Another Prophet keeps high-class results flowing for Bell River
The Ferguson family of Bell River Thoroughbreds fame use the slogan: ‘Small Farm, big results’. And on Saturday the small farm certainly produced a big result when their homebred filly Another Prophet (Brazen Beau) shocked her more fancied rivals to land the Thousand Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) at Caulfield.
However, the Ciaron Maher-trained filly didn’t line up in Saturday’s Group 1 with the sort of form that usually adds up to a Classic victory.
Her maiden triumph came on her second start at Sale in May after which she headed for the paddock. She was then pitched into stakes company in the Cap D’Antibes (Listed, 1100m) on her seasonal debut, where she finished seventh. A sixth in the Scarborough Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m) second-up at Moonee Valley followed, a result that would change the direction of the filly’s preparation, ultimately laying the foundations for Saturday’s Group 1.
She was stretched out to 1400 metres in the Thousand Guineas Prelude (Gr 2, 1400m), where she finished fifth, before running a brilliant second behind Aeliana (Castelvecchio) in the Carbine Club Stakes (Gr 3, 1600m) on Derby Day at Flemington, a performance Bell River’s James Ferguson believed set her up nicely for an autumn preparation.
“After her run at The Valley. I rang Jack [Turnbull] after the run and asked him whether it was worth trying her over a mile,” Ferguson, who runs the operation with his father Andrew and brother Jock, told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“Then the Carbine Club Stakes came up pretty weak, so we threw a nom in there to see if she would stay a mile with a view of then planning for the autumn. She then ran well in that and to be honest I was then pushing to send her to the paddock, thinking she had done enough and thought it would line her up nicely for a big autumn. She had been up for a long time and Ciaron and Jack tried to find every excuse not to run her.”
However, after watching her gallop five days out from the Guineas, plans to spell the filly were shelved, a decision which was rewarded when beating Aeliana by 0.4 lengths, reversing the Carbine Club Stakes form.
“When they sent the video update of her gallop on Monday, it was by far the best work she had ever done and looked like a proper gallop. After that I had a gut feeling all week that she was going to run really well [in the Guineas] and be in the finish, so it was not a surprise but it is at the same time. We knew she had the ability – maybe it’s come quicker than we thought it would though,” said Ferguson.
The result was a breakthrough for the farm; Another Prophet became the fourth top-flight winner bred by the Fergusons, joining dual Group 1 winners turned stallions Extreme Choice (Not A Single Doubt) and Ace High (High Chaparral), and I Am Excited (Snitzel). However, and perhaps most importantly, the filly is the first Group 1-bred on their Dungog property, purchased after a five-year hiatus from the industry.
“It’s a fourth Group 1 winner for us and first off the new farm,” said Ferguson. “It means a lot and the mare is obviously a freak, with that being her third Group winner.”
The ‘freak’ mare is the farm’s homebred Set To Skelter (Reset). She was herself a modest performer on the track, winning once, in a 1200-metre contest at Moonee Valley, but has since proved a well above average broodmare.
On top of Another Prophet, the daughter of Reset (Zabeel) has produced four further winners and the quartet was, until Saturday, headed by Group 2 scorer Prophet’s Thumb (I Am Invincible) and More Prophets (Smart Missile), whose best of six wins came in Group 3 company.
Saturday’s victory was not only a breakthrough for the farm but also Darley’s $33,000 (inc GST) stallion Brazen Beau (I Am Invincible) and Another Prophet joins Zapateo and On The Bubbles as the son of I Am Invincible’s (Invincible Spirit) other elite-level winners.
Ferguson said planning the mating between Set To Skelter and the Northwood Park resident was a huge learning curve and experience which changed the way he maps out matings.
“For me personally, this filly and her journey is probably the most I have ever learned in the industry,” said Ferguson.
“I loved Brazen Beau’s profile as a stallion and then when I saw his stock they weren’t what I was expecting. So I went to look at everything related to Brazen Beau himself, whether it was at a yearling sale or a broodmare sale, and it taught me such an important lesson. His dam line was genetically dominating I Am Invincible.
“If you look at Set To Skelter you would think she needs leg and substance, but she throws plenty of leg into her horses but no substance. So learning what Brazen Beau throws and the fact he genetically dominates, you need to send a mare that genetically dominates and overrule him to get the correct balance.
“Essentially, we believe we got the perfect mating because we needed a small horse with plenty of substance and that’s what we got with Brazen Beau – so he was the perfect stallion for Set For Skelter. I will now always go look at stallion’s relations, half-sisters, mothers – it taught me a valuable lesson.”
As for Set To Skelter, her Bivouac (Exceed And Excel) filly was bought by James Bester for $250,000 at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale earlier this year. She produced a filly by Darley shuttler Harry Angel (Dark Angel) in September, who Ferguson rates as her best foal at this stage and, replicating Another Prophet’s cross, she was covered by Coolmore’s dual Group 1 winner Home Affairs (I Am Invincible) this season.
“Set To Skelter has a Harry Angel filly and it’s probably her best foal ever, at this stage, and she’s in foal to Home Affairs and if a stallion like Farnan were to kick this season, she might go to him or even Tassort, who was a stallion Jock and I considered last year, but Dad overruled us,” said Ferguson.
While Saturday’s result is just reward for the Fergusons, who are hands on with the day-to-day running of their farm, James was quick to deflect any praise towards Maher and his team.
“I didn’t think at the beginning of this prep we would be running over a mile and certainly, knowing the family inside out, they do their best work as late autumn three-year-old horses. She was still a bit wrong at the beginning of yesterday’s [Saturday] race, it took her a while to settle, so there is certainly more to come,” he said.
“I think the result is really a combination of Ciaron, Jack [Turnbull, assistant trainer] and Ethan Brown – it’s a true display of horsemanship because Another Prophet was getting it wrong at the beginning of this prep and to get to settle over a mile this quickly and do what she did yesterday [Saturday] is pretty amazing – it’s results like this that get us out of bed in the morning.”