragged its guts through such a grueling two-year-old campaign could be forgiven for not turning up later in his career. But Dance Hero had his moments: the Gr 2 Royal Sovereign Stakes (beating Eremein), the Gr 2 Canterbury Stakes (from Falkirk and Ike’s Dream), the Gr 3 Missile Stakes (over Snippetson and Spark Of Life) and his crowning glory as an older horse, the 2006 Gr 1 Salinger Stakes down the Flemington straight six, with Miss Andretti third and last year’s winner Swick fourth. I saw him in the mounting yard that day; he had never looked better. I'm sure his win went down like a lead balloon with the Victorians who've never forgiven him for beating their darling Alinghi in the Slipper.
Forget Dance Hero's inevitable defeats; that’s a marvelous CV for any horse.
I was fortunate enough to have played a part in the purchase of Dance Hero, a $90,000 colt who went on to win $3,940,440. On face value dollars, he is the highest-earning pure sprinter to have raced exclusively in Australia.
In those days I was one of the team helping Gai Waterhouse with the massive task of sorting through all the sale yearlings. George Smith, the renowned selector from Melbourne, and I were inspecting Magic Millions yearlings in the Hunter Valley during December. At the time I think Gai was overseas on her annual northern winter holiday.
We saw the colt at Kerrie Tibbey’s Goodwood Farm, Murrurundi. George and I hardly ever spoke while we looked at the yearlings. We’d each make our own notes – George didn’t even bring the catalogue – and give them a rating which, eventually, would be put into the database from which Gai would work the sale. Thirty seconds is a long time for George to look at a yearling, he has a sensational eye.
This big colt was brought out. I’m not even sure he had a bit in his mouth, just controlled by a rope head collar.
George was standing about 5 metres opposite me and the Danzero colt was stood up between us. He then walked away, walked back and was stood up again. Fatefully, George and I looked up at the same time, caught each other’s eye across the horse’s back and gave a knowing wink, as much as to say, “This one’s all right!”.
Of the colt with a head only its mother could love (we all came to love it later), I wrote in my book: “Good/big size, plain head, good rein and hindquarters, tracks well, powerful type”. I rated him ‘Nice’, in those days the terminology we used to describe our top raters.
The rest is history. We were all in agreement; Gai specked him and took him home from the sale.
Do you think we could sell him! He sat partially unsold for three months. At one point I even considered taking half of him with one of my mates in Auckland, just so I could erase the amount owing on the whiteboard in my office which served as the motivational centrepiece for selling down the yearlings - and get Gai off my back. I had missed out on Choisir, then a three-year-old, two years previously and was probably still gunshy.
I sent out a mass of faxes and emails prospecting the colt to potential clients. I know a couple of them still have those faxes, a distant reminder of one that got away. In my sales pitch I mentioned, naturally, what a grouse type we thought he was. Because the early expectation level amongst owners in the Waterhouse stable can be rather high, especially since Gai found the clue to training her two-year-olds, I felt I should cover my backside and included words to the effect that whilst the Danzero colt was a super type I couldn’t be confident he’d make a two-year-old. I was never more wrong.
About April the ownership was finally put to bed. Several of the new owners had raced some very good horses from the Waterhouse yard and they were about to be spoilt again.
Dance Hero was broken in by Darryl Leigh in Rouchel in the Upper Hunter. Gai and I saw him on the morning of the Scone Cup that year as Darryl was putting the finishing touches on him. Darryl declared the horse at that point.
The now gelded Dance Hero had his first barrier trial at Canterbury on 5 September, 2003. In attendance that morning was Sheikh Mohammed bin Khalifa al Maktoum and his retinue, there to watch their expensive Danehill colts strut their stuff. This far down the track I’m not sure if any of the Sheikh’s sooky, soft colts were in the same heat as Dance Hero but I vividly remember the Sheikh’s reaction when Dance Hero whizzed by like a comet, streeting the opposition.
Able to tell in an instant that his Danehills would be eating Dance Hero’s dust all their lives, the Sheikh exclaimed: “How come you didn’t show me this horse!?”
