Enviable line up of colts set to shine in spring for Aquis
McGrath hopeful new brigade can step up behind headliners Farnan and Prague
Prague (Redoute’s Choice) and Farnan (Not A Single Doubt) are being touted as potential candidates to fill the Aquis Farm-owned slot for this year’s $15 million The Everest (1200m) but first the valuable duo and their extensive high-profile cohorts will be out to enhance their appeal as stallion prospects via the Golden Rose (Gr 1, 1400m).
The pair are among Aquis Farm’s apparent army of talented three-year-olds at its disposal, demonstrated emphatically last weekend with the first-up Rosebud (Listed, 1100m) victory of the Ciaron Maher and David Eustace-trained Anders (Not A Single Doubt).
Aquis Farm has, mostly owned in partnership, up to 15 colts with the credentials to target “stallion-making” races such as the Golden Rose, Caulfield Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) and the Coolmore Stud Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m).
The yearling price tags of those earmarked spring feature races totals nearly $13 million and underlines the enormous investment made at the 2019 sales by Aquis, which has already been rewarded with the Slipper and a host of other juvenile stakes race wins last season.
Shane McGrath, who spent much of yesterday liaising with the trainers to map out spring preparations for Aquis Farm’s prized squad of three-year-olds, hopes that momentum can be carried through into 2020-21.
“We’re fortunate to be involved in all these colts and as you’ve seen with the transactions in the weeks gone by (with Farnan) we’re happy to take partners or investors into the colts. That’s part of our business model with these horses,” McGrath told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“Hopefully they keep putting themselves in the shop window and we keep getting the phone calls.”
Farnan, the subject of a significant stud deal involving Kia Ora Stud last week, and Pago Pago Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m) winner Prague shape as the most likely to represent Aquis in the $15 million open sprint at Randwick on October 17 but the Hong Kong-owned group is set to have a strong hand in a string of feature races in Sydney and Melbourne during the spring.
The Golden Rose on September 26 will be a pivotal race for a number of Aquis’ colts.
Of Farnan, McGrath said: “When you speak to Gai and Adrian, they say he just eats everything that’s put in front of him. The work riders are really happy with him and we’ll get a good indication after his first-up run if he can run the 1400 metres of the Golden Rose and Gai and Adrian are adamant that he can. That’s an exciting early program for him and we’ll assess him from there.
“He’s got some scope and length now and he’s such a good-actioned horse. He’s got a great attitude which goes a long way with these three-year-old colts.”
The Chris Waller-trained Osamu (Exceed And Excel) and stablemate Sauvestre (Hinchinbrook) could be heading to Melbourne while ATC Breeders’ Plate (Gr 3, 1000m) winner Global Quest (More Than Ready) is considered as a Golden Rose and possibly a Caulfield Guineas contender.
“Global Quest has grown and developed now and he looks like a horse who I think will go Run To The Rose, Golden Rose and possibly the Caulfield Guineas,” he said.
“I think he’s a horse who will show his class and versatility being a Breeders’ Plate winner who can get to a Caulfield Guineas trip. He’s an exciting prospect.”
McGrath also expects Osamu, a $1.7 million Inglis Easter graduate, to stand up and be counted in the spring.
“We learnt our lesson with him as a two-year-old. He just doesn’t handle the wet tracks. He is up and ready to go but we will just wait until the Sydney tracks dry out or maybe he might even go to Melbourne,” he said.
“He has come back super, but we just have to bide our time with him. He could head to a San Domenico or he could head to Melbourne for the McKenzie Stakes (August 29). He’s well suited because he’d get in well in a set weights and penalties race being Group performed but a non-Group winner.”
Anders firmed in betting for the Golden Rose on the back of his Rosebud victory, but it is another Group 1 sprint race that could be on the cards for the lightly raced son of Not A Single Doubt (Redoute’s Choice) who won back-to-back races at the end of his juvenile campaign.
“Ciaron is mulling it over at the moment as to whether he goes to the San Domenico or maybe heads to the Moir and then into the Coolmore down in Melbourne,” he said.
“That could be a nice program for him and it keeps him to that sprinting distance which he looks so good at. We’ve always felt that he’s as effective on top of the ground as he is on the rain-affected going. If he can prove that as he goes through the spring, I think he will be a very hard horse to catch over those short distances.
“What’s the quote? ‘Let fast horses be fast’ that James McDonald said (about Nature Strip) and that’s Ciaron’s feeling as well. He looks a pure short course Australian sprinter and that’s what we love.”
