Golden Vale aims to give Coolmore a first in Perth
Churchill filly will don the navy silks when she tackles Pinjarra’s Magic Millions WA 2YO Classic
There’s not much Coolmore hasn’t conquered within the sport, but this weekend the operation will be aiming to land the Magic Millions WA 2YO Classic (RL, 1200m) for the first time when Golden Vale (Churchill) puts her unbeaten record on the line in tomorrow’s $250,000 contest.
Trained by Simon Miller, Golden Vale will sport the famous navy silks of the global heavyweight with Tom Magnier and his brother MV listed in the ownership as well MV’s brother-in-law Paddy Oman and Segenhoe’s Peter O’Brien.
While Coolmore aren’t famed for racing horses in Western Australia, with Golden Vale their first acquisition in the state and with the youngster being by their dual-hemisphere shuttler Churchill (Galileo) it would be easy to assume she was bought at the local Magic Millions sale in Perth to support the young shuttle stallion.
However, Peter O’Brien told ANZ Bloodstock News yesterday the fact she was by one of the operation’s stallions was an added bonus to a plan hatched not long before last year’s edition of the auction.
“Paddy Oman and I were in Sydney airport this time last year about to fly to Perth and Tom Magnier, whose grandmother, Vincent O’Brien’s wife Jacqueline, was from Perth, rang and said he had always wanted to have a horse run in Perth in the Coolmore colours [and] if you find a horse over there we would love to buy one,” O’Brien explained.
After scouring the grounds at Magic Millions, they fell on Golden Vale, who was among the draft from Willow Dale Farm, who offered her on behalf of her breeder, Dorrington Farm’s Robert Crabtree.
“We looked around the sales and this Churchill filly stuck out because she looked like an absolute rocket. I rang Tom and told him that ironically the best one is a Churchill filly, which obviously ticks a box for them,” O’Brien said.
“She wasn’t big at all, but her hip was amazing and a short back, with beautiful balance, great action and really short canons and looked really precocious. She had a lovely temperament and did everything so easily.”
“Another selling point of the filly for us was that she was bred by Robert Crabtree and I think pound for pound, I would have him down as one of the top three breeders in Australia in my mind and he always sells three or four in Perth. That was a huge factor, knowing that she had come off his farm.
“It’s that cliche again – but she really did tick every box.”
Like O’Brien and Oman, Western Australian-based Miller had clearly become enamoured with the youngster and off the back of that mutual admiration a new partnership was born.
“When we were looking at her on the third or fourth look, Simon Miller was there and he is a great friend of mine, and he was looking at her and I’d seen him look at her before. I rang Tom again and said: ‘Why don’t we go halves with Simon and he can train her?’
The filly was eventually knocked down to Miller and Magnier for $130,000, which O’Brien recalls was a little more than they expected to pay.
“We thought we would get her for $60,000 or $70,000, but you know when you’re buying off Crabby that’s not going to happen,” he said.
“When she was knocked down to us we were standing beside Simon and he turned around and you could see he was emotional. I said to him ‘Do you get emotional every time you buy a yearling?’ and he replied: ‘All I’m thinking about is when I open the mail and have the Coolmore colours.’
“It is a massive thing to train for Coolmore, especially given the fact they have never had a horse in Perth before.
“After buying her, she went down to Amelia Park, Peter Walsh’s property, and we went and saw her the day after the sale. I took a friend of mine from Perth, who also bought into her, with me and when I saw her I said to him: ‘It’s wonderful when you see horses after the sale and you like them even more, because most of the time you don’t’.
“Tom gave me the task of naming her because she is chestnut and Coolmore is in an area of Ireland called the Golden Vale, so I thought it was a very apt name for her.”
After finishing second and winning her first two barrier trials respectively, Golden Vale made an instant impression on her 1000-metre Ascot debut in October, winning by a cosy length and three-quarters, before being sent for a spell.
She then consolidated her place at the top of the market for the Magic Millions WA 2YO Classic with an equally impressive second triumph over the same course and distance on February 3, earning her a Ratings2Win figure of 92.
One of three winners out of dual-winning Magnus (Flying Spur) mare Magnesic, herself a daughter of Listed winner Born Western (Western Symphony) and a three-quarter-sister to Listed scorer Malibu Style. Further back this is the same family as Group 2 scorer The Heavyweight (Zeditave) and stakes-winning pair Lisboa Stand (Gold Fever) and Zedrich (Zeditave).
His father, Churchill, a four-time Group 1-winning son of Coolmore’s late perennial sire Galileo (Sadler’s Wells), is the sire of 218 winners globally, headed by 17 stakes winners, with three of those having won at Group 1 level.
Among his Group 1 winners is the Mitch Freedman-trained Attrition, winner of this season’s Toorak Handicap (Gr 1, 1600m), and he is one of two stakes winners for Churchill in Australia amongst his 40 winners in the country overall.
“I do think that Churchill is an underrated sire,” said O’Brien. “I put Brian Bradley into Golden Vale and he was the biggest Churchill fan I’ve ever met. He has bred mares to him and bought mares to go to him and he just hasn’t has a lot of luck, but this filly is a huge kick for him as well.
“The stallion’s progeny seem to get better with age in Europe, and this filly, because she is neat, it will be interesting to see how she trains on, but we bought her to have a runner in the Magic Millions, let alone looking likely to go off the even money favourite – so the plan has worked so far.”
Golden Vale will jump from barrier 11 tomorrow with Holly Watson, who rode her in her most recent start, retaining the ride.
Whatever the outcome over the weekend, O’Brien and Oman will be at the Magic Millions complex again next week on the hunt for their next acquisition.
“It is the perfect scenario, but now we are tasked with finding another one,” he said.
“From the moment Simon put a saddle on her, he was effusive in his praise. It is a great story and the main reason was to have the colours in Perth in honour of Mrs O’Brien and it is great for her to have already won two and with a little bit of luck she can win the Magic Millions.”
And despite all the success Coolmore have enjoyed all over the globe, all eyes will be on Pinjarra Park in the hope they can add another feature to their list of achievements.
“We all have a Golden Vale Whatsapp group and you can sense the excitement with MV and Tom, who have obviously had more success than anyone around the world, but the kick they’re getting out of it is fantastic to see,” O’Brien said.