Camilleri eyeing more days of Sunshine with talented mare
Daughter of Invader to be handed more chances to add to her already impressive record
Sunshine In Paris (Invader) is set to race on for at least another 18 months, with a second shot at The Everest (Gr 1, 1200m) in mind next spring ahead of a possible mating with Frankel (Galileo).
Those are the rough plans for the five-year-old after her triumph in Saturday’s Champions Sprint (Gr 1, 1200m) at Flemington brought her a second Group 1, and her first in the ownership of prominent high-end breeder John Camilleri.
Saturday’s $1.8 million first prize-money took her earnings for Camilleri to $4.24 million – past the $3.9 million he paid for her at the Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale in 2023, three months after her first top-tier win in Randwick’s Surround Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m) at just her fifth start.
Victory on Saturday ended a frustrating run for Camilleri in his quest to add a second top tier success to the mare’s CV. While Sunshine In Paris took her second Sheraco Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) in September, she had contested four Group 1s in the colours of Fairway Thoroughbreds for a second, a fourth and two fifths.
That sequence included a fast finishing fifth in last month’s Everest, before further frustration with a second in the Russell Balding Stakes (1300m), which for the minute at least remains non black type, but which is worth $3 million.
Camilleri was unable to be at Flemington on Saturday due to an ill-timed family wedding, and was represented trackside by Segenhoe Stud’s Peter O’Brien, but was delighted with the victory.
“It was a great result. I might be biased but I think she deserved it,” Camilleri told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“She hasn’t had a lot of luck in her last couple of runs, but fortune turned her way on Saturday. Her Everest run was sensational, but from where she was near the back, mathematically she was given an impossible task, since they didn’t go that fast in front.
She hasn’t had a lot of luck in her last couple of runs, but fortune turned her way on Saturday
“But based on how she was running – she’s never put a bad run in in her life – I was confident she could compete at that level. I just thought with an ounce of luck in one of these races she might snare one.”
Famed as the breeder and seller of Winx (Street Cry) – who on Sunday was eight days overdue on delivering her Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice) foal – Camilleri said he was extremely satisfied to see his plans come off with Sunshine In Paris.
Bred by Aquis Farm, Sunshine In Paris was sent to an auction ring for the first time as a late two-year-old at the Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale of 2022, offered by Julian Blaxland’s Blue Sky Premium Consignment. She was bought by Champagne Bloodstock for $90,000, who 12 months later sold her for $3.81 million more at the Magic Millions Broodmare Sale.
“She was a well bred, good looking filly, she’d only had five starts and was a Group 1 winner already, so she had massive underlying value to start with,” Camilleri said.
“She was sound, had a couple of years more racing in her, and I thought she could possibly recoup her purchase price and go to stud as what you’d call a free broodmare. As it’s transpired, she ticked over the purchase price on Saturday.
“A lot of these plans don’t materialise, but this one did.”
Asked how the win compared with his other successes, Camilleri said: “I’m not sure how successful I’ve been compared to many others but it’d have to be right up there.
“How do you benchmark it? It was a big thrill, though it probably would’ve been a greater thrill had I been there.”
The win still had the poultry baron on tenterhooks, since Sunshine In Paris looked hopelessly blocked before James McDonald speared her through a narrow opening close to the finish.
But at least due to timings, Camilleri didn’t quite have to furtively watch the race via a phone on his lap in the church at his family wedding, or disturb any vows by yelling the mare home.
“I would have, but the times coincided quite well. Nothing was going to stop me from watching it, not even my mother,” he said with a laugh. “At least I got to watch and enjoy it with my family.”
Celebrations done, the Annabel Neasham and Rob Archibald-trained Sunshine In Paris will now enjoy a spell at Segenhoe before an autumn campaign.
She still has just 13 runs under her belt, for six wins and four placings, and Camilleri said her schedule would remain light when she returned.
“I think it’ll be a similar campaign in the autumn to this year – The Galaxy and the TJ Smith – then that’ll do it,” he said. “We’re not going to heavily race this mare.
“We’ll size it up and see where we go from there, whether it’s a Royal Ascot trip or The Everest, but I think The Everest is a hot favourite at this point in time.
