Ameena
As the old saying goes, you love it when a plan comes together.
But when a gamble pays off, it’s surely ten times better.
Emirates Park’s Bryan Carlson took a sizeable punt to seal a stallion deal on Tassort (Brazen Beau) after he’d had only two starts. Plenty of stallions have plenty more runs, mostly impressive ones, and still fail at stud.
On top of that, the Godolphin speedster had fractured his pelvis – in a barrier trial in a failed bid to race again after a year off.
Carlson had been putting out feelers since Tassort’s debut 5.3 length win in Rosehill’s Golden Gift (1100m) in November, 2018, which propelled him into favouritism for the Golden Slipper (Gr 1, 1200m).
He then had a first-up second in the Silver Slipper (Gr 2, 1100m), missed the Golden version with a bruised heel, and never again had a chance to prove himself anything more than a precocious flash in the pan. Carlson wasn’t deterred.
A couple of weeks before Tassort’s ratings-smashing debut, Carlson had been to Keeneland’s November Breeding Stock Sale and paid $500,000 ($A690,000 at the time) to secure the mare Red Lodge (Midshipman). She was one of those Wesley Ward-trained bullets who’d at least had ten runs, for two wins, including a two-year-old Listed race at Monmouth over 1100m.
Red Lodge remains the only horse Carlson has been to the US to buy.
He put her to Tassort, and the resulting foal is a Group 1 winner – so far – in Manaal, the ATC Sires’ Produce (Gr 1, 1400m) heroine.
Manaal resumed as a three-year-old at Randwick last Saturday, as favourite in the Silver Shadow Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m), but could only manage a close-up third.
That was unfortunate for connections, and punters, but continuing the ballistic Tassort story, the winner was another daughter of the stallion – and another Emirates Park homebred – in Ameena.
When Emirates Park launched Tassort’s stud career, they completed a deal to stand him at Newgate Farm, for $11,000 (inc GST).
“I’m a big believer that a stallion has to be at the right farm,” Carlson told It’s In The Blood. “Newgate are very good sales people; they give every stallion a chance. Tassort had only had two starts, so he needed a good marketing team behind him, and Newgate is where we thought he was best suited.”
Tassort covered 137 mares in that first season of 2020, and such was Emirates’ faith that they put many of their best mares to him.
One was the then six-year-old Red Lodge, who’d just had her first foal – Fightertown (Snitzel) – who hasn’t shot the lights out, with a Warwick Farm Benchmark 64 (1200m) win from six starts. Red Lodge’s mating with Tassort has worked out appreciably better, producing Manaal, who also claimed Randwick’s Gimcrack Stakes (Gr 3, 1000m) and Sweet Embrace Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) last season.
Another mare among Tassort’s first book was Emaan (Harbour Watch), also six, who’d won at Geelong and Sale in a 12-start career. Her first cover had yielded Boom Time Miss (Epaulette), who was unraced, and her second Eddie’s Charm (Rubick), who’s an as-yet unraced four-year-old.
Emaan’s third cover, with Tassort, has again paid off far more handsomely in producing Ameena, who won her first two runs, at Bendigo and Caulfield Heath, then scored again at start five in spearing through the pack late last Saturday to become her sire’s second stakes winner.
Emirates split Freedman camps in deciding trainers for Manaal and Ameena, sending the former to Michael and the latter to Anthony and his son Sam.
“I’ve always had a soft spot for Ameena,” Carlson said. “Her pedigree is perhaps not as strong as Manaal’s, but she was such a good type. I thought she’d get the right attention and would be a great chance going down to Anthony and Sam.”
Ameena is Emirates Park through and through. Aside from the sire, she’s in the fifth generation of a highly successful female line all owned by the stud, while her damsire Harbour Watch (Acclamation) stood at the farm.
He enjoyed no headlining success, shuttling from Europe for just two seasons – 2013 and 2014. He sired 44 winners from 59 Australian runners at a robust 74 per cent, but none of them were at stakes level. But Carlson feels he was better than his numbers, and sees some irony in the fact a grandson of Acclamation in Harry Angel (Dark Angel) is doing well in Australia now.
