‘I think it’s the best foal the mare’s thrown’
Christian hoping Space Rider’s brother can make waves when offered on the Gold Coast
Talented colt Space Rider (Zoustar) emerged as a genuine contender for the Magic Millions 2YO Classic (RL, 1200m) in a couple of weeks’ time when he made a sparkling debut at Eagle Farm on Saturday, but the win also handed his Magic Millions yearling sale-bound brother a significant update before he goes through the ring at the Gold Coast auction next week.
Trained by Mick Price and Michael Kent Jnr, Space Rider showed a dominant turn of foot to easily beat Grafterburners (Graff) by 3.2 lengths, a performance which propelled him to $7.50 third–equal favourite with Peter Snowden’s Memo (Capitalist) for the $3 million contest on January 11, with the pair sitting behind market leaders Icarian Dream (Blue Point) ($5) and Gallo Nero (Wootton Bassett) ($6).
Price and Kent Jnr combined with co-owners TFI and Dermot Farrington to purchase the son of Zoustar (Northern Meteor) from breeder Michael Christian’s Longwood Thoroughbred Farm draft for $500,000 at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale last January.
Out of the Christian’s homebred Fuddle Dee Duddle (Red Ransom), Space Rider is a sibling to a further fours winners including his brother, Maribyrnong Plate (Gr 3, 1000m) winner Brereton (Zoustar), who was bought for $1 million at the Gold Coast in 2021.
“He [Space Rider] was always a beautiful colt and if I’m honest, we were a touch disappointed at the time that he didn’t make more than $500,000 at Magics,” Christian told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“I was really interested to hear the comments from Chad Schofield [winning jockey] that he has the most beautiful attitude and that is a hallmark of him right through from when he was a foal. It wasn’t surprising to see him win the race in that sort of manner.”
Christian rates the colt bound for the 2025 edition of the sale as ‘the best foal’ Fuddle Dee Duddle has ever thrown and is looking forward to presenting him to the buying bench a week on Wednesday.
“It is very exciting taking the full-brother to the sale in the next couple of weeks,” he said. “The good mind has been a common theme of all her progeny and she herself is the most beautiful mare and the colt going to the sale is the same.
“In terms of physicality, I think he has actually got a bit more power, a little bit stronger bone and more strength than Space Rider and we’re super excited to take him because he really is a magnificent specimen.
“I said to someone the other day: ‘I think it’s the best foal the mare’s thrown’.”
Fuddle Dee Duddle hails from a family Christian has farmed, shaped and moulded for a number of years and the investment has repaid him in spades time and time again.
The strong association stretches back to 2004 when he teamed up with Peter Morgan to purchase Fuddle Dee Dudde’s granddam, Bella Inez (Beautiful Crown) for $190,000 at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale.
“Many, many years ago with Peter Morgan, who has been a great friend and inspiration to me, we bought Bella Inez and we paid a lot of money for her because she was a sister to In Top Swing, who won the Caulfield Guineas,” said Christian. “Unfortunately, she had one start in the Blue Diamond Prelude herself before she was injured.”
Bella Inez kicked off her broodmare career by producing Hallowell Belle, a filly by Starcraft (Soviet Star), who was purchased by Denise Martin’s Star Thoroughbreds for $170,000 at the Inglis Premier Yearling Sale in 2010 and went on to win the Gilgai Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m), while she was also placed at Group 1 level on five occasions, including running second in the Blue Diamond Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) in 2011 and the Flight Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) the following season.
Bella Inez’s third foal was Fuddle Dee Duddle and she fetched $240,000 at the Inglis Premier Yearling Sale in 2011, when selling to Western Australian-based operation Geisel Park Stud.
She raced throughout her career in Western Australia, winning four times including at Group 3 level. The mare was bought back by Christian, when he combined with Sheamus Mills Bloodstock to purchase the mare for $230,000 at the Inglis Chairman’s Sale in 2020.
Bella Inez’s final foal was Bella Orfana, a placed daughter of Star Witness (Starcraft), who is now better known as the dam of multiple Group 1 winner and reigning Everest (Gr 1, 1200m) hero Bella Nipotina (Pride Of Dubai).
“Bella Inez, unfortunately, had a colic attack when she was in foal to Fastnet Rock and died at the age of ten. Her four foals, two of them were stakes winners and the final one, Bella Orfana, the dam of the second highest earner in the history of Australian racing, so it’s been incredible. We are very proud of building the family into what it is,” said Christian.
“She [Fuddle Dee Duddle] has been an incredible producer – this is her eighth or ninth consecutive foal. She goes well with Zoustar and has produced some very nice horses.
“Since we’ve sold Space Rider, Bella Nipotina has won three Group 1s including becoming the first mare ever to win The Everest which puts her on a pedestal from a global sprinting perspective. I think when you add all that to what Space Rider has done you would think this colt would be looked at by everyone.
“Space Rider was a beautiful colt and very athletic, but this guy probably got a bit more bone and strength, so it depends on what you are looking for – but he’s a beautiful individual.”
Space Rider’s half-brother is catalogued as Lot 424 (pictured below) and will be offered alongside 11 Longwood Thoroughbred Farm consigned yearlings, including a colt by Vinery Stud’s exciting young stallion Ole Kirk (Written Tycoon), who hails from a similar branch of the family.
