Horsetrader coming to an audio book near you
Horsetrader: Robert Sangster and the Rise and Fall of the Sport of Kings, is coming to an audio platform.
First published in 1993 by authors Patrick and Nick Robinson (no relation), the book details the fascinating rise of Sangster, Coolmore’s John Magnier and Vincent O’Brien and how they drove the commercialisation of thoroughbred racing and breeding by spending fortunes on yearlings, particularly in America, in a forerunner to the proliferation of the colts syndicates we see dominating in Australia today, the Magnier family’s Coolmore included.
Sangster’s son Adam Sangster, the studmaster of Swettenham in Victoria, has led the charge to have the well-worn Horsetrader book narrated by voice actor Chris Tester, and it will soon be published on popular audio platforms.
“It’s massively sought after here in Australia, just as in Europe,” Adam Sangster tells ANZ’s sister publication, the Racing Post’s Good Morning Bloodstock column.
“A lot of the big breeders and trainers have given it to their clients over the years, telling them this is how you go about buying yearlings and making stallions.
“Then in March, a pal of mine said he wanted to read it too. I own only one copy myself, so I went to a local bookshop and ordered two of them. I got a call a few weeks later to say they had a couple of hardback copies in, and so I went down there to pick them up.
“I went to pay and the shopkeeper said ‘that’ll be $850, thank you’. I replied ‘Christ, $850 for two books?’
“He said ‘no, that’s the price for one’.”
The recording of the book remains in production, but once it is completed it is expected to be 18 hours long. Profits from the audiobook will be distributed to charitable causes, including within racing, by Sangster, who has underwritten the project.
The influential stallion Sadler’s Wells (Northern Dancer) was one of the success stories of the Sangster/Magnier syndicate. Of course, that sire line continues through the late High Chaparral, his son So You Think and Swettenham’s own Toronado.
Sangster added: “Dad was such an amazing man, and a great father. He loved having people around him, sharing jokes and memories, and he loved Australia. We were lucky to have him. All of us children are still very close and that’s testament to our parents.”
When Horsetrader is available, I’ll be one of the first to purchase it. It would have been handy for the hours spent in the car to and from stallion parades over the past few weeks.
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Speaking of stallion parades, there was a notable absentee at the Darley parades at the weekend – and, no, I am not referring to Palace Pier – with regular MC and auctioneer Steve Davis, a staple of the Kelvinside stallion showreel, unavailable for his annual commitment.
Davis, a Magic Millions and NZB auctioneer, was replaced by well-known media performer Samantha Armytage, herself a thoroughbred breeder alongside her husband Richard Lavender, and she did an outstanding job.
As for Davis, he was in South Africa where he was on the rostrum auctioneering Bloodstock South Africa’s August 2YO Sale. He’s rarely lost for words, and he’s always good for a one-liner, and let’s just say he didn’t let us down with “Little Stevie” who was sold as Lot 164 earlier this week.
Just see for yourself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psxJY-iom10
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You clock up plenty of kilometres getting around the Hunter for all the stallion parades, from Coolmore and Widden to the south and Kitchwin Hills to the north of Scone.
Kitchwin was our last destination on Saturday, day three of ANZ’s tour, and on our way to Mick Malone’s place, having seen Farnan, Captivant and Prague in the flesh at Kia Ora, we stopped in at the Linga Longa pub at Gundy for a refreshment.
No dramas there and as we left the Up And Coming was being run at Rosehill – Tom Kitten just getting the better of Gary Portelli’s three-year-old pair Kintyre and Encap – so the five of us listened/watched the race as we headed off to Kitchwin.
Inexplicably, we took the wrong turn and between the five of us no one could say with any certainty that we were heading in the wrong direction, convincing ourselves that the “Kitchwin turn off can’t be far away”.
About 35 kilometres into the journey, as we approached a narrow bridge and just a kilometre or two past the Moonan Flat pub, we had the realisation that we were, indeed, on the wrong side of the hill – and nowhere near Kitchwin.
