She’s Got Pizzazz
There’s a lot to be said for returning to the well.
Twice in six weeks, Rob Crabtree’s familiar red and white checks have been carried to stakes success by homebred fillies born as a result of the Victorian breeder going back to what he possibly ought to have stuck with in the first place.
And both have a common thread dear to the heart of Crabtree of Dorrington Farm – the late stallion Magnus (Flying Spur).
Crabtree, who incidentally has recently sold Dorrington and is entering into a mares’ partnership with neighbours Noorilim Park, added to his broodmare band in 2014 by purchasing Charm’s Honour (Strada).
For her second foal, he put her to the Group 1-winning sprinter he co-bred, Magnus, who was a son of the famed blue hen mare he bred, Scandinavia. This mating produced Enbihaar, the 2018 Blue Diamond Prelude (Gr 2, 1100m) winner who was second in the main event two weeks later.
Crabtree next went a different way with Charm’s Honour and bred Rubic Honour (Rubick), last seen running unplaced at Tamworth, and More Than Honour (More Than Ready), who never raced.
After two “born deceaseds” and two misses, Crabtree sent the mare back to Magnus. The result was Miss Celine, named after his granddaughter, who carried the red and white to victory on debut in October’s Debutant Stakes (Listed, 1000m) at Caulfield.
Chalk up a 100 per cent stakes winners to runners ratio for Magnus over Charm’s Honour.
Meanwhile, Enbihaar has produced, for other breeders, the Group 2-winning Too Darn Lizzie (Too Darn Hot). With Magnus dying last year aged 21, Crabtree put Charm’s Honour to Too Darn Hot and now has a “magnificent” foal who’s a three-quarter sister to Too Darn Lizzie.
Crabtree mirrored his Charm’s Honour strategy with a daughter of Magnus in Missy Cummings, who he raced through Mr Cummings – Anthony – to win the James Carr Stakes (Listed, 1400m).
For her first mating in 2014, he put her to Zoustar (Northern Meteor), at the time an unproven $44,000 first-season sire for whom Widden held high hopes, though they might not have dreamt so high as he has now achieved eight years later.
The result was Mizzy, the seventh foal born by Zoustar, who was bought by Cummings at Inglis Easter for $200,000, with Crabtree staying in. Cummings prepared her to win the Canterbury Stakes (Gr 1, 1300m) plus three other Group races. She was then bought by Coolmore’s Tom Magnier for $2.2 million at the Gold Coast National Broodmare Sale of 2021.
After Mizzy, Crabtree tried other stallions with Missy Cummings and bred Combat Queen (Pierro), Systemic (Capitalist) and Cincinnati Dreamer (Written Tycoon). Combat Queen won two from eight in New Zealand, Systemic mustered three placings from eight starts, while Cincinnati Dreamer was retired after one unplaced run.
So Crabtree went back to what was known to work – Zoustar. First, Missy Cummings slipped to him, in 2019. A year later Crabtree tried again, and this time she produced She’s Got Pizzazz, who last Saturday became a black type winner at her sixth start, taking Caulfield’s Twilight Glow Stakes (Listed, 1400m). Completing another full circle, she’s co-trained by the man who prepared her damsire Magnus, Peter Moody.
For good measure Crabtree sent Missy Cummings back the following year to Zoustar – by that stage standing for $154,000. That’s a hefty amount, but not quite the equal nation-topping $275,000 he commands now, as he sits second on the general sires’ table – his finishing position from last season.
As a result, Crabtree now has In A Tizzy, an “exceptional looking” two-year-old filly preparing for her first start with the Mick Price and Michael Kent Jnr stable.
“I’ve done it twice now in quick succession – gone back to a proven formula and bred a stakes winner,” Crabtree tells It’s In The Blood. “It’s been proven to work from a racetrack perspective, but also from a type perspective in each case.”
One of the main motivators in sending Missy Cummings to Zoustar wasn’t pedigree but physicality.
“She’s a small Magnus mare, so I thought we’d put a bit of a size into her with Zoustar,” Crabtree says. “You never expect to get a Group 1 horse but we did in Mizzy, and she’s just lovely.”
But the pedigree match-up also produced a couple of sparkling duplications to hopefully enhance the chances of success.
She’s Got Pizzazz is inbred 4m x 4m to Danehill, through Redoute’s Choice and Flying Spur. That’s obviously two males, the least favoured variety of the double Danehill, but at least it’s gender balanced in the next generation on, with Redoute’s Choice the sire of Zoustar’s dam Zouzou, while Flying Spur is the sire of Magnus.
By the way, Miss Celine has double-male Danehill at 3m x 3m and it clearly hasn’t slowed her down at all.
