Home Affairs
They say fortune favours the bold, but it can scarcely have smiled more outrageously than it has on Mel Copelin and Brett Cornish since a daring day out at the sales four years ago.
The Torryburn Stud duo had a white-knuckle ride in securing broodmare Miss Interiors at the Inglis Chairman’s sale of 2017, beating off some heavyweight under-bidders to gain the prize.
They then faced a nervous drive home, with some explaining to do to associates with an eye on the books – most notably Torryburn’s ultimate chief John Cornish – having gone well beyond budget to secure the then five-year-old, for $625,000.
“Brett and I picked her out as the one we wanted, but she did cost a pretty penny,” Copelin tells It’s In The Blood. “We probably paid more than we wanted to. And yes, we probably did get in a bit of trouble when we got home.”
Miss Interiors had a great exterior, but had not exactly shown much was on the inside in her racing days.
Big things may have been expected as the daughter of Flying Spur kicked her career off in stakes class. But having run last in the Group 1 ATC Sires Produce of 2014 at her third start for Anthony Cummings, she was retired two seasons later in the bush, three wins from 25 attempts, on the back of an eighth at Dubbo.
Still, she was a hot ticket at the broodmare sale back in the big smoke 11 months after that, fetching the auction’s sixth-highest price.
A mare of impressive size, she’d presented as an older half-sister – from the Stravinsky dam Ballet D’Amour – to outstanding sprinter Russian Revolution. That three-year-old son of Snitzel, never seen at Dubbo, had won his first five Sydney starts. The latest – three weeks before this broodmare sale – was his first of two Group 1s in The Galaxy, at Rosehill.
Ballet D’Amour, a younger half-sister to triple US stakes-winner Tale To Be Told, had a brief racing career in the US before being brought to Australia. She had also thrown Turbo Miss (Sebring), winner of the Group 3 Frances Tressady Stakes at Flemington, two weeks before Russian Revolution’s Galaxy.
As a bonus, Miss Interiors was in foal to Newgate Farm’s ever-ready sire Deep Field. After a colt was born, Copelin decided on a no-brainer mating with I Am Invincible, standing back then for a mere $110,000, and a second male foal ensued.
The first colt fetched $260,000 at the Magic Millions Gold Coast sale, sold to Shadwell Stud, and was named Aysar. He’s won two from eight for the Hayes-Dabernig yard, came a long neck second in the Caufield Guineas before Group 3 seconds at his past three starts, and is among the favourites for this Saturday’s Group 1 Australian Guineas.
The second colt reaped Torryburn $875,000 when knocked down to Coolmore’s Tom Magnier (and syndicate) after a spirited bidding duel at last year’s Sydney Easter online sale.
A massive colt who went to Chris Waller, he’s known as Home Affairs. A narrow second on debut at Group 3 level last month at Rosehill was followed last Saturday by a classy long-neck win in the Group 2 Silver Slipper Stakes, which has pushed him high into markets for the coveted Golden version later this autumn.
“Miss Interiors is just a machine,” Copelin says. “She didn’t do much on the racetrack, but just looking at the mare in front of us at the sale – she was big, really physically impressive, and exactly the type of speed mare we wanted.
“We searched the whole catalogue and nothing compared to her physically. Plus, we already had foals on the ground by Deep Field, and we liked the look of them.
“We did take a bit of a risk in paying that much for her, but you’d have to say she’s going pretty well. Her first foal is a winner who’s placed at Group 1, and her second foal’s a stakes-winner at two, so you can’t do much better than that.”
Considering Russian Revolution had long since retired, the leap in yearling price between his half-sister’s two sons – from $260,000 to in 2019 for Aysar to $875,000 a year later for Home Affairs – speaks volumes.
“Home Affairs was just this awesome looking horse from day one,” Copelin says. “At the sales everyone just snapped their heads back at him when he walked past.
“He’s huge. He weighed about 560 kilograms in his yearling prep, and he’s just so powerful all over. He’s a horse who really takes your breath away.”
In fact, hinting at his temperament and durability, there was more than one yearling prep involved. The colt was en route to last year’s Magic Millions sale on the Gold Coast when he injured himself on the truck, sustaining a gash to his hock. He was rested, then given another prep for the Easter sale.
“Probably a good thing he hurt himself in January rather than on the way to a late sale like Easter,” Copelin says with a smile she can now well afford.
“We were happy with the price, given it was an online sale. In a live sale we might have got a million for him, because he’s so impressive to look at, but we’re certainly not complaining.”
Not now.
Copelin explains she chose I Am Invincible because “I like to give our young mares the best chance to get up and running”. As it happens, of all the stats collected by the great and prolific sire, Flying Spur mares represent his most successful nick, with a striking 26 winners from 29 runners all time, including two other stakes winners besides Home Affairs in Parlophone and Vinicunca.
Given the huge size of Home Affairs, and likewise Aysar, she opted for the smaller Capitalist for Miss Interiors’ third foal, a “brilliant, strong colt” who’ll be offered this Easter.
The similarly compact Dundeel is the sire of Miss Interiors’ fourth colt now on the ground. She’s in foal to that $66,000 sire again, but it’s likely the blend with I Am Invincible – now $209,000 a go – will be tried again.
“The physicality was the idea in going to Capitalist and Dundeel, but I imagine after this Dundeel she can go to I Am Invincible for the rest of her life!” Copelin says.
“He is a bigger stallion, but it doesn’t matter because now we know the offspring can run.
“And with his service fee, we couldn’t have kept going to I Am Invincible until the mare had proved herself, but she’s certainly done that now.”