Private Life
There was no sense of hit and hope in the pedigree match-up that produced Caulfield Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) hero Private Life (Written Tycoon). The three major elements were so familiar and reassuring it would have felt like getting into bed.
For starters there’s Written Tycoon (Iglesia). As attested by his enduring success at age 22 – he’s on top of the general sires’ list after claiming two-year-old titles both sides of the Tasman last season – he’s something of a no-brainer stallion.
The golden rule appears to be “Just put him to Danehill line mares”. Fortunately for this entirely Danehill (Danzig)-free Last Tycoon (Try My Best)-line stallion, there’s a lot of those mares about, including the one who bore Private Life for breeders Arrowfield Stud.
Danehill-line nicks are of course rather common in Australia, but Written Tycoon takes it to new lengths. They comprise six of his top seven nicks.
With the exception being third-placed More Than Ready (Southern Halo), from the top they are Fastnet Rock (Danehill), Flying Spur (Danehill), Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice, by Danehill), Danehill Dancer (Danehill), Not A Single Doubt (Redoute’s Choice), and Exceed And Excel (Danehill).
But even lesser sons of Danehill have gone well with Written Tycoon. These include Blackfriars, whose one daughter put to Written Tycoon has produced five-time stakes winner Kissonallforcheeks, and West Point, whose four by the stallion include the stakes-winning Vibrant Rouge.
This all helps explain why John Messara moved to have Written Tycoon go north under arrangement with his Victorian owners Woodside Park to stand at Arrowfield in 2020, filling a gap caused by the Covid-related inability to shuttle Maurice (Screen Hero) from Japan that year.
“With the history of Redoute’s Choice, Flying Spur, Not A Single Doubt and Snitzel, we had plenty of mares from that Danehill sireline hanging around the stud,” Arrowfield’s pedigrees maven Peter Jenkins tells It’s In The Blood. “So getting the stallion made sense.”
Written Tycoon ultimately only stood one year at Arrowfield. At its end, Woodside sold him to his current home Yulong Stud, who were immediately delighted to see him claim his one general sires’ title, with his chief rep being the colt who’s now making a name for himself as a sire, Ole Kirk.
But what a year at Arrowfield that was. Written Tycoon stood at a discounted fee, also recognising the challenges of the pandemic, of $77,000 – down from $110,000 at Woodside the previous two seasons, and dwarfed by the $165,000 it would become at Yulong.
He sired 153 foals from his year in the Hunter, and three of them are now Group 1 winners.
Aside from Private Life, there’s Golden Slipper (Gr 1, 1200m) winner Lady Of Camelot and New Zealand’s Sistema Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) and Karaka Millions 2YO (RL, 1200m)-winning filly Velocious, who helped their sire to those two juvenile siring crowns.
All three come from Danehill-line mares. Velocious, like Private Life, is from a daughter of Snitzel, while Lady Of Camelot calls Fastnet Rock her damsire. (For good measure in the Written Tycoon scheme of things, her second dam is by More Than Ready).
In terms of nicking, those two sons of Redoute’s Choice – Snitzel and Not A Single Doubt – have produced a superb six stakes winner from 48 runners sired by Written Tycoon.
And yet it’s interesting that despite the impact of his sons, Redoute’s Choice himself, a four-time champion broodmare sire, doesn’t make it onto the list of Written Tycoon’s best nicks. Redoute’s has had 78 daughters go to Written Tycoon, for just one black type winner.
That might be one of those baffling quirks of genetics that keeps us all on our toes, for Redoute’s Choice brings the second element that makes Private Life’s pedigree pack a punch. The same trick is of course affected through Velocious.
Redoute’s Choice’s tail female line is one of the best anywhere, stemming from his fourth dam, the American blue hen Best In Show (Traffic Judge), and flowing through Show Lady (Sir Ivor), Dancing Show (Nijinsky) and Redoute’s Choice’ mother Shantha’s Choice (Canny Lad).
Written Tycoon also descends from Best In Show. She’s the second dam of his third sire, Try My Best (Northern Dancer), via that one’s influential mother Sex Appeal (Buckpasser).
With Try My Best being by Northern Dancer (Nearctic), and Dancing Show being by a son of Northern Dancer in Nijinsky, the genetic relationship has a strong chance of working. That’s despite Best In Show being repeated in Private Life’s pedigree through his two sirelines, rather than flowing more clearly via one or more direct female lines.