The answer simply was that you couldn’t get the Sheikh and his people to even consider a colt which had the type of catalogue page Dance Hero possessed at the time – just two city winners in the first two dams – so it wouldn’t have mattered if we’d hit him over the head with Dance Hero, his people would never have entertained him, they were headhunting potential stallions. You had to go back to the third dam, Tristabelle, bred and raced by my New Zealand near-neighbours, Don and Rochelle McLaren, to find the first horse of consequence. She was a hulking great Sir Tristram filly who won four races as a two-year-old. I had seen a lot of this family in my New Zealand years as the core “Belle Family” mares lived at Haunui Farm and I sold their yearlings each year. I wouldn’t say that Dance Hero reminded me of any in particular but it is a tribe which can throw up a very serious animal. It’s an amazing fact but the three best older horses racing at one time in the Waterhouse stable in the early 2000s were all Belle family members: Grand Armee, Dance Hero and Winning Belle.
As we know, Dance Hero will never sire a foal; it’s left principally to Charge Forward and Fastnet Rock to carry the flame of that generation.
Impossible as it is to see into the future, Dance Hero might be the last great winner of the Magic Millions 2YO Classic which has had a fairly illustrious roll call down the years.
He stands as the only horse to win the Magic Millions-Golden Slipper double. He’s a gelding. I detect a trend whereby owners of serious colts might continue to give the race a wide berth as they concentrate on trying to win the Golden Slipper. Fillies might give it a crack as they still enjoy a weight advantage in the Slipper.
With the change of date this year owing to EI the chances of a colt doing the double were less as their autumn programmes would have been set some time back. Sebring, for example, a colt for which I believe $7 million was offered, was not about to go north, the stable electing to send their good filly She’s Meaner. All American could have been there but wasn't.
Last year I recall Murtajill, (raced by the Sheikh), after his crushing win the Breeders’ Plate, was set specifically for the Golden Slipper with the Magic Millions factored out.
With the greater intrusion of foreign owners and powerful breeding blocs into the upper echelons of horse ownership in Australia, it seems they are happy to take the big gamble that their colts are up to winning the Slipper rather than chase the Millions cash for which their horse would be required to peak mid-season.
The stallion-making difference between the two races is graphically illustrated if you take the cases of Bradbury’s Luck and Stratum, two-year-olds of 2004-05.
Both colts were stunning individuals by Redoute’s Choice. Bradbury’s Luck is out of a brilliant racemare, Skating, who has become a blue hen. Stratum is out of the unraced Bourgeois.
In an early season barrier trial, there was nothing between these two colts, a head in Bradbury’s Luck’s favour to be precise.
Stratum won the Golden Slipper at his fourth start, not the greatest win you’ve ever seen as Fashions Afield might have beaten him if she hadn’t missed the jump. Stratum couldn’t win a race in any of his remaining 14 starts and in the majority of them he was comprehensively beaten.
Bradbury’s Luck won the Magic Millions at his third start per courtesy of his own ability and some poor rides in the race. Snitzel dead-heated for third. Bradbury’s Luck couldn’t win any of his remaining three starts.
These very good-looking colts by the supersire were consigned to stud when they turned four. Bradbury’s Luck stood his first season in Queensland for $12,500, Stratum in the Hunter Valley for $27,500. Is there that much difference between them, or is it the race that makes the difference?
Dance Hero cost $90,000. He was cared for like a king throughout his career by his devoted handlers who, I'm sure, will miss him terribly.
I wonder if his three-quarter brother who cost $2,200,000, can be any better?
It’s possible that this horse’s patchy record over the last couple of seasons has taken the shine off his overall achievements, which is a pity if it has. I think he’s entitled to be regarded as the best Australian two-year-old of the past 15 years.
He raced seven times at that age. His only defeat came at his first start, in the AJC Breeders’ Plate in which he started $2.10 favourite. Under Len Beasley, he blundered badly at the start, didn’t get the lead and finished third behind Charge Forward, the colt who was to run second to him in the Golden Slipper six months later. Splitting this fine pair was Wenceslas Square who finished up winning only three little races from 38 career starts. Use that one at your next trivia night.
Dance Hero’s six-race picket fence included the Magic Millions in race record time, the Golden Slipper in race record time, the AJC Champagne Stakes in race record time and the AJC Sires’ Produce Stakes.
