Bugsy Phillips eyes dual-state stakes success with two-year-olds
Wahha Thoroughbreds’ Microphone and National Defense fillies target Calaway Gal and Inglis Nursery
Andrew “Bugsy” Phillips doesn’t know whether to head to Randwick or Eagle Farm on Saturday.
So, it is likely that the Wahha Thoroughbreds principal will stay at home on his 2000-acre farm near Delungra in northern New South Wales, seven hours north of Sydney and five and a half hours south of Brisbane, to watch the Inglis Nursery (RL, 1000m) and the Calaway Gal Stakes (Listed, 1000m).
Phillips and his wife Wendy co-own two-year-old filly Pulpit, the debut winner for Darley’s first season sire Microphone (Exceed And Excel), as well as Valabing (National Defense), who earned her ticket to the races in a barrier trial at Rosehill yesterday.
The David Payne-trained Valabing is slated to be an acceptor for this weekend’s $500,000 Inglis Nursery, while the Barry Lockwood-trained Pulpit – successful over 1200 metres at Doomben on November 22 – will chase black type in the Calaway Gal at Eagle Farm.
The talented fillies cost Phillips a combined $28,000 at the 2022 weanling sales and, in the knowledge that a declining yearling market could overlook them, the Wahha Thoroughbreds owner chose to retain the pair to race and in doing so spare himself the expense of a sales preparation.
Bred by S F Bloodstock out of its US stakes-placed mare Sarah’s Holy Belle (El Corredor), Pulpit was sold to Phillips for $18,000 at last year’s Inglis Australian Weanling Sale and she is now leased to clients of Lockwood.
Phillips also privately sold 65 per cent of Valabing to clients of Payne, including Wayne Shelton, while Wahha Thoroughbreds retained the other 35 per cent of the filly, a daughter rags-to-riches Alice Springs mare Desert Lashes (Reward For Effort) who was a stakes winner in Adelaide after winning her first eight races on the dirt in the heart of Australia.
Phillips paid $10,000 for the National Defense (Invincible Spirit) filly at the Inglis Great Southern Sale and then entered the family run Wahha Thoroughbreds enterprise which also includes the couple’s three children Holly, Hayden and Aleesha who he says are integral to the small stud’s operation.
“She’s a lovely, big strong filly who is by a sire who hasn’t done much at this stage, but she is out of a mare who could gallop, so we’re hopeful,” Phillips said of Valabing.
“We’ve done a hell of a lot of education at home before she went to David’s and we rated her quite highly.
“We had Pulpit in at the same time education–wise and we liked the pair of them. We had two others going at the same time and they haven’t trialled yet.
“I was offering them to lease to David Payne at one stage and he said, ‘rate them for me’ and I wrote down Valabing number one and Pulpit number two and the other two behind that.
“We’re very bloody small, but if we have a runner in the Inglis Nursery and the Calaway Gal on Saturday, it’s a pretty good effort for little fellas like us.”
The weanling selection formula used by Phillips is something that has evolved over the past five years and one that he’s not about to change any time soon, given the emergence of Valabing and Pulpit who are following in the footsteps of the recently retired Allasandra (Pride Of Dubai) and Four Pillars (1500m) winner Sweet Mercy (Capitalist).
“My philosophy to start with was to buy horses which I thought I could make money on and I found that I was buying horses that I didn’t necessarily like, but I thought other people might when it came time to sell,” Phillips told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“That backfires on you because if you don’t sell them, you end up with them and what do you do with horses that you pass in? You race them and you end up racing horses that you don’t like, so about five years ago I changed my tack.
“Yes, I still pinhook but I don’t buy with that purpose in mind. I buy horses that I think will run and that I think will have a pedigree behind them after they’ve finished racing to be a successful broodmare.
“I am not going to say every horse that we have is going to be good, but at the moment we’ve got a routine when we go to the sales and it’s working pretty well.”
Wahha Thoroughbreds also exclusively buys fillies – Phillips will offer an $80,000 pinhooked daughter of Farnan (Not A Single Doubt) out of a half-sister to the dam of champion mare Imperatriz (I Am Invincible) at next month’s Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale – after coming away second–best when trying to purchase weanling colts.
“I had $300,000 for horses a couple of times, and that’s what I write down as the price that I thought a colt was worth, and quite often that was the opening bid,” he said.
“When you’re playing in that sort of category you’re up against the big boys and you’re playing with blokes who own banks and I’m a fella that has got $2 to put in the bank.
“It’s pretty hard to compete, so we just changed tact a bit and I’m trying to build up a broodmare band.”
Valabing closed nicely under minimal riding from Chad Schofield in a 900-metre barrier trial heat won by Tardelli (I Am Invincible) yesterday, five days later than what was intended.
“She was going to trial last Thursday, but they got washed out. It’s a little bit close to the race, so we didn’t want to hurt her too much, but she trialled ‘medium’, which we were very happy with,” Phillips said of the National Defense filly.
“She jumped well, got back to second last and came through and passed three or four horses and went to the line under wraps, a long way off the winner, but we didn’t want to hurt her too much because we might run her on Saturday, but the trainer will decide that.
“Our filly is showing signs of being more of a distance horse than an early sprinter. If we think the race is going to hurt the filly in any way, shape or form she won’t be running.
“But if we can treat it as an educational run with the possibility of a bit of prize-money we’ll go for it, so that’s where we are at with her.”
On Pulpit, he added: “She was bought out of an Inglis sale but she’s not paid up for the race series and the reason I did that was because we had four of them, so you have just have to work out where they’re going to be racing and I thought I’d send Pulpit to Barry Lockwood in Brisbane and all the Inglis races are in Sydney and Melbourne, so I didn’t pay her up.
“She has come through her first start really nicely and is proceeding on to the Calaway Gal, but it wasn’t something we were worried about targeting initially.”