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Husson Eagle winning the $1 million Magic Millions Sprint
My highlight for the 2015/16 Season
Firstly, I would like to thank our clients who have continued to support us strongly through the recently completed Season. Prime Thoroughbreds had a great season with Husson Eagle’s big win at the Gold Coast being very satisfying. There were many other great moments and as is the case in racing we also had our share of disappointments.
Congratulations to the trainers and jockeys that won the numerous premierships around the country. From a Prime Thoroughbreds perspective Darren Weir set a benchmark that is going to be hard to beat winning 348 races with $21,816,858 in stakes money. He won the Australian Trainer’s Premiership, Victorian Metropolitan and Country Trainer’s Premierships.
Tony Gollan was 10th on the National Trainers Premiership and won the Queensland title and Brisbane Trainers Premiership which was a great effort.
Kris Lees had a great season finishing 15th on the National Premiership and equal 7th on the NSW Premiership. Tony McEvoy was 19th on the National List and 3rd in South Australia.
John Thompson finished 13th on the NSW Premiership and Patrick Payne 15th on the Victorian Premiership.
SIRES TITLES
Street Cry was Australia’s Leading Sire for the Season with almost half his earnings being accumulated by Champion mare Winx. Leading First Season Sire goes to Smart Missile, 2nd Season Sire to Hinchinbrook and Leading 3rd Season Sire to I Am Invincible.
Leading broodmare sire goes to Encosta de Lago. Once again the General Sire’s List was dominated by NSW based sires with 15 of the top 20 having stood in the state. Three stood in NZ and 2 in Victoria.
I must say I really enjoy making an assessment of how the first season sires will perform and back my judgement by nearly always going out and supporting my preferred choice in the sales ring.
Looking back at the last 15 years these are the horses we selected to be the top first season sire and in each case supported them in the sales ring. In the two years I made no selection I couldn’t sort them out. In any year up to 50 new sires are on the list.
In 2015 I backed Smart Missile (1st), 2014 Hinchinbrook (1st), 2013 I Am Invincible (1st), 2012 (none), 2011 Casino Prince (1st), 2010 (none), 2009 Stratum (1st), 2008 Al Maher (6th), 2007 (none), 2006 Johannesburg (7th), 2005 Magic Albert (4th), 2004 More Than Ready (1st), 2003 Commands (2nd), 2002 General Nediym (1st) and 2001 Spinning World (3rd) .
None of the sires listed here were the top priced sire in their year. In fact most were moderately priced horses and I liked their crop of yearlings. With our current crop of yearlings turning two yesterday I am firmly in the corner of Newhaven Park’s Delago Deluxe. They look like runners to me.
SKY CHANNEL VS RACING.COM
My comments last week on this topic has raised quite a bit of discussion but I really would like to know just how much the current media deal with Racing Victoria backing Racing.com is actually costing the industry in Victoria. It is nice to have a ‘vision’ but it has to make money so the maximum benefits are passed back to the industry in stakes money and facilities.
STABLE VISITS TONY GOLLAN AND PATRICK PAYNE
On Sunday morning 7 August 2016 commencing at 9am we will be having a visit to Tony Gollan’s Eagle Farm Stable where you can meet Tony and inspect the horses we have in work. At this stage Annaman, Husson Boots and Montana Pines will be at the stable. You can gain access via the Nudgee Road access and just drive around until you see Tony’s Stable.
Details of visits to our other trainer’s stables will be made available as we get closer to the event.
ON THE TRACK
We have a nice week to start the season with likely runners being Annaman, Great Southern, Lomazzo and Shining Brooke.
We also have quite a few horses barrier trialling so good numbers of runners can be expected.
YEARLINGS ON OFFER
This week I will highlight the Snitzel filly out of Signoret and the Hinchinbrook filly out of Kiss ‘N Chase.
SNITZEL FILLY OUT OF SIGNORET- MAGIC MILLIONS AND SUPER VOBIS QUALIFIED
Snitzel / Signoret filly 2014 - Darren Weir to train
The filly
This is a very athletic filly and she reminded me a lot of our high class mare Hidden Wonder when I inspected her at the sale. This filly is a great walker and has a lovely stride.
She has a very attractive head and a great hindquarter. She also has a deep girth and vetted out without any issues.
I was thrilled to get her as I expected she may have fetched quite a bit more at the sale. A big bonus is that she was paid up for Super VOBIS which wasn’t advertised. This was a big mistake by the vendors but a big help to the people who eventually race this filly.
She wouldn’t have been out of place in a much higher profile sale.
Snitzel
Snitzel is one of our very best sires and is currently 9th on the Australian General Sire’s List. There are about 700 sires standing in Australia. Snitzel was a high class racehorse winning four races as a two year old and highlighting his career winning the Group 1 Oakleigh Plate.
I was keen on Snitzel as a yearling. He was out of the high class mare Snippet’s Lass trained by Bill Mitchell. She has gone on to be one of the very best broodmares in Australia and is also the dam of Australia’s leading first season sire last season in Hinchinbrook.