It’ll be a long while till we see that feat equaled. Perhaps never. And Dance Hero raced in a vintage year, a class headed by the likes of Charge Forward, Alinghi, Fastnet Rock, Wager and Genius And Evil, the horse who became known in Hong Kong as Absolute Champion.
Dance Hero never won a race he didn’t totally dominate with his crazy brand of speed. Basically, he was never headed in any of the 10 races he won. If he couldn’t get the lead then you could rip up your tickets. No point in laying into him with the whip - he was always going full speed, that's why he'd swish his tail when he received a smack, he was already in overdrive. He coped with a dead track but nothing worse.
He was a fantastic sight in full cry. He got straight into the bridle and his legs seemed barely to touch the ground. It sent a chill up my spine.
A horse which has dragged its guts through such a grueling two-year-old campaign could be forgiven for not turning up later in his career. But Dance Hero had his moments: the Gr 2 Royal Sovereign Stakes (beating Eremein), the Gr 2 Canterbury Stakes (from Falkirk and Ike’s Dream), the Gr 3 Missile Stakes (over Snippetson and Spark Of Life) and his crowning glory as an older horse, the 2006 Gr 1 Salinger Stakes down the Flemington straight six, with Miss Andretti third and last year’s winner Swick fourth. I saw him in the mounting yard that day; he had never looked better. I'm sure his win went down like a lead balloon with the Victorians who've never forgiven him for beating their darling Alinghi in the Slipper.
Forget Dance Hero's inevitable defeats; that’s a marvelous CV for any horse.
I was fortunate enough to have played a part in the purchase of Dance Hero, a $90,000 colt who went on to win $3,940,440. On face value dollars, he is the highest-earning pure sprinter to have raced exclusively in Australia.
In those days I was one of the team helping Gai Waterhouse with the massive task of sorting through all the sale yearlings. George Smith, the renowned selector from Melbourne, and I were inspecting Magic Millions yearlings in the Hunter Valley during December. At the time I think Gai was overseas on her annual northern winter holiday.
We saw the colt at Kerrie Tibbey’s Goodwood Farm, Murrurundi. George and I hardly ever spoke while we looked at the yearlings. We’d each make our own notes – George didn’t even bring the catalogue – and give them a rating which, eventually, would be put into the database from which Gai would work the sale. Thirty seconds is a long time for George to look at a yearling, he has a sensational eye.
This big colt was brought out. I’m not even sure he had a bit in his mouth, just controlled by a rope head collar.
George was standing about 5 metres opposite me and the Danzero colt was stood up between us. He then walked away, walked back and was stood up again. Fatefully, George and I looked up at the same time, caught each other’s eye across the horse’s back and gave a knowing wink, as much as to say, “This one’s all right!”.
Of the colt with a head only its mother could love (we all came to love it later), I wrote in my book: “Good/big size, plain head, good rein and hindquarters, tracks well, powerful type”. I rated him ‘Nice’, in those days the terminology we used to describe our top raters.
The rest is history. We were all in agreement; Gai specked him and took him home from the sale.
Do you think we could sell him! He sat partially unsold for three months. At one point I even considered taking half of him with one of my mates in Auckland, just so I could erase the amount owing on the whiteboard in my office which served as the motivational centrepiece for selling down the yearlings - and get Gai off my back. I had missed out on Choisir, then a three-year-old, two years previously and was probably still gunshy.
I sent out a mass of faxes and emails prospecting the colt to potential clients. I know a couple of them still have those faxes, a distant reminder of one that got away. In my sales pitch I mentioned, naturally, what a grouse type we thought he was. Because the early expectation level amongst owners in the Waterhouse stable can be rather high, especially since Gai found the clue to training her two-year-olds, I felt I should cover my backside and included words to the effect that whilst the Danzero colt was a super type I couldn’t be confident he’d make a two-year-old. I was never more wrong.
About April the ownership was finally put to bed. Several of the new owners had raced some very good horses from the Waterhouse yard and they were about to be spoilt again.
Dance Hero was broken in by Darryl Leigh in Rouchel in the Upper Hunter. Gai and I saw him on the morning of the Scone Cup that year as Darryl was putting the finishing touches on him. Darryl declared the horse at that point.
