Victorians set to battle in The Showdown
The Victorian Owners and Breeders day will be held at Caulfield on Saturday – the $1 million The Showdown (1200m) for Victorian-sired two-year-olds the headline act – but will it be the last time the meeting is conducted in its current format?
I’d say so, with the meeting losing its stature being run the week before the Warrnambool carnival and with the football season in full swing.
Some of the Vobis races have also felt the wrath of the Racing Victoria prize-money razor gang, and while there’s still a $500,000 Vobis Platinum Guineas (1600m), dispersing the Vobis races throughout the year makes more sense.
The Showdown paired with a Group 1 race meeting, the Guineas on another will provide owners with extra incentive to attend – and the template has already been laid.
The $1 million Inglis Sprint (1200m), won by Saturday’s Robert Sangster Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) favourite Estriella (I Am Invincible), was shifted to Flemington on Australian Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) day in February, in conjunction with the auction house’s Premier Yearling Sale, and it created a sensational on-track atmosphere and an incentive to perhaps reinvest in another horse.
And, after all, the Vobis scheme has very similar aims to that of the auction house sale-restricted races. This column wouldn’t be surprised if Thoroughbred Breeders Victoria and Racing Victoria have already workshopped the idea of spreading the Vobis race day races throughout the year, from as early as next season.
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In many ways, Ciaron Maher has raised the bar in terms of the way scale and servicing his clients and that extends to the selling of race fillies and mares at auction.
The Ciaron Maher Racing brand will be once again seen at the Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale with a draft of nine, including the well-bred stakes winner Zoukerette (I Am Invincible), and now Chris Waller has joined the sales circuit as a vendor – in a big way.
Chris Waller Racing also has a draft of nine, with Group 1 winners Atishu (Savabeel) and Madame Pommery (No Nay Never) sure to be at the pointy end of the sales results list at the end of race fillies and mares session.
While the evolution of large racing stables becoming bloodstock sales vendors no doubt causing some angst amongst long-time sellers, Magic Millions managing director Barry Bowditch welcomes the move of Waller, Maher and co.
“It’s great that these trainers are earmarking [Gold Coast] as a sale where not only do they want to sell their horses, but they want to participate [as a vendor] in their own right,” Bowditch told us.
“It’s becoming a bit of a normal thing now with these big stables and obviously the likes of Madame Pommery, a Group 1 winner, Atishu as a Group 1 and as an attractive draft underneath that, so you’d think [Waller] is in for a good first sale.”
Syndicators such as First Light Racing has also sold fillies and mares under its own banner in the past and Warwick Farm trainer Marc Conners will offer Listed winner Rebel Rama (Dissident) at the Magic Millions sale himself rather than selling her through another draft.
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Kiwi trainer Stephen Gray will officially bow out of Singapore racing after a decorated 23-year career based in Asia with three runners at Kranji on Saturday.
Arya Pakuan (Sebring) and Forget Romance (All Too Hard) are accepted for race one, three-year-old first starter Jo’s Legend (Epaulette) is in race two, and Gemilang (Proisir) (race three), which provide Gray with the opportunity to add to his tally of 825 winners in Singapore.
Gray and his wife Bridget made the difficult, albeit expected decision early this month to leave Singapore before the October 5 finale, citing his dwindling stable numbers and wish to re-establish their presence in New Zealand based out of a private facility at Palmerston North.
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I stumbled across an interesting podcast recently which is hosted by former UK jumps jockey-turned bloodstock consignor Jamie Railton called On The Coalface.
The episode was with professional UK punter and now breeder Patrick Veitch, who used his analytical gambling-minded skills to invest in bloodstock, principally fillies by then emerging stallion Lope De Vega (Shamardal), a former shuttler to Australia.
Using his data-driven analytical prowess, while stressing logic remains a major part of his way of life, Veitch identified that the Ballylinch stallion as one who was on the rise and, in his opinion, undervalued by the market.
He bought seven yearling fillies by the stallion in 2017, an investment which garnered Group 2 winner Manuela De Vega and Group 3 winners Antonia De Vega and Feliciana De Vega.
“Because of the punting side, which has become much reduced now in the UK and is going to move to Hong Kong and elsewhere … [I was using] a lot of algorithms and gradually that had spread into working on bloodstock algorithms both for punting but also for having an eye on that [side of the industry].
“Suddenly, I reached a point about that time where I was certain that Lope De Vega was going to fly from the €45,000 [he was standing for] at the time.”
Lope De Vega, now the sire of 127 individual stakes winners, is standing this northern hemisphere season at a fee of €125,000.
Veitch also spoke about the UK’s affordability check proposals and gambling reform, which could have long-term consequences for racing and its revenue stream: wagering.
As I’ve raised in this column previously, similar proposals have been floated for Australia, and what recommendations will be implemented by the federal government remains unclear.
“At the moment there is a possibility of a fantastic opportunity for racing that is being thrown away. And that is, out in the public and in the political world the objection to online slots [poker machines] and casinos is massively greater than the objection to betting on sports,” Veitch told the podcast.
“This is logically based because statistics show that problem gambling is massively more prevalent with that hyper activity where you lose all of the money in your bank account during the night.
“It goes on 24/7 and yet no one in the racing authorities that I can see is pressing for the government to treat these two types of gambling separately. That’s how the rest of the world works.
“There’s a higher tax on whiskey than there is on beer because it’s simply more dangerous; it’s the same with medication which is treated on scale, but it’s not being done that way.
“For those of you who look carefully, you will see there are some people here with vested interests here who don’t want that split to occur.”