Stablemate Prague is likely to go into the Golden Rose second-up.
“He’s a couple of weeks behind the rest of them. He will trial up on Friday (at Randwick). His coat is starting to come through now. He’s obviously a Redoute’s Choice we paid a bit of money for and you could argue that he was unlucky getting run down in a Sires’ Produce but he showed a really good turn of foot that day.
“He has us all excited about what he can do in the spring. He’s probably a horse we will program with a run or two into the Golden Rose and that looks to be the ideal spring target for him as well.”
The placement of the colts has been complicated by the fact that Racing NSW has put a ban on Victorian horses entering the state’s licensed training establishments because of the perceived risk of the transmission of the coronavirus between racing participants, but McGrath was hopeful that a resolution might be imminent.
He said: “Those colts are all in good shape and the only variable is the wet tracks in Sydney at the moment and whether the Sydney colts can get to Melbourne and vice versa. There’s a lot of planning with these horses and you’re looking through both states’ calendars and hopefully that gets resolved in the next little while.
“(The trainers are) slightly more optimistic that the powers that be are working through some options which will be good for everybody and hopefully…it comes to fruition. From an industry perspective hopefully both sides can work together and it will be great for all participants.”
And who does McGrath favour to carry the Aquis colours to glory this spring?
“I have always had a soft spot for Osamu and there’d be nothing nicer than if we had a Group 1-winning son of Exceed And Excel at the back end of the spring.
“Savestre is probably the dark horse because he’s the least exposed and we’ll see with Farnan and Prague.
“They’ve got the job done and they just need to frank their form and it’ll be an exciting spring for all of us.”
Aquis Farm’s spring contenders – Shane McGrath’s perspective
Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott
Farnan (Not A Single Doubt)
“The Group class trials were switched to Friday rather than (on the polytrack yesterday), so he will trial on Friday. He will need another trial after that but he will most likely start off in the Run To The Rose on September 12. He looks super and we’re really happy with him and all the signs are that he’s back bigger and stronger.”
Mick Price and Michael Kent Jr
Wisdom Of Water (Headwater)
“He’s down with Mick Price and they are really happy with him down at Caulfield. He will have a jump out on the 25th of August and probably one more into the Danehill on September 12. The Coolmore is the main aim for him. He rated as one of the superior colts of the year; he’s got an abundance of speed and we thought there was an opportunity there to race the horse in partnership with his previous owners (Mr An) and see if we can make a stallion out of him.”
Captain Corelli (Tavistock)
“He ran at Bendigo on Sunday and he ran second in the 1300 metre maiden. We have a really good opinion of him and we’re hoping that he can be a Derby-style horse coming through.”
Chris Waller
Osamu (Exceed And Excel)
“We learnt our lesson with him as a two-year-old. He just doesn’t handle the wet tracks. He is up and ready to go but we will just wait until the Sydney tracks dry out or maybe he might even go to Melbourne. He could head to a San Domenico or he could head to Melbourne for the McKenzie Stakes (August 29). He’s well suited because he’d get in well in a set weights and penalties race being Group performed but a non-Group winner. He’s a horse who we have really high hopes for, we just need to get him on a drier surface.”
Global Quest (More Than Ready)
“He has grown and developed now and he looks like a horse who I think will go Run To The Rose, Golden Rose and possibly the Caulfield Guineas. I think he’s a horse who will show his class and versatility being a Breeders’ Plate winner who can get to a Caulfield Guineas trip. He’s an exciting prospect. If he can come out and land a big one as a three-year-old, he’s going to be a valuable stallion prospect for us.”
Sauvestre (Hinchinbrook)
“He trialled well (on August 4 at Rosehill). He went out with one start, one win. I think we will probably run him on Saturday in the Up And Coming and then we’ll work him out from there, but he’s a horse who’s gone from two to three and, physically, he looks like he’s gone to the next level. He’s a horse you could look at going to Melbourne with. If he’s come up as well as Chris feels he has, we will have plenty of options. He has got that great shape and length and he is a good-moving horse and he’s out of a mare who was effective over a bit of a trip. He’s got Caulfield Guineas (on his radar) or he could be a three-year-old in the Cox Plate. You’re allowed to dream with horses like him.”
Mo’unga (Savabeel)
“He trialled a couple of days ago at the Gold Coast and Michael Cahill gave him a really good report. He will come down to Chris’s at Rosehill and he will probably head towards the Spring Champion Stakes. Being by Savabeel, he will run over a bit of ground and he would be our leading Spring Champion Stakes horse.”
