Spendthrift unearthing stakes-winning fillies to add to yearling-buy stallions
Spendthrift Farm have achieved notable success with sourcing yearling colts that go on to make subsequent stallions for their Werribee roster, and through the likes of yesterday’s Oaklands Stakes (Listed, 1400m) winner Mac ‘N’ Cheese (Sebring), they are unearthing the high-class fillies to mate them to.
Overshare (I Am Invincible), Swear (Redoute’s Choice) and latest new kid on the block Dirty Work (Written Tycoon) were all purchased as yearling colts by Spendthrift, and after on-track success have now taken their place at stud, with the trio achieving significant reward on the cumulative outlay of $1.845 million at the yearling sales.
Now, after her Morphettville success, the regally-bred two-year-old filly Mac ‘N’ Cheese has a future destined for Spendthrift Farm, as part of their enviable broodmare band.
The filly was sourced for $300,000 by Spendthrift from the Newgate Farm draft at the 2020 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale, six months after her half-brother Exceedance (Exceed And Excel) recorded his career-defining Group 1 win in the Coolmore Stud Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m), while since her purchase her three-year-old half-brother Oxley Road (Exceed And Excel) has recorded a stakes victory for Peter Moody this season.
“I guess we can comfortably say that she’s worth a lot more than what we paid for her,” said Garry Cuddy, general manager of Spendthrift Farm Australia.
“This filly was a $300,000 purchase, and her pedigree kicks along before she’s even had a race start and then she goes to the races and wins at stakes level, well, she takes pride of place in the broodmare band when the time comes for her to retire which is fantastic for us.
“We went to the Magic Millions sale last year with the intention of buying fillies that could one day end up improving our broodmare band, and she was a half-sister to Exceedance at the time and obviously since then Oxley Road has popped into the pedigree and she’s now a stakes winner herself. So, I think we can say we’ve achieved our goal that we set out with back then with this filly and hopefully there’s a few more wins in store before we’re seeing her in our covering shed.”
Although this also being her first win on her third start, the manner of her victory – missing the kick before sweeping ominously five-wide round the field and running down the long-time leader Tonneofgrit (Winning Rupert) to post a two-length win – suggests there is much more to come from the filly, but Cuddy said he and trainers Tony and Calvin McEvoy would bide their time before formulating a spring carnival plan.
“It’s never ideal when you miss the kick in any race but when you’ve gone six weeks between runs and turning up at stakes class, when they fall out of the gates your heart sinks into your stomach and she obviously bounced herself up and Barend rode her an absolute treat. Put her in the right spot and she took off at the 600 and then took off again at the 200, which really was phenomenal,” Cuddy said.
“We’ll see her again in the spring and, as trainers always say, you never make a decision on raceday, so we’ll speak to Tony and Calvin in the next few days and work out where they want to finish up and then work backwards from there.
“We’re just happy to win today and the versatility she’s shown today, nothing is out of reach and hopefully that’s the case.”
Her dam, the stakes-winning Bonnie Mac (Thorn Park), has now produced four foals for three stakes winners, while her fourth produce represented Capitalist’s (Written Tycoon) first million-dollar yearling when selling at the Inglis Easter Yearling sale this year and, while Mac ‘N’ Cheese’s sire Sebring (More Than Ready) will have no further crops to come through, Bonnie Mac has also produced her last foal having died after the birth of her Capitalist foal.
“Her mum was only able to have four foals,” said Cuddy. “Three of those are stakes winners now and this last bloke, well there’s a lot of pressure on him now, he was a million-dollar yearling and he’s got to catch up with his siblings. So hopefully for us, and his owners, he can tick that box like everyone else has.”
The latest coronavirus outbreaks in both Sydney and Melbourne have put a cloud over the conducting of live stallion parades next month, however Cuddy is planning for the event to go ahead where Dirty Work, along with shuttle stallions Omaha Beach (War Front) and Vino Rosso (Curlin) who arrive on Tuesday from the US, as well as the rest of the roster, will be in situ to have eyes cast over them by the Victorian breeders and beyond.
“The sales team have had a great couple of weeks since the Great Southern Sale when we were able to show Dirty Work off to breeders on the Friday night and we took him in again and showed him off on the monday afternoon,” said Cuddy.
“Hopefully people have been able to get their eyes over him and the amount of bookings we’ve taken since those people have seen him, I think it’s people justifying what we’ve been telling them in the weeks leading up to seeing him for themselves. He’s a fantastic looking horse and he’s by the best stallion in the country at the moment and he was obviously fast.
“All the mares that we purchased at auction this year, including Baccarat Baby and Madeenaty, as well as those we purchased last year as well are booked to him. They’d be 12 mares of our top 15 mares on the farm, so he’s going to get some really good quality from us.”