It's In The Blood
Emirate
Sometimes things run so smoothly you wonder why it isn’t this simple all the time. Five years ago, Matthew Sandblom’s Kingstar Farm bought an imposing-looking mare from a strong family named Sweet Bouquet (Dream Ahead), surprisingly easily at $40,000. They put her to the famously sub-fertile Extreme Choice (Not A Single Doubt) and she got... Read More
More from It's In The Blood
Kermadec
At the start of May, this column mused about a statistic which stood Fastnet Rock (Danehill) apart from many others as the Coolmore legend headed into retirement: his Group 1 winners to stakes-winners ratio. His 193 stakes-winners worldwide is ultra-impressive, but the fact 43 of them scored at the top level – 22.27 per cent... Read More
Aureus Angel
Buying horses is often about deciding what problems you might be able to excuse, but there’s one glaring character flaw Andrew Baddock can not abide. “There’s no bigger fault than a lack of ability,” he says. The former long-term manager of Gooree racing and breeding had this in mind in September, 2022, when doing what... Read More
Antino
The James Brown song says this is a man’s world, but it’d be nothing without a woman, and the same can be said for the family of burgeoning Queensland star Antino (Redwood). The Tony Gollan-trained five-year-old, who made it 10 wins from 15 starts with his third black type success in Saturday’s BRC Victory Stakes... Read More
Fastnet Rock
Of all the myriad statistics that can be accumulated by a stallion of his standing – both as in ‘status’ and actual years of standing at stud – there is one that puts a halo on Fastnet Rock’s (Danehill) CV as globally elite. It’s not his two Australian champion sires titles from 2012 and 2015.... Read More
Kintyre
It’s been a long journey to have Kintyre (Hallowed Crown) join his year older half-sister Fireburn (Rebel Dane) as a stakes winner, its arduous nature illustrated further by Saturday’s Frank Packer Plate (Gr 3, 2000m) breakthrough having to be settled in the stewards’ room. But while it might be tempting to also call it mystical,... Read More