Missile shapes as a last chance saloon for regally bred Argentia
Breeding barn beckons if Frankel mare doesn’t fire at Rosehill for her new trainer Pride
Regally-bred stakes-winning mare Argentia (Frankel) could be on her last chance to forestall a second scheduled retirement to the breeding barn in Sydney’s first black type race of the season for new trainer Joe Pride today.
John Camilleri’s five-year-old, a dual Group 3-winning daughter of champion four-time Group 1 winner Princess Coup (Encosta De Lago), is among six of the ten starters resuming from spells in the Missile Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) at Rosehill.
Bred by Evergreen Stud’s Tony Bott and bought for $670,000 by James Harron Bloodstock at the 2020 Inglis Australian Easter sale, Argentia has had some battles serving full justice to her bloodlines and price tag through her 13 starts.
Raced under Camilleri’s Fairway Thoroughbreds banner, she landed with a bang for Victoria’s Anthony and Sam Freedman with two wins – including the MRC Kevin Hayes Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m) – and two Group 2 seconds in her first five outings.
She scored her second Group 3 win in Flemington’s Rising Fast Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m) last spring but endured a disappointing autumn of three unplaced runs.
After her 12th of 14 in Rosehill’s Emancipation Stakes (Gr 2, 1500m) in March, Camilleri decided to retire her. But he was convinced to bring her back for another preparation and has now made her his first horse to be trained by Pride.
That’s partly because of how the stable has surged to become one of the most competitive in the country in the past two years, but, Camilleri said, it’s also due to its proximity to the Hunter Valley, should she be retired in the coming weeks, most likely to be covered by Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice).
Asked yesterday if Argentia would go to stud this season or continue racing, Camilleri said: “I’ll tell you at about four o’clock tomorrow,” before confirming she was “absolutely” on her last chance.
“The stud season starts on September 1, so you wouldn’t want to waste a year with a well-bred mare like that,” he told ANZ Bloodstock News.
Pride, now with 96 named horses on his books, as well as yet-to-be-named yearlings, just completed his finest season. He’s set personal-bests for earnings in the past three seasons, rising more than $4 million to $13.5 million last term, when he scored another stable-high of three Group 1s. Two were through Proven Thoroughbreds’ burgeoning superstar sprinter Think About it (So You Think), the third with Mariamia (Toronado).
Pride took over that former Victorian as an autumn five-year-old and transformed her from a mare who’d won only four starts at benchmark level to the winner of four of her next 11 – including Rosehill’s The Galaxy (Gr 1, 1100m) and the Expressway Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) earlier this year – before her move to the breeding barn.
While noting Pride’s “well and truly proven” record with a number of horses, including Mariamia, Camilleri said Argentia’s new environs didn’t count as a stable transfer.
“It wasn’t a plan to transfer her to Joe,” Camilleri said. “I actually retired her after the autumn, and she was ready for stud in about April or May. But a few people said she couldn’t be covered until September, so why not give her one more go.
“It’s my first horse with Joe. He’s obviously a very good trainer, and he’s had more than one good season. It’s a combination of what he’s done with a lot of horses, not just one mare [Mariamia].
“I just thought – he’s well and truly proven, based in Sydney, and doesn’t have big numbers so I thought she might get a little more attention there, and a new environment can change things. And if she didn’t work out, it’s a short trip back to the Hunter, rather than go back and forth again from Victoria.”
Camilleri, eternally known as the breeder of Winx (Street Cry), said he already had an extremely valuable breeding prospect in Argentia regardless of what she does today, or possibly later this spring.
“They’re rare finds – she’s an absolutely stunning looking mare as well as being a Group–winning mare, as well as being well-bred. It’s not often you get to tick all the boxes,” he said, noting the early second-generation strides of super stallion Frankel (Galileo), who as a broodmare sire has 51 winners from 115 runners worldwide, including four stakes winners.
“It’s a little early but you’d nearly bet your house on him being a great broodmare sire. His father [Galileo] was a great broodmare sire. If he’s half as good as him, he’d have done well.”
