Sandblom hopes for further French reward after purchase of fillies
Kingstar Farm supremo seeks to add to success of Sunday Best while putting close relation to Enable in foal to Capitalist
Kingstar Farm principal Matthew Sandblom continued his investment in the French yearling market this week after purchasing two fillies at the Arqana August Yearling Sale in Deauville, identifying the jurisdiction as the perfect haven to further widen his interests in thoroughbred racing and breeding.
It represents a third successive year that Sandblom has come away from Deauville with yearling buys, on this occasion snapping up a filly by Harry Angel (Dark Angel) for €47,000 and, later, an Invincible Spirit (Green Desert) filly for €60,000, having purchased two fillies and a colt in 2020, as well as three fillies in 2019, all of whom have been trained by Francis-Henri Graffard.
Sandblom’s initial foray in the French market derives from the exploits of his wife, the playwright Wendy Beckett, who has recently undertaken work in Paris during part of the year and, as I’m sure many can relate, no overseas trip is planned without a racetrack or sale flickering pre-eminently in the corner of our eyes.
Yet, for Sandblom, a successful education entrepreneur, his eye for pleasure is never too far removed from an investment opportunity, as he seeks reward from not only the healthy landscape of French prize-money, but also an opportunity to reap dividends from the bloodstock market, with some of his filly investments set for the Australian breeding scene.
“The first year I went here in person and didn’t have much luck,” said a candid Sandblom.
“I bought three fillies – a Toronado, a Lope De Vega and a Fastnet Rock. None of them have won a race yet but I shipped a couple of them over to Australia because they are reasonably well bred and I’m going to breed with them this season.”
Reasonably well bred might be an understatement.
The Toronado (High Chaparral) filly, now named Decorous, is out of the unraced mare Considerate (Dansili), a half-sister to none other than the Queen of European turf in globetrotting Group 1-winning superstar Enable (Nathaniel) and will be placed in foal to Sandblom’s thriving Newgate stallion Capitalist (Written Tycoon) this spring.
Part of the 2019 ‘unsuccessful’ cohort, the filly may well revise that label if her first produce reaches the market in 2023, having been purchased for €210,000.
The other filly to reach Australia’s shores is the Lope De Vega (Shamardal). Named High Fever, the German-bred is out of the stakes-placed High Heat (Boreal), a close relation to the brilliant Champion three-year-old Hurricane Run (Montjeu).
But, when spending time in France trips to the beauty of Chantilly or the glamour of ParisLongchamp would be all the more tasteful if witnessing in the flesh one of his yearling buys, and in Dabirsim (Hat Trick) filly Sunday Best, he may have struck on-track gold at his second raid on Arqana.
The winner of a Deauville maiden in July, the juvenile is being set for the Prix D’Arenberg (Gr 3, 1000m) at Longchamp, while also holding an entry for the Cheveley Park Stakes (Gr 1, 6f) at Newmarket.
Out of a daughter of Group 2 winner Diamond Tango (Acatenango), she was a €30,000 buy.
“She’s a very nice filly,” Sandblom said. “She’s up to stakes class and I guess that gives you a little bit of encouragement, especially after the first year!
“If I didn’t get Sunday Best I would probably be a bit more wary of having another go, but that gives you hope.
“If she goes well in that race then she’ll probably go to the Cheveley Park. We’ll get a little bit of black type first and then have a look at that race.”
Australia is widely recognised as the hub of the world’s two-year-old racing scene. Thus bringing with it a ferociously competitive scene to share in a slice of the riches on offer for juveniles, which includes the world’s richest two-year-old race worth $3.5 million, the Golden Slipper (Gr 1, 1200m).
Yet, true to his keen eye for spotting a return, Sandblom believes the prospects for two-year-old success in France is far greater than in Australia, while prize-money remains competitive and the premium bonus system offers lucrative opportunities.
A total of 557 juvenile races will be run in France in 2021, with maiden, unraced and special condition races making up two-thirds, and offering prize-money of €15.4 million (approx. AU$25 million), making the potential for valuable two-year-old success when it comes to the breeding market in Australia, all the more attainable.
“Everyone thinks that Australia is big on two-year-old racing, but what I’ve discovered from my limited experience in France is that they have a lot more two-year-old races than Australia has. A lot more. There are two- or three two-year-old races on every program whereas in Australia you’re lucky to have one race,” Sandblom said.
