Heys’ desire for top-level recruits fuels million-dollar outlay at Easter
Young trainer backed by long-term owner to banish memories of Group 1 misses and prepare elite-level winner
Trainer Bryce Heys has a rising flame of ambition burning inside him.
The former handler of Spieth (Thorn Park), many will recall his tearful interview which endeared him to the industry in the aftermath of the 2016 VRC Darley Classic (Gr 1, 1200m) after his stable star was touched off by Malaguerra (Magnus) by the narrowest of margins.
The horse would never deliver that elusive first Group 1 for Heys, falling short by a similar margin of significant millimetres in the VRC Lightning Stakes (Gr 1, 1000m) in the autumn of 2017.
Yet a desire to train at the highest level, and a realisation that it comes at a notable cost, led led the young trainer to turn heads late in the day of the final session of last week’s Inglis Easter Yearling Sale, securing a standout So You Think (High Chaparral) colt and an I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit) filly from a sought–after family, each for a seven-figure price, at the blue riband sale.
“The reality is that, at this moment, they’re all worth the same, but what I’ve found over the last five years, you go into a sale now, whether it’s a Classic sale or the Gold Coast, wherever it is, the buying bench is so well researched and rehearsed on what they want and what they’re looking for, everyone is just better at what they do and you see it year-in, year-out, so it’s just getting harder in that respect to source horses,” said Heys, who trains a small team of horses from his Warwick Farm base.
“First and foremost you’ve got to back your judgement on these and it’s the Easter sale so it’s the creme de la creme within a small, condensed catalogue and everyone’s there to play. So it’s going to be expensive.”
Both yearlings were purchased for a long-term backer of Heys who has been with him ‘since day dot’, and connections were prepared to go to the lengths required to secure the quality racing prospects, with Heys having his sights set on the So You Think colt, catalogued as lot 415 from the Segenhoe draft, a long way out from the sale, with a bid of $1 million enough to secure to colt.
“Both are for a long-term client,” said Heys. “We didn’t necessarily approach the sale with a particular type of horse, ie an earlier horse or a later horse, we just came up with a list of horses and he was just a colt I fell in love with, as you’ve got to do, and then you’ve got to pay that sort of money.
“He’s a colt that just got better every time you saw him, despite the first impression being pretty much impeccable.
“I felt he was a million-dollar colt and he deserved that sort of price,” he continued. “Three days before the sale I pretty much turned to the buyer and said if they’re not prepared to go to a million dollars on him then we’re probably better setting our sights on something else.
“I felt that he was that good, so we were always prepared for him to be at that mark.”
Coolmore’s So You Think, a stallion that is having an eyecatching season after securing a seventh individual Group 1 winner through Think It Over, and landing the weekend’s Chairman’s Quality (Gr 2, 2600m) with Quick Thinker, is a sire that Heys is familiar with having worked at Windsor Park Stud when he was foaled.
“In my younger days I worked at Windsor Park Stud when High Chaparral was shuttling there and so I had a bit of experience with him up close and I’ve always been a huge fan.
“I was there when So You Think was foaled and I distinctly remember him as a yearling. So I’ve always had somewhat of an attachment to that sireline, they’re just hard to buy the nice ones.
“I’m lucky enough that (the owner) backed me into choosing a couple of horses for him, but this sort of horse – So You Think, the horse himself – he’s an owner that desires that sort of horse, so all the planets are aligned with him.”
Six lots later and Heys found himself parting ways for another seven-figure yearling, this time $1.4 million for a yearling by I Am Invincible, who’s fillies have been sought after at the sales, with this filly one of seven to have sold for over a million dollars at this year’s yearling auctions.
“I didn’t expect to be able to get her,” exclaimed Heys. “I knew she would be very popular and she made significantly more than I expected, but it’s a very, very hard family to get into.”
The first foal out of Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice) stakes placegetter Miles Of Krishan, the filly is from the black-type family of Ball Of Muscle (Dubawi), Super Easy (Darci Brahma) and Terravista (Captain Rio), the horse that won out in the bob of heads against Heys’ Spieth in the Lightning Stakes, while this is also the family of Cornflower Blue (Savabeel), a Group 3 winner in New Zealand this season and third placegetter in the NZ 1,000 Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m).
“I don’t know everyone that was on the horse, but I do suspect that there were obviously some breeding syndicates or studs that were on her just because of how difficult a family it is to get into.
“She will be a strong breeding proposition, we paid so much for her, but she’s a very sharp filly and we’ll see where we end up with her at the end of the year and what she’s shown us.”
Heys has a stable of 14 horses at Ellerslie Lodge, training eight winners under his name last season, and they are two statistics the New Zealander acknowledges need to head upwards in the years to come if he is to compete in the highly competitive Sydney metro environment.
“The quality and numbers are increasing. I’ve had no numbers the last two years really, and that’s probably because I’m not the best marketer of myself,” he added.
“Everyone always feels that they have a niche, but we are a small stable, and we don’t necessarily rush these horses, but I do feel this year if we do get a quality horse, in time we can get something out of them.
“Here in Sydney, the bigger trainers dominate and, as expensive as these horses are, they’ve got to go on and hopefully be carnival horses.
“But even competing here on a midweek level in Sydney, you’ve only got to go and get the racebook out and have a look at the breeding of some of those horses, the high majority of them are very well bred and there’s no coincidence that they’re by the top stallions in Redoute’s or I Am Invincible.
“Being realistic about trying to compete, these are the stallions that you’ve got to have.”