Penang Turf Club’s fate set to be sealed
American John Stewart has been creating the headlines when it comes to investment in the Australian industry over the past eight weeks, but arguably even more significant has been the activity on the Gold Coast this week by established US studs Hill ‘n’ Dale and Mt Brilliant Farm.
The two studs have purchased horses in Australia previously – as has fellow big-name American breeder and owner Barbara Banke – but the pandemic seemed to slow down some US breeders of their ilk participating in the southern hemisphere market.
But this week Hill ‘n’ Dale’s John and Jes Sikura bought the top-priced weanling at the Magic Millions National sale – an $800,000 I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit) filly – and Mt Brilliant Farm’s Hutton Goodman paid $1 million for the Wootton Bassett (Iffraaj) half-sister to Hong Kong champion Golden Sixty (Medaglia D’oro).
SF Bloodstock, a shareholder in Hunter Valley stud Newgate Farm, is a large-scale investor in American and Australian racing and breeding, so Tom Ryan has a strong handle on the industry in both jurisdictions.
He says key US industry figures are paying increasing attention to Australia.
“Australia is a very well run [and] regulated market down here and I think people are starting to understand it a little better,” Ryan said at the Gold Coast this week.
“Probably over time they’ve watched groups like us be in this market and groups like Starlight and so forth over the years having a level of success down here.
“It’s the other side of the world but the world is becoming a smaller place.”
The Sikuras, whose Australian agent is Will Johnson, also bought a $1.7 million I Am Invincible yearling filly at the Gold Coast in January who will be trained by Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott for Hill ‘n’ Dale.
Mt Brilliant Farm’s Wootton Bassett filly will also be trained out of Tulloch Lodge at Randwick.
“[Australia is] a robust market and the game’s only going to continue to get smaller with the participants playing on a global level, whether it be Europe into America, or Americans buying here and vice versa,” Johnson says.
“You just go through our catalogues now and there’s so much American blood, so it makes sense for them to come down and get some Australian bloodlines and source horses by the best stallions like I Am Invincible from nice families.”
Reflecting on Tuesday’s race fillies and mares session, Ryan said: “The top’s strong and I thought quality was hard fought for. People line up in droves for the good ones and I thought it trickled down nicely throughout the market.
“It felt like there was a good vibe in here, a good spread of buyers from Japan, to Mr Zhang, to Coolmore. The market was what you’d hope it would be.”
The lower Australian dollar (66 US cents on Thursday) also makes Australia an attractive proposition to international breeders who are prepared to think globally.
“I think what these mares make here to what you see overseas, and I go to America each year. The product’s still cheap here,” says Magic Millions managing director Barry Bowditch in a similar view shared by Yulong chief Vin Cox.
“I think we’ve got a lot more depth through the middle [of the market]. But what a blue hen mare can make in other parts of the world, there’s still value to be found. I think the international players that aren’t here or aren’t participating need to pay more attention to what’s going on.”
Resolute Racing’s John Stewart, who did not buy at the Magic Millions, underbid Winx’s (Street Cry) Pierro (Lonhro) filly at the Inglis Easter sale and bought six others at Riverside. He also bought three-time Group 1-placed three-year-old filly Tutta La Vita (The Autumn Sun) at the Chairman’s Sale for $3.2 million.
***
Magic Millions condensed the schedule for this year’s two-day weanling and three-day broodmare sales, starting on Sunday and running for five consecutive days, ending on Thursday.
It meant that weanlings and broodmares were on the complex at the same time with inspections starting for the weanlings the preceding Wednesday and the mares last Friday. A lot of vendors had drafts in both sales.
In recent years, the weanlings have been sold on the Thursday and Friday of the previous week before the mares are sold from Tuesday to Thursday.
Widden’s Antony Thompson is in favour of the new format which saw the weanling sale start at 11am and the race fillies.
“You don’t really need the lag time in between them,” he told this column. Around the world, at Keeneland [in America] they’ll sell weanlings and mares in the same books spread throughout.
“I think there’s enough time up here with the delayed starts, so I don’t think anyone was under too much pressure.”
