Proven Thoroughbreds Better Get Set for more success
Jamie Walter’s Proven Thoroughbreds will seek to continue a phenomenal couple of years with still more stakes success in today’s fillies and mares’ Gai Waterhouse Classic (Listed, 1350m) at Ipswich, with five-year-old Better Get Set (Better Than Ready).
Less than two years ago, the 20-year-old Proven had yet to celebrate a Group 1 winner. But Private Eye’s (Al Maher) victory in the 2021 Epsom Handicap (Gr 1, 1600m) has served as the turning point to usher in a stellar era for the dual-city based syndicator.
Private Eye, prepared by Proven’s Sydney trainer Joe Pride, continued his rise to become one of the finest short-course gallopers in the land last year, adding top-tier placings in the Canterbury Stakes (Gr 1, 1300m) and Stradbroke Handicap (Gr 1, 1400m), plus his most lucrative payday when second in Giga Kick’s (Scissor Kick) Everest (1200m).
Others under the black and lime silks stepped up to claim black type. Scallopini (Snitzel) was taken to Melbourne by Proven’s Brisbane stable of Steve O’Dea and Matt Hoysted to win three stakes races at Flemington.
Stockman (Tavistock) won two Listed races and a Group 3, took the $500,000 ATC St Leger (2600m) to anoint himself Proven’s first starter in the Melbourne Cup (Gr 1, 3200m), and ran a more than creditable eighth.
And now, since the middle of last year, has come the one likely to rule them all – Think About It (So You Think) – winner of nine of his ten starts, the past four at stakes level, including Proven’s second and third Group 1 wins in Eagle Farm’s Kingsford Smith Cup (Gr 1, 1300m) and the Stradbroke.
A week after that stunning latter triumph, O’Dea and Hoysted send Better Get Set into the Waterhouse chasing her second stakes win, following the Just Now Stakes (Listed, 1300m) at Eagle Farm in December.
The daughter of prolific Queensland stallion Better Than Ready (More Than Ready) was last night a $9.50 chance behind $4.80 favourite Russian Conquest (Russian Revolution), who’s striving to finally claim the black type win most have been expecting since early last year.
Proven will also have Stroll (Snitzel) start three races earlier in the TL Cooney (1350m). That doesn’t have black type status, but is a stepping stone towards the Hoysted-O’Dea-trained three-year-old attempting to claim a third stakes race in two weeks’ time in the Winx Guineas (Gr 3, 1600m) at the Sunshine Coast.
Better Get Set and Stroll may have been among the support acts to Proven’s biggest hitters, but all have contributed to some superb numbers reflecting Proven’s recent growth. That’s reward for Walter’s bold move to increase both quantity and quality over the past five or more years.
Proven’s team has expanded from around 40 to 100 horses in that time. Five years ago, Walter’s record price paid for a yearling was $300,000. In 2021 he paid $450,000 for Stroll, then $470,000 for a Deep Field (Northern Meteor) filly this year (unfortunately short-lived).
Stemming from these increases, Proven led in 38 winners in calendar 2022, of $7.9 million in prize-money. Less than halfway through this year, they’ve had 28 winners of $4.2 million. The uptick in quality shows in that while they had more winners in 2021 – 64 – they earned $4.2 million, $1.5m of it to Private Eye.
The syndicator’s stakes wins have also leapt, with 23 in the past 24 months – from nine individual horses – plus six individual stakes placegetters. Proven had ten stakes wins from six winners in 2022, and has six from two already this year – with Think About It and Private Eye screaming the prospects of more to come in the spring.
“We’ve had more success in better races, which of course has been terrific,” Walter said. “We’ve been established for a long time, but we’ve had nothing like the quality we’ve had these past couple of years.
“Being associated with some very, very talented trainers helps a lot. We’ve been fortunate enough to form long-term relationships with Joe, and with Steve and now Matt.
“We’re on target to eclipse, or at least equal last year. Given a couple of quality horses we’ve got, we’re tracking well. I never thought I’d have another horse as good as Private Eye, but now I’ve got Think About It. It’s been a great couple of years, and very validating.”
