Whittingham living a Verry special Cup dream with daughter of Zed
Honeycomb Stud principal excited about Elleegant’s Melbourne Cup claims
Adrian Whittingham, a Sydney-based owner and breeder who has a penchant for stayers, has a love affair with two of the world’s stamina-sapping races, the Melbourne Cup (Gr 1, 3200m) and the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe (Gr 1, 2400m), and he has a mare running in one of them and the other could be more than just a pipedream for the same horse.
The principal of boutique operation Honeycomb Stud has a share in one of the leading southern hemisphere-bred chances in the Melbourne Cup, the daughter of Zed (Zabeel) in Chris Waller-trained six-time Group 1 winner Verry Elleegant.
She is one of nine horses in the Melbourne Cup either bred in Australia or New Zealand and Whittingham, who works in the finance sector, has colleague Manoj Wanzare to thank for identifying the then three-year-old after just her first start.
“My good friend Manoj, we work together and we’ve owned a few together, and I think it may have been a Monday morning. He said, ‘have a look at this’ and he had seen her win on debut but we didn’t put too much thought into it because we do follow a lot of the New Zealand form but then he got a whiff that Darren Weir had bought Elle,” Whittingham recalled.
“We already had one with Darren, so as soon as we heard that we jumped on the phone straight away and said, ‘what price and we’ll take all of it?’ but clearly we couldn’t because there were already other people involved. We got as much as we could because we liked the profile and that is how we got involved.”
Whittingham is full of admiration for how Verry Elleegant, an $11 Melbourne Cup chance, has developed from a light three-year-old filly who took managing to winning three Group 1s already this preparation including a last-start Caulfield Cup (Gr 1, 2400m) success with 55 kilograms.
“It’s that breed, that real Kiwi breed, they do get better as they get older and it has been well publicised what she has been like as a mare,” he said.
“She hasn’t been the easiest and Chris has done an amazing job to get her to settle a little bit more than what she used to.
“It will be really interesting going to 3200 because at 2400 past the post you can’t pull her up. You never know if they get 3200 until they try but the fact is, she is so full of running I think she will get the distance no problems.”
The inability of Australia, and to a lesser degree New Zealand, to breed quality stayers capable of challenging the imports from Europe and on occasion Japan has been discussed ad nauseum in the past few weeks, particularly after Sir Dragonet (Camelot) won the Cox Plate (Gr 1, 2040m).
Whittingham, however, is up for the challenge and owns a small number of broodmares and race fillies who he believes are capable of reaching a staying trip. He is well aware of the commercial realities but that factor rarely comes into his mating decisions.
“Most of the mares I have had have been Galileo mares or stamina-bred mares. I only started Honeycomb Stud about six years ago, so I am very lucky to have won an Oaks, a Caulfield Cup and have a runner in the Melbourne Cup,” he said.
“For example, I have sent a mare to New Zealand to be matched with Raise The Flag who is a very ‘unpopular’ stallion, a bit like Zed, I guess you could say.
“Obviously, Zed has got on the board with Verry Elleegant and I have always been stayer-led and looking at doing things differently. I generally haven’t bought, though, like many of the other owners have in this mare.
“They have also bought Sir Dragonet and many others. That is not part of the game plan but with Elle it was a little bit different.”
The Verry Elleegant syndicate includes prominent Melbourne owners Ozzie Kheir and Brae Sokolski, and it is Sokolski who has floated the 2021 Arc as a potential option for the five-year-old mare.
And it is an idea that Whittingham is not ruling out, although he defers to Waller’s leadership on such decisions.
“Brae mentioned about the Arc next year, but we will leave that to Chris. If they chose to go that way, the two races that I have always cherished are the Cup and then the Arc,” he revealed.
“I think we will wait until after Tuesday and see how she pulls up before we look at next year.”
While Whittingham’s focus at 3pm today will clearly be on Verry Elleegant, he will also be keeping watch out of the corner of his eye on another New Zealand-bred in Surprise Baby (Shocking).
“I have about five with Michael Hickmott and I also own Surprise Baby’s half-sister (by Proisir) who will jump out next week. Her name is Kurabui and she is with Mick Price and Mick Kent Jnr and I have another very promising horse, who is unraced, with them called Spooning (by Ocean Park),” he said.
“She will also jump out next week. She is a half-sister to Group 3 winner Love Affair (by Savabeel). I have about seven coming through from New Zealand, all fillies, who are stamina-bred.”
The Paul Preusker-trained Surprise Baby, who ran fifth in last year’s Melbourne Cup, is an $8.50 chance for this year’s race.
Whittingham will be watching the Melbourne Cup on television from his Sydney home, surrounded by family, and admits to a few nervous moments yesterday.
He said: “The most important thing is that she comes back safe, happy and healthy and if that means she has an off day then I will still be delighted. It has never all been about winning.
“Hopefully we can do it for the Aussies and Kiwis.”
With a large syndicate in the ownership of Verry Elleegant, it is likely that she would be sold once her racing career comes to an end, but it is not something that has so far been raised by Whittingham or his partners, although he believes she would be on the radar of major international stud farms.
“I would imagine that, being out of the Eight Carat family, which adds another leg onto her value as well as all the feats she has achieved,” he said.
“If she wins the Cup, she equals Makybe Diva’s weight-carrying record when she won her second Cup. It would be truly remarkable if she actually wins.”
As for his own breeding enterprise, which has expanded to racing fillies in the UK, Whittingham believes Australia and New Zealand is capable of producing its own stayers.
“If you can have partners to breed to race, there are the bloodlines there. there absolutely is, but you have to be super patient,” he said.
“Kurabui is four and she was so backward that why would you risk her early when you could throw away all the foundations that you laid by pushing them early?
“I think it is patience and this drive to have two-year-olds running before December 31. They all have their merits and business models but it’s not one that I am going to go near.”