You can never underestimate just how important the female line is when assessing a sire’s chances of making it as a stallion.
It is fair to write that Snitzel is the most prolific sire of two year old winners in Australia with him having sitred 25 individual two year old winners this season. Compare this with Written Tycoon 8 and Not A Single Doubt 6.
Snitzel’s best filly was the wonderful race mare Sweet Idea.
Signoret
Signoret is by the Champion broodmare sire Anabaa. Anabaa was a very good sire and was very well managed in Australia where he only served limited books of select mares. Anabaa is currently 6th on the National Broodmare List. Again there are hundreds of broodmare sires in Australia.
As a result his daughters were very well bred and many come from ‘a’ grade families. When you look at his statistics the big thing that stands out is the small number of runners which have put him in the this elite top 10 position with the likes of Zabeel, Danehill, General Nediym and Encosta de Lago . Other horses of a comparable age in the top 10 are Encosta de Lago with 575 runners and Flying Spur with 450. Anabaa only has 190 runners but many are high quality ones including Buffering.
Hinchinbrook filly out of Kiss ‘n Chase 2014
John Thompson to train at Randwick
The filly
This filly is a strong nicely balanced athlete that gets around well and has a real presence about her. She is very strong behind and through the hocks which is a characteristic of the progeny of Hinchinbrook.
She vetted out without any issues and was reared at Yarraman Park one of Australia’s most well respected thoroughbred nurseries.
The filly has been broken in and is currently spelling. She is due back into work in early August.
Hinchinbrook
After I inspected the yearlings by the first season sires in 2013 I made the prediction that Hinchinbrook would be Australia’s leading first season sire. He didn’t let me down winning the title in a field of over 50 contenders for the title. This was a wonderful effort considering the horse didn’t serve a big book of mares and stood at a modest fee. He has continued on and has blitzed his opposition and will be the Champion 2nd Season Sire as well.
A lot of the credit for his success goes to the team at Yarraman Park. The farm consistently punches above its weight with the yearlings coming off the farm setting the benchmark across our industry. It should be remembered Yarraman Park’s I Am Invincible won the title in the previous season.
In winning the title Hinchinbrook not only got early runners but high class juveniles including the Group 1 winner Press Statement and multiple stakes winner Flippant and stakes winners Samara Dancer and the unbeaten filly Whispering Brook.
The success he enjoyed in his 1st season has continued on with him clearly leading the 2nd Season Sire’s Title with his progeny earning almost double that of his nearest rival.
Hinchinbrook’s conversion rate of winners to stakes winners is exceptional with 12.5% of his winners converting up to stakes winners. This compares with Fastnet Rock 12.7% and is superior to Snitzel 10.6% and Not A Single Doubt 8.2%.
Hinchinbrook was a top class juvenile winning the Group III AJC Skyline Stakes and Listed Canonbury Stakes before being the first colt home when fourth to Crystal Lily in the Group I STC Golden Slipper and was then third in the Group I AJC Sires Produce Stakes.
He then trained on at three for Group I placings in the AJC All Aged Stakes, MRC Oakleigh Plate and MVRC William Reid Stakes, before being injured in the UK while preparing for Royal Ascot and retiring with earnings in excess of $590,000.
He is a three-quarter brother to leading young sire Snitzel and Group III winner Viennese by champion sire Fastnet Rock from stakes-winning sprinter Snippets’ Lass.
Snippet’s Lass was the best mare trained by Bill Mitchell while I was with him and had one of the very best pedigrees in Australia. While she was only small in stature she was big on quality and had a heart as big as herself.
I have been very big supporter of Hinchinbrook and have three two year old fillies at various stages of their development as well as two three year olds and two yearlings. Hinchinbrook really impresses me and during my visits to the Hunter over the past few months I have left each time with the feeling that he is going to be a great success at stud. I can’t get enough of them!!!
We have had terrific success with these including Flying Jess which won the Group 3 SAJC Sires Produce Stakes recently. Shining Brooke has also displayed good ability winning twice.
Kiss ‘n Chase
Kiss ‘n Chase is by Red Ransom whose daughters when crossed with Danehill line sires being very good. Some of the horses with this cross include Roll Out The Carpet, Red Ruler, Vavasour, Vilanova, Ovidio, Chance By, Secret Agenda, Reparations and Cape Kidnappers.
Kiss ‘n Chase was a good race mare winning four races and running 4th in the Listed AJC HB Carr Stakes. She is a full sister to Kick ‘n Chase a winner of 4 races with $$252,540 in stakes earnings.
Kiss ‘n Chase’s first foal is by Northern Meteor and heading to John Size in Hong Kong. He recently won a trial and the information we are getting is that he has very good ability. The 2nd also by Northern Meteor is trained by Laurie Mayfield Smith and he reports he is very happy with her.
The first four dams on this page have had 22 foals race for 19 winners.
I am really looking forward to this filly racing and feel I purchased her well under the odds.