“I think the key factor in Private Life’s pedigree would be the Best In Show line breeding,” Jenkins says.
“With Dancing Show, the granddam of Redoute’s Choice, being a five-eighths blood sister of Try My Best, you’ve got an intricate genetic relationship there – two close ancestors shared by one individual on each side of the pedigree.
“We know this works, and we’ve seen it work in many other instances, so it’s a strong pedigree factor. And Best In Show’s is one of the best families there’s been.”
And so, for a Caulfield Guineas winner to be linebred 6f x 7f to Best In Show, through two different daughters, and with outcross appeal given Danehill is buried in his fourth generation amid his dam’s sireline, Private Life’s chief owners Coolmore Stud will be licking their lips as it prepares a bed for the colt.
For good measure, there’s a duplication of the great French mare of the 1920s La Troienne (Teddy) at 9f x 9m, which can never hurt.
Bred by Arrowfield with partners Planette Thoroughbreds and Belford Productions, and bought by Coolmore’s Tom Magnier at the 2023 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale for $650,000, the Chris Waller-trained Private Life upset several more fancied rivals in leading throughout to win the Guineas at $13. Not least of those was fourth-placed odds-on pop Broadsiding (Too Darn Hot), perhaps the latest northerner to come unstuck in a first meeting with Caulfield’s tricky contours.
But in fairness, Private Life has quietly forged an impressive record of three wins from five starts, also including a close fourth having raced three-wide midfield under Joao Moreira in the Guineas Prelude (Gr 3, 1400m), which may have influenced Damian Lane’s astute decision to lead last Saturday.
His ability comes as no surprise to expat New Zealander Jenkins, who was key in designing the mating.
Aside from two appearances of one great mare in Best In Show, Private Life descends from two great female families.
Written Tycoon’s sixth dam was Stretto (Hunting Song), a 1933 drop who was a Champion New Zealand sprinter-miler.
And Private Life’s seventh dam was another influential Kiwi in Frances (Bulandshar), a 1942 foal who won ten races including the (future Group 1) Auckland Cup (3200m).
“It’s interesting that both the sire and the dam go back to strong colonial New Zealand families on their tail female line and it’s also noteworthy how often, with Group 1 winners, you see these prominent racemares back on the damlines, like with both sides of this pedigree,” Jenkins says.
The Frances line produced quality leading into Private Life. His third dam All Sterling (One Pound Sterling) left Ginzano (Mister C), a triple stakes winner including of the Reisling Slipper Trial (Gr 2, 1200m).
And his second dam Patronella (Mister C) was a breeding star, throwing two pairs of full sisters who became black type winners. Stella Artois and Smytzer’s Trish (both by Geiger Counter), won two stakes races each, while Teaspoon and Aliyana Tilde (both by Snitzel) won a Group 3 each.
In 2014, Jenkins himself was charged with the duty of trekking to Kembla Grange to inspect Aliyana Tilde, who Arrowfield duly bought. Trained by Kerry Parker, she’d won the Epona Stakes (Gr 3, 1900m), and run third and second respectively in Rosehill’s Storm Queen (now Vinery) Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m) and the ATC Oaks (Gr 1, 2400m).
“She was a pretty sizeable mare, which is not always common with Snitzel, and that would’ve been one of the factors in eventually putting her to Written Tycoon,” he says.
“If you’re going to put Redoute’s Choice line mares or Snitzel mares to him, you want some with a bit of size about them. He’s not the biggest stallion in the world, like many of the great sires.”
Aliyana Tilde has had some success outside of Private Life. She’s had four winners from five runners with two other city winners including Steel Blaze (Real Steel) who, the day before Private Life’s Guineas triumph, managed a third in another “feature”, the $200,000 Port Macquarie Cup (2000m).
And Aliyana Tilde’s second throw Double Deel (Dundeel) is now the dam of Listed winner Noah ’N’ A Deel (Maurice), bred by the same triumvirate as Private Life.
On pedigree and type, Aliyana Tilde’s match-up with Written Tycoon made sense, as was borne out in Private Life’s strong yearling sale price, and now by one of the key stallion-making races in the country.