Kimochi out to star for emerging player To
Daughter of Brave Smash and fellow bargain weanling buy Tropical Squall to take on pricier rivals in Tea Rose
Two fillies bought as weanlings for a combined $37,000 have strong chances of trumping their far higher-priced rivals – and bringing their sires a breakthrough Group win – in today’s Tea Rose Stakes (Gr 2, 1400m) at Randwick.
Kimochi, a first-crop daughter of Yarraman Park stallion Brave Smash (Tosen Phantom) purchased for $21,000 by expat Hong Kong businessman Leo To, will likely push for favouritism as she strives to convert three straight Group 2 placings into a victory.
And Tropical Squall, another from the first crop of her sire, Kooringal Stud’s Prized Icon (More Than Ready), and bought for $16,000 by the stallion’s owner Gooree Stud, is among the main fancies as she seeks to remain unbeaten at her third start.
Bookmakers last night had the highly rated Ciaron Maher and David-trained Eustace runner Tiz Invincible (I Am Invincible) as a narrow $3.90 favourite for the $300,000 three-year-old fillies’ feature, which is the third leg of the Darley Princess Series. She was just ahead of Kimochi, the filly who flew home to finish three-quarters of a length behind her last start in the Furious Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m).
Rising from wins in a Canterbury two-year-old fillies’ maiden and a 1400-metre Kensington fillies and mares’ Benchmark 72, Tropical Squall was at $6 – the shortest of four Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott-trained runners also including Autumn Ballet (The Autumn Sun, $9), Summer Loving (Exceed And Excel, $19) and Platinum Jubilee (Zoustar, $21).
Kimochi, an Inglis Weanling Sale graduate bred by Brave Smash’s former home Aquis Farm, and Tropical Squall, bred by Kooringal and sold at the Magic Millions Gold Coast National Weanling Sale, are already poster girls for bargain-hunting away from the main stream in today’s heated yearling market.
While the pair’s average price comes to $18,500, the 12 of the Tea Rose’s 16 runners who were put through yearling sales in 2022 cost an average of $326,000. They’re headed by $600,000 Gold Coast purchase Platinum Jubilee, and Inglis Easter graduates Tiz Invincible ($550,000), Mumbai Muse (Zoustar, $525,000) and August Bloom (More Than Ready, $510,000).
Trained by Gary Portelli – who famously won his first Golden Slipper (Gr 1, 1200m) with a $20,000 yearling in She Will Reign (Manhattan Rain) – Kimochi has already earned $243,000 from five starts.
Spelled after a debut second over 1100 metres at Rosehill in November, she resumed by beating Kristilli (Hellbent) over the same trip at Kensington in March, before running third to that filly and Tiz Invincible in the Percy Sykes Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m). After another spell, her three-year-old season began with a swooping third in Autumn Ballet’s Silver Shadow Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m), followed by her eye-catching Furious Stakes run.
“She’s a filly who gave us some good signs from early on when she came into the stable,” Portelli told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“Early on she was a good mover, but she was a bit hot and energetic and wouldn’t relax. Then as we got into her, we started to see a lot of ability. She went enormous when second in her first trial, and was a certainty beaten in her first race when blocked for most of the straight.
“She had a setback with an issue with her pelvis and had to spell, and it was tricky to get her back in order. But she came back and won well and then ran great in the Percy Sykes. We tipped her out and she’s come back enormous this prep.
“I couldn’t be happier with her going into this race. She’s perfect. When you see horses finish strongly over 1200 metres you often think 1400 would be ideal only to find they actually can’t handle the extra trip. But this filly’s got a great finish on her, so I think the 1400 will be ideal.”
Kimochi will jump from barrier five for regular rider Jason Collett, with Tiz Invincible to her inside in gate two for Zac Lloyd, while Tropical Squall and Adam Hyeronimus have to overcome barrier 12 in likely seeking the archetypal Waterhouse-Bott forward position.
While a welcome inside draw could allow the sizable Kimochi to take a more prominent role than usual, Portelli said he was unconcerned with where she landed.
