Six of the best
This week we take a look at six of the more intriguing lots up for offer at next week’s Inglis Classic Yearling Sale.
Lot 103
SNITZEL – LET’S MAKE ADEAL by Red Ransom
Arrowfield offers this filly brimming with tantalising nicks and boasting former champion stayer Let’s Elope (Nassipour) as her third dam. Let’s Make A Deal, by Red Ransom (Roberto), was a dual Group 2-placed four-time winner, from 1600 metres up to the 2500 metres of her biggest success in The Bart Cummings (Gr 3, 2520m) at Flemington in 2015.
Putting Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice) with a Red Ransom-line mare has had some spectacular results. The cross has hatched four-time Group 1 winner Trapeze Artist and Golden Slipper Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) winner Estijaab, both out of dams by sons of Red Ransom. And Snitzel stakes-winners directly out of Red Ransom dams include Arbeitsam and the mares Sweet Redemption and Chance Bye – fittingly, the winner of the Inglis Classic (1200m) at Rosehill in 2010.
“The cross of Snitzel with mares by Red Ransom or his sons is sitting on seven stakes winners, five of them Group winners, from a total of just 46 runners, which is quite amazing,” says Arrowfield’s pedigree analyst Peter Jenkins.
But another equally delicious aspect is this filly carries double Danehill (Danzig) in her pedigree, in the right way. While a dual-male duplication of the great (but inbred) sire can be dangerous, the odds are far better in a gender-balanced mix, and get better still if that’s through the mare’s dam, rather than through the mare’s sire. That’s the case with Let’s Make Adeal, out of Let’s Get Famous (Danehill-Let’s Elope). Throw Snitzel into the mix and it’s quite the recipe.
“Among Snitzel progeny who carry a duplication of Danehill through the granddam, there have been 66 runners so far, 13 stakes horses, including five winners and eight stakes-placed, or 19.69 per cent black type runners,” Jenkins says.
Lot 561
DENMAN – DE CHORUS by Unbridled’s Song
Torryburn Stud offers this full brother to Hong Kong sprinting star Hot King Prawn. Exported after a Victorian trial win in which he bore the name Join In (De Chorus!) the grey has now won 12 from 23, including five at stakes level, for earnings of AUD$5.5 million. He also gave this page a timely and enormous boost by comfortably claiming Group 1 honours in Sha Tin’s Centenary Sprint Cup (Gr 1, 1200m) last Sunday week.
While Torryburn – possibly Australia’s biggest “boutique” farm as home to more than 300 horses – professes a liking for greys, like Randwick winner De Chorus (Unbridled’s Song), this colt is dark like his dad, but matches his famous full brother in other respects.
“He’s similar to Hot King Prawn,” says Torryburn’s manager Mel Copelin. “He’s got the same attitude, same good engine and a good walk, though he’s got a little bit more scope and is longer through the neck. He’s a good type and we think he’ll be one of the most looked-at at the sale.”
After Hot King Prawn won six of his first seven races, Torryburn repeated the mating in 2018.
“Three years later Hot King Prawn’s still winning, so that’s a good sign,” Copelin says.
This is also the last foal from the 20-year-old De Chorus, who’s now retired at Torryburn having also produced four other winners. They included dual Group 3 winner Siren’s Fury (Myboycharlie) and four-time victress Storm Siren (Excites), whose second foal – a colt by new kid on the block Churchill (Galileo) – will also be offered at Inglis Classic; he is listed as Lot 347.
The colt is Danehill-free but, as Copelin says, “he’s got double Vain, which we think is the secret”. Witness none other than Black Caviar (Bel Esprit), and De Chorus’ second-last foal, a grey Capitalist (Written Tycoon) colt who fetched $540,000 last year and is now a two-year-old in the Team Hawkes stable named Brechen.
“Pedigree-wise, we could’ve taken this colt to Easter, but we love the Classic sale. It’s a real ‘type’ sale, and a great entry-level sale,” Copelin says.
Lot 475
DEEP FIELD – BALANCING ACT by Not A Single Doubt
Speed abounds in this first foal out of seven-year-old sprinting mare Balancing Act, from Newgate Farm. The dam is by Not A Single Doubt (Redoute’s Choice), the damsire of Magic Millions 2YO Classic (RL, 1200m) winner Shaquero (Shalaa), and is out of Ozmolly, a daughter of multiple Group 1-winning sprinter Falvelon (Alannon).
Balancing Act is a stakes-placed winner of five races, including three on the bounce, with two of her wins coming over the flying Moonee Valley 1000 metres. Newgate’s Henry Field says the mating with the stud’s ultra-consistent Deep Field (Northern Meteor) was an obvious pedigree blend, and the result has borne that out.
“It’s speed on speed, and I think he’s shaping as a very fast colt,” Field says. “The pedigree stacks up, but on looks it’s been a real winner. He’s a nice, big powerful colt, built very much in the mold of Deep Field, and what you find is that if you get a good looking Deep Field, they’ll be a runner. His good types really all can run. You can set your clocks by them.”
It’s also a good time to be selling Deep Fields too, with his sons Portland Sky and Aysar the first two home in last Saturday’s Manfred Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m) at Caulfield.
Lot 157
I AM INVINCIBLE – MISS COVER GIRL by Monashee Mountain
This is the second – and last – offspring of former outstanding sprinting mare Miss Cover Girl.
A daughter of the American sire Monashee Mountain (Danzig) out of Tolart – a daughter of well-performed broodmare sire Show A Heart (Brave Warrior) – Miss Cover Girl won eight races including the Tatts Tiara (Gr 1, 1400m) at Eagle Farm in 2016. She fetched $500,000 at the Magic Millions Broodmare Sale of 2017, and double that when sold again at the same sale in 2019. With a Capitalist colt (now a two-year-old) and this filly on the ground, she unfortunately succumbed to colic last year.
This filly catches the eye in more ways than one, according to vendor Tony Cooper of Queensland’s Canning Downs.
“The dam was a very talented racemare, so going to I Am Invincible was a bit of a no-brainer really,” Cooper says. “He improves your mare’s page out of sight pretty much every foal he puts on the ground.
“This filly’s pretty similar to her mum but she’s a better type than she was. Not huge, but so powerful. She’s a very strong, good-walking filly, and a good eater with a good temperament.
“She’s built to be a good sprinter like Miss Cover Girl, and with no Danehill in her pedigree you could pretty much pick whatever stallion you want to cover her, so she should make a very attractive broodmare, especially being one of only two out of the dam.”
Lot 602
NO NAY NEVER (USA) – FAST AND SEXY by Fastnet Rock
Cootamundra’s Twin Hills Stud offers what owner Olly Tait calls a “magnificent big colt” whose pedigree could receive a timely boost this Saturday. Half brother Conexy (Nicconi) – already a winner from two starts at Doomben from Chris Waller’s Brisbane stable – will pursue black type as one of the favourites in Saturday’s Lonhro Plate (Listed, 1000m) at Randwick.
Twin Hills bought Fast And Sexy – a three-time city winner by Fastnet Rock (Danehill) – in foal to No Nay Never (Scat Daddy) in 2019 for $200,000. While Tait didn’t design the mating, it’s started to look very shrewd ever since. One of No Nay Never’s best Southern Hemisphere offspring, Need I Say More, is a four-time stakes-winner up to Group 2 level in New Zealand, and is also out of a Fastnet Rock mare in Bo Bardi.
“I liked the mating. The dam is by Fastnet Rock and No Nay Never is an outcross to Danehill, so that was nice,” Tait says. “It was an interesting mating at the time, but as it turns out for his best horse in the Southern Hemisphere to be out of a Fastnet Rock mare it’s worked out very well.
“This is a big, strong athletic colt with a great hindquarter and great shoulder and a nice head on him. He’s been a nice horse since the day he was born.”
Lot 267
HELLBENT – REGGIE by Germano
This colt already has a distinction before he enters the ring. He’s part of the first crop of the exciting son of I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit) – Group 1-winning sprinter and Inglis Classic graduate Hellbent – and vendor Fairhill Farm’s Mike O’Donnell reports the presence of former outstanding racemare Reggie in his pedigree has helped set him apart.
Reggie, the former multiple stakes-winning staying mare, has not been the most prolific producer, the now 20-year-old having thrown three foals to race (with another an unraced three-year-old). But one of the three is Heavens Above (Street Cry), a triple stakes winner including the Coolmore Classic (Gr 1, 1500m) at Rosehill in 2017.
“He’s a very nice horse. He’s got a good leg, strong, and he’s the best Hellbent on pedigree that’ll go through a sale this season, since he’s the only half-sibling by Hellbent to a Group 1 winner going through a ring in Australia this season,” O’Donnell says.
“Hellbent was a very attractive mating as a Group 1-winning son of I Am Invincible, one of the best couple of stallions in Australia. It was a good physical mating. Reggie’s a lovely horse and Hellbent’s a lovely type also, and the Hellbents we’ve got have been nice scopey horses, big and strong with plenty of leg.”