Not Surprising – one of ten horses to barrier trial or jump out this week!!! I Am Invincible – Surprise Me 2013

We have certainly had another busy week with a dozen horses either jumping out or running in official trials this week.  These include Atalanta Miss, Awasita, By Golly Molly, Husson Boots, Montana Pines, Munjai, Naranja, Not Surprising, Raido, Stimuli and Unique.  As well as this Honolulu Lass and Hussy’s Glow had educational grass jump outs at Ballarat.  

A number of these horses are two year olds rounding out their early education with some displaying good ability and may have a run in the coming weeks.  

BALLARAT CUP MEETING

The Ballarat Cup stand-alone meeting on Saturday was a huge success for the club.  I’m a big fan of these meetings and this year the industry in Ballarat received a huge boost with Darren Weir’s Prince Of Penzance winning the cup.  Darren’s efforts to bring the cup to the people of Ballarat and country Victoria have been outstanding and he richly deserved the recognition he received on Saturday.   

We should never overlook just how important and significant the contribution country people make to our industry and it is vitally important we continue to nurture racing in the bush.  

JAMES JOSEPH (JIM) MOLONEY (1924 – 2015)   

Jim Moloney is probably best known as the trainer of the great sprinter and sire ‘Vain’ but there was much more to him than the great job he did with the champion horse.  Jim is the father of our Melbourne trainer John as well as fellow trainer Gerard and the grandfather to the outstanding apprentice Patrick.  Sadly, Jim passed away on Friday morning but has left a legacy through his family to be very proud of.  This extends far beyond the racecourse where he was such a great competitor for 60 years.   

Our thoughts and prayers are with the Moloney family at this time.  Our clients who are in horses trained by John often comment on how well received they are when they visit the stable.  It is very much a family business and I am very pleased to be associated with the Moloneys.

NSW ACHIEVES TAX PARITY WITH VICTORIA AND MUCH MORE!!!

The industry in NSW has been at a severe disadvantage when compared with Victoria for some time but this is set to change with the NSW State Government passing legislation that sees big increases in funding to the NSW Industry.

On Tuesday John Messara announced rises to stakes money of $21 million for NSW provincial and country racing to take effect in July 2016.  These increases are a great boost for the industry in NSW and reflect the forward thinking of the leaders in that state.  When you combine these increases with those in Victoria and Queensland in recent months it sees the industry in the big three states in a good place.    

NSW BASED STALLIONS CONTINUE TO DOMINATE GROUP 1 RACES

We had two more Group 1 races contested in Perth on Saturday with Arrowfield Stud’s Not A Single Doubt and Vinery’s Mossman siring the winners.  This continued the fine results Australian based sires progeny achieved in Australian Group 1 races this season.  23 of the 29 (79.3%) have been won by Australian bred horses, four from NZ and just two from Europe.  Of the 23 Australian successes 22 were by stallions which stood in NSW and one from Victoria.

ON THE TRACK

While we have a quiet week on the track we have two important runners with impressive last start winner Annaman lining up in a similar race at Doomben and the stakes winning mare Savoureux resuming at Rosehill on Saturday.

Husson Eagle was very good at Ballarat where the track favoured leaders on the day.  He did a great job with his final sectionals being outstanding.  He will have one more run before the $1million Magic Millions Sprint at the Gold Coast on 9 January.  He looks set for a good campaign.

Brooklyn Lass may have appeared disappointing on Monday but she had a good around during the race and got lost on the big Scone track.  She will press on with the addition of blinkers.  Her trial was too good in fast time for her not to go better than the Scone run would suggest.

I Am Invincible filly out of Belle Amici 2014- Darren Weir to train in Victoria. 10 shares @ $10,500

The filly pictured above is a terrific filly by the outstanding young sire I Am Invincible from the well related Catbird mare Belle Amici.  I have inspected her four times at Yarraman Park since May and was keen to purchase her.  She is a very good type of filly with a good hindquarter, great conformation and a attractive head.

She vetted out without any issues and was reared at Yarraman Park one of Australia’s most well respected boutique nurseries.

The filly is an October foal and will be broken in in February/ March of 2016 with a view to giving her every chance to run as a two year old.  She comes from a very precocious family with Belle Amici’s ½ brother Restless winning as a two year old and being stakes placed as well.  He was placed in six of his seven starts as a two year old and went on to win 10 races including four at Group or stakes level and $578,305 in stakes money.

The first three dams have had 17 to race with 15 individual winners which is exceptional.  To me this looks Belle Amici’s best mating.

Compare this filly with Isthmian!!! (Below) 

Isthmian (I Am Invincible – Amber’s Halo) pictured as a yearling in November last year 

I often look back at the photos and notes I made of yearlings I purchased to see what attracted me to them.  The picture above is the highly promising I Am Invincible filly Isthmian I purchased from Yarraman Park last year.  The picture of her was taken at about the same time the one of the I Am Invincible filly out of Belle Amici was taken this year.

It is fair to write that this year’s Belle Amici filly is much stronger than Isthmian was at the same time.  Check out Isthmian’s barrier trial win at:

 http://racing.racingnsw.com.au/FreeFields/Results.aspx?Key=2015Oct06,NSW,Wyong,Trial#