The now gelded Dance Hero had his first barrier trial at Canterbury on 5 September, 2003. In attendance that morning was Sheikh Mohammed bin Khalifa al Maktoum and his retinue, there to watch their expensive Danehill colts strut their stuff. This far down the track I’m not sure if any of the Sheikh’s sooky, soft colts were in the same heat as Dance Hero but I vividly remember the Sheikh’s reaction when Dance Hero whizzed by like a comet, streeting the opposition.
Able to tell in an instant that his Danehills would be eating Dance Hero’s dust all their lives, the Sheikh exclaimed: “How come you didn’t show me this horse!?”
The answer simply was that you couldn’t get the Sheikh and his people to even consider a colt which had the type of catalogue page Dance Hero possessed at the time – just two city winners in the first two dams – so it wouldn’t have mattered if we’d hit him over the head with Dance Hero, his people would never have entertained him, they were headhunting potential stallions. You had to go back to the third dam, Tristabelle, bred and raced by my New Zealand near-neighbours, Don and Rochelle McLaren, to find the first horse of consequence. She was a hulking great Sir Tristram filly who won four races as a two-year-old. I had seen a lot of this family in my New Zealand years as the core “Belle Family” mares lived at Haunui Farm and I sold their yearlings each year. I wouldn’t say that Dance Hero reminded me of any in particular but it is a tribe which can throw up a very serious animal. It’s an amazing fact but the three best older horses racing at one time in the Waterhouse stable in the early 2000s were all Belle family members: Grand Armee, Dance Hero and Winning Belle.
As we know, Dance Hero will never sire a foal; it’s left principally to Charge Forward and Fastnet Rock to carry the flame of that generation.
Impossible as it is to see into the future, Dance Hero might be the last great winner of the Magic Millions 2YO Classic which has had a fairly illustrious roll call down the years.
He stands as the only horse to win the Magic Millions-Golden Slipper double. He’s a gelding. I detect a trend whereby owners of serious colts might continue to give the race a wide berth as they concentrate on trying to win the Golden Slipper. Fillies might give it a crack as they still enjoy a weight advantage in the Slipper.
With the change of date this year owing to EI the chances of a colt doing the double were less as their autumn programmes would have been set some time back. Sebring, for example, a colt for which I believe $7 million was offered, was not about to go north, the stable electing to send their good filly She’s Meaner. All American could have been there but wasn't.
Last year I recall Murtajill, (raced by the Sheikh), after his crushing win the Breeders’ Plate, was set specifically for the Golden Slipper with the Magic Millions factored out.
With the greater intrusion of foreign owners and powerful breeding blocs into the upper echelons of horse ownership in Australia, it seems they are happy to take the big gamble that their colts are up to winning the Slipper rather than chase the Millions cash for which their horse would be required to peak mid-season.
The stallion-making difference between the two races is graphically illustrated if you take the cases of Bradbury’s Luck and Stratum, two-year-olds of 2004-05.
Both colts were stunning individuals by Redoute’s Choice. Bradbury’s Luck is out of a brilliant racemare, Skating, who has become a blue hen. Stratum is out of the unraced Bourgeois.
In an early season barrier trial, there was nothing between these two colts, a head in Bradbury’s Luck’s favour to be precise.
Stratum won the Golden Slipper at his fourth start, not the greatest win you’ve ever seen as Fashions Afield might have beaten him if she hadn’t missed the jump. Stratum couldn’t win a race in any of his remaining 14 starts and in the majority of them he was comprehensively beaten.
Bradbury’s Luck won the Magic Millions at his third start per courtesy of his own ability and some poor rides in the race. Snitzel dead-heated for third. Bradbury’s Luck couldn’t win any of his remaining three starts.
These very good-looking colts by the supersire were consigned to stud when they turned four. Bradbury’s Luck stood his first season in Queensland for $12,500, Stratum in the Hunter Valley for $27,500. Is there that much difference between them, or is it the race that makes the difference?
Dance Hero cost $90,000. He was cared for like a king throughout his career by his devoted handlers who, I'm sure, will miss him terribly.
I wonder if his three-quarter brother who cost $2,200,000, can be any better?
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