Cadenabbia (Redoute’s Choice)
“He’s just taken a little bit more time to get there physically. We bought him out of Karaka and paid a bit of money for him and I think you will see the best of him as an autumn three-year-old and anything he does in the spring will be a bonus. We will probably just tread carefully with him and look after him. He’s definitely not a horse you’d be concerned about. As Chris Waller was telling me this morning, he and Sauvestre are the two who have leaped out of the ground and you just don’t know what’s going to happen once you take them to the races.”
Ciaron Maher and David Eustace
Anders (Not A Single Doubt)
“Ciaron is mulling it over at the moment as to whether he goes to the San Domenico or maybe the Moir into the Coolmore down in Melbourne is probably an option. That could be a nice program for him and it keeps him to that sprinting distance which he looks so good at. We’ve always felt that he’s always as effective on top of the ground as he is on the rain-affected. If he can prove that as he goes through the spring, I think he will be a very hard horse to catch over those short distances. What’s the quote? ‘let fast horses be fast’ that James McDonald said (about Nature Strip) and that’s Ciaron’s feeling as well.”
Prague (Redoute’s Choice)
“He’s a couple of weeks behind the rest of them. He will trial up on Friday (at Randwick). Of the three-year-olds that are going to be considered for The Everest, if he’s got the turn of foot, he could be a Golden Rose into an Everest or possibly a Golden Rose into a Caulfield Guineas in a similar way to Global Quest.”
Rathlin (Fastnet Rock)
“He was going to trial (yesterday) and then they were put back, so he is going to Melbourne and he will trial next Tuesday and he will probably look at running in the McKenzie Stakes or the McNeil and the Danehill. They are the sort of races that we will target with him and see where he comes up. He was very mature early being a pre-Christmas stakes winner, which is unusual for the sire line. You would think he would have been stepping out over a bit of a trip, but physically he looks more of a sprinting type. We will just have to have find the right races for him.”
Holyfield (I Am Invincible)
“He’s a lovely horse. He took a little bit to come together mentally but towards the end of his (two-year-old) prep he really put it all together. He missed the start in the Group 1 (Champagne) and he got ridden, shall we say, not quite to instructions. It was a total forgive in the Champagne when he missed the break. He is going to have a gallop (this) morning with Tommy Berry and, as long as all things are equal, he will run in the Up And Coming. He probably profiles like a Caulfield Guineas-style of three-year-old. He won’t be screwed down like a North Pacific on Saturday because he’s had that bit longer off and he’ll be more effective on top of the ground as well.”
Nowitzki (Deep Impact)
“He’s going to go to Melbourne on the truck (tonight) with Rathlin. He’ll be trained out of the Melbourne base. He’s just had a few little setbacks and hasn’t had the opportunity to put it all together. We don’t really have a gauge on what his level of ability is. He was heavily fancied the day at Kembla and we thought he’d just go there and win but he was very disappointing. He just never looked comfortable for whatever reason. We’re a bit back to the drawing board with him.”
Setanta (Fastnet Rock)
“He went to the Melbourne stables, but when he got there he wasn’t going to suit any of the wet tracks, so we just backed off him. He is due back in on Monday. Ciaron and the team have always liked him and the jockeys who have ridden him have always liked him but he’s been a little bit disappointing. Fastnet Rocks generally improve at three and he is such a good type that I’d be surprised if what he’s shown so far is the height of his abilities but horses have been known to disappoint you. It’s up to the horse now to show us what he’s got.”
Gerald Ryan
Kumasi (Snitzel)
“He was hard to work out what to do with him, but he was up and ready to go. We trialled him and he trialled super, so we decided we’d roll the dice in the Rosebud but Brenton Avdulla just said he thought he was going to slide through his gears and make things interesting but he didn’t like the wet track. He will probably go three weeks into the Ming Dynasty over 1400 metres. Gerald feels he is a Golden Rose contender, so we will keep going with him. I thought he was super in what he did as a two-year-old. He impressed when he won his maiden and ran second in the Todman. Gerald says he is pretty good and he’s got a good benchmark with Peltzer to work alongside.”
I Am Verve (I Am Invincible) filly
“She’s a beauty. For whatever reason, we had trouble getting her named, so by the time the naming came through she’d been in quite a while, so we just gave her a three-week freshen up. She’s back at Gerald’s now and he loves her. He thinks she’s really thickened up. Obviously she doesn’t have any mileage on her legs so far and she will be ready to trial in about a month. Gerald thinks she’s a Thousand Guineas filly, so let’s hope he’s right.”