An unanswered call from the pay phone to register our distress was made to our boss Charmein Bukovec as we set about conducting a team meeting at the said Moonan Flat pub to discuss our options. It was just as a band was setting up and Libertad was making it three from three with his impressive first-up win in the San Domenico.
There were murmurs that we should stay put (the on-site cabins looked appealing), and there were a few frayed tempers to the suggestion that our “backseat driver should walk”, but Mick and the Kitchwin team’s hospitality is not to be missed, so we turned around on what was now a 55-kilometre trip, avoiding any wayward kangaroos in the process.
I’m not sure what the lesson is in all of this, other than Kitchwin’s stallions Dubious and Graff are worth breeders’ consideration as they represent good value in a competitive market.
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The Strawberry Hill Stud dispersal sale was conducted on-farm on Tuesday, grossing $15.5 million, and many of John Singleton’s trainers were in attendance: Clarry Conners, Gerald Ryan and Kris Lees, the latter of course training champion Samantha Miss (Redoute’s Choice) and sale topper Miss Fabulass (Frankel).
When the Pierro two-year-old daughter of Dear Demi was sold, for $525,000 to Glentree Racing’s Bruce Wilson, it was like the 25-year alliance between Conners and Singleton flashed before the Warwick Farm trainer’s eyes.
Tears welled in his eyes, he had rallied the troops in an attempt to buy the Pierro filly (she had been through his stables recently), as the realisation dawned on him that she wouldn’t be returning to him after a spell.
It was hard not to get a touch sentimental, even just as a witness to what occurred on Tuesday at Mount White.
Singleton is also set to part with the lavish farm on the New South Wales Central Coast, located just an hour north of Sydney airport.
What’s it worth? Suggestions are it would be in the vicinity of $30 million.
Singo’s pub in nearby Gosford, the Railway Hotel, Bar and Steakhouse, was where a few people chose to reflect on the adman’s contribution to thoroughbred racing and breeding. Cop the tip – the food and service were outstanding and the Singleton Group management tell me the businessman intends for his Saddles Bakehouse and Eatery near Strawberry Hill Stud to be taken back in-house (it’s been leased out) in the coming months.
Saddles is a regular stop for those heading back up the Pacific Highway to Newcastle and the Hunter.
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“Jailed drug smuggler nets $1 million a year from super stallion” screamed the Daily Telegraph recently in relation to Damion Flower and champion sire Snitzel, a horse the former baggage handler once raced.
The economics of racing and breeding – a bit like reporting on the Reserve Bank of Australia and interest rates – is lost on many people, including journos. Here at ANZ’s own version of the ABC Fact Check we can dispel some of the misnomers that Flower nets seven figures from the Arrowfield stallion.
Firstly, they claimed Snitzel’s owners receive almost $250,000 every time he services a mare. That’s neglecting the GST component and the fact that he stood for $150,000 (plus GST) in 2021, producing 133 live foals ($19.95 million – not the $40 million the Tele suggested).
Secondly, they say Flower has one shareholding (of, let’s say, 40 shares in the stallion) that’s $498,750 (before expenses for the upkeep and promotion of Snitzel).
That’s not $1 million.
How stallions are managed and funds dispersed differs from stud to stud and stallion to stallion, but most likely is that the 40 shareholders receive one breeding right a year, so that is about 40 foals that aren’t paid for in cash, which brings you back to 93 live foals – $13.95 million or $348,750 per shareholder.
Not bad at all, but a long way from the $1 million the Tele says. It’s that misinformation out in the general public/media which also gives the perception that all breeders are making a fortune every year.
It’s as though people look at the yearling sale results and forget the costs involved in breeding and selling the horse, such as auction house/vendor commissions – and also conveniently overlook the ones at home in a paddock and unable to even be offered at a yearling sale.
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This column is heading for a short spell, but will be back later in September.