While Camilleri hadn’t “completely nailed down” a stallion for Argentia yet, the great Snitzel – about to stand for a personal high $247,000 despite this being his 18th stud season – was “first and foremost on the list”.
“He is a good speed sire, and a good physical mating for her,” he said. “If you’ve got a well-bred mare like that, you’d want to go to I Am Invincible or Snitzel at the moment. The choice is limited.”
Still, as Pride sets out to conjure another Mariamia-style trick, there are signs Argentia mightn’t be done with in racing yet, after two Warwick Farm barrier trials for Pride: a fifth behind today’s second-favourite I Am Me (I Am Invincible), and a second to Looks Like Elvis (All American).
“She’s very much got a point to prove,” Pride told ANZ Bloodstock News. “She wasn’t racing consistently last prep, and she needs to find some form to warrant going on with her. But I’ve been really happy with her. Her trials have been very good. That’s only trial pressure, not race pressure, but we’re happy with her and I’d expect her to run really well.”
While Argentia, a $19 chance today, has pleased Pride with her jump-outs, he’ll also saddle another new stable runner who’s created the biggest buzz out of a barrier trial in some years – the $2.80 favourite Big Parade (Deep Field).
A Group 3 winner who was second in last year’s The Galaxy to Shelby Sixtysix (Toronado), and acquired by Pride after Mark Newnham’s switch to Hong Kong, the gelding hasn’t raced since April last year, but stunned onlookers with a Secretariat-style trial success on July 24 – by 20.9 lengths.
The seven-year-old’s romp, against five rivals over 900 metres on a soft 5 at Warwick Farm, stunned onlookers. Pride was among them, but closer analysis told him the margin was perhaps flattering.
“I read that the time was six lengths quicker than average for that grade of horse, so for a 21-length win, they probably didn’t go as quick as it looked,” he said. “Plus, a lot of the opposition were stayers, and the Godolphin filly [third-placed In Secret] had the handbrake on.
“What does it all mean? We’ll find out today. But the horse is looking great, so I’m looking forward to taking him to the races for the first time in my name.
“He’s a lovely horse, and though he’s just turned seven, he’s only had 18 starts, so he’s not done with yet. He’s going really well, but this race will tell a story. It’s a crucial run for him, because he goes in off four trials. He’s very wound up, but not fully wound up, because he hasn’t raced for 400 odd days.
“But until he goes to the races, that trial win is just that – it’s a trial win. I’ll wait for him to prove himself at the races.”
Shadowing Big Parade in the market at around $3.30 is I Am Me (I Am Invincible), the Ciaron Maher and David Eustace-trained five-year-old who won four straight last preparation, from a first-up Rosehill Benchmark 78 win to a Canterbury Listed, before a fair two-length seventh in the Oakleigh Plate (Gr 1, 1100m) at Sandown.
“Hopefully she measures up well,” co-trainer Ciaron Maher told ANZ Bloodstock News. “She’s certainly prepped up well. She’s won two barrier trials, she’s really dappled up, she’s very good fresh, has drawn ideal and has a lightweight. She ticks a few boxes, actually.
“We actually did think she would go through the grades like she did last prep. Her work was sharp, her trials were good, all her times when she won were slick, and she could do it at both ends, so it was no surprise she could go through the grades.
“She did have a longish prep, and the trip to Melbourne might have been one step too far. But we always felt we’d give her a nice break and have her ready to go, and build on her page a bit. She’s already a well-bred valuable mare, hopefully she can build on that this prep.
“We’ll just make our way through. There’s oodles of races in both states and she can still get into some big races quite nicely at the weights.”
Other Missile runners of interest today are Godolphin entries Golden Mile (Astern, $6.50), seeking redemption from the disappointing autumn that followed his Caulfield Guineas-winning spring, and Ingratiating (Frosted, $8), who tailed off last spring but scored second-up two weeks ago in Caulfield’s Bletchingly Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m).