Gringotts
A rose by any other name would smell as sweet, and a race by any other grading – approved or make-believe – is still something to celebrate if you come first, despite all the confusion.
Gringotts (Per Incanto) is making a habit of winning these NSW black type races that aren’t.
At Randwick’s Melbourne Cup day meeting, he won a race called The Big Dance (1600m). That $3 million affair is marked down in Racing NSW and Racing Australia (RA) paraphernalia as Listed, but is not, since it’s among 16 races with alleged upgrades that haven’t been approved by the Asian Pattern Committee. These ‘upgrades’ are therefore not recognised as black type internationally, nor by the two Australian entities where it possibly matters most – Inglis and Magic Millions.
And continuing his musical theme of sorts, last Saturday Gringotts won The Gong (1600m), the Kembla Grange $1 million handicap that’s marked down as Group 3, but again is not, for the aforementioned reasons.
Interestingly, while RA and RNSW formguide information lists these races as black type, the Australia Stud Book (ASB) does not – although it is part of RA – in keeping with the current prevailing forces of confusion and chaos. The ASB appears to be staying in line with international strictures and publications, including the all-powerful International Cataloguing Standards publication “The Blue Book”.
That’s lately, at least.
At the start of this grading shambles, the ASB acknowledged stakes race wins for the first four events held among the 16.
Those were the victories of: Anode (I Am Invincible) in the ‘Listed’ Tapp-Craig (1400m); Athabascan (Almanzor) in the St Leger Stakes (2600m), supposedly upgraded from non-black type to Group 3; Aeliana (Castelvecchio) in the Reginald Allen Quality (1400m), supposedly Listed to Group 3; and Ostraka (Pariah) in the Silver Eagle (1300m) – non-black type to Group 3.
But since late October, the ASB has stopped doing that.
And so the winners of the subsequent ten races affected by all this – all ‘upgraded’ from non-black type – do not have those alleged stakes wins noted on the ASB.
Those horses are Belclare (Per Incanto), Iknowastar (Star Witness), Fawkner Park (Zoffany), North England (Farnan), Pericles (Street Boss), Briasa (Smart Missile), Nikau Spur (Proisir), Headwall (Dream Ahead) – and of course the two-time victim, Gringotts.
If this keeps up, those behind the breeding and training of Gringotts and co might end up in a similar boat to Dennis Lillee, Ian Chappell and the like, who fought a 35-year battle to have their records from the rebel World Series Cricket of the late 1970s recognised among the game’s official statistics.
Just how long these parallel worlds in NSW racing are going to continue is anyone’s guess, as RA and RNSW aren’t speaking about it publicly. Neither is the APC, but it’s doubtful their patience with RA and RNSW will go on forever – which could have grave consequences for Australia’s standing in the world.
For now, it’s as if racing in NSW has two coexisting realms, inhabited by the believers and the non-believers, those bedazzled by nice shiny things and those who recognise fools’ gold, those who consume only the mainstream Sydney media and those who look elsewhere.
Or to use a Harry Potter analogy, it’s a bit like the Wizard and the Muggle worlds. As with everything in this saga, it’s not quite clear which is which, but there’s no doubt who the mugs are.
Which brings us back to this five-year-old New Zealand-made gelding trained by Ciaron Maher.
While Gringotts sounds like it could be a German province or a worm affliction, he’s actually named after the Gringotts Wizarding Bank in JK Rowling’s magical books and movies where, among other things, one can go to exchange Muggle money for wizarding cash.
And whether it’s earned from black type or not, and whatever currency it might be converted to, Gringotts – like any good bank – is making truckloads of it.
Having started with three wins in five starts in and around Melbourne early last year, he’s been switched to Maher’s Sydney (or Bong Bong) stable and has lately made the most of NSW being awash with cash, earning $2.47 million in four runs this campaign.
In between times he won four of eight, including a trip to Tamworth to claim its cup last April, backed up with a visit to Doomben to win the Members’ Handicap (Listed, 1600m). That, at least, is his one legitimate black type victory – amid nine wins from 17 starts and a tick more than $3 million in prize–money.
Gringotts has also been close to a perfect record this preparation, resuming with a 0.01 length second in Randwick’s Bill Ritchie Handicap (Gr 3, 1400m) before a 0.18 length second in Rosehill’s Alan Brown Stakes (1400m).
His is a record that would look impressive in any family, which is perhaps just as well. With the pedigree he has, involving one stand-out relative in particular, Gringotts was always going to be under a bit of pressure to perform.
He’s out of the unraced Miss Bluebell (Savabeel), who’s out of the unraced Operavega (Stravinsky), and then you get to the third dam and strike real gold. She’s Vegas Magic (Voodoo Rhythm), who’s also the dam of Vegas Showgirl (Al Akbar), who’s of course quite well known as the mother of a mare named Winx (Street Cry).
While he won’t match the heights of that relatively distant cousin, Gringotts is at least serving justice to his bloodlines.
Whangarei’s Totara Park Stud bred Gringotts, stemming from a visit to a New Zealand Bloodstock broodmare sale in 2010 by the farm’s owner Les Donaldson.
There, he bought two sisters – purchases as prescient as they were cheap. He paid $1,200 for seven-start maiden Vegas Dancer (Stravinsky), and just $700 for her unraced sibling Operavega. They were the last two named foals of Vegas Magic.
