Southern road trip shows there’s more than meets the eye to industry figures’ success
Diligent agents and trainers do the miles in order to unearth their next racetrack star
What do you learn on a 1000-kilometre, two-day round trip across the Southern Highlands and Southern NSW looking at horses in their own environment?
The answer is plenty and then you learn even more about the people who are inspecting them.
Champion trainer Gai Waterhouse is considered the pioneer of the on-farm inspection, but it has become commonplace with the vast majority of industry professionals traversing the countryside in the lead-up to the major yearling sales.
Being December, the inspections carried out across the eastern seaboard are for next month’s Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale, a seven-day auction with a catalogue of 1,230 horses.
The sale’s sheer size makes on-farm inspections almost a necessity for the majority bloodstock agents and trainers to lessen their workload once arriving on the Gold Coast early in the New Year.
The Magic Millions-hosted touring party, which ANZ Bloodstock News joined early this week, featured a diverse group of participants, all of whom are successful in their own right, and it is not hard to see why.
Each of them possess an attention to detail and the ability to siphon out the unnecessary distractions when it comes to the important task of assessing a yearling, the next potential “life-changer”.
For people whose business is derived from buying and training horses, careers can be forged on the back of selecting a good horse or the ability to continually pick out horses who are above average.
Conversely, in an industry strongly dictated by fashion, if they get it wrong the consequences to one’s fortunes can be significant.
Led by Magic Millions’ young guns Dane Robinson and James Hetherington, the touring group consisted of Proven Thoroughbreds’ Jamie Walter, Price Bloodstock’s Maree McEwan, who also assists agent Merrick Staunton, Will Johnson, Karl Brown and Brian McGuire, who holds the high-pressure role of bloodstock manager for Annabel Neasham.
Irishman David Skelly, a Godolphin Flying Start trainee, was also on the trip under the guidance of Johnson, himself a well-travelled and knowledgeable agent with connections in both hemispheres.
Seven farms were visited: Zhongli Thoroughbreds, Manx Park, Milburn Creek, Silverdale Farm, Twin Hills Stud, Bowness Stud and Newhaven Park.
Ciaron Maher and his Sydney assistant trainer Jack Bruce, as well as offsiders Gab Nutt and Will Bourne, were also on the seven-stud tour which started on Monday at Zhongli Thoroughbreds which is preparing its maiden yearling sale draft of six lots who will be offered on the Gold Coast.
Despite having hundreds of horses in work across two states and hundreds more on the books, it was clear that Maher saw on-farm yearling inspections, having already spent a week in the Hunter Valley, as vital to the continual rejuvenation of his enormous business.
It was fascinating watching on as Maher went about his work, which gave an insight into how he had built his stable from humble beginnings to become the largest in Australia.
He was able to simultaneously pick up the idiosyncrasies of the yearlings being paraded in front of him while also on the phone with his co-trainer David Eustace about the morning’s and the next day’s trackwork, as well as when and where their horses should race next.
Maher, almost certain to be the biggest buyer in terms of numbers of horses purchased next year, didn’t appear to miss a beat, highlighting to his co-trainer that one horse was “flattered” in a last-start win and that they shouldn’t raise the bar too high and that another was finally in the zone and that they needed to avoid pushing the fragile filly over the edge by backing her up too soon.
If, by chance, Maher didn’t pick up on any physical or mental attributes of the yearlings parading while also in conversation with Eustace and other staff, he had Nutt, Bruce and Bourne there to make their own judgments and form their own opinions.
Manx Park at Sutton Forest was the second destination with four Book 1 fillies, those being by I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit), Dundeel (High Chaparral), Nicconi (Bianconi) and Written By (Written Tycoon), and two Book 2 colts on show.
Proven Thoroughbreds’ Walter could be forgiven for basking in the glory of his maiden Group 1 winner, Epsom Handicap (Gr 1, 1600m) scorer Private Eye (Al Maher), and Palazzo Spirit (Spirit Of Boom), the unbeaten colt who won Saturday’s Phelan Ready Stakes (Listed, 1100m) in Brisbane, but instead he was hard at work in an attempt to find another talented horse at a value price.
The parades are hectic for vendors as well, often holding multiple groups a day, as was the case at Milburn Creek when they also hosted the Coolmore crew of Tom Magnier, his son Charlie, MV Magnier, Colm Santry and John Kennedy.
Twin Hills’ Olly Tait, who has a draft 15 yearlings including progeny of Kingman (Invincible Spirit), Hellbent (I Am Invincible) and resident sire Smart Missile (Fastnet Rock), remarked that he had stressed to his staff the importance of showing the horses off to the best of their potential during the on-farm inspections even though their “grand final” is still weeks away.
“We need to keep as many horses as possible on people’s lists, whereas buyers are trying to kick as many off as possible,” said Cootamundra-based Tait, the first stop on day two of the tour.
First season sires are always a talking point and among them were yearlings by The Autumn Sun (Redoute’s Choice), Trapeze Artist (Snitzel), Justify (Scat Daddy), Written By (Written Tycoon), Encryption (Lonhro) and Performer (Exceed And Excel).
Yearlings by Darley shuttler Harry Angel (Dark Angel) also left an impression on the group; the world champion sprinter appearing to leave a consistent line of well-shaped, athletic horses.
Milburn Creek’s John Muir will offer 11 yearlings at the Gold Coast, three of them out of internationally-sourced mares, as well as colts by Justify and The Autumn Sun.
“How could you not send a mare to The Autumn Sun?” he asked, confident in his colt out of Belladini (Bernardini) who is catalogued as Lot 790.
Steve Grant’s lavish Silverdale Farm, at nearby Avoca, is a sight to behold; the horses were paraded on an arena that could double as a bowling green.
Silverdale Farm general manager Rob Petith is overseeing the preparation of seven Book 1 yearlings – four fillies and three colts.
Among them are two fillies by champion sire Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice), one being the first living foal out of Group 2 winner Sweet Sherry (Bel Esprit) and the other a half-sister to the Australian Oaks (Gr 1, 2400m)-placed Quintessa (Pierro).
Petith also took some members of the group for a tour of the property and it would not be a controversial statement to suggest that it is only a matter of time before Silverdale Farm is producing regular top horses, given the rich soil and terrain ideal for nurturing young stock.
Seeing where horses are raised is a point made by Randwick Bloodstock’s Brett Howard, who the group crossed paths with at Newhaven Park.
“It’s also good to see the environment the horses are brought up in and to see how they handle another situation, to assess their temperament, apart from just seeing how they handle it up there (at the Gold Coast),” Howard said.
Bowness Stud, which bred and sold Australasian Oaks (Gr 1, 2000m) winner Media Award (Shamus Award) and has a Brave Smash (Tosen Phantom) half-brother to the mare for sale on the Gold Coast, was the second-last stop on the trip.
Bowness boss John North was a content figure, silos full, headers still rolling and canola at $875 a tonne, as he divulged why he thought he had achieved such success breeding to sub-fertile stallions such as Extreme Choice (Not A Single Doubt) and Menari (Snitzel).
He’d also made, he said, good money by buying difficult-to-breed mares and managing them carefully to get them in foal.
Magic Millions’ Robinson was better placed than anyone to judge how much the yearlings had developed, having been on the road since August assessing horses suitable for the company’s various sales.
“It is not an easy task getting around and seeing these horses in August, September time. You’ve seen them in winter and we’ve had a very lush spring with all the rain and now that it’s starting to warm up, you’re noticing the difference,” Robinson said.
“There’s a huge change that you do see in that time. The majority go the right way, some don’t quite go the right way, but it is always good to see the progression as they go into the last four or five weeks of their prep.
“You like to look at them again at the complex and you like to see improvement again from what you’ve seen on the farm.”
Newhaven Park, surrounded by hills full of history, is about 40 kilometres north of Boorowa, a trip which requires driving on roads with more potholes than bitumen and dusty dirt tracks not suited to being the last in a convoy of vehicles.
But once there, it’s not hard to see why the likes of Golden Rose Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m) winner In The Congo (Snitzel), fellow Group 1 winners Odeum (Written Tycoon) and Shout The Bar (Not A Single Doubt) and the Group 1-placed Perth-trained mare Kissonallforcheeks (Written Tycoon) were raised on the Kelly family’s property.
The last stop of the tour and the largest draft of 30 yearlings, Newhaven’s John Kelly stressed to the attentive buyers that the vendor’s horses would be priced to sell, a strategy employed at this year’s sale which saw them sell 21 of 25 yearlings at an average of $188,095.
“We feel that we are repositioning ourselves in the market where our horses are on the market at a very realistic figure and we are keen to sell 100 per cent of our horses,” Kelly said.
“It’s probably not always achievable, but we are going to put very realistic reserves on our horses, which will be available before they go into the ring. Hopefully it’s a point of difference from some other people.”
Second-year Godolphin Flying Start trainee Kelly found the on-farm tours to be an invaluable experience.
“It’s the magnitude of how things are down here, farms are thousands of acres. It’s very much a different approach, so it’s great to see and it’s the beauty of the course,” Skelly said.
“You get to see different jurisdictions and it’s been a privilege to be here for the past few weeks. Overall, the horses appeared very forward with plenty of bone.
“They are very quick looking horses and look like you could put a saddle on right now whereas the horses back home are lighter framed and take a little bit more time.”
The Southern Highlands and Southern NSW tour was punctuated by a first night stop over at Jugiong, home to the highly recommended Sir George, and Robinson believes the social aspect was also a vital part of the inspections in an industry which is built on relationships.
“I think that’s why you get around Magic Millions as we have a bit of fun while we do it,” Robinson said.
“At the end of the day, it’s work, but we can have a bit of fun while we get around. You get the chance to catch up with all the vendors, all the farmers and everyone in between and you get to see where the horses are raised and a few dinners and drinks in between never hurt anyone.”