Arts Object
She might not be a favourite of the punters, and may have sneaked under the guard of one noted tipster in particular, but late bloomer Arts Object (Zoustar) is living up to some powerful bloodlines as she builds an impressive race CV, most lately by taking Saturday’s Tails Stakes (Listed, 1500m) at Eagle Farm.
A $100,000 yearling purchase, Arts Object is trained out of the compact eight-box stable of Kurt Goldman, who left Goulburn for the Gold Coast and has struck something precious with the five-year-old mare.
At January’s rich Magic Millions raceday she won the $250,000 The Wave (1800m). That reaped $345,000 in total, thanks to a $200,000 bonus for being nominated for the Magic Millions race series.
That was lucrative, but on top of it all she started $51, when a touch longer had been offered as well.
With her sixth victory in the $160,000 Tails Stakes, Arts Object took her earnings to $610,162 – this time as a $41 shot. For good measure, her win in between these two – at Doomben in August – came at $12.
Goldman isn’t a major punter, but he didn’t miss those two longest-priced victories.
“I have managed to back her in both those races,” the trainer said. “I don’t go silly, but it was enough to take the staff out at least.”
The mare’s owners – from the Bodacious syndicate – were also on, with one notable exception who maybe should’ve known better, but perhaps fell victim to the old adage that a little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing: Queensland-based Sky Racing tipster Paul Joice.
Joice can forever hang his hat on the fact he once tipped a winner who was $151 when he announced it in the morning, with Komata (Monaco Consul) scoring at the Sunshine Coast in 2022. But he’s missed the boat with his own horse.
“Paul’s got a small share in Arts Object, but both times she’s won he didn’t tip her,” said Goldman, adding Joice was at least the only owner around to share a celebratory drink with on Saturday night.
Now that Arts Object is now a stakes winner, from her fifth attempt, serves justice to an impressive pedigree.
She continues a rich vein for surging Widden flagbearer Zoustar (Northern Meteor) over one of the hottest broodmare sires around at present, Street Cry (Machiavellian).
The nick is one of Zoustar’s finest in Australia by winners, based on ten or more runners, with nine from 11 at 81.8 per cent. It also hatched two stakes-victors, the other being dual black type–winning three-year-old Espionage (Zoustar).
Despite siring only nine Australian crops before his death at 16 in 2014, Street Cry (Machiavellian) is extremely keenly sought as a broodmare sire. He finished a career-best third on that table last season, with Cox Plate (Gr 1, 2040m) hero Romantic Warrior (Acclamation) his top earning grandchild. He’s sixth on this term’s table, with Tom Kitten (Harry Angel) doing the lion’s share of his bidding.
Overall in this country, Street Cry as a broodmare sire can boast 481 winners at 66.8 per cent of runners, and 42 stakes winners at 6.3 per cent.
It was the fact Street Cry was her sire that made Arts Object’s dam Ringhals so appealing for Widden Stud and partner Paul Frampton when they purchased her for $400,000 at the Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale of 2016, when offered in foal to Medaglia D’Oro (El Prado).
She’d been a highly-rated yearling, bought by Darley at Inglis Easter 2013 for $500,000 from her breeder, Tony Bott’s Evergreen Stud. She didn’t race, having only two ordinary barrier trials, but that didn’t dissuade Widden and Frampton.
“Part of the attraction was she was by Street Cry,” Widden owner Antony Thompson said. “We were looking for a Street Cry mare to send to Zoustar, and she was a very good type who made plenty of appeal.”
It wasn’t only Ringhals’ sire that drew the buyers in, but her dam as well. Black Mamba (Black Minnaloushe) was an exceptional racemare with an unusual story.
Bought by Murray Baker as a Karaka yearling for $120,000, Black Mamba had ten starts in New Zealand for a Waipa maiden win in 2006. But a Group 3 fourth followed by a fifth in the NZ Oaks (Gr 1, 2400m) was enough to convince US interests to buy her, bringing a daughter of US-New Zealand shuttle sire Black Minnaloushe (Storm Cat) back “home”.
Kicking off in America as a four-year-old, Black Mamba bloomed. She won a eight furlong Del Mar allowance race on debut, then ran seven successive stakes placings, one at Grade 1, six at Grade 2 level.
She then broke through to win Hollywood Park’s Beverly Hills Handicap (Gr 2, 10f) then triumphed at the top tier in Del Mar’s John Mabee Handicap (Gr 1, 9f).
