Seymour Bloodstock’s Easter fillies out to capitalise on early talent
Weekend runners The Seven Seas and Equivocal a product of Thomas and Pilkington’s significant yearling investment
Seymour Bloodstock’s Mark Pilkington and Darren Thomas will be hoping the weekend’s racing can bear further fruit of a dual strategy aimed at bolstering their bloodstock and on-track interests, with the duo’s silks featuring prominently among the two black–type juvenile contests at Caulfield and Randwick on Saturday.
Yesterday saw the barrier draw conducted for the $2 million Inglis Millennium (RL, 1100m) in Sydney, in which there were contrasting fortunes for Seymour Bloodstock’s pair of aspiring two-year-olds. Xtravagant Star (Xtravagant), a filly they bred, sold and subsequently bought back into, was drawn in gate seven, while Easter yearling purchase The Seven Seas (Merchant Navy) will again have to do the hard yards from barrier 15.
Pilkington and Thomas ramped up their breeding operation in 2017. The duo invested in mares to send to their stallions Xtravagant (Pentire) and, last year, Leneva Park stallions Fierce Impact (Deep Impact) and Royal Meeting (Invincible Spirit), as well as Merchant Navy (Fastnet Rock), an endeavour that has already produced Xtravagant Star’s stakes-winning brother He’s Xceptional. However, a concerted return to the yearling market and the Inglis Easter sale in 2021 has thus far yielded three talented fillies, The Seven Seas among them.
“The last few years we had just started to breed and race some more, we hadn’t actually been active at the yearling sales at all. We sat back and looked at what our trusted trainers and agents had bought and then they’ve welcomed us into horses, yes or no,” Pilkington told ANZ Bloodstock News yesterday.
“But at last year’s Sydney Easter, Darren was keen to come up and look at the sale because we were selling some as well. So, we went up to the Hunter Valley and had a look and we thought it would be a good time to have a go at some nicely-credentialed fillies.
“We also had some older horses such as Mirage Dancer and Fierce Impact, some nice horses that went off to stud, so we did look to replenish a bit by buying some new, young stock, and that was certainly part of the strategy. At this stage it looks like we’ve got some promising ones, but they’ve got it all to do still.”
The John Sargent-trained The Seven Seas, a daughter of the Seymour Bloodstock-raced Coolmore stallion Merchant Navy and a half-sister to Magic Millions 2YO Classic (RL, 1200m) winner Away Game (Snitzel), was one of five fillies and a colt signed for by Pilkington. A deal negotiated to purchase the well-related filly saw the pair part with $280,000 to secure her at Inglis’s flagship yearling sale from the Segenhoe draft.
“We were chuffed to buy her at Easter last year,” Pilkington said. “She was passed in and Peter O’Brien chased us down and said ‘what didn’t you like about the filly?’ So we said we really liked her but we thought she would make more money.
“We struck the deal and that was pleasing as Peter and the Barhams, who bred The Seven Seas, were part of Merchant Navy with us in racing him. It’s a wonderful family and she looks to have some talent.”
That talent was first on display in the Inglis Nursery (RL, 1000m) at Randwick in December, when a battling effort in sixth did not reveal the full-told story of her four-wide trip with no cover, having jumped from barrier 12, to finish four lengths behind El Padrino (Street Boss). The first four home in that $400,000 race will all reoppose on Saturday.
Both she and Xtravagant Star, who won on debut at Geelong on January 6, warmed up for Saturday’s Millennium with a barrier trial at Randwick on January 24, with The Seven Seas coming home third, while Xtravagant Star won her heat over 743 metres.
“(The Seven Seas) ran really nicely in that other sales race and didn’t have much luck. Sarge’s view was that we were beaten by a couple of those colts of Ciaron Maher’s that were right in the market for the Millennium, and we had no luck, so we think she’s worthy of her place there,” Pilkington said.
“She’ll just be ridden very quietly and see if we can run home and into the placings and earn some more money. We were hoping for a better barrier but chuffed to have a filly to warrant taking a place in the field.”
Another filly purchased at last year’s Easter sale and targeting stakes success on Saturday is Equivocal (Lonhro), who circled wide off a rip-roaring pace to finish fourth in the Inglis Banner (RL, 1000m) at Moonee Valley in October. She will take on the Chairman’s Stakes (Gr 3, 1000m) at Caulfield.
