Brilliant Private Life springs surprise to land Caulfield Guineas
Written Tycoon colt headlined an impressive day for Waller and Coolmore
Coolmore and their powerful conglomerate of partners reaped the rewards of expensive yearling purchases as the pair of Chris Waller-trained colts Private Life (Written Tycoon) and Switzerland (Snitzel) announced themselves as premier three-year-olds and future stallion prospects in their respective contests on Saturday.
It was a dual-state stakes double for Waller as Private Life, a $13 chance, led home a surprise trifecta in the Caulfield Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m), while his stablemate Switzerland bounced back to form to take out the $300,000 Roman Consul Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) at Rosehill.
A $650,000 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale purchase from the draft of his co-breeders Arrowfield Stud for Coolmore’s Tom Magnier, Private Life, whose ownership group includes Wynaus and Westerberg among others, broke his maiden at Warwick Farm in May and had raced just twice since, taking out a Benchmark 64 (1200m) at the same track before a promising fourth placing behind Angel Capital (Harry Angel) in the Guineas Prelude (Gr 3, 1400m) on September 21.
Upon stepping out to a mile in the $3 million Classic, the son of Written Tycoon (Iglesia) was able to step up a gear. After kicking clear in the straight under Damian Lane, the three-year-old sealed an end-to-end victory, thwarting the late surges of second-placed $51 outsider Feroce (Super Seth), and $17 hope Evaporate (Per Incanto), who filled out the placings 0.75 lengths further adrift.
Also thwarted were Guineas Prelude conqueror Angel Capital, who ran sixth, and dominant favourite and three-time Group 1 winner Broadsiding (Too Darn Hot), who failed to pick up the leaders in fourth.
“We were quietly confident,” said Waller post-race. “Obviously Broadsiding is a very good horse and we missed out on [regular rider] James McDonald but we picked up a pretty good rider.
“James, if he could ride two in the race he would have, but he said ‘I’ve got to ride this horse [Broadsiding], he’s been so good to me’ and I said ‘no, that’s fine.’ I said to Tom Magnier ‘don’t worry, we’ve still got a good chance. Picking up Damian Lane is a big plus.’”
Meanwhile, stable representative Charlie Duckworth said they had always rated Private Life’s ability.
“When you put these world-class jockeys on like Damian, who obviously was successful for us only seven days ago at this elite level, you’ve got to leave a little bit to them, but ultimately the idea was to just try and settle around midfield,” Duckworth said.
“He began so well, Damian must have taken it into his own hands and to his credit, he’s played an absolute masterstroke. So, full credit to Damien, he does plenty of homework. He came here to gallop on Tuesday as Joao Moreira in his first up run just mentioned that he took a little bit of time to balance around the Caulfield turn, so that’s why we brought him back here for a gallop.
“Damian was on that morning and he’s on again today and it’s amazing. Obviously, these stallion syndicates are unbelievable. They’re pumping a lot of money into the game, but they need to get results, and they’ve certainly gotten good results today.
“We’ve always maintained that he’s a good horse. At the start of the preparation, I think he won a benchmark sixty-four at Warwick Farm, and now he’s just won a Caulfield Guineas. But look, we’ve had faith in the horse. We haven’t lost that. The team at home and Coolmore themselves just do a fantastic job of getting them here in one piece. So, yeah, it’s pretty exciting.”
It was a first victory in the Guineas for Lane, who took it upon himself to make the running aboard Private Life.
“Every horse is beatable,” said the rider, who was winning a 34th Group 1 of his career. “You just have to go out with a mindset of riding your horse the best you can, that’s all you can do. You can only paddle your own canoe and let the rest look after themselves.”
For Waller, it was a 167th elite-level success and one of four winners on the day across the country, also among them Vale John Nicholson Handicap (2000m) scorer Medatsu (Stephanos) and The Nivison (Gr 3, 1200m) heroine Olentia (Zoustar).
In taking out the Guineas, Private Life provided his Yulong Stud sire Written Tycoon with his 65th individual stakes winner and 16th at the top level, while the stallion was siring the winner of the Caulfield Guineas, following the success of the Michael, John and Wayne Hawkes-trained and now Vinery Stud-based first-season sire Ole Kirk four years ago.
Private Life (3 c (3 c Written Tycoon – Aliyana Tilde by Snitzel) is the seventh foal out of the Group 3-winning and multiple Group 1-placed mare Aliyana Tilde (Snitzel). She herself is out of Patronella (Mister C), making her a half-sister to Group winners Smytzers Trish (Geiger Counter), the dam of stakes winner Swish Trish (Redoute’s Choice) and Listed winner Stella Artois (Geiger Counter), who produced Group 2 winner Freestyle (Snippets). The mare is also a sister to Group 3 winner Teaspoon (Snitzel).
Aliyana Tilde produced a colt foal by Arrowfield Stud shuttler Admire Mars (Daiwa Major) last month.