Coolangatta out to provide instant success for Highclere investment in Australia
Juvenile filly to bid for Gimcrack glory tomorrow, whose dam Piping Hot was the catalyst for John and Jake Warren to pursue portfolio Down Under
As esteemed UK bloodstock agents Jake Warren and his father John cast their studious eyes over a More Than Ready (Southern Halo) filly at Inglis’s flagship Easter yearling sale in 2015, it was the moment realisation enveloped that they simply had to be investing in acquiring an Australian broodmare portfolio of their own.
Six years on from parting with $320,000 the secure the Arrowfield-consigned filly, subsequently named Piping Hot and a winner of two races, her second produce Coolangatta (Written Tycoon) shapes as the early even money favourite for tomorrow’s juvenile black type curtain raiser, the Gimcrack Stakes (Gr 3, 1000m) at Royal Randwick.
“She’s a beautiful physique,” Jake Warren told ANZ Bloodstock News of Coolangatta’s dam, Piping Hot.
“We were looking to buy a few horses for Gai Waterhouse at the time and we came across her. She was a lovely mover, very correct and possessing a beautiful, quality head on her and she was by a very exciting sire in More Than Ready, who at the time was incredibly sought after.
“It was really that moment Dad felt that we should be investing down there for ourselves.”
The Ciaron Maher and David Eustace-trained Coolangatta was a $280,000 purchase for her trainer out of the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale earlier this year, and was the dominant three-and-a-quarter-length winner of a Kensington trial 11 days ago wearing the silks of an Ozzie Kheir-led syndicate.
John and Jake Warren, owners of Highclere Stud in the UK, are no strangers to the Australian market having purchased horses for clients to be based in Europe or to stay in Australia over many years, while the Harry Herbert-run racing arm of Highclere has seen the two-tone blue silks delivered to stakes glory by, among others, Group 1 winner Libran (Lawman), and is at the forefront of syndication, but the vibrant commercial opportunities Down Under led for a plan to be hatched to ultimately produce a successful breeding and selling operation of their own.
“When it comes to Australia, the most commercial race and the most exciting race, after perhaps the Melbourne Cup, is the Golden Slipper,” Warren said.
“What we’re trying to achieve from the broodmares is to produce horses that can win that race. So, when you have that aim as your bullseye, if we were to win with Coolangatta on Saturday and have a genuine horse that could win that race – that is the target. And to be achieving it so early on into our investment in the Australian market is incredibly exciting.
“It would mean so much and so much to Dad as well, who has really been the pioneer on this and really put a lot of thought and effort into the matings and pored over all the research to make sure we are doing the right thing in that department and all credit to him.”
Out of Moonee Valley Oaks (Gr 2, 2040m) winner Ribe (Danehill), Piping Hot was the eighth foal and a half-sister to Blue Diamond Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) winner Reaan (Hussonet), while her first foal by Snitzel, named Snitzonfire, struck on debut for the Waterhouse-Bott stable at Nowra on September 19, a day prior to Maher and Eustace unleashing Coolangatta for her first public appearance at the Inglis official two-year-old trials.
A record of two wins from four starts does not tell the full story as to the high regard in which Piping Hot was held by connections.
Injury curtailed the career of the filly, who on debut finished behind In The Vanguard (Encosta De Lago), a horse that next start would finish second in the Sweet Embrace Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m), while her wins at Canterbury as a late-season two-year-old and at Newcastle a year later, included defeats of subsequent Group 3 winner Cellarman (Mossman) and the stakes-placed Nicci’s Gold (Nicconi).
Black type awaited, but for her career-ending setback.
“I think she was (a stakes-class filly) and, indeed, Gai was going to line her up in a stakes race next time. That’s why we mated her so strongly,” Warren said.
“You can see by the evidence of the stallions that we’ve used as to how much faith we have in her ability as a broodmare. We bred her to Snitzel first time and she has a Dundeel filly, while she has just been scanned back in foal to Written Tycoon this year.
“We always had the long term plan of breeding from her so, conformation wise, she had to be perfect. She had to be perfect through her legs, through her knees. She had to be a perfect physical in order to breed with her, and she near enough was.”
While Piping Hot acted as the catalyst, the prevailing Covid-19 pandemic has played the part of imposing a temporary halt to the Warren’s investment in Australia. Driven by a selection process that places physical inspections at its core, an inability to travel to Australia has thwarted recent attempts at bolstering their broodmare band.
However, in between those events John and Jake Warren purchased the Shadwell-raced Luqyaa (Exceed And Excel) for $310,000 from the Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale in 2018. Her Spirit Of Boom (Seqeualo) filly sold for $300,000 to a syndicate including Tony Gollan and is now in foal to Zoustar (Northern Meteor).
Furthermore, and in defiance of the restrictions imposed by Covid-19, the Highclere-bred and John Warren-owned Muchly (Iffraaj), stakes performed in the US and UK, will find her way to Australia having been covered to southern hemisphere time by Lope De Vega (Shamardal) this year.
“I would like to say (we’d be back to Australia next year). In normal times when travel was straightforward it was an easier thing for us to get down to Australia and get our handle on the stock and how we want to play it. We like to look at the stock ourselves,” Warren said.
“Obviously Covid has got slightly in the way of that and we’ve got two very promising broodmares on our hands that will hopefully keep us very occupied. Luqyaa has a very nice Dundeel colt and the Dundeel filly out of Piping Hot is a lovely yearling. We’re very excited to offer her next year.
“Once we’re able to travel I’m sure we will be down and be able to reinvest. But, for the moment, we’re enjoying the mares we have down there and Dad is sending Muchly down, so it’s an exciting but very manageable portfolio right now.”
On the eve of the Tattersalls October Book 1 yearling sale beginning on Tuesday, the Highclere operation will hope to toast Australian success beyond that of Coolangatta at Randwick on Saturday, with the Chris Waller-trained Great House (Galileo) in action for Highclere Thoroughbred Racing in the Metropolitan (Gr 1, 2400m) having won the Newcastle Gold Cup (Gr 3, 2300m) a fortnight ago.
“To be honest, it’s a bit of a shocker, the timing (of Coolangatta’s race),” Warren said. “It’s at three in the morning and we’ve got our most exciting draft of Book 1 horses at Tattersalls arriving today to show first thing in the morning, so we might be a bit blurry eyed for our viewers in the morning if she wins!
“And Hopefully Great House can be another one to add to the roster of successful racehorses for Highclere. Harry (Herbert) has been incredibly successful in Australia with his side of the business with fantastically successful horses.”