“Most of the provincial and country tracks in the first six months of the season hardly have any two-year-old races. So you can have a lot more starts in France as a two-year-old than in Australia, and it’s probably not actually as competitive.
“To win a two-year-old race in Australia is hard. To win a two-year-old race in France is nowhere near as hard because there’s a lot more two-year-old races.”
Sandblom will be hoping the Harry Angel filly, the first foal out of the stakes placed Moisson Precoce (Lawman) and from the family of Prix Maurice de Gheest (Gr 1, 1300m) winner Signs Of Blessing (Invincible Spirit), as well as the filly by Invincible Spirit, can continue in the vain of Sunday Best, bringing success to both the northern and southern hemisphere interests of the prominent owner-breeder.
“The Harry Angel filly was definitely in the recommendation of Francis. He liked it and, with Harry Angel, we tend to prefer the speed sort of stallions, so I guess that was more familiar and from a breeding point of view we probably prefer the speed influence a little bit more,” Sandblom said.
“I think at the moment I’m just in the learning part of it, I’m just seeing how it lies. Do I want to get into the breeding? Do I want to get into other aspects of it? I’m just dipping my toe in the water at the moment as, compared to what I do in Australia, it’s just a few horses,” he said.
Optimism for Stay Inside sibling
Sandblom’s primary dealings is with his Denman property Kingstar Farm, where in the space of four short years an incredible amount of investment has gone into the operation, with early success achieved through the breeding of Golden Slipper (Gr 1, 1200m) winner Stay Inside (Extreme Choice).
By Extreme Choice (Not A Single Doubt), a stallion that’s proved challenging with his fertility thus far, and out of Nothin Leica Storm (Anabaa), a mare who has scanned in foal just three times over the last six years, Stay Inside may prove an incredibly rare commodity, however Sandblom his hopeful, with the absence of a foal at foot for Nothin Leica Storm, a successful return to Extreme Choice can materialise this spring.
“She’s definitely going to Extreme Choice this year. Even though she herself isn’t the easiest, she seems to specialise in getting into foal every second year,” Sandblom said.
“Some people think some mares are like that. But we’ll definitely be trying. I think Stay Inside is a very, very special horse and I think he’ll prove worthy of that Golden Slipper win and really go on and win some big races as a three-year-old.”
Through his interests in Newgate Farm, Sandblom has access to some of the most promising young stallions in the country and as the first crop of the successful first season sires turn three, he has singled out Flying Artie (Artie Schiller), the sire of Blue Diamond (Gr 1, 1200m) winner Artorius, as the one to watch.
“I think Flying Artie, too, might really surprise people. He might even have the best of them in terms of three-year-olds,” he said.
“Extreme Choice has already got some good colts with Stay Inside and Tiger Of Malay but I think Flying Artie might just get them out on the track this year being tall, leggy types, they might just mature as three-year-olds and go on with it.
“They were each very good horses themselves as three-year-olds so hopefully they will pass that to their progeny.”
Sandblom on…
Unite And Conquer’s first foals
We’ve had a couple of foals and so far we’re happy with them. It’s been a bit of a shame this year with lockdown happening that we can’t really show him off. For those cheaper stallions, getting people to see them in the flesh is very important and obviously we can’t do that this year with no stallion parades, so that will make it a bit harder with those stallions. Hopefully we get some good progeny on the ground and that will encourage people to use him in his second year.
Supporting his stallions
We’ve got about 130 mares on the farm at the moment. Probably about 70 of those will go to our own stallions and most of the rest will go over to Newgate stallions. I tend to support the up and coming stallions and so there’s stallions like North Pacific, who has been incredibly popular this season, he has over 200 bookings.
Time To Reign at Kingstar, who’s quite a precocious type out of a very good broodmare, so we’ll be sending probably 35 to 40 mares to him. The main thing is, yes you want to sell progeny out of all those mares where you can, but I end up keeping about a third of them for one reason or another, and then the rest are put onto the market and hopefully help the stallions establish themselves.
And then there’s the more proven ones, but they’re heavily booked anyway so I don’t need to support them as much, but a few of my better mares go to Capitalist. And I’m a big supporter of Extreme Choice at Newgate because I bred the Golden Slipper winner and I’ve got six in foal to him. I’d hope to send about a dozen mares to him and get five or six in foal.