A Little Deep
Andrew Bowcock is a third generation breeder who knows what he’s doing, but even the best need a little luck sometimes. He’s had his share of both kinds.
After running the old Segenhoe Valley family farm Alabama Stud – founded by his grandfather Ray in the 1940s – Andrew bought the block next door in 1998, part spurred by it being known only as Lot 13, “my lucky number”.
A few weeks later, still wondering what to call it, he was out the front planting trees when an eight-seater mini bus stopped nearby.
“They were approaching the Alan Bridge but it had a two tonne weight limit, so they had to stop and get the people out,” Bowcock tells It’s In The Blood. “One bloke had a moon boot on, so I asked if he wanted a lift across the bridge. Then I realised who it was.
“So there I was in my old ute with Sir Patrick Hogan. Then I thought, since his farm was called Cambridge, I’d call mine Alanbridge.”
Bowcock and wife Lasca toiled hard to build Alanbridge up, including importing from the US its foundation stallion Beautiful Crown (Chief’s Crown), who’d sire 11 stakes winners headed by 2003 Caulfield Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) hero In Top Swing.
Then in 2008, Andrew was at home one day when the industry’s Santa Claus of the age came down his chimney.
Nathan Tinkler, a man whose purchase of a battalion of yearlings that year had helped many a breeder pay their bills after the equine influenza crisis, decided he’d quite like Alanbridge. Though reluctant at first, knocking back the first offer, Bowcock eventually received one he couldn’t refuse, and thus Patinack Farm had a Hunter Valley base.
Bowcock stayed on, helping the new owner buy horses like it was about to become illegal, a spree which took him to South America, Kentucky, New Zealand and elsewhere.
Alas, Tinkler of course turned out to be a bit like Santa in other ways, like being too good to be true. When it all came crashing down, Gerry Harvey – who’d had to chase money from Tinkler’s Magic Millions shopping expedition, ended up assuming Alanbridge/Patinack Farm. Bowcock already had his reward for effort in the proceeds of his sale to Tinkler, which helped carry him on into boutique breeding.
Six years ago, and by then based in Brisbane, he had some more luck of the right sort.
Breeding partner, Wayne Comerford of Stanley River Thoroughbreds, happened upon a mare the pair might want to add to their handful. She was on a farm in Queensland, a factor in a deceased estate, but had a poor breeding record.
Laugh A Little (Lonhro) was first trained by Bjorn Baker, then became a three-time winner, all at the Sunshine Coast, for Wendy Bannerot, before a stuttering start in the breeding barn. Her first two foals, by Mossman and Casino Prince, were deceased after birth, and then she missed to Foxwedge.
“I took a look at her pedigree and said to Wayne, ‘Yep – let’s get her’,” says Bowcock, who was able to complete that deal cheaply.
Laugh A Little had some quality in her female line. Her dam Chuckle (Danehill), ran second in the Silver Sipper (Gr 2, 1100m) and Sweet Embrace (Gr 3, 1200m) and seventh in the 2002 Golden Slipper (Gr 1, 1200m), and won Scone’s Dark Jewel Classic (Listed, 1400m).
She had also thrown brothers by Mossman in Crack Me Up – winner of six stakes races including the Villiers (Gr 2, 1600m) – and Hoofit, who after winning in Listed class in New Zealand, went to the US to win a Grade 3.
Laugh A Little’s third dam Life At Last (Northfields) promised a little staying power, having been put to a Golden Slipper winner in Full On Aces (Kaoru Star) to produce 1988 VRC St Leger (Gr 2, 2800m) victor Full At Last.
Bowcock and Comerford put Laugh A Little to Newgate Farm’s Deep Field (Northern Meteor) and the result is A Little Deep, who became a black–type winner in streaking away with The Valley’s Chautauqua Stakes (Listed, 1200m) on Saturday, upsetting hot pot Arkansaw Kid (Harry Angel).
When we say Bowcock knows what he’s doing, he has a solid tactic which has helped him breed several good ones, and which led him to buy Laugh A Little: looking at the first seven generations in a mating for the number of blue hen mares duplicated.
“The most I’ve ever seen on paper is seven blue hens crossed,” he says. “When I lined up Laugh A Little with Deep Field, that mating carried four. So that was looking pretty good. You could look at a list of 100 mares and not see one blue hen, so to get four, that was something I liked a lot.”
