Steve spoke to key industry figures to come up with a ‘different’ preview of Melbourne Premier
Anthony Mithen (ROSEMONT): “We have some first timers who asked me to buy them a mare. I went to the Inglis Great Southern Sale and bought a mare in foal to Stratum called Elleandee. They’ve got a lovely filly from her, Lot 359. One of the guys is Piers Canty, son of media and political figure Elaine Canty. I’m looking forward to seeing their reaction to the whole process and hopefully we can make a little on the mare’s purchase price of $45,000.
“There is also Ed McKeon and his son Clark who sold Prairie Fire through us last year and realised $625,00 off a $250,000 reserve! Lucky buggers get to sell the three-quarter brother by Wandjina this year as Lot 312.”
Philip Campbell (BLUE GUM): “We don’t take too many outside yearlings but very happy to have the association we do with Oakland Park stud in Western Australia. They grow them out well which is evidenced by the tremendous record they have of producing quality horses, the likes of Northerly, Marasco, Ihtsahymn, Shirazamatazz, Covertly, Roman Time, Grand Nirvana, Jestatune and Lite’n In My Veins.
“We’ve sold seven yearlings for them so far. Unfortunately one died before it got to the racetrack but of the other six, four have raced and include the group winner Jukebox, the stakes winner and group placed Ducimus and the Sha Tin winners Fantastic Show and Handsome Bo Bo. We have four very nice yearlings for them again this year.”
Peter Liston (THREE BRIDGES): “Our great friend and client Gary Johnson started with a 50 per cent share in a lame racehorse named Kooeah….we now own 80 horses together and continue to develop and strengthen our partnership. Gary’s investment has allowed us to purchase broodmares of greater quality which fits in with our future direction. We are offering 12 on behalf of Gary at this year’s Melbourne Premier sale, but we are most excited about our three Frankel’s on the ground for next years yearling sales.”
Moran: The lot(s) which might be overlooked but shouldn’t be?
Adam Sangster (SWETTENHAM): “The Wow Signals’. A very fast son of Starspangledbanner. It’s easy to forget how good he was, winning the Coventry and the Morny. He’s thrown some damn good types. I believe he only has 12 foals in Australia and we offer three of them. I reckon at least one of them is bound to win a good race.”
Mithen: “I hope none of the Starspangledbanners. Out of sight, out of mind, it’s easy to forget that his stats are off the charts…75 per cent winners to runners and nearly 15 per cent stakes winners to runners. Lot 451 is a beauty – third foal of a Chateau Istana mare. You might ask who but the first foal won last week in South Africa by five lengths and the second foal is a very highly rated Zoustar filly who made $400,000 on the Gold Coast!”
Campbell: “He won’t be on everyone’s pedigree list but physically, I just like the Mossman colt out of the Flying Spur mare Flying Gigi (Lot 391). He’s strong and precocious looking, a real two-year-old type. He looks like you could put a saddle on him now and he’s got such a fantastic temperament. Mossman over Danehill/Danzig has produced the group one winners Mossfun, Buffering and Miss Mossman but honestly, just shut the catalogue and have a look at the colt.”
Peter and Toby Liston: “Lot 196 is a good colt that will make a good racehorse and he might sell for a value price. The mare has had two winners, a $455,000 earner in Secret Trail who was second in a Magic Millions and her brother Magic Legend who’s won four straight and been Group placed since arriving in Hong Kong. This colt will probably be inexpensive, has a great attitude and there is certainly money to be made on him.
“Lot 743 is an Unencumbered filly from Maybe I. Not sure how she finished up in the second book in the first place. She’s a beautiful filly and a half to Ringerdingding who was a very good winner on debut at Rosehill on Wednesday. And we’ve got a wrap on Lot 224, our Deep Field colt out of Zona from the Oaks-winning family of Faint Perfume and Danendri.”
Tillett: “Lot 417 is a Zoustar filly out of Helping Hand. Last year, we had the half sister by All Too Hard and nobody wanted her apart from a very good judge who finished up buying her cheaply and she’s shown good ability racing as All Too Handy. That good judge was Brad Spicer. I think he might have to pay a little more for the half sister.”
Moran: A lot from a family which has special significance to the farm?
Campbell: “The Turffontein filly out of Inkster (Lot 433). ‘Turfy’ has been at stud with us since he retired and he’s done a very good job and always has a nice horse running around. He’s had three Group winners and they’ve all been fillies, two of them, being Fontein Ruby and Fontiton, were also born and raised here at Blue Gum Farm. They’ve been some very good Turffontein’s sold cheaply. Dance With Fontein made $2,000 as a yearling. Widgee Turf made $4,500 as a weanling. You don’t have to spend a fortune.
“Inkster is a filly that I kept and raced with friends and we had a heap of fun with her. She won a VRC St Leger and ran a close third in the SA Oaks. I also kept her yearling filly by War last year and I’m racing her with friends. Named Des Moines, she had her first run last week at Caulfield and ran a ripper to be beaten just half a length. My folks raced Inkster’s half sister Sorenstam with friends and she was a beauty. Enjoying good times with friends is what makes racing and breeding fun.”
Mithen: “We have a couple of fillies related to our first headline horse Secret Flyer. He was a gun and one-time Newmarket favourite who won a couple of stakes races in our colours and won over $500,000. Lot 49 is the Sebring filly out of his half sister and is a beautiful filly, while Lot 543 looks all speed and she is by Starspangledbanner from the same family.”
Tillett: “That will be Lot 239, a colt by Zoustar out of Anelene who’s a Written Tycoon mare we bought for $10,000. When we bought Zoustar, Tony Cavanagh presented me with a trunk full of papers as to which mares would best suit him. He thinks the Written Tycoon mares are the perfect match and this is the first product of that match. He’s our genuine Woodside horse and and an absolute belter for a first foal.”
Moran: Best or worst memory of Premier?
Campbell: “My best memory of Premier would have to be the feeling of satisfaction at the end of the 2016 sale. We sold 27 yearlings at that sale for a gross of $4,710,000 which was $1,700,000 higher than any previous gross at Premier. We could have taken our highest priced yearling out of the numbers and the gross still would have been $1,000,000 higher than the previous best.
“It was just a magnificent group of horses that Wendy and Chris and their crew here at the farm did such a marvellous job with. The guys were awarded the best presented draft at that sale which was an honour well deserved. Eleven of those yearlings are now winners including two stakes winners, another five metropolitan winners and includes Furnish, trained by Henry Dwyer, who won on debut and has the promise of better things to come.”
Mithen: “My heart did skip a beat when I got a call on the Sunday morning of the first day of the sale a couple of years ago from one of the Inglis ground staff telling me my marquee had ‘blown away’! I was always giggled at for the fact that I brought my crappy red homebred marquee to the sales rather than pay for a flash one from ‘Harry’.
“I got my comeuppance when a storm hit on the eve of the sale and my roof ended up in the nearby quarry! We found it, patched it and by first parade Sunday morning no one was any the wiser. I think it helped that the marquee came off a pretty low base to begin with. Needless to say, that marquee was put in a hole after that fateful sale and I’ve now succumbed to the over-charging ways of the corporates (only joking Mr Jamieson).”
Toby Liston: “Leading our Exceed and Excel colt into the ring back in 2008….we had heard that Darley were off him but the doors opened and I saw the Darley team leaning on the bench right in front of the ring so I thought ‘we are in business here’. Nathan Tinkler and Darley went head to head and our reserve of $250,000 was smashed and the colt made $750,000 – surpassed only last year by Rick Jamieson’s I Am Invincible colt which was fantastic to see.
“How did our Exceed And Excel – Gentle Call colt go? He actually won two legs of the Triple Crown and over 20 races……although it was in the Philippines. However, a deal is only successful if both parties end up happy, so this wasn’t out best result. In 2012 we had our most successful sale to date, selling five stakes horses from the one sale – 25 per cent of our draft ended up stakes winners, so that was terrific for our purchasers and clients and our branding.”
Tillett: “One of the first horses we presented in 2013, shortly after Mark Rowsthorn took over, was an Exceed And Excel colt. This may well have been the first sale Mark had attended and I was telling him how well the horse was received and that he might make $150,000 or more. There was, as it turned out, virtually no interest in him and I’m sure Mark must have thought I was clueless. We basically took him home and got $280,000 for him at the breeze-ups later in the year so it was OK in the end.”
Sangster: “Obviously selling the mighty Black Caviar, on behalf of Rick Jamieson, is a highlight. Peter Moody loved her and she sold for $210,000. Of course, I now wonder whether I should have been advising Rick not to sell. Trust In A Gust is the best of ours. Every year is a highlight for me as we are wholly committed to Victoria, which is a great breeding ground, and the Melbourne Premier sale.”
Moran: Best or best value horse sold (or purchased)?
Campbell: “I think the best horse we’ve ever sold at Premier might also be the best value horse we ever sold there too, the great Alinghi. We sold her at the 2003 sale for $80,000 and watched her race with such great distinction and earn $3,500,000. I remember walking in to the barn on the first day of prep that year and she was being held in the laneway at the other end of the barn; her silhouette was enormous. She was built like a colt but was such a sweet filly.”
“Purchasing? I haven’t bought many yearlings at all but for some reason I took a shine to a Umatilla colt in our draft back in 1996. He was out of a nice Whiskey Road filly my folks raced named Gallorette. Mum and dad owned and bred the colt and for some reason I asked John Sadler to buy him for me. John purchased him for $16,000. I got three mates in to race him with me and he raced as Bohemiath.
“After his first start, John called me and said we’ll give him one more but if there’s not drastic improvement I’d be looking at getting another trainer and not spending so much on the fees. He circumnavigated the field to win easily at his second start after which I called John and said ‘there’s your Derby colt’. He ran fourth in the Victoria Derby that year, won a VRC St Leger, Adelaide Cup, a Geelong Cup and ran in two Melbourne Cups. Won almost $700,000 in stakes. Gee we had some fun with him.”
Mithen: “Probably line ball between Alboran Sea and Hey Doc. Alboran Sea was bred and raised by the farm and sold for $105,000 at Premier to Mike de Kock and went on to win three Group One’s and was named champion filly. Hey Doc was an $85,000 Premier purchase by Tony McEvoy. We presented him on behalf of Adrian Hall who has been a client of the farm for ten years. Lucky for him, he kept a slice and has now bred and part-owned an Australian Guineas and Manikato Stakes winner.”
Peter Liston: “We sold Lucky Bubbles for $90,000 in 2013. He was a bit small at the time. Ricky Yiu, who’s been a great client of ours, bought him but unfortunately lost him later.”
Sangster: “Obviously the best is Black Caviar but the best of ours would be Trust In A Gust whom we sold to John Foote and Darren Weir for just $45,000. I bred him, sold him and bought him back….and trust me for one hell of a lot more than I sold him. And we sold last spring’s Group Three winner Lyuba for just $2,000 at the VOBIS Gold Sale.”
Moran: First lot sold at Oaklands?
Campbell: “I was there for the first Premier yearling sale in 1982. It was actually the first time we sold as Blue Gum Farm too. I’d already done two premier sales at the old Flemington complex when selling under my folks’ Gramar Lodge as a 19 and 20 year old. Holy Crap that makes me feel old! My dad (Graham) was responsible for the building of the Oaklands Junction complex when working for Dalgety Bloodstock in the early 80’s. He had great foresight and a wonderful vision.
“The Inglis company took over some years later and they have done, and continue to do, a wonderful job with the facility. The plans they have for renovating sound particularly exciting. So, in that first draft at the first Oaklands Junction sale we sold the highest priced filly in Australia that year. She was by Showdown out of a mare called Salote and realised $130,000. Named Ziegfield Lass she was unraced but she did manage to leave her mark on the Australian racing scene by being the grandam of the great Saintly. Blue Gum farm has sold at every Melbourne premier yearling sale since.”
Mithen: “Can’t remember whether he was first, but Mega Boss – the Tasmanian Derby winner – was in the first draft which we put through Erinvale with John and Crystal Kenneally. I remember after getting quite involved in the selling and client relations on inspection days, John came to me and said ‘you need to do this yourself, you know more people than me and you can talk the leg off an iron pot’.
“He actually did himself out of a client and encouraged me to set up a Rosemont draft the next year. I sold Mega Boss to Bruce Mathieson and we’ve been mates ever since. I remember him trying to haggle with me after he passed in and I stood my ground. I always thought he was impressed with that. If I remember correctly, I told him he had to give me $70,000 or I’d go and win the Derby with him myself. He flashed his golden tooth and shook hands and bought the horse. And I was right – he did win a Derby, albeit in Tassie.”
Peter Liston: “Interestingly when we first started Three Bridges in 2006, we didn’t have one horse good enough for Melbourne Premier, so the business has certainly developed since the beginning. I think it took us three years to have horses of that calibre so now to become one of the leading vendors each year has, I think, been a great achievement.
“I can’t remember directly the first lot sold, but I do recall – the first year – offering a nice filly out of a Group One winner. She was a bit fiery and was so when we paraded her for David Hall. I shouted: ‘Hally, do you want a good one with a bit of you know what in her.’ It then seemed like the entire complex went silent. Hally looked at me and said: ‘No Peter, I just want a fast one.’ I’ve never said anything like that since….”
Sangster: “One of the first was the Equiano colt from Hidden Energy who made, at the time, a healthy $420,000. Hidden Energy was a mare I’d bought from dad (Robert Sangster) and she was Group One-placed, appropriately in the Sangster Stakes, running second to Bel Mer.”
Moran: The best surprise, the one which sold way above expectations?
Mithen: “That first year we sold a Commands filly out of Pipeline Miss who was a mare my late father-in-law Grant Austin raced. I owned her with my mother-in-law and Grant had not long died in his mid-50s. We always liked the filly and thought she might make $50-60,000. A young Henry Field had come and seen her at the farm and offered $40,000 for her out of the paddock but we held our ground and wanted her to be our little star at Oaklands that year – in a draft of maybe half a dozen.
“She was paraded off her feet and my expectations grew. My brother-in-law Nigel Austin – now my partner in Rosemont – tried to settle my nerves as we walked up to the ring to sell her and told me to stick to my low reserve and just see what happened. I remember feeling like I was running out for a football game with adrenaline rushing through me. I told him I was going to up the reserve to $100,000 and told him to grab his mum and ‘watch the show’.
“I knew she’s bolt through $100,000 and ended up going to Rick Worthington for $200,000. It was a great feeling seeing everyone with the eyes popping out thinking five minutes earlier we would be selling for $60,000, maybe $80,000 if we got lucky. She was called Oahu Girl and at no stage did I want to swap the money back for the horse!”
Tillett: “In 2013, we probably had an ambitious reserve of $100,000 on a Hard Spun colt which Peter Moody bought and paid more than double that at $215,000. His name was San Nicasio and we stayed in him and he won the Group Two Autumn Stakes at Caulfield and was then sold to Hong Kong for a lot of money.”