“She could also go to the breeding barn next spring, but that will depend on how she’s racing. We won’t race her on for the sake of it if she’s not performing well and not enjoying it.
She could also go to the breeding barn next spring, but that will depend on how she’s racing
“But the good thing is, she’s had no starts at all, and she’s a five-year-old. That’s the way we’re going to keep it. She won’t be having six or seven runs a campaign. I’m not the trainer, but I’m not in favour of over-racing mares.”
For all her ability and her bulging CV, Sunshine In Paris remains the only stakes-winner for the ten-year-old Invader (Snitzel), currently serving his seventh book at Aquis for $8,800 (inc GST).
Aside from her race record, Camilleri said he was taken by Sunshine In Paris’s family when he bought her.
She’s the third of four named foals from the Sir Patrick Hogan-bred Zenaida (Zabeel), a winner at 1600 metres and a half-sister to triple New Zealand Group 1 winner Vosne Romanee (Electronic Zone).
The mare’s first foal, Macroura (Snitzel), Sunshine In Paris’ three-quarter sister, won at Group 3 and Listed level.
Along with Sunshine In Paris, Zenaida and Macroura were also put through the 2023 Gold Coast National Broodmare Sale, both bought by Yulong for $1.4 million and $1.5 million respectively.
“It’s a nice family deep down, but she was a Group 1 winner already, and very lightly raced, so part of the premium on the purchase price was for that racing upside,” Camilleri said.
“There were some stakes-winners in the family. Obviously the big question mark was Invader as a broodmare sire, but sometimes you can’t tick every box.”
While his sire Snitzel is succeeding as a broodmare sire – currently sitting fifth on that Australian table – this didn’t necessarily portend similar success for Invader, Camilleri said.
“I wouldn’t be punting on that, but there’s some nice bloodlines going back. You just have to take a chance on some of these things,” he said.
He added, however, that such matters were hard to predict, as with his breeding of Winx out of Vegas Showgirl, who was by the unfashionable Al Akbar (Success Express).
“You wouldn’t have thought Vegas Showgirl would’ve been a great broodmare, being by Al Akbar, but she produced a handy mare,” he said in reference to the 25-time Group 1 winner.
While Sunshine In Paris would logically race into the autumn of 2026, Camilleri will contemplating potential sires for her first cover beyond her seventh birthday.
Although much can happen between now and then, he’s mulling going to the very top – and not just the Australian summit.
“When she goes to stud we’ll see which sire puts his hand up. She’s probably a nice mating for Frankel but who knows where he’ll be in a year or two’s time,” he said of the sire whose £350,000 (approx. AU$687,000) fee shares global top-billing with Dubawi (Dubai Millennium).
“But she could be mated virtually anywhere. In Australia, Snitzel’s ruled out, I Am Invincible is 20 now – it’s hard to say who’s going to be around and who’s going to be performing well as a sire.”
Camilleri has used international sires in the past, such as when he sent Vegas Showgirl to Japanese great Deep Impact (Sunday Silence) to produce the Joe Pride-trained City Of Lights. He also raced Frankel’s dual Group winner Argentia, after she was bought at Inglis Easter in 2020 for $670,000.
Meanwhile, Camilleri has three half-sisters to Winx in the spelling paddock after spring campaigns: the five-year-old City Of Lights, four-year-old Time Of My Life (I Am Invincible), and three-year-old Wings Of Desire (Pride Of Dubai).
While they’re unlikely to match Winx’s deeds, they have one thing in common with their famous half-sister: they won on debut.
Their follow-ups have not been as impressive, though the Moody-Coleman trained Time Of My Life has had only two starts and Michael Freedman’s Wings Of Desire five.
But Camilleri, who lost Vegas Showgirl last year at 21, remains hopeful they can prove worthy of his 25-strong broodmare band.
“They’re all very promising mares, we’ve just got to get them right. They’ve had their issues,” he said.
City Of Lights won four of her first seven starts to set tongues wagging, but hasn’t placed in her subsequent four.
“She’s got Joe Pride scratching his head,” Camilleri said. “He thinks a lot of her but she hasn’t delivered what she shows in trackwork. We’re going to give her a rest now. Maybe softer tracks in the autumn might be to her liking, and over a bit more ground, but I’ll let Joe figure that out. He’s got a better brain than me.”