A $110,000 buy from the Widden Stud draft, the Trent Busuttin and Natalie Young-tained Equivocal is out of the unraced Prismatic (Street Sense), herself a half-sister to last year’s Roman Consul Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) winner Paulele (Dawn Approach).
A third filly and product of Seymour Bloodstock’s Easter outlay is English Riviera, a daughter of Deep Field (Northern Meteor). A $260,000 purchase from the Vinery Stud draft, she is a daughter of Listed winner Second Time Lucky (Any Suggestion), and will target a Blue Diamond Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) path after the Tony and Calvin McEvoy-trained juvenile ran second on debut at Flemington on January 15.
However, while each filly has so far shown their fair share of talent in defeat, an as yet absence of a tick in the win column sees Pilkington careful not to get too carried away at this early stage.
“Mark Zahra will be riding English Riviera in the Diamond Preludes next week,” Pilkington said. “She was one of the ones we really liked from our on-farm inspections. Of those fillies, it’s nice that they’ve shown enough to be getting to the races and putting their hand up, but as we all know, it’s not that easy to salute.
“We haven’t had a lot of two-year-olds in recent years, so to get The Seven Seas, English Riviera, Xtravagant Star and Equivocal in the first crop, we’re fairly good about it.
“One of Australia’s most preeminent owners and breeders told me that while it’s exciting to have a talented young horse, you’re always best to wait to see if they can do it in the afternoon, which is a very valid point.”
While Pilkington confirmed he and Thomas would once again be scouring the Easter catalogue and the Hunter Valley in search of next season’s class of juveniles, their breeding operation will seek both an on-the-track and in-the-ring success over the next week.
As She’s Xceptional shoots for Millennium riches in Sydney, her brother He’s Xceptional, a winner of the McKenzie Stakes (Listed, 1200m) in August, returns in the Manfred Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m) at Caulfield on Saturday, while Sunday sees the Inglis Classic Sale get underway at Riverside.
Seymour Bloodstock will sell three yearlings, including a Fastnet Rock (Danehill) filly out of Fiorentina (Dubai Destination). Catalogued as Lot 558 within the Coolmore draft, she is a half-sister to William Reid Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) winner Silent Sedition (War Chant), while Pilkington and Thomas will also offer a filly by Lean Mean Machine (Zoustar) out of Watchful Eyes (Street Sense) (Lot 739) and a Saxon Warrior (Deep Impact) filly out of Lotta Sugar (Fastnet Rock) (Lot 668).
“Through Seymour Bloodstock, Darren enjoys all aspects of the business,” Pilkington said. “He loves the product, the racing, selling and buying and bringing people along for the ride. We’re always looking for the next new one.”
Mark Pilkington on…
She’s Xtravagant in Saturday’s Inglis Millennium
Tony and Calvin (McEvoy) are really pleased with her. She went into her maiden run quite underdone and we were pleased to have won. The form coming out of that race hasn’t held up too strongly, but we’re mindful that we’ve improved and she’s gone to Sydney and trialed well and got on the leg, so with the nice gate hopefully she can get a softish run just off the speed and if she can run into a place behind those well-credentialed colts, we’ll be pleased.
Merchant Navy
We went to Easter and tried to buy some Merchant Navy stock, and we’re perhaps a little bit biased, but we’ve got a good feel about the progeny of Merchant Navy and last year might have been a good year to be able to secure some at reasonable value. He wasn’t exactly a market darling when his first yearlings went for sale, but that’s actually proven to be a pretty good recipe in recent years for success. I think everyone I know that has a Merchant Navy expects them to get better with time and it’s testament to what a good job the Maher team did in getting him to win a Coolmore and the like. So I think the world is his oyster as a stallion. We bred eight mares to him this year and we’re hopeful that his progeny will just continue to get better. We retained three shares in him and have supported him outside of that.
Breeding winners
What’s just nice is that it’s really comforting to know that, through the husbandry of Newhaven Park, we’re breeding sound horses that can get to the races and win races. We all harbour the dream of breeding the real elite horses, but it’s a real thrill in the meantime that we’re producing a sound product that can win. We don’t breed the obvious, sexy things, so to get into some of the pedigrees of that stature is a great thing and it’s nice to have a bit of the upside if they can run as well.