Camilleri enjoying ‘fantastical dream’ on northern hemisphere journey
John Camilleri has bred some of Australian racing’s most prominent stars.
There’s Golden Slipper (Gr 1, 1200m) winner Vancouver (Medaglia D’Oro) and, of course, one of the greatest ever in 25-time Group 1 winner Winx (Street Cry).
He operates from a relatively small, but select, group of mares, and in recent years has embarked on an ambitious project of having mares covered overseas, sending the gems of his elite broodmare band north to be covered by Europe’s standout sires in the likes of Dubawi (Dubai Millennium), Frankel (Galileo) and Kingman (Invincible Spirit).
The endeavour struck immediate rewards in the sale ring. His colt out of Group 3 winner One Last Dance (Encosta De Lago), a mare who had missed with three of her first four covers, fetched 1.8 million guineas at Book 1 of the 2019 Tattersalls October Yearling Sale, an auction in which he also sold a filly by Dubawi from his well-rated Group 3-winning mare Florentina (Redoute’s Choice), a $650,000 purchase for the Towell family at the 2020 Inglis Chairman’s Sale, for 475,000gns.
That filly was bought by US agent Mike Ryan for goliath owner Peter Brant of White Birch Farm and on Saturday the filly, now-named In Italian, struck an impressive Grade 1 success in the Diana Stakes (Gr 1, 9f) at the New York track of Saratoga.
The Camilleri-bred pair were consigned by Adrian and Philippa O’Brien’s Newmarket-based Hazelwood Bloodstock, where Camilleri keeps much of his northern hemisphere-based breeding stock.
“We’re very fortunate that John’s UK-based stock lives with us when they travel to the stallions. He has an enviable depth of quality in that broodmare band. It’s not big in numbers but it’s jammed packed with quality,” O’Brien told ANZ Bloodstock News, before recalling fondly of In Italian, who was raised on the farm before heading through the famed sale ring at Park Paddocks.
“She had a fantastic temperament, as does the mare herself. She was quite leggy, and given her sales price, she was clearly a very good looking filly.
“She was a pleasure to have from day one and was one of those where everything happened really easily. She just did well and was very healthy, with little intervention required.”
O’Brien’s relationship with Camilleri was established during the former’s time at Coolmore’s Australian farm at Jerrys Plains and, although not related, he is also a close friend of Segenhoe Stud’s Peter O’Brien, who manages Camilleri’s bloodstock interests under the Fairway Thoroughbreds banner.
That initial lucrative reward for sending his mares north has translated into Camilleri furthering the project.
The breeder retained the next foal out of One Last Dance by Frankel. The three-year-old, who is yet to win from three starts, is named Sausalito and is in training in the UK with Clive Cox.
Hazelwood Bloodstock will offer four yearlings bred by Camilleri at the upcoming Tattersalls October Yearling Sale, all consigned for Book 1, and last Wednesday Camilleri’s homebred filly Voice Of Angels (Dark Angel) provided a timely update for the yearling Dubawi colt out of Ring The Bell (Galileo) when finishing third in a Listed contest at Killarney in Ireland.
Ring The Bell is a sister to three Group 1 winners in Hydrangea, English and Irish 1,000 Guineas (Gr 1, 1m) winner Hermosa, and The United States, who won the Ranvet Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m) in Sydney. Her second foal by Kingman sold for 650,000gns at last year’s Tattersalls October Yearling Sale.
The second colt by Dubawi is out of Via Condotti (Galileo), herself a sister to multiple Group 1 winner Highland Reel and Cape Of Good Hope, a winner of the Caulfield Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m) in 2019.
Also offered will be a colt by One Last Dance, a brother to the 1.8 million guineas filly to sell in 2019, and an ‘imposing’ colt by Siyouni (Pivotal), the sire of Coolmore shuttler St Mark’s Basilica.
“They are two exceptional colts by Dubawi and it was a very timely update to the catalogue page for the Ring The Bell colt,” O’Brien said.
“He’s got a Siyouni colt. And with Siyouni doing such a good job, this colt is going to be well received. He’s going to be a very imposing yearling when the sales come around.
“When you breed four yearlings and they’re all Book 1 quality, that tells its own tale. We have some very good quality. There are some very good, strong yearlings to sell this year.”
The impressive victory for the Chad Brown-trained In Italian also capped a wonderful week for O’Brien’s fledgling operation, who also sold a Dubawi colt out of Alina (Galileo) for 3.6 million guineas within that 2019 consignment, with the four-year-old becoming Hazelwood Bloodstock’s second elite-level-winning graduate, just seven days after McKulick (Frankel) became the first with victory in the Belmont Oaks (Gr 1, 10f).
“I’m still processing it, to be frank. You’re producing high-quality sales horses and it’s obviously very satisfying when they go on and do it on the racetrack,” O’Brien said.
“We haven’t been open that long. We only started consigning in 2017, and then last week was such a fantastic moment. The first [Grade 1] winner was a little bit like getting the monkey off the back. But then little did I think that seven days later the same thing would happen with one of the fillies from the farm.
“It’s quite literally pinch-me stuff. I woke up on Sunday and had to make sure it wasn’t some fantastical dream.”