‘All our information on him is via the connections’
Corey Smith, the racing manager for Cranbourne trainers Robbie Griffiths and Mathew de Kock, won’t be submitting an application to join the Federation of Bloodstock Agents Australia (FBAA) any time soon.
But he did take great delight in playing his role – along with Griffiths, de Kock and FBAA member Peter Ford – in buying last October two-year-old Karate Express, Alabama Express’ (Redoute’s Choice) first runner and winner in Hong Kong.
Trained by Francis Lui, who currently has a one-win lead over Pierre Ng in a tantalising Hong Kong trainers’ premiership battle, Karate Express won a 1000-metre Griffin race impressively on debut at Sha Tin last Saturday under jockey Lyle Hewitson.
Initially a $45,000 purchase out of Burke Bloodstock’s Inglis Classic Yearling Sale draft, Karake Express was prepared by renowned equine educator Blake Ryan and reoffered through the Inglis Ready2Race Sale, fetching $100,000 to the bid of Griffiths de Kock Racing and Ford.
If all went to plan Karate Express’s future was always going to be in Hong Kong with Griffiths and de Kock buying the colt at the two-year-old sale and then Smith got to work on structuring a potential deal on behalf of Hong Kong agent Tony Lam and his client, the horse’s now owner Brian Leung.
However, if he didn’t fit the bill for Sha Tin, he would have been offered to other stable clients and trained out of Cranbourne where Karate Express was briefly prepared before being exported to Asia.
“All our information on him is via the connections, but they have quite a large opinion of him. Sometimes when you look at these deals, it’s fantastic and it’s exciting for myself to be able to get over the line and make the deal happen, but you do look at him and think, ‘would it have been better to keep him here?’” Smith told this column.
“We have a variety of different clients in our stable and you need to cater for everyone.
“We’ve picked out a nice horse and hopefully they’ll have a lot of success with him and we will get you future support from Hong Kong for our stable here.”
The deeds of Yulong’s young sire Alabama Express, who will stand for $55,000 (inc GST) this year, has featured multiple times in this column.
Smith, a former high-level soccer and futsal player who worked in sports administration prior to transitioning into the racing industry, revealed Griffiths and de Kock’s early exposure to the stallion had played a role in them selecting Karate Express.
“We had quite a good opinion based on the yearlings we had and based on what we’d heard from other stables,” he said.
“Rupert Legh, who raced Alabama Express, has horses in our stable as well and he had an opinion of the sire. We thought it was a pretty good play and we thought we bought him at great value for our clients.”
While Smith is a regular member of the Griffiths-de Kock team at the sales, he admits to not being one of the decision makers when it comes to saying yes or no to horses.
“When it comes to bloodstock, the expertise lies with those people who have been doing it for 30 to 35 years. Although I am learning in that space, and being in the team accelerates that learning, my expertise is with people,” he says.
“I love absorbing that part of [the business], but there’s people who have grown up with horses from the time they were toddlers and now in their 70s and 80s, so we’re kidding ourselves if we can say we know as much as them because they’re fountains of knowledge.”
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There are many great causes supported by the racing industry and one of them is New Zealand’s CatWalk Spinal Cord Injury Trust.
The trust was set up by Little Avondale’s Catriona Williams, a former leading NZ international equestrian rider. In 2002, Catriona suffered a spinal cord injury in a riding accident, leaving her a C6/7 tetraplegic and confined to a wheelchair. For over two decades, Catriona has been a tireless advocate for spinal cord injury research, striving for breakthroughs in this vital area.
The trust’s good work has been well publicised in the past but this is a reminder that on Saturday night another charity event will be conducted in aid of the Catwalk Trust. Rich Hill Stud has donated a service to champion sire Proisir (Choisir) and Newgate Farm has donated a nomination to Capitalist (Written Tycoon). For breeders not attending the event and wishing to bid on the live auction (to be conducted by Steve Davis), you must register with chris@catwalk.org.nz to be assigned a dedicated representative to relay your bids on the night.