Catalogued as Lot 684, the Ole Kirk colt is out of the placed mare Mooinooi (Lonhro), a half-sister to Bella Inez.
“This family has been good to us and we also offer a very nice Ole Kirk colt out of Mooinooi, who is a sister to Bella Nipotina’s granddam. Ole Kirk has made a brilliant start at stud with his two-year-olds,” said Christian.
Among the Longwood draft is a filly by Coolmore Stud-based sire King’s Legacy (Redoute’s Choice) (Lot 673) out of winning mare Miss Venezuela (Starspangledbanner), another who hails from a family Christian has built up over time.
Miss Venezuela is a three-quarter-sister to dual Group 3 scorer Eloping (Choisir), who was bred by Christian and who he retained a share in when she was sold to Dean Hawthorne Bloodstock and the Racing Women Syndicate for $120,000 at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale in 2013.
Eloping’s two winners are headed by dual Group 1 scorer In Secret (I Am Invincible), who was purchased by Godolphin for $900,000 from the draft of her co-breeders Segenhoe at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling in 2021. Segenhoe will offer a sister to In Secret at the Gold Coast and she is catalogued as Lot 353.
“Our strategy has always been to build families and the other family we have built is the Runaway Jesse, the dam of Eloping, who produced In Secret. Eloping’s three-quarter brother Of The Brave was a Group 2 winner and Jesse’s Girl was four-time stakes runner-up and desperately unlucky not to win a stakes race,” said Christian.
“Miss Venezuela is a three-quarter-sister to Eloping and her first foal, the King’s Legacy filly, is outstanding – a really nice type and we can’t wait to get her on the Gold Coast.
“We still own 50 per cent of Eloping in conjunction with our great partners in Segenhoe Stud and we alternate her progeny, so Segenhoe are offering the sister to In Secret this year.”
Longwood will offer a trio of lots by Australia’s reigning champion sire in I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit) including a filly out of the Tesio Stakes (Gr 3, 1600m) winner Lubiton (Snitzel), who has produced two winners to date.
Christian and Mills purchased the daughter of Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice) for $620,000 at the Inglis Chairman’s Sale in 2020, when she was carrying one-time winner Melidesh (I Am Invincible) in utero, while her I Am Invincible two-year-old filly, who was bred by Christian, was bought by Mick Price Racing for $275,000 at the New Zealand Ready To Run Sale earlier this year. The filly will go through the ring as Lot 612.
“The I Am Invincible out of Lubiton and she really is a lovely filly. Her previous two foals by I Am Invincible were really nice horses, but this one has a little bit more substance than the first two foals and that is very exciting,” said Christian.
The operation will also sell an I Am Invincible filly (Lot 352), who is the fourth foal out of Group 3 scorer Ellicazoom (Testa Rossa) and a colt by the Yarraman Park-based sire out of the Group 3 winner and Group 1-placed mare Rimraam (Commands), who Christian and Mills paid $1.5 million for at the 2021 Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale.
“The I Am Invincible filly out of Ellicazoom is also a smashing individual,” said Christian. “She is a half-sister to Godolphin’s Celerity, who has been a bit unlucky in her four starts, including when running fourth in Listed company as a two-year-old.”
The colt out of Rimraam (Lot 843) has been subject to a pedigree update with his half-brother, Hovland (Dundeel), landing his 1600-metre Hawkesbury maiden by 4.4 lengths on December 15.
Among the other offerings is a filly out of the winning Flying Spur (Danehill) mare Hautvillers by Darley shuttler Harry Angel (Dark Angel) (Lot 465), a son of Capitalist (Written Tycoon) out of Australasian Oaks (Gr 1, 2000m) placegetter Ripper Rita (Street Boss) (Lot 844), a filly out of the winning mare Feeling Positive (Not A Single Doubt) by Written By (Written Tycoon) (Lot 391) and a daughter of Trapeze Artist (Snitzel) (Lot 686).
“Harry Angel is another stallion doing well and the filly we offer by him is an attractive, athletic type,” said Christian.
“The Written By filly out of Feeling Positive is a smashing specimen of a horse, while the Capitalist out of the Group 1-placed Ripper Rita is also a really likeable type.”
Longwood will also present a filly (Lot 525) and a colt (Lot 442) by Swettenham Stud-based sire Toronado (High Chaparral), with the filly by being out of Isola Comacina (Bullbars), a winning sister to New Zealand Group 2 scorer Contessa Vanessa, while the colt is the first foal out of the winning Exceed And Excel (Danehill) mare Gloved.
“The colt out of Gloved, who had a lot of ability despite only winning one, and this is her first foal and he’s a beautiful individual,” said Christian. “The Toronado filly has a lovely pedigree and from a filly perspective has everything in place that you would want to see, a quality, beautiful coloured and formed filly who will create a lot of interest when we get to the Gold Coast.
“I think this is the best draft we’ve taken to the Magic Million, it’s just such an even bunch of yearlings and the horses that aren’t by the elite stallions like I Am Invincible and Zoustar, are still lovely types and will be well found. We couldn’t be happier with the quality.”