Thompson even suggested a shake-up to the compilation of the mares’ catalogue.
“I’d even be keen to see the mares consolidated or seeded a bit, so you had all the nice race fillies on day one, day two has the more commercial or what are deemed to be the more expensive mares and then the lesser mares are sold on day three.”
One of the possible criticisms of the new format has been the extra pressure placed on labour, but again Thompson doesn’t see it as an issue.
“It’s not like a yearling sale, you don’t have nearly as many inspections. Your parades don’t take as long. The mares come out, people look at the mare, they like the mare, she’ll go up and back and they’ll put them back in their box,” he said.
“It’s not like a yearling sale where they’re wanting to see how their temperament is, do their second looks, their third looks and then bring their clients around.
“From a staff and labour perspective, it’s much more lowkey and easier to manage.”
***
Seymour Bloodstock’s Darren Thomas and Warrnambool businessman Col McKenna are backing South Australian trainer Aaron Bain with horses with news that the dual-code horseman will operate from Kildalton Park at Angaston, the property where the Hayes family’s Lindsay Park legacy began.
Bain, who also trains standardbreds from a private property near Gawler, will operate from Kildalton Park from July 1 after growing his business from zero to more than 50 horses on the books in two years and training 47 winners.
He intends to be active at the major yearling sales next year.
“This property allows us to that client base. Already and leading up to it, we’ve got support from Seymour Bloodstock and Col McKenna who have jumped on board just recently and will in the future,” Bain tells us.
“There’s two or three other people that when you start to race horses in their colours, it’s going to put our business on a larger trajectory to where we want to be.”
The trainer has grown his business from scratch largely by picking up tried horses.
“[On Wednesday] we bought four online through Inglis to serve our owners and our business has grown from that, but now we need that client base to buy those good young horses and start trying to find that superstar that every stable is looking for,” he said.
“Racing with them is one thing, getting results is the other, so now the pressure goes on us to get results and no doubt that’s what people will be looking for later in the year.”
As part of the ongoing lease agreement, businessman Wayne Mitchell, who is a partner in Tony and Calvin McEvoy’s Ballarat-based McEvoy Mitchell Racing, will ensure the property and infrastructure is well-maintained. It will allow Bain and his thoroughbred training partner Ned Taylor to focus on the horses.
He will continue to operate a 55-horse harness racing stable in conjunction with his growing thoroughbred interests.
“It’s challenging, but I wouldn’t have it any other way and I wouldn’t do one without the other. That is what I think has always been unique about our business. Moving to Angaston in part takes that stigma away from us being a harness trainer,” he says.
“We want to stamp our spot in thoroughbred racing, not only in SA, but around Australia in time.”
***
Australian racecourses Rosehill and Sandown aren’t the only tracks in line to be sold off for housing.
In Malaysia, the Penang Turf Club’s 81-hectare site could also be sold off for as much as RM6 billion (AUD$1.925 billion), a move that would spell the end of racing on the island, known as the Jewel of the Orient.
The 160-year-old Penang Turf Club, which shares the weekend racing calendar with Selangor Turf Club in Kuala Lumpur and the Perak Turf Club in Ipoh, is the oldest of Malaysia’s three racecourses.
An extraordinary general meeting has been set for June 10 to obtain approval from the club’s ordinary members for the sale of the land in Jalan Batu Gantong, Malaysia’s The Star reported last weekend.
It said the club’s members, which numbers about 600, are expected to vote in favour of the sell-off and that any successful bidder would have to convert the land from its current recreational status to commercial. PTC members would receive a dividend from the sale of the site.
“PTC has signalled the market through middlemen to look for local and international buyers. The highest bidder will get the right to redevelop the land,” the paper said.
Penang held a meeting last Sunday, with 28 horses running across five races. On the same day, Selangor hosted ten races.
Singaporean racing identity Eric Koh attended Sunday’s Penang meeting and posted on social media the following day “All is not lost? Let’s try?” in the hope of an alternative plan being formulated to save racing on the island.