Black Mamba had eight more US runs at five and six for wins at Grade 2 level and Listed class, plus two thirds and two fourths at Grade 1 level, before Bott splashed out to buy her for $1.5 million at the 2009 Fasig-Tipton Fall Mixed Sale. She stopped off for an unplaced run in the Hong Kong Vase (Gr 1, 2400m) before heading to the breeding barn.
Much was hoped of her in that endeavour, but after her unraced first throw Ringhals, her best of eight foals was Infinity Endeavour (Fastnet Rock) and his four Hong Kong metro wins. Perhaps in Arts Object’s case, the talent has skipped a generation.
There’s class, too, in Arts Object’s third dam Sneetch (Grosvenor), who won a New Zealand Group 3 while also throwing the dam of both 2009 AJC Derby (Gr 1, 2400m) hero Roman Emperor (Montjeu) and dual New Zealand stakes winner Rios (Hussonet).
And fourth dam Sellou (Sound Reason) threw a dual New Zealand stakes winner in Fleur De Chine (Centaine), who left two black type victors including 2002 Australasian Oaks (Gr 1, 2000m) heroine Tully Thunder (Thunder Gulch).
“There was a good bit of depth in Ringhals’ pedigree,” said Thompson. “Black Mamba was a very good racemare, so to buy a good looking daughter of hers seemed like a good idea.”
Ringhals was always going to Zoustar, which produced Arts Object, since Frampton owns a share in the stallion. At the same time, there were attractive elements in their 2018 mating.
While Zoustar over Street Cry mares had to be proven subsequently, what it provides is a triplication of the great Mr. Prospector (Raise A Native), through three different offspring. It’s at 5f, 5m x 4m: daughter Rolls is the second dam of Northern Meteor’s sire Encosta De Lago (Fairy King); Fappiano is Northern Meteor’s damsire, and Mr. Prospector also is the sire of Street Cry’s father, Machiavellian (Mr. Prospector).
Arts Object also has a triple dose the influential American mare Lalun (Djeddah), at 7m x 7m, 7m, through Bold Reason (Hail To Reason) and Never Bend (Nasrullah). Bold Reason is reasonably well positioned, as the damsire of Encosta De Lago’s dad Fairy King (Northern Dancer), and as the second sire of Art Object’s fourth dam.
The influential Almahmoud (Mahmoud) makes six appearances in rows seven and eight, five times through her colossal daughter Natalma (Native Dancer), and once in Machiavellian’s female half through Cosmah (Cosmic Bomb), the dam of Halo (Hail To Reason).
Goldman was attracted to Arts Object’s pedigree, but also to her likely modest price for a Gold Coast Magic Millions buy, ultimately taking her for $100,000.
“I just felt she was the right horse in the wrong sale,” he said. “I loved the style of filly that she was, but she wasn’t going to appeal to a lot of people looking for that fast and early two-year-old Magic Millions type. She was quite leggy, loose and free in her action, and looked like a horse who’d take time.
“She screamed out ‘three-year-old’, which is perhaps why she slipped through the cracks at that sale.”
As Goldman said, “funnily enough” Arts Object did race as a pre-Christmas two-year-old, but only once. She was turned out after that ninth in Ballarat’s Magic Millions 2YO Classic (1000m), and didn’t race again for almost 14 months.
She then won twice at Goulburn in her next four starts but – a little like Black Mamba – it was from midway through her four-year-old season that she hit her straps.
“We still ran her at three, though she was still doing a few things wrong, but I feel that with time she’s only got better, not only matured mentally but physically,” Goldman said.
Arts Object is not quite the only breeding success for Ringhals. Her first foal by Medaglia D’Oro, Simon Fubuki, won six races, five in Macau, including the Macau Derby (Listed, 1800m).
Ringhals was sold off again, for $75,000 in 2020 to Mitchell Bloodstock, but Arts Object has the potential to keep adding to her story – and perhaps at juicy odds.
Zoustar, meanwhile, continues his stellar season as he strives to go one better than last year’s second on the general sires’ table to I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit), currently sitting second on those standings again. This time, it’s a son rather than a daughter of Street Cry who’s a talking point, with Pride Of Dubai on top by earnings, albeit mainly due to Bella Nipotina’s The Everest (Gr 1, 1200m) win.
By winners, however, Zoustar ranks first, with 93 to second-placed I Am Invincibles 90, and he’s second by stakes-winners with seven, behind the ten of Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice).