‘Sorry, you’ve got a mare by who…?’
Trevor Marshallsea talks to a Melbourne-based breeder who has amassed his own collection of bloodstock royalty
There’s a hobby breeder in Melbourne who loves the reactions when he rings stud farms asking about possible covers for his mares.
Sometimes they think they’re crank calls. They sound like the breeding world’s equivalent of Elvis sightings.
“Yeah I’ve got this Mr. Prospector mare here…”
“I’ve got a mare by Miswaki. You know? Galileo’s damsire?”
“A half-sister to Danehill…”
They’re real, and they all belong to the one man, 46-year-old Melbournian Perry Vourdounas, whose main lines are in the restaurant and building industries, and who does breeding in a distinctly different way.
For starters, he kicked off in breeding Clydesdales – all jokes about slow racehorses aside.
“I’d go to the Royal Melbourne Show as a kid and always the big highlight for me was seeing the Clydesdales. So after a while I decided to get into that,” Vourdounas, a man who clearly believes in vehemently pursuing his passions, tells ANZ Bloodstock News.
He started breeding them in his 20s, buying a yearling colt he saw on a visit to a stud farm.
“I fell in love with him and bought him straight away. I probably should have started with a mare, but there you go,” he says with a laugh.
A descendant of Greek immigrants, Vourdounas had no background in thoroughbreds, but in time decided to give it a try.
“I just really liked researching pedigrees and getting into those, which was what I did with Clydesdales,” he says. “Plus I was getting a bit sick of winning titles at shows with Clydesdales and all you’d get is a blue ribbon, so I thought I’d get into thoroughbreds.”
After his initial years, a couple of traits emerged. Vourdounas quite liked keeping the horses he bred, partly because it was more a hobby than a money-making venture. And, a little like a collector you might see on Antiques Roadshow or the like, he would eventually end up with a line of rarities.
Probably the star of his seven-strong broodmare band at present is Luanda, a daughter of the great Mr. Prospector. She was bred by Kentucky’s famous Gainsborough Farm – which stood the stallion until his death in 1999 – and she biologically turned 23 on Thursday.
She’s the only broodmare by Mr. Prospector in Australia, the stud book shows, and since she came from his third-last crop, there can’t be that many more in the world.
Luanda, out of a US Grade 2-winning daughter of Seattle Dancer in Via Borghese, had three starts in France, for a third on debut at Chantilly in 2001. She was imported to Australia in 2002 with high credentials, and duly started her breeding career with a bang.
The chestnut’s first foal – a Redoute’s Choice colt sold by Arrowfield Stud as agents – fetched $1.4 million when sold to Gerald Ryan, as the third-top lot at the 2005 Sydney Easter yearling sale. Alas, racing as Rumbler, he didn’t live up to his billing, reaping a Bathurst maiden from 18 starts.
Luanda’s yearlings decreased in value but she had a touch more success with her fourth foal, a colt by Exceed And Excel named Abeyant, bought by Anthony Cummings as a yearling for $120,000. Mr. Prospector has an astounding 384 stakes-winners as a broodmare sire, from 3,804 runners at 10 per cent, with 2015 Melbourne Cup winner Prince Of Penzance among them. Abeyant, second in the lucrative Inglis Premier (1200m) for two-year-olds at Caulfield in 2009, eventually became another of those stakes winners, albeit in the less-than-mainstream province of Penang, Malaysia.
Luanda’s seventh foal, a Commands filly named Kalandula, who also yielded $120,000 as a yearling, was a Brisbane city-winner who made $240,000 on the track.
Vourdounas eventually picked up Luanda, in a private sale worth around $10,000 or less, and bred Angola Miss (Albrecht). She won a Donald maiden for him under Matt Williams and is now a six-year-old in Queensland with $93,000 in the bank.
Going back to an old formula, Williams now trains her three-year-old half-brother, Purinuan Boy, by an Exceed And Excel son in Kuroshio, who Vourdounas feels will be handy after a debut sixth at Warrnambool.
Luanda has a Nostradamus yearling filly, but Vourdounas’ major excitement comes from the fact she’s now in foal to Melbourne Cup winner Americain, who stands at Victoria’s Daisy Hill Stud, where Luanda also resides.
The mating brings an enticing cross, since 2006 Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro was by American’s sire Dynaformer out of a Mr. Prospector-line dam.
“That was Dynaformer’s best runner, so we decided let’s go to Americain and try to get a Melbourne Cup winner,” Vourdounas says.
“Luanda is obviously getting on a bit, but when you look at her she looks like a ten-year-old mare. (Daisy Hill studmaster) Shane Freeman reckons she’ll probably be good to have one more after this one.”
Vourdounas also parted with a few grand several years back to buy Far Shores. Another chestnut, she raced once in France, was imported to Australia in 2015, and happens to be a half-sister to Danehill. Born in 2001, she was the 12th of dam Razyana’s 14 foals, with 1986 drop Danehill her first.
Far Shores previously left the unraced Sea Shores (Kyllachy) and Sobiluar (Pride Of Dubai), who’s currently a ten-race maiden in Victoria (and under an “uncompetitive” suspension). Under Vourdounas, Far Shores has a yearling colt by Panzer Division – one of the next best things to his sire Redoute’s Choice – and is in foal to Overshare.
Vourdounas also has Hampton Rover, a 21-year-old bay mare by Miswaki, who was also by Mr. Prospector, and was the damsire not just to Galileo but Sea The Stars, Daylami, Dalakhani and others. Aside from the sire, Hampton Rover was born in the US to Australian racing royalty in Research (Imperial Prince), the four-time Group 1 winner exported to America in 1997.
Despite the bloodlines, Hampton Rover has also left no stars. Vourdounas has bred from her a maiden winner named Hampton Cove (Onemorenomore) and younger yet-to-race colts by Giant’s Steps, Nostradamus and Onemorenomore again.
If there’s a pattern here, it could be that while the pedigrees are rich and the enthusiasm high, there hasn’t quite been a strong history of racetrack success, or of top-notch stallions. But those markers might not quite be the point.
“It’s an honour, to be honest, to keep these sorts of mares,” Vourdounas says. “You look after them like they’re your daughters.”
Mind you, as anyone in breeding knows, a good horse could just be one mating away (perhaps with Americain). And Vourdounas will point out Luanda at least has a decent record of leaving winners, including a couple in the city.