“In time we’d like to think we’ll enter into the stallion game”
Ridgmont Farm’s Cunningham family are among the biggest financial beneficiaries of the sale of boom Magic Millions 2YO Classic (RL, 1200m)-winning colt Storm Boy (Justify) to Coolmore.
It’s a deal, which was finally confirmed on Wednesday, that could value the two-year-old at more than $50 million – and possibly $62.5 million – if he continues to take all before him on the racetrack, principally at Rosehill and Randwick in the coming months if he is to complete a cleansweep of the Sydney two-year-old Triple Crown.
Not since Pierro (Lonhro) in 2012 has a two-year-old won the Golden Slipper, Sires’ Produce Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m) and Champagne Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m).
The Cunninghams – Gary and Loralie and their children Stephanie, Peter, Mitchell and Xavier, the latter two who are particularly bitten by the thoroughbred bug – took sole ownership of Hunter Valley nursery Ridgmont Farm last year, buying out their partners Andrew Dunemann and Neil Douglas.
Standing stallions at the former Glastonbury Farms stud is a consideration for the Cunninghams, and while Storm Boy could have been their statement horse, their business sense suggested selling down their interest in the colt – they owned “a leg” – was the most sensible decision.
Mitch Cunningham admitted that they did hold fleeting discussions about standing Storm Boy at Ridgmont.
“There was certain conversations around it – and in time we’d like to think we’ll enter into the stallion game – but I don’t think the business at the moment is at a stage, infrastructure wise, to be able to stand stallions, nor do we have the broodmare band to be able to support the stallion,” Cunningham told this column.
“It would just be a play that was too risky for us at the moment, but I think if there ever was a stallion we would go chips in with, Storm Boy is certainly that profile.
“I do think the success of the stallion, as with all stallions, is going to be contingent on landing at a stud that has the credentials to stand him as well as the broodmare band to support him.”
There are many winners out of Storm Boy and bloodstock agent Jim Clarke is one of them, having been given the task of negotiating potentially the most valuable stallion deal in Australian history on behalf of the horse’s syndicate of owners.
Magic Millions also won, having sold the horse through its January Gold Coast sale last year, while the valuation on the colt – perhaps as much as $22.5 million paid up front – gives its $3 million 2YO Classic (RL, 1200m) genuine legitimacy as a “stallion-making” race alongside the likes of the Slipper, Golden Rose (Gr 1, 1400m) and the Coolmore Stud Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m).
Yes, Storm Boy is a rare article, both in pedigree, physique and talent, but the fact stallion operations – Yulong and Vinery also made offers worth tens of millions of dollars – were willing to put up so much money on a three-start Group 3-winning colt speaks volumes for the horse and the race.
As for Federation of Bloodstock Agents Australia member Clarke, there’s no ego – he’s humble, thorough, honest and great company – and it speaks volumes that the Cunninghams have him as their chosen agent and adviser and that Storm Boy’s trainers Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott were prepared to back him in to get the best result for their clients.
“In terms of my involvement, obviously I’m thrilled to have been asked to handle it. It’s a great coup for me and my career,” Clarke told this column. “It’s the first stallion I’ve completed as an independent agent.”
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The early crow rarely ends well, but for Vinery Stud thankfully the pre-race confidence was justified.
On Wednesday, Vinery booked an advertisement with ANZ promoting the deeds of its emerging young Coolmore Stud Stakes-winning stallion Exceedance (Exceed And Excel) siring his third first crop winner – at least an hour before Flyer did just that by scoring at Sandown.
The tip for the Rosemont Stud-owned homebred, a first starter for trainer Jason Warren, spread like wildfire around Inglis’ Riverside Stables earlier that day, prompting Vinery to have the advert designed.
The filly, who took a narrow gap under jockey Daniel Stackhouse, was heavily backed, firming from double figures to $5.50.
Word has it that Rosemont principal Anthony Mithen was among those to declare Flyer as a Sandown certainty to anyone who would listen.
Not only did Flyer get the cash, she also enhanced the value of her dam Miss Toorak Flyer (Toorak Toff) also producing the Rosemont-raced, Warren-trained stablemate Treasurway (Starspangledbanner), a Group 3-winning two-year-old last season.
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While the attention is on Saturday’s Inglis Millennium (RL, 1100m) Magic Millions’ Perth equivalent is just a week away and it’s a filly with a strong east coast connection who is the dominant favourite.
The Simon Miller-trained Golden Vale, a daughter of Coolmore’s Churchill (Galileo), is the $2.20 top elect for the $250,000 Magic Millions WA 2YO Classic (RL, 1200m).
According to Ratings2Win, Golden Vale carries the highest last-start rating heading into Saturday week’s race at 92, the figure recorded first-up at Ascot on February 3 over 1000 metres which suggests she is entitled to be at the top of betting.
Unbeaten in two starts either side of a spell, Golden Vale sports the navy silks of Coolmore with Tom Magnier and his brother MV listed in the ownership as well MV’s brother-in-law Paddy Oman and Segenhoe’s Peter O’Brien.
They paid $130,000 for the filly out of the Willow Dale Farm draft, consigning her on behalf of Victoria’s Robert Crabtree, meaning she was ineligible for the Westspeed bonus scheme.
It is strenuously denied that the buying trio of Oman, O’Brien and Brian McGuire, who has since joined Coolmore full-time after a stint as an independent agent, thought they were buying a Westspeed-eligible yearling when they purchased the now very talented and valuable Golden Vale almost 12 months ago.
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This column comes to you from Inglis’ Riverside Stables in Sydney, but it also gives us a chance to reflect on some of the happenings from last week’s Karaka sale.
Raconteur and Matamata mystery man Jeff Dore, a New Zealand racing media figure for 25 years with links to some of New Zealand’s premier stables, is a Karaka press box regular and resident comedian who doesn’t mind taking his guests off-Broadway once the formalities of a sale day are complete.
And by off-Broadway, we mean Karangahape Road, Auckland. There was a sight or three etched into the memory, but the eye-opening adventure to get to the Malaysian restaurant Sri Penang was worth the effort.
The decor and exterior – that being the sights of K Road, as it’s referred to – were deceptive but the family run eatery was brilliant, the food excellent, owner Angela a delight and the value for money unquestionable. We’ll be back, dodging the street hustlers and who knows what, in the process.
Another restaurant visited on our travels, Lupino in Mission Bay, equally had a view to behold, the picturesque Half Moon Bay.
Greater contrasts you couldn’t imagine, but on both occasions the company was a joy, firstly Jeff and a couple of other media types at Sri Penang, then at Lupino with the popular bloodstock agents Johnny McKeever and his wife Susie, along with NZB’s new recruit Andrew Buick and NZTM’s Andrew Birch, a group as comfortable mixing with the battlers as they are mingling with the industry’s high-flyers.
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I’m certain there’s multiple lessons to be learned from this tale from New Zealand’s Karaka sale.
Firstly, never be caught spending an inordinate amount of time at the airport hire car depot – because your colleague Justin disembarks his plane without taking his hand luggage with him – otherwise you’ll be talked into driving an electric car.
Recharging the so-called environmentally friendly vehicle, which requires such repowering after no more than 380 kilometres, isn’t an easy task.
Not when a charging station is already being used, or another is out of order or it’s necessary to be a New Zealand resident to be able to access the app to pay at another station. Never again.
That said, the Karaka experience never lets you down.