“Special filly” headlines Newhaven’s select Easter draft
While stopping short of anointing her the next Autumn Glow (The Autumn Sun), there is still audible excitement in the voice of Newhaven Park owner John Kelly when asked to discuss the merits of the filly produced by the farm’s homebred sprinting sensation English (Encosta de Lago), who will be offered at the Inglis Easter Yearling Sale, which gets underway on Sunday.
Chris Waller’s unbeaten filly Autumn Glow took her first tentative steps on the road to future stardom in one of Newhaven’s lush paddocks in Boorowa, and Kelly is hopeful the family farm’s reputation for breeding excellence is enhanced when their eight-strong draft enter the sales ring at the Riverside complex at the end of this week.
Purely on pedigree, the third foal (Lot 356) produced by Newhaven’s dual Group 1 winner English would appear to be the standout of their select draft, with speed almost guaranteed by her mating with Arrowfield’s super sire Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice).
Sending Encosta de Lago (Fairy King) mares to Snitzel has become a surefire hit for breeders, with the recent Golden Slipper (Gr 1, 1200m) winner Marhoona (Snitzel) – whose dam Salma was sired by the late, great stallion and merely the latest in a long line of speed machines bred on that cross to achieve sprinting success at racing’s highest level.
In total, another three Group 1 winners have been bred on the Snitzel / Encosta De Lago cross and eight stakes winners all together.
Putting the pedigree page to one side, there will be a fair degree of sentiment attached to the sale of English’s first filly, not least as Newhaven has become renowned for its enduring success with the fairer sex.
Prior to Autumn Glow, who was pinhooked for $600,000 at the 2022 Magic Millions National Weanling Sale before topping the Inglis Easter Yearling Sale at $1.8 million a year later. Newhaven sold the likes of multiple stakes-winning mare Kissonallforcheeks (Written Tycoon) and dual Group 1 victor Shout The Bar (Not A Single Doubt) – whose colt by Home Affairs (I Am Invincible) is likely to be in hot demand when he is offered by Coolmore as Lot 158 on Sunday.
More recently, Widden Stud Stakes (Gr 3, 1100m) winner The Playwright (Written By) has proudly flown the flag for Newhaven, who sold the filly for $60,000 to Triciolours Racing at last year’s Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale.
Kelly is therefore rightly proud of the farm’s record with fillies, and while he is reluctant to put a price on his expectations for the prized daughter of English – sensibly determining that “we’ll let the market decide what she’s worth” – he has been buoyed by the early progress shown by her brother, King’s English (Snitzel).
The juvenile colt won his second public trial at Ellerslie on Tuesday morning for Te Akau Racing, whose proprietor David Ellis paid $700,000 to secure him at this same sale 12 months ago.
If they were looking for omens, that impressive trial and Marhoona’s Slipper success couldn’t have come at a better time for the team at Newhaven, which has been run by four generations of the Kelly family since being acquired back in 1920.
“We do think she’s a pretty special filly,” Kelly told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“She presents a pretty unique opportunity for people to buy into. She’s been very well admired already in a day-and-a-half of inspections, and I’m sure everyone has liked what they’ve seen because she’s a great mover. We’re very happy with how she’s going, and it’s now up to the market to determine what they think she’s worth.
“She’s obviously bred on a wonderful cross which has now produced four Group 1-winning two-year-olds. The timing of Marhoona’s win in the Slipper was pretty fortunate for us, so we were obviously very happy with that result. Her full-brother looks to have a fair bit of talent and I believe the team at Te Akau have a good opinion of him, so hopefully this filly can go on and have some racetrack success.
“We’ve always liked her, she’s been a lovely athletic filly from the very start, and athleticism is a pretty good trait for any racehorse. We’ve done everything we can and we know that good horses sell well here, so we just hope the market views her as positively as we do.”
Expectations are also high for another filly in their draft, given the prowess shown by Lot 247’s famous father Too Darn Hot (Dubawi) who leads the Australian second crop sires’ premiership by earnings, winners, stakes winners and indeed pretty much any other metric you care to mention.
Kelly is hopeful that the first foal produced by Velocity (Vadamos) – a half-sister to multiple stakes winner Lady Prancealot (Sir Prancealot) – can extend a sizzling sales record for Darley’s shuttler Too Darn Hot, who is again well represented, with 17 yearlings (after one withdrawal) set to go under the hammer over the two days of trade.
“She’s another really lovely filly,” said Kelly. “She’s got a nice pedigree and looks to match, so we’re very keen on her. For whatever reason we’ve traditionally done better with our fillies than our colts, so hopefully she can continue that success.”
However, Kelly believes that he has a nice bunch of four colts set to go under the hammer this year, including a pair of sons of So You Think (High Chaparral). One of them is the third foal out of three-time Group 2 winner Spanish Whisper (Lope De Vega) (Lot 180), while the other is Lot 104, who is out of a half-sister to Group 3 winner and now sire Maschino (Encosta De Lago).
The farm will also offer a colt by Toronado (High Chaparral). Catalogued as Lot 198, the yearling is out of the winning mare Star Syrah (Zoustar), who is a half-sister to New Zealand Group 1-winning pair A Touch Of Ruby (Pins) and Loire (Redoute’s Choice).
The final one of their colts to be offered will be a son of Kia Ora’s first-season sire Farnan (Not A Single Doubt), a grandson of US Listed winner Link To My Heart (Stravinsky).
“Having said that, we’ve also got some lovely colts in our draft. The Toronado colt is a beauty, his sire can’t do much more and I’m sure he’ll be popular with any buyers from Hong Kong here this week.
“The So You Think colt out of Spanish Whisper is also a cracking horse, his dam was a magnificent racehorse and this guy is very good looking. We’ve also got a lovely So You Think filly who has been well admired, and the same goes for our Farnan colt.
“The Farnans have been going particularly well lately, so again the timing has worked out well for us. All of our yearlings are either by established stallions or ones that are now moving firmly in the right direction, and that recency can be a very big plus. Hopefully there’s a future Group 1 winner somewhere in the draft, now it’s up to the buyers to find the right one.”
Kelly’s confidence in the quality of their product is backed up by the exceptional clearance rate achieved by Newhaven in recent years.
All ten of their lots were sold at last year’s Inglis Easter Sale, fetching an average price of $329,000 and a median of $245,000.
Whilst the economic downturn might see a slight reduction in those figures this time around, Kelly’s optimism has been bolstered by Newhaven’s recent performances during this sales season.
“The market has been a bit more challenging for everyone this year, but overall we’ve been very happy with how the sales have gone for us,” said Kelly.
“We sold 29 of the 31 lots we offered at the Inglis Classic Sale and 15 out of 15 in Melbourne, we were confident in the quality of the yearlings we offered and they sold accordingly. It’s our policy these days to put fairly low reserve prices on our horses to get them into the market, and hopefully we can get some great results again this week.”
Looking further ahead, Kelly is keen to further the support already shown to Newhaven’s trio of stallions, long-term resident Xtravagant (Pentire) and relative newcomers Mo’unga and Cool Aza Beel, who are both sons of the great Savabeel (Zabeel).
Unfortunately a minor illness forced the withdrawal of the Cool Aza Beel colt they had intended to offer at Riverside, but Kelly believes the 2020 Sistema Stakes (Gr. 1, 1200m) winner could have a bright future at stud after a promising start to his career.
“People do like the Cool Aza Beels, they’re probably just going to need a bit more time to mature before they show their best on the track,” said Kelly.
“He covered over 80 mares this season, and we’re hoping to bump those numbers up a bit more. A lot of buyers who purchased his progeny last year have come back for more this year, so that’s always a good sign and gives you confidence in the quality of the stock he’s producing.”