Plenty Of Ammo
Danny Rose is a breeder who’s had around a hundred horses in his time.
Right now, he’s doing very well with just one.
Rose is the breeder of Plenty Of Ammo (Rebel Raider), the first foal of his lone mare, the 14-year-old Millie’s Reef (Floral Pegasus).
Plenty Of Ammo didn’t race till she was nearly five and now that she’s six she’s still only had seven starts, for her trainer Symon Wilde.
She’s certainly made up for lost time, winning five races including becoming a stakes winner last Saturday in The Valley’s Crystal Mile (Gr 2, 1600m).
Rose, 71, has a long history in racing and breeding, including some noteworthy achievements.
“I bought the first Danehill to be imported to Australia,” he says of Astradane (Danehill), who arrived here in the early 1990s, won six races, and owned the rare feat of going from winning at Towong to winning twice in eight days at Moonee Valley.
He bought a relatively early Zabeel from New Zealand after she’d trialled as a two-year-old in 1997 and watched her win nine races and $1.7 million – back then – including seven in black type capped by the VATC One Thousand Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m).
And in 2003, backed by proceeds from his various business interests, he and wife Hanna bought a 153-acre cattle farm and turned it into Cherokee Rose Stud.
“I would’ve bought a hundred horses, maybe more,” says Rose, who also stood two stallions in Manner Hill (Danehill) and Floral Pegasus (Fusaichi Pegasus).
“We also had five or six staff. We had the place for 11 years but then sold it. You find the last bill people pay is their horse bill. Plus I had other business interests. I remember a friend I did business with in commercial property asking me what the hell I was doing in horses.”
The other reason the Roses sold out was their son Oscar had a rare condition called achondroplasia, a form of dwarfism. The Roses have campaigned successfully – including many media appearances – to have the required, and very expensive, medical treatment included in the pharmaceutical benefits scheme as of last year. Oscar – now 12 – features in a British-made documentary, about to go to air, alongside other sufferers partaking in a global medical trial.
“Hanna and I put a lot of effort into looking after him and campaigning for the PBS approval,” Danny says. “Oscar’s going well, he’s in grade five now, and the trial’s going really well, so it’s all working.”
Making breeding more of a hobby, Rose reduced his broodmare band to two in recent years, and with one of those dying he’s now down to one. He bred Millie’s Reef after buying her dam, the dual Victorian country winning Testa Azzurra (Testa Rossa) for all of $1,000 in 2009.
He put Testa Azzurra to his own Floral Pegasus to produce Millie’s Reef, who would eventually be trained by Wilde. Rose had raced horses with Wilde and his trainer father Bill. The filly turned out to have abundant pace, but not a lot of luck.
“I remember I was going to back her one day. She was a moral in a maiden,” Symon says. “But in her last gallop before it she did a tendon.”
Millie’s Reef was tried again but injured another tendon, and was retired as a seven-year-old in 2017.
“Because I didn’t have a property at the time I was keeping her at Symon’s place,” Rose says. “So I said to Symon, ‘You take your pick out of her first or second foal, then I’ll take her’.”
Wilde chose the first one, which came after a service from Victoria and South Australian Derby winner Rebel Raider (Reset), then standing for $6,600 at Ballarat’s Wyndholm Park, and thus he now has Plenty Of Ammo, which he syndicated to a team of owners.
Rose has full brother Kerkorian, winner of three from 21, including one at Doomben, plus unraced three-year-old colt Armoury (Wandjina), and a filly foal by Dirty Work (Written Tycoon).
As with most of his matings, Rose enlisted the expertise of British consultant Stephen Harrison, of Thoroughbred Genetics, when deciding a first cover for Millie’s Rose.
Harrison recommended Rebel Raider, and the result is now a mare who’s threatening to become the finest progeny of the sire. Rebel Raider, who died from a heart attack in 2019, has so far been best represented by Grahame Begg’s Nonconformist, winner of two Group 2s and two Group 3s, and Jerome Hunter’s Barb Raider, winner of two Group 2s and a Group 3.
The mating produced some tantalising possibilities.
Plenty Of Ammo’s only in-breeding in her first five generations comes with Kiwi great Sir Tristram (Sir Ivor). He’s at 4m, 5m x 5m through three of his finest sons – Zabeel (Rebel Raider’s second sire), Dalmacia (in Rebel Raider’s female half) and Grosvenor (Millie’s Reef’s second damsire).
Deeper in, the key to Plenty Of Ammo’s pedigree may lie in some choice repetitions – of no fewer than five of the most influential mares.
Natalma (Native Dancer) makes five appearances through her majestic son Northern Dancer (Nearctic), at 7m, 8m, 7m x 7m, 7m.
And Natalma’s dam Almahmoud (Mahmoud) is there six times, including through Halo’s dam Cosmah (Cosmic Bomb) in the female half.
American-bred 1950s mare Lalun (Djeddah) comes at 8m x 6m, 7m, the first two through Never Bend (Nasrullah) and the third with Bold Reason (Hail To Reason).
Special (Forli) is at 6m x 6f via Nureyev (Northern Dancer) as Zabeel’s damsire, and Fairy Bridge (Bold Reason) in Millie’s Reef’s female side.
And French super mare La Troienne (Teddy) comes in at 9m x 9m, through her influential son Bimelech (Black Toney).
Plenty Of Ammo may have few recent highlights in her tail female line, but her fourth dam is former outstanding New Zealand stayer My Blue Denim (A Chara), winner of three Group 1s, second in the 1980 Melbourne Cup (Gr 1, 3200m) and dam of the Group 1-placed Blue Music (Western Symphony).
Plenty Of Ammo is now entered for a quick back-up and a shot at top level glory in Saturday’s Empire Rose Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m), although Wilde is also contemplating saving her for the Champions Mile (Gr 1, 1600m) a week later.
But whether it’s this spring or later, Plenty Of Ammo looks like becoming quite a special mare, having gone from maiden to Group 2 winner in six runs across two preparations. And her record – not just her number of starts – could have been far greater if not for misfortune and some roguish ways at the barrier.
Already a little behind as a homebred who didn’t go through a sales preparation, Plenty Of Ammo was being readied to race before a barrier mishap as a three-year-old set her back. It might also have contributed to another incident when she finally did debut as an autumn four-year-old at Warrnambool in March, 2023.
“It was a big field, they went in, there were delays, and then one went off in the gates and while they were tending to it, she did the same thing,” says Wilde.
“She ended up running, came eighth, and the next day her head was really swollen, so she must’ve really clattered the gates. We were back to square one.”
One barrier warning and six months later, Plenty Of Ammo lined up in an eight-runner maiden at Warrnambool and won it. That was followed by two wins of more than four lengths at Ballarat and Sandown, before more substantial metro success in a 1600-metre Benchmark 70 at Caulfield last Boxing Day.
Trouble struck again when she sustained a laceration about the nose, but ten months later, tried at stakes level, she resumed with a 1.5 length second in Flemington’s Paris Lane Stakes (Listed, 1400m).
“That was a great result. She had barrier one, but she handled that well, but then she was a bit unlucky when she got a squeeze in the straight,” Wilde says. “We were thinking after that that she was as good as we thought she was.
“Warrnambool was her first start and she was pretty injured afterwards, and she had a big excuse at Flemington, so really, she could be unbeaten in seven.
“She’s probably the most exciting horse I’ve had,” says Wilde, who’s now had three Group 2 winners as he chases that elusive top tier success.
“She’s untapped. She could be anything. She’s made a massive leap from restricted grade to winning a Group 2, and I haven’t had one progress as quickly as her.”