It also doesn’t hurt She’s Got Pizzazz to have the influential mare Rolls (Mr. Prospector) doubled at 5f x 4m. She’s the second dam of Zoustar’s grandsire Encosta De Lago in the top half, while also the dam of Flying Spur.
“That’s a wonderful influence, that Rolls duplication,” Crabtree says. “I was very pleased to see that come in.”
A third dash of Mr. Prospector, via Northern Meteor’s dam’s second sire, means he’s repeated at 6f, 5m x 5f, while further back the highly influential US mare Lalun (Djeddah) is doubled at 7m x 7m through her two best sons, Bold Reason (Hail To Reason) and Never Bend (Nasrullah).
Crabtree says Magnus is “the dominant factor” in both aforementioned pairs of stakes-winning sisters – She’s Got Pizzazz and Mizzy, plus Miss Celine and Enbihaar. The veteran breeder swears by the merits of Magnus as a sire, who has 30 stakes winners and four Group 1 winners among 564 winners from 778 runners – a robust 72.5 per cent.
But he’s also excited about the stallion’s prospects of living on through his daughters as a broodmare sire. In that category, Magnus so far has 110 winners from 183 runners including 15 stakes horses (8.2 per cent) and six stakes winners.
As the number of runners from his daughters has built – from 94 in 2022-23 to already 81 for this season – Magnus has risen to currently be ranked 47th among Australian broodmare sires, with 18 winners for the season and two stakes victors.
“His broodmare sire stats are outstanding,” says Crabtree, who believes the old axiom that good sires make good broodmare sires – with a major caveat.
“People often say that but it’s a bit of an old wives’ tale. It depends on the depth of the sire’s pedigree. The female depth of the male’s pedigree gives him the best chance to have sustained success, as a sire and as a broodmare sire.”
Although Mizzy has been sold, at a handsome profit, Crabtree is delighted to have kept She’s Got Pizzazz – who’s now won two of six starts plus three placings – and the second sister In A Tizzy.
“She’s Got Pizzazz was just too good, and she was a beautiful replacement for having sold Mizzy,” he said.
“Because Mizzy was raced in a partnership, we took the money in deciding on selling her, but at least now we’ve got a lovely replacement, and replacements coming.”
***
Another old axiom which can give breeders hope through a long winter’s night is that good things come to those who wait.
In the case of Rumbled Again (Night Of Thunder), that’s certainly true.
Last Saturday, the Michael Trotter-trained mare finally enhanced her breeding CV by becoming a black type winner – at seven years of age and start number 36 – in Caulfield’s Summoned Stakes (Gr 3, 1600m). That might explain why she was a $26 chance.
It was her eighth try at a stakes success, all of which have come since last March, with her closest effort having been a 0.75 length second in the second of those attempts, in Moonee Valley’s Sunline Stakes (Gr 2, 1600m).
There’s been a lot of waiting in the family.
Rumbled Again’s dam Adulate (Flying Spur) was 19 when she had the mare, so it was 26 years ago that this stakes winner’s mum was born.
And Adulate’s dam Adraanito (Adraan) was 15 when she had her – as the ninth of 18 foals, no less – so that’s the second dam being born 41 years ago, in 1983.
Go back a little further, and there’s only been four mares who’ve led to Rumbled Again since 1963.
We here at IITB have conducted a decidedly unscientific study to compare this old-growth pedigree to some others. Of the other two recent stakes winners featured in this column, Miss Celine’s first four dams started out in 1985 – 22 years after Rumbled Again’s. She’s Got Pizzazz’s began in 1983.
It’s been a slow maturing vintage, but one with some quality as well.
Rumbled Again’s second dam Adraanito won Adelaide’s Queen Of The South Stakes (Gr 2, 1600m) way back in 1988, and was second in Perth’s Railway Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m), amid several stakes placings. Adraanito also bore the dam of a three-time stakes winner in Celestial Show (Serheed), essentially Rumbled Again’s first cousin, only 22 years older.
Rumbled Again’s stakes win enhances the CV of her sire Night Of Thunder (Dubawi), who alas only shuttled to Australia for one season, in 2016, standing for $16,500 at Darley Victoria.
He now has eight Australian stakes winners at a whopping 12.7 per cent of runners, plus 49 winners from 63 starters at 77.8 per cent. The 13-year-old’s Australian black type horses are headed by Queensland Derby (Gr 1, 2400m) hero Kukeracha, one of his five top-tier victors worldwide, plus four-time stakes winner Cherry Tortoni.
Worldwide, Night Of Thunder has 59 black type victors from 486 runners at 12.1 per cent, while his winners-to-runners is 70.8 per cent.
