Boyle’s eye for a bargain put to the test again with Impending trip to Sydney
Scone trainer’s $6,500 gelding set to take on bluebloods in Group 3 Canonbury Stakes at Rosehill on Saturday
Not afraid to throw his horses into the deep end, soon-to-be retired miner Allan Boyle’s bargain basement buy Mellencamp (Impending) is set to take on an array of expensive Golden Slipper (Gr 1, 1200m) hopefuls in Saturday’s Canonbury Stakes (Gr 3, 1100m) in Sydney.
Hunter Valley hobby trainer Boyle paid just $6,500 for Mellencamp, a Muswellbrook barrier trial winner a fortnight ago, in May last year through an Inglis Digital online auction and the juvenile appears to have his fair share of talent, belying his modest price tag.
The Canonbury Stakes received 11 nominations – Flashing Steel (Not A Single Doubt) ($1 million yearling), Great Barrier Reef (I Am Invincible) ($1.4 million), Man In The Mirror (Not A Single Doubt) ($1.8 million) and Zambezi River (I Am Invincible) ($1.15 million) among them – but Boyle is not deterred by the credentials of Mellencamp’s high-priced rivals.
After all, less than a year ago Boyle went to Sydney from his Scone base with another cheap Inglis Digital buy, Kermadec (Teofilo) colt Gundec, to run fourth at Canterbury in April before being beaten just four and a quarter lengths in the Fernhill Handicap (Listed, 1600m), a race won by subsequent Group 1 winner Converge (Frankel).
Gundec was purchased by agent Dave Mee after the colt’s first two starts for a syndicate of clients with Warrnambool trainer Symon Wilde. Boyle retained a share in Gundec who went on to win the Derby Trial (1800m) at Flemington last September for his new connections.
“Every time a Digital sale comes up, I just go through it and I always have a look through the yearlings, particularly after I bought Gundec,” Boyle says.
“I saw this Impending and I thought, ‘oh, he’s a first season sire’ and I used to follow Impending, actually, when he won the Stradbroke and a few good races. He was a good horse by Lonhro.
“I clicked on his photo and straight away I said, ‘what a nice horse. He couldn’t be that nice (in the flesh)’.”
Boyle recalled a conversation with the Queensland vendor which revealed that Mellencamp had to be withdrawn from the Magic Millions National Yearling Sale due to a bad case of rain scald.
He said: “I couldn’t believe I got him for $6,500. Impending’s service fee was $22,000, so I got him home and I was pleasantly surprised when he walked off the truck. I thought, ‘yeah, he’s as good as he looks (in the photos)’.”
A track gallop at Scone yesterday, about eight months after Boyle bought the now gelded Mellencamp, convinced the 64-year-old trainer to bypass his home course meeting and head to Sydney.
“I thought I’d run him on his home track at Scone on Friday (over 900 metres) but I did a ring around on Sunday morning where I found I was really going to struggle to get a jockey,” he said.
“Canterbury and Taree’s on, so Reece Jones, for example, will be riding at Canterbury; Christian Reith, Aaron Bullock, Mitchell Bell, none of them will be here. Even young Daniel (Northey), who rode him in the trial, is away and, after he worked this morning, I thought, ‘hmmm, I might throw him in the deep end here’.
“The 1100 will suit him a bit better than the 900 metres.”
Boyle does not yet have a jockey booked to ride Mellencamp in the Canonbury but will be happy no matter which city class rider is legged aboard, having used Josh Parr for Gundec’s first start and Jay Ford in his second.
Mellencamp, who showed speed in his barrier trial, could develop into a horse who also races over more than purely sprinting distances, much like his former stablemate Gundec.
“Mellencamp is out of a Commands mare and his grandmother (Woodala) won up to 2400 metres and Impending won a Stradbroke and the Stan Fox,” Boyle said.
“I was sitting there this morning having breakfast. I hadn’t really taken any notes and it’s about four years since Impending ran, so while I was sitting there, I clicked on his Stan Fox Stakes replay. I watched it and the apple hasn’t fallen far from the tree with this bloke, just the look of him.
“There’s also been a few Impendings sold at the Magic Millions this year and I had a look at all the photos of those and they’ve all got a similar look to them. He’s really put a stamp on them, that horse.”
Boyle, whose wife Robyn runs Scone Equestrian Centre, has three horses in work as well as two horses he is breaking in, and hopes to extend that by another two or three as he steps back from his job as a miner.
He previously trained with his brother Neville, who held the licence, about 25 years ago but elected to take out his own last season.
“Neville lives up at Murwillumbah these days and my five boys have left home, so I said to my wife, ‘I’m going to get a trainer’s licence. I want to train some horses again’,” Boyle said.
“I am part-time in the mines, but I am about to retire. I am 64 and if I am going to train some horses, now’s the time to do it and devote myself to it.
“When you’re training horses, you have to put the time into them or you don’t get the results and you can’t work a job where you work shift hours and train horses at the same time, it just doesn’t work very well.”
Boyle may have a low profile, and only a handful of horses, but one thing is for sure, he has an eye for a horse without having to pay a lot of money for them and he will, no doubt, be busily looking through the next online catalogue when it becomes available.
“You start to follow (a sire) because you’ve got one similarly bred; same with the Kermadecs,” he said.
“I’ve tried to buy a couple of other Kermadecs. One went for $25,000, which was a bit more than I was prepared to pay, and another one went for $18,000, which I wasn’t that keen on. You have got to like the horse to start with, I think.”