“Harbour Watch was a good two-year-old in Europe, but never had much of a chance out here,” he said. “He was beautifully bred, with Fall Aspen his third dam, but he was hard to sell. But it’s funny how things come around. People can’t get enough of Harry Angel now, but Harbour Watch was the first of that Acclamation (Royal Applause) sireline to come out here.
“He also injured himself and couldn’t cover a large number of mares, but we sent some nice mares to him and got a couple of nice fillies, one of which was Emaan. Harbour Watch is now turning out to be a good broodmare sire.”
The Emirates female trail to Ameena starts with her fourth dam Mahboobah (Diesis), an unraced but well-bred American mare – by a most influential stallion – imported by the farm in 1993.
She threw no stakes winners herself, but daughter Boom Boom Baby (True Hero) left a Group 3 winner in Boomwaa (Mutawaajid).
Boom Boom Baby also threw Ameena’s second dam Boom Time Savings (Secret Savings). Her five starts for no wins record sounds a bit moderate, until you see she ran fourth in the 2006 Golden Slipper, and second in the Silver Slipper and Reisling Slipper Trial (Gr 2, 1200m).
Boom Time Savings threw Boomex (Exceed And Excel), the dam of Marboosha (Dream Ahead), winner of two stakes races and placed in five more, as well as Emaan.
“Emaan was a really nice, neat and well put-together mare,” Carlson said. “On type, if she was by I Am Invincible or someone like that, she’d have gone to Easter, but she was by Harbour Watch. She was entered for Inglis Classic, but didn’t have the best x-rays, so we ended up keeping her and racing her.”
As luck would have it.
Though Australian nicking stats on Harbour Watch are few, Carlson believed putting Emaan to Tassort would work on multiple levels, apart from appealing on type.
Tassort’s damsire Exceed And Excel (Danehill) had a strong record put over both Harbour Watch’s sire Acclamation and Emaan’s damsire Secret Savings. Carlson is also a zealous fan of Brazen Beau (I Am Invincible) over anything.
“It’s well documented that Brazen Beau’s fertility is not the best, but he’s been one of the leading two-year-old sires in Australia, and has a stakes winners ratio of about six per cent,” Carlson said.
“Plus Exceed And Excel to Acclamation works well, and to Secret Savings. All four stages of the mating gelled well together.”
Putting Emaan to Tassort also affected that much sought blending of Kris and Diesis – brothers by Sharpen Up (Atan) – at 6f and 5f. Kris comes into Tassort’s sireline as the damsire of his third sire Invincible Spirit (Green Desert), with Diesis the sire of the aforementioned fourth dam, Mahboobah.
Ameena and Manaal are at the pointy end of a booming start for Tassort, who came second by earnings and winners on the first-season sires’ table last term, and fifth among two-year-old sires. Before Manaal won last September’s Gimcrack Stakes, 130 mares had been booked to him for 2023. He ended up covering 232.
Understandably, that was his last year at $11,000 (inc GST). His fee is $38,500 (inc GST) for the coming season, when his book will be limited to just below 200 – since he looks set for a long stud career.
“We could’ve covered 400 mares with him if we wanted to. The demand was that high, and there’s a real lack of proven sires in that $30,000 to $50,000 bracket,” said Newgate’s director of bloodstock Bruce Slade.
“But we’ll hold him back a bit and try to look after him for the longer term. He’ll cover in the high 100s this year, and it’ll be the best book of mares he’s had.”
Slade hinted that on current indications, another fee rise could be possible next year, in keeping with Newgate’s desire for gradual increases.
All of which is an exceptional reward for Emirates’ calculated risk.
“Getting Tassort was a gamble, but it’s paid off,” Carlson said. “There are some really nice three-year-old fillies by him now, and some nice ones coming through as two-year-olds.
“And then the cream of the crop – his third year – will be at the next yearling sales. I read an article on the owner of War Front (Joseph Allen), who said that in the third year, he’ll send good mares to his stallion if he’s got good sales results, because it keeps the momentum going. So we sent our best mares to Tassort in his first and third years.
“How he’s going now is a great result for all the breeders who’ve supported him and come along for the ride.
“There are quite a lot of breeding rights holders in the horse and a lot of small breeders too. And we’re so happy for those small breeders, because it keeps them in the game. A lot of the time the industry forgets about the small breeders, so this is great to see.”