Moodie brings his Contract Racing team back in-house under Ellerton and Zahra
Brazen Beau colt lands Darley Spring Preview in first payoff of remodelled business
Twelve months ago David Moodie, one of Australia’s most successful owner-breeders for at least three decades, was assessing his new season crop of about 30 yearlings when he determined to return to the formula which had been so successful in the 1990s and early 2000s.
The prolific Victorian breeder, in consultation with Group 1-winning trainers Mathew Ellerton and Simon Zahra, elected to retain his entire 2018 foal crop rather than put some through the yearling sales and put them all in work at Flemington.
The first dividend from that decision was paid yesterday when two-year-old colt General Beau (Brazen Beau) emphatically took out the Darley Spring Preview (900m) at Flemington, stamping himself as a leading hope in Saturday week’s Maribyrnong Trial Stakes (Listed, 1000m) in the process.
General Beau won Australasia’s opening two-year-old race of the season by two and a quarter lengths over Finance Tycoon (Written Tycoon) and first season southern hemisphere-bred Frosted (Tapit) filly The Globe, who was another three quarters of a length away in third.
Moodie, in an interview with ANZ Bloodstock News after General Beau’s success, revealed that his Contract Racing business had undergone a change in direction after putting a number of his crop of foals born each year on the market.
“Interestingly, we did (sell yearlings) for the last ten years but I sat down with Simon and Mathew a year ago and said, ‘look, I want to go back to the grassroots where we started and we’re going to keep all the current crop of yearlings’ which are now two-year-olds for the first time in probably ten years,” Moodie said.
“We’ve got 30-odd two-year-olds in the system and we’re off to a good start. We’re not going to keep that record up, that’s for sure, but hopefully there’ll be three or four that come out of it that are highly competitive.
“That’s about the best strike-rate you can hope for.”
Moodie’s colours of lime, purple and gold braces and armbands have been synonymous with Victorian racing, worn by the likes of Blue Diamond Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) winner Paint (Raami), elite sprinter Miss Kournikova (Mr Greeley), Spectatorial (Spectrum), Casual Pass (Snippets), Black Bean (Raami) and Sunburnt Land (Scenic).
He also took out the 2016 William Reid Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) with Flamberge (Exceed And Excel), trainer Peter Moody’s last Group 1 win before bowing out of the game for an extended period.
Pressed yesterday on the reasoning for keeping the Contract Racing horses with Ellerton Zahra Racing, Moodie said: “At the end of the day, we decided what we used to do, we used to do quite well and had a lot of success over the years. Then, we branched out and started selling yearlings and spreading horses around.
“It was OK, but I’ve gone back to the model that worked from the very first days of Hobsons Lodge we’re it’s all kept in-house.
“There’s only two trainers now, Mathew and Simon. We’ve kept all the current crop of two-year-olds and they’re all being trained by the one (team). I still own a third of that business, so it all made sense.”
Part of the “remodelling” is the upgrading and use of Moodie’s Yungaburra property at Newham near Mount Macedon to become a full-scale training facility as an adjunct to on-course stabling at Flemington.
“There was pressure building as I had to make the decision whether to sell yearlings or not and I decided I was going to keep them all, (Ellerton and Zahra) are going to train them all and we’re going to set the farm up as a training facility as well, which we’ve done,” he said.
“We’ve rebuilt the track, so we’ve effectively gone from 70 horses in work to 100-and-something with the aim of getting back into the top echelon of the trainers’ ranks.
“It’s still predominantly used for pre-training, with horses doing their first month or five weeks here, but we can race out of here and we are already racing them out of here.”
The first sign that Moodie’s conviction to revert to the “Hobsons Lodge days” became apparent about four weeks ago when the intensity of General Beau’s training was increased, prompting Ellerton and Zahra to put a bit of a rap on him.
“He’s a nice horse and always has been. It’s very difficult to find those horses who are up and ready at this time of year. They are one in 100, so he’s that sort of horse,” the former Racing Victoria chairman declared.
“They’ve had a rap on him for a month, I suppose. He just started doing everything right. He is a beautiful animal.”
From a long-time Contract Racing family, General Beau is a son of the Lonhro (Octagonal) mare Phosphorescence who in turn is a half-sister to the stakes-placed Double Jeopardy (Exceed And Excel) and a daughter of high-class Group 3-winning mare Nediym’s Glow (General Nediym).
One of about 50 broodmares owned by Moodie, Phosphorescence has a yearling filly by Nicconi (Bianconi), her fifth foal, and a Shamus Award (Snitzel) colt who was born a fortnight ago after being “zip from three”.
The potential turnaround in fortunes in the breeding career of Phosphorescence has caught Moodie by surprise, so much so, he was contemplating selling her only months ago.
“The first three out of the mare haven’t set the world on fire. The Canford Cliffs (Candescence) had a little bit of ability but he was difficult mentally. The second horse (Sunlit Storm) was too big in a way. He was a huge horse and he had that against him and he couldn’t get it together.
“The third horse (Street Glow) is a little bit the same and all of a sudden she seems to have turned the corner. She was always a lovely horse, and the Nicconi yearling is probably our best filly type wise (on the farm).
“She’s also just had a foal (by Shamus Award) who is a good sort, so she’s got three not-so-good sorts to three very good sorts.”
She will return to Brazen Beau (I Am Invincible) this year while Moodie, who has had a strong relationship with Darley for many years, will support two of its high-profile shuttle stallions this year in Too Darn Hot (Dubawi) and Blue Point (Shamardal).
He is also sending mares to Coolmore shuttler Churchill (Galileo) this year.