At the time, the pair had a quite good older half-sister, Vegas Magic’s previous foal, Vegas Showgirl, who’d won twice at Listed level and been once Group 3 placed.
But four years later, Vegas Showgirl’s second foal Winx would start racing by winning her first three starts, the last at Group 2 level.
As the Winx extravaganza got unfolded – and Vegas Showgirl’s fourth foal El Divino (Snitzel) became a Group 3 winner just for good measure – Totara grew increasingly excited.
Operavega had three foals before Donaldson bought her. Two were city winners in Hampden (Savabeel) and Vega (Duelled), and the other was a winner who was metro placed in Pont (Savabeel).
For Donaldson, who died in 2018, Operavega had a Buffalo Man filly who never received a name, and then Miss Bluebell in 2012.
After one unraced colt, Miss Bluebell was sent to Iffraaj at the height of Winx mania in 2017 and threw filly Millefiori, who would become a city winner and Listed placed.
Next up, Totara – now run by Donaldson’s daughter Nicci Oberholster and her husband Dirk – sent Miss Bluebell to Little Avondale Stud’s Per Incanto, then standing for just $12,500, and this produced Gringotts.
A year later, in 2020, a brother emerged in Dan Vegas. He won his first two races in June this year, appropriately at Whangarei, before being sold to Hong Kong, where he’s awaiting his first start as Wave Garden.
Alas the young Gringotts went through the Karaka Yearling Sale without attracting a bid, owing to a slight X-ray issue. He was bought out the back by Katrina Alexander for $100,000.
“We were a bit gobsmacked, because he was a very impressive looking colt, but the vets put the kibosh on him,” Oberholster said.
The colt later went to Karaka’s Ready To Run sale, where he failed to meet a $450,000 reserve. Maher later swooped in a private purchase, rumoured to be more than $700,000.
The pairing of Miss Bluebell with Per Incanto has recreated hints of pedigree wizardry. The stallion is by Winx’s sire Street Cry (Machiavellian), who appears to go very well with the Vegas Magic line.
“We liked that Per Incanto was a son of Street Cry, with that Winx nick,” Oberholster said. “Plus he leaves really good horses and was in our budget at the time. Now he’s up to $50,000, but we’d be happy to go again at this point.”
Plus, Per Incanto over Miss Bluebell’s sire Savabeel (Zabeel) has been a smash hit for Little Avondale’s surging 20-year-old. It’s his second–best nick, behind O’Reilly (Last Tycoon) by winners. But they’re level on stakes winners, with four apiece, and Savabeel is ahead on the winners-to-runners ratio, his 14 from 18 being 77.7 per cent to the 65.1 of O’Reilly, with 41 from 63.
Beyond that winning sireline over distaff line combination, there are few spells of duplication trickery woven in Gringotts’ pedigree.
Influential mare Almahmoud makes five appearances in the seventh generation. Most are of course from the ubiquitous Natalma (Native Dancer), but for extra strength one near the top is through Cosmah (Cosmic Bomb), dam of Halo (Hail To Reason), Machiavellian’s damsire.
There’s only one first-five duplication to write home about, with Sir Ivor at 5f x 5m in useful places, as the sire of Per Incanto’s third dam, and of Miss Bluebell’s third sire, Sir Tristram.
Oberholster has been true to her word, with Miss Bluebell covered by Per Incanto again last week – a few days before Gringotts franked the mating again at Kembla.
“We’re absolutely over the moon,” she said. “We’re small breeders, we’ve only got four mares, and for us the thrill is just enormous. It’s lovely there’s still a place for the small breeders.”
Per Incanto, literally the Italian stallion, continues to kick goals, even if his list of Australian stakes winners this season sits at three – when it could be four if Gringotts had won sanctioned stakes races – and his ‘stakes wins’ says three when it could be six (two to Gringotts and one to Belclare).
Known as Magnum at Little Avondale for his initials, Per Incanto is the leading New Zealand stallion by the undisputed matter of money on the Australian general sires’ table, sitting in ninth place – well up from a career-high finishing position of 26th two years ago. Next best from New Zealand come Tavistock (Montjeu) in tenth, and Savabeel in 14th.
Per Incanto has had eight stakes horses this term in Australia and New Zealand.
“He’s just having a wonderful season,” said Little Avondale’s Sam Williams. “I said in about July, I believe the horse could be in for his best spring yet, and he’s posted that.”
Williams also noted “how influential Street Cry’s blood is at the moment” with two other sons in the top 15 on the Australian general sires’ table.
Top spot is held by Pride Of Dubai – thanks to Everest winner Bella Nipotina and Pride Of Jenni. Street Boss sits 15th, with his top performer another who could have added to his stakes winners list in a different universe – Pericles – winner of the supposedly Listed Five Diamonds (1800m).
And Williams feels better may still be to come from Per Incanto, given his first crop stemming from his boosted 2022 service fee are now yearlings.
“I personally think Per Incanto over the next couple of years could have a real run of it, especially since we’re seeing the first crop from the mares who came to him at $50,000. They’re a wonderful bunch of yearlings,” said Williams, noting Per Incanto’s class had also shown through his daughters at stud.
“Even as a broodmare sire, he’s had nine individual stakes horses, and he’s got one of the best sprinters in the world as a broodmare sire, in Ka Ying Rising.”