Steve Speaks To Widden Stud’s Antony Thompson
Timing is everything as most in the racing and breeding game, including Widden Stud’s Anthony Thompson, would attest. Steve reports:
Timing dictates that a fourth-year stallion can sometimes be a tough sell but Antony Thompson takes the view with Cox Plate (Gr 1, 2040m) winner Shamus Award (Snitzel) that wherein lies doubt, lies opportunity.
“Fourth season stallions present their marketing challenges but they can also present enormous windfalls as we’ve seen with the likes of Redoute’s Choice, Northern Meteor and I Am Invincible. Shamus Award finds himself in that tough year this year and Widden is thinking outside the square to ensure he receives the support deserving of one with the credentials he has,“ Thompson said.
That, and the timing this season of the likely appearance of three (now) very well related two-year-olds, presents the good opportunity which may well await investors. Shamus Award has the juvenile half-siblings to no less a trio than She Will Reign (Manhattan Rain), Jameka (Myboycharlie) and perhaps, most interestingly, to Egg Tart who is by Widden’s flag-bearer Sebring (More Than Ready).
The fourth year ‘blues’ has prompted Thompson to offer 40 what he calls ‘no risk, all reward’ packages to the Cox Plate and Australian Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) winner. Basically, you pay nothing until you sell the offspring whereupon the client takes the first $30,000; Widden the next $30,000 and the balance, of course, to the client.
Such are the vicissitudes of running a stallion farm – which in the case of Widden costs somewhere between $7-8 million per annum to run – that it is not always as simple as ‘stand the horse and they will come.’
“The deal’s proven popular and boosted his numbers and if he can come up with a couple of good two-year-old winners then everyone’s happy,’ Thompson said.
Even three-year-old success, which you’d think would be the likely imprint of the half-sister to Jameka and the half-brother to Egg Tart, would be a boon. Some may ‘come earlier’ than expected.
Rick Jamieson bred the half-sister to Jameka, who is in the custody of Cranbourne trainer Mick Kent and has been delighted with her natural speed. “She’s fast and really going the right away even at this early stage. She’s been broken in and had the one preparation here and coped well. I really like her,“ Kent said.
Warwick Farm trainer Bjorn Baker has charge of the $425,000 half-sister to Golden Slipper Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) winner She Will Reign and has been similarly impressed (as we reported yesterday).
“She’s probably only a couple of weeks away from coming back to the stables. She coped well with her initial orientation here at Warwick Farm and she’s a lovely athletic filly who looks fast,’ Baker said.
This filly was lot 86 at Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale and coincidentally, the half-brother to Egg Tart was assigned the same catalogue number at Inglis Melbourne Premie Yearling Sale. He was secured for $60,000 by Craig Rounsefell (Boomer Bloodstock) and is in the care on Lindsey Smith in Perth.
At the time of purchase, the Chris Waller trained Egg Tart had won just the one race. The sale well preceded her outstanding wins in the both the Schweppes Oaks (registered as Australasian Oaks) (Gr 1, 2000m) and the BRC Queensland Oaks (Gr 1, 2200m). There’s that timing factor again.
All involved will be hoping Sydney racing journalist Ray Thomas is clairvoyant, as he wrote, after the Queensland win: “There was something Winx-like about Egg Tart’s outstanding Queensland Oaks win.“
The sceptics might suggest that they all they have in common, at this stage, is the trainer and an Oaks win but Egg Tart looks way above average to say the least.
Egg Tart was bred by Tony and Julie Brown’s Jorson Farm who, in 2013, purchased the dam Mrs Windsor (carrying Egg Tart), a 12-year-old mare offered by Corumbene Stud, for $21,000 at the Inglis Easter Broodmare sale.
The Widden connection permeates the entire story with George Altamonte’s Corumbene Stud having bred Sebring who was sold for $130,000 as a yearling and went on to win the Golden Slipper Stakes. Altamonte, himself, was then to win the Golden Slipper Stakes with the filly Overreach (Exceed And Excel) and Widden now stands her brother Outreach.
And, just for good measure, Jorson Farm managed to have the equal top priced filly at the Magic Millions March Sale this year which was a filly by Widden stallion Star Witness (Starcraft) whom Thompson believes is ‘headed for greatness’.
“I think that’s a reasonable expectation based on what he’s achieved from three crops and how he lines up against other past champion sires at the same stage. He’s already done it here and in South Africa and Hong Kong and the best is yet to come I believe,’ he said.
Widden, of course, celebrates it’s 150th anniversary this year and the current roster looks well placed to secure its immediate future which is about as much as anyone can control.
The somewhat unheralded but extremely well patronised Nicconi (Bianconi) has attracted another huge book. “He was the most popular stallion in Australia last season when he had more than 190 mares in foal and it looks very much like he’ll be the most popular again this year.
“His offspring are mentally strong, good eaters and you can work them. Hence the trainers like them very much,’ Thompson said.
The aforementioned Outreach, who stretched the Golden Slipper winner Vancouver (Medaglia d’Oro) at his only start, has the speed and two-year-old credentials so widely valued in this part of the world.
“Peter Snowden felt he had serious Group One speed but he pulled up with a fractured hock after that run behind Vancouver,” Thompson said.
Even so, Thompson is prepared to also offer a deal with him to ensure his numbers stay strong.
“Commit for three years and you have a lifetime nomination. It’s not an original idea but I think it can work with this type of horse. Harry and Arthur Mitchell did it with I Am Invincible and shares to that horse have sold for $450,000 at public auction,’ he said.
A similar ‘breeder’s package’ is on offer with Stratum Star (Stratum) who might surprise many people according to Thompson.
“How unusual these days to stand a horse like this? Tough and sound and durable…and with the speed to win a Group One at 1400 metres. He was underestimated as a racehorse and really we’re delighted to stand a horse who was bred and raised on the farm and sold by the farm. He’s already had a very positive response,” he said.
The Widden line-up this year is completed by Your Song (Fastnet Rock), who was champion first season sire by winners last racing year, and – of course – by the irrepressible Sebring who is now nudging 30 plus stakes winners from 1000 to 2400 metres.
Ryan McEvoy, Widden’s marketing and stallions nominations manager, says the farm’s recent record stands all scrutiny. “While acknowledging some level of subjectivity, I looked at the 154 Group 1 winning colts retired from 2003 until 2103-14 and I’d say only 19 could be dubbed as very successful. Widden has retired six Australian Group One winners in that period and feel all have enjoyed distinguished success; Stratum, Sebring, Northern Meteor, Nicconi, Star Witness and now Your Song.”