Laugh A Little brought one blue hen to the party in the dam of her grandsire Octagonal (Zabeel) – British-bred New Zealand great Eight Carat (Pieces Of Eight).
She had another in Special (Forli), dam of Zabeel’s damsire, a third in Lalun (Djeddah), tucked back in Lonhro’s female side, and a fourth in strong effect in the ubiquitous Natalma (Native Dancer), who she carried three times, and importantly, all in her dam’s side.
Deep Field has Eight Carat in direct flow as his fifth dam. Special is the damsire of his third sire Fairy King (Northern Dancer). Lalun is the dam of Fairy King’s damsire. And he has Natalma twice, as the dam of Northern Dancer.
All together now, A Little Deep has a 6f x 4m of Eight Carat; a 6f x 7m of Special; a 7m x 7m of Lalun, and has Natlama at 6m, 7m x 6m, 6f, 7m
As Leon Rasmussen might have said, if you can inbreed to a superior female, you’re on the right track. If you can do it two, three or four times, even better.
The strategy has served Bowcock well at other times. He and Lasca bred ATC Derby winner Quick Thinker (So You Think) – the first time he’d sent a mare to the Coolmore stallion – looking at a duplication of Natalma plus her dam Almahmoud (Mahmoud).
A Little Deep is also powered by a 5m x 5m of the great Mr. Prospector (Raise A Native) via two different sons in Gone West and Straight Strike, plus a 5m x 5m of Sir Tristram (Sir Ivor) in powerful places, through Deep Field’s second damsire Military Plume, and as Laugh A Little’s fourth sire.
Also, A Little Deep has a 7f, 5f x 6m of influential Argentinian sire Forli (Aristophanes), via his US-bred daughters Special and Scuff, and son First Consul.
Bought by trainer Ciaron Maher with Astute Bloodstock for $250,000 from KBL Thoroughbreds’ draft at the Magic Millions Gold Coast sale of 2021, the five-year-old A Little Deep has been lightly raced. She debuted at three, then needed almost a year off after her second start due to injury. But she’s now won five of nine and may be set for a bright future.
And isn’t it always the way when it comes to stallions?
Deep Field, retired aged just 12 after the 2022 stud season due to low fertility, has never been firing better on the track. Having recorded a career-best finish on the general sires’ table of ninth in 2022-23, and 11th last term, he sits in fifth place for this season, and fourth by winners, with 29 from 141 runners.
A Little Deep has kicked off Deep Field’s stakes winners account for the new season, and you wouldn’t bet against him eclipsing his personal best of nine, also from 2022-23.
Any more success from Laugh A Little would be most welcome for Bowcock and Comerford, after dashes of the wrong kind of luck.
They sold A Little Deep’s year-younger sister for $310,000 to Trilogy Racing and CB Bloodstock at the Gold Coast in 2022 – putting them plenty further ahead on their economical purchase of the dam. Named Her Excellency, the filly was showing great promise for Team Snowden, Bowcock says, but injured her pelvis on debut. She’s now in South Australia, unplaced from seven starts.
Next came what Bowcock describes as a stand-out colt by Yes Yes Yes (Rubick), who was the subject of a tug-of-war between the major auction houses, was ultimately entered for Magic Millions Gold Coast, but died of colic one week before the sale.
Laugh A Little’s colt by King’s Legacy fetched $100,000 at that sale this year, while the mare is about to drop her fifth foal, by Justify (Scat Daddy).
Bowcock, 66, is also the breeder of dual Group 1 winner Response (Charge Forward), who went on to throw Golden Slipper heroine Estijaab (Snitzel) and her Group 3-winning brother Remarque.
He also bred Twin Stars (Zoustar), who won the South Australian Magic Millions 2YO Classic (1200m) and the SAJC Sires’ Produce (Gr 3, 1400m) for Team McEvoy before a lucrative sale to Hong Kong. There, as Chiu Chow Spirit, he’s won three times, including last Sunday.
All in all, despite the odd bit of misfortune that comes with the territory, things have transpired reasonably well since the third generation breeder went out on his own.
“I guess when you’ve only got four or five commercial mares,” Bowcock says, “to be breeding stakes winners and Derby winners and things like that, it does make you feel a little proud.”