While Private Eye hasn’t quite lived up to expectations in just three starts this year, there have been excuses. He ran fourth in In Secret’s (I Am Invincible) Newmarket Handicap (Gr 1, 1200m) at Flemington first-up and with a 58 kilograms topweight – two factors Walter said were perhaps underestimated. He then ran 12th on the Randwick bog in I Wish I Win’s (Savabeel) TJ Smith Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m), and was fifth in Rothfire’s (Rothesay) Victory Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) at Eagle Farm in April, when found to have a minor issue with a knee.
If he resumes well in the early spring the five-year-old may again be selected for The Everest, giving Proven – staffed by Walter and just two other people – two runners in the rumoured-to-be $20 million sprint, alongside Think About It.
The seasoned syndicator won’t fall into the trap, shared by many a punter, of thinking he’s finally got the caper sussed. But he is at least reassured his strategy is paying some – decidedly handsome – dividends.
“One thing I’ve learnt is you’ve got to speculate to accumulate,” Walter said. “If you’re not buying better stock and more of them, you’re going to slip behind.
“But just because you’re buying more expensive yearlings, it doesn’t mean you’re going to jag really good ones. But for overall consistency, what we started five or six years ago has worked well so far.
“Ironically, Private Eye ($62,500) and Think About It ($70,000) weren’t expensive yearlings, but our policy of buying more and spending more is paying off.
“The yearling market in my 20 years of operation has done nothing but go up, save for a very mild pull-back through the GFC, it’s been one-way traffic upwards. And the prize-money hikes have been phenomenal. If you were limiting yourself to a similar budget each year, you would be trying to select horses from a diminished pool, because the market’s just getting away from you.”
Better Get Set, another budget buy at $85,000 from the Magic Millions Gold Coast sale of 2019, and who’s now won $388,000, jumps from gate seven under Ben Thompson today after a first-up fifth in the Lightning Handicap (Listed, 1000m) at Eagle Farm on June 3.
“She’s a beautiful mare, one of the most popular in the stable, and she comes into this really well,” Walter said. “She’s been to Ipswich twice and won both times. In smaller fields and inferior grade, admittedly, but she’s got a nice draw (seven) and looks well placed.”
Russian Conquest is still chasing the black type victory most judges had tipped would routinely come her way by January last year, after wins in her first two starts preceded a narrow second in the Magic Millions 2YO Classic (RL, 1200m).
That race’s winner, Coolangatta (Written Tycoon) has won two Group 1s and will attempt a third in Royal Ascot’s King’s Stand Stakes (Gr 1, 5f) on Tuesday. Russian Conquest has had eight more goes with her best result a neck second in the Gosford Guineas (Listed, 1200m) in December.
Trainer Peter Snowden says there have been issues he hopes have finally been put aside today, with the filly drawing gate three and fine weather forecast – though Ipswich was a soft 5 last night.
“It’s been very frustrating because she’s definitely got the ability. Her work has always definitely been Group work. She has that class about her,” Snowden said.
“She hasn’t delivered as often as I thought she would’ve but she is a bit restricted in that she can’t handle wet ground at all, and wide gates haven’t been her best friend either.
“But this weekend, she’s got a good draw, hopefully the track’s ok, she’s in good shape and hopefully there’s no excuses.
“The hardest part of it is it’s at Ipswich. It’s very much an on-speed tight-turning track. That’s not ideal but it’s the black type we’re after and hopefully we can get it.
“Sometimes we’ve ridden her a bit too close trying to make it all happen. We won’t be too far away, but we won’t be going out there to break records, but she’s better ridden in hand a bit rather than trying to chase speed.”
Russian Conquest, to be ridden for the first time by Larry Cassidy, was last night shading the Anthony and Sam Freedman trained Snapped (Not A Single Doubt) for favouritism, after the Pinecliff Racing mare’s last start win in Morphettville’s Proud Miss Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m), her fourth win from ten starts.