“She might be closer up in the run, but I don’t really mind. She’s just got to make sure she’s wound up and gets clear air at the right time,” he said.
“It’s a big, quality field, so it’ll be a truly run race with no breathers, and no place for the faint-hearted. When it’s a truly run race, I always believe the best horses will win. Rubbish can’t win when it’s truly run. So I think the best horses will find each other in the straight, and hopefully we’re one of them.”
Kimochi is the star so far from the nascent racing and breeding enterprise of 43-year-old To, who owns ten racehorses.
To moved to Sydney last year, but began buying bloodstock in Australia in 2019, starting with a selection of yearlings and six broodmares. Working with bloodstock agent Merrick Staunton and Darley Flying Start graduate Bill Wong, To has since built his broodmare band to around 60, kept at Twin Hills Stud and Amarina Farm.
They’re headed by the Group 1-placed Happy Hannah (More Than Ready), a descendant of the Denise’s Joy-Joie Denise female line bought from Strawberry Hills for $560,000 at the Inglis Chairman’s Sale of 2020 under the banner of To’s Hall Of Fame Bloodstock.
To, who built his fortune in Hong Kong through property and investment before venturing into thoroughbreds, has mostly sold his young stock off the farm. His top yearling sale offering so far has been the $230,000 Camelot (Montjeu) colt bought at Melbourne Premier this year by Chris Waller and Hermitage thoroughbreds out of Dubawi (Dubai Millennium) mare Epic Emirates. A winner in France for Godolphin, she was purchased and sent for a southern-timed cover to Camelot and is one of some eight European mares To has imported in-foal.
While he had initially planned to build his racing stock via yearlings, some modest early outcomes led him towards a more economical waiting game with weanlings. That patience has been rewarded in Kimochi, who today gives Yarraman Park’s second season sire Brave Smash a chance to improve on his one Listed winner (Brave Mead) from 33 runners.
The weanling Kimochi was snapped up for a song from Valiant Stud’s weanling sale draft, with Staunton conducting the bidding while To was stuck in Hong Kong due to the pandemic. In a salute to choice buying, she was in fact the only racing prospect bought by To in 2021.
“In the first couple of years of buying in Australia, we were buying yearlings,” To told ANZ. “But they weren’t so successful, and the yearling market became quite hot, and the prices a bit unreasonable. So we moved to buying weanlings.
“At first we had concentrated on yearlings with good pedigrees. But then we moved to concentrate on weanlings and on type – conformation, moving well, good attitude. Kimochi was the first.
“She was by a first season sire, so we knew she wouldn’t be expensive. And we saw her walking so well. Then we found the pedigree was good. The fourth dam (US Grade 1 winner Infamy) had a very good horse (Innuendo, a four-time stakes winner in Britain and the US), so we decided to gamble. So far, so good.”
For Gooree Stud, Tropical Squall’s evident ability is a silver lining after a raid on the Magic Millions Gold Coast Weanling Sale aimed at lending support to Prized Icon, her $8,800 (inc GST) sire who now has two winners from 11 runners. The stud bought seven weanlings there, two by Prized Icon.
“We bought two fillies by Prized Icon, and in the beginning our intention was to sell both,” said Gooree’s managing director Jeanette Tioseco. “But then this one began growing into a beautiful horse, and that made our team decide to retain and keep her, while we sold all the others we’d bought.
“She stood out from early on, and has that same dark colouring as Prized Icon, which is a good sign that he stamps his stock. But everyone felt she needed to develop a bit more, so we didn’t rush her, and when we thought she was ready we gave her to Gai and Adrian.”
Having debuted only in June, Tropical Squall may lack the experience of most of her rivals today. But her two comfortable wins suggest she’ll recoup many times her tiny purchase price for the famous red and black stripes, validating one of the maxims of the late Gooree Park principal Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco.
“He always said one of the things he liked about racing was he always considered it to be a great equaliser,” Tioseco said. “It doesn’t matter if your horse is worth millions or a few thousand, if they have heart and ability they all run on a level playing field.
“Hopefully, Tropical Squall turns out as good as we expected.”