The New Year is upon us and, hopefully, 2010 will turn out to be a good one for Rosie and Harry and their various extended families. Lord knows the stable team is working hard behind the scenes to get them both up and running, and emotional support is pouring in from the sidelines.
We wait another two weeks before getting word that Harry is heading to Warrnambool on the weekend, one of Victoria’s most expansive courses, for his next assignment—this time, a 1400-metre maiden on Sunday afternoon, 10 January. This is, Deane Lester assures me, the best possible step to take because the grand old course will allow Harry to find his feet and give him enough room to fly home.
It is also a distance more to his liking and the added bonus is that seasoned jockey Luke Currie, who often rides him in work at Cranbourne, takes the ride; so a little optimism kicks in again, even if Robbie’s audio alert sounds less engaged than usual, probably due to the fact that four days before this event he flies to the Gold Coast for this year’s Magic Millions Yearling Sale.
And this is where it begins again for Australia’s racing fraternity—breeders, owners and trainers, sellers and buyers alike. Fittingly enough, on the first day this new batch of yearlings are being offered for sale in Australia this year, there is a little more news about Rosie.
‘Hi, folks, Robert here,’ Griffiths’ stable foreman says, in his wonderful Irish lilt via email audio. ‘Just a quick update on the King of Roses filly, Rosie. I watched her this morning do some even time training at Cranbourne Training Complex; all’s well with her. We’re just midway through the preparation. She looks great, she’s doing some “evens” this week and we’ll probably let her go a little quicker next week and see how she goes from there. She’s probably still going to take some time, as Robbie’s indicated before.
‘But we’re very happy with her. She’s eating well, as per normal, has a great summer coat to her at the moment. So we’ll update next week with another progress report. Cheers.’
I stare at the computer screen and digest the news that is almost too good to be true. Despite Robbie telling me just a couple of days ago that, even though it isn’t bothering her, Rosie’s knee ‘looks bloody awful’, Robert hasn’t mentioned it at all in this communiqué, which can only mean that, though not looking pretty, it is holding up—just as he and Robbie (and the vet) predicted it could.
If Rosie can just get through this preparation without her knee getting sore or becoming inflamed again, we might have a racehorse on our hands. Out of the blue, I recall a comment an old punting partner made several months ago. ‘No one commits suicide when they have a two year old in work,’ he told me, as he tossed up whether or not to buy a share in the filly.
‘Why not?’ I asked, not quite getting it.
‘Because as long as you have an unraced two year old in the wings, there’s always hope.’
Listening back to Robert’s update for a third time, I understand exactly what he was on about. I also recall something David Hains, the extraordinarily successful Australian businessman and breeder—who raced the legendary Kingston Town—once told me, as we discussed his wonderful mare Spirit of Kingston, Rosie’s great-grandmother.
‘The truth of the matter is, the great thing about racing horses is that (at) the beginning of every year, everything starts again,’ Hains said.
‘All of the two year olds are unknown. They can all run, but most can’t run faster than the rest … and you’re looking for the one that can run very much faster than the rest.
‘And you’re always living in hope. So the year dawns and you think “Well, maybe this will be my year”. Most of the time, you’re probably going to be disappointed, but it’s the hope and expectations that carry you forward every year. In the end, this is a lottery, but you just keep on hoping.’
Surely, sometimes, a little hope can be realised. Even with a horse a bit older than two.
‘News Just In is in great order ahead of his race on Sunday,’ Robbie tells us from the Gold Coast.
‘He has drawn a nice barrier in 1 and Luke Currie takes the ride and the step up to 1400 metres will suit. He looks an excellent chance in this event. Good luck.’
Two nights before the race, I spend an hour checking the results of the first two days of the Magic Millions sale. For the first time in many years, there has been no headline-grabbing story about a million dollars or more being paid for one of these babies, not an unexpected result given the state of the world’s economy, not to mention the flow-on effect of the dramatic outbreak of equine influenza (EI) three years ago.
The virus halted the movement of all horses around Australia for months, which had significant impact on not just racing but also the breeding of mares around the country. Many ended up being mated with stallions for no better reason than the fact that they were on the same property and therefore safe to be associated with.
As I look through the results, I notice Aqua D’Amore—one of my favourite race mares—has a youngster in the sale, her first-ever foal. But all things considered, it is the result of an extraordinary mating. She was an exceptional galloper, but a rather eccentric character who often held up the start of major Group One races by literally sitting down in her barrier stall. So one would imagine the plan would be to send her to a level-headed stallion, to try to ensure the resulting progeny would be a touch calmer, less idiosyncratic.
Instead, her first mating has been to noted hothead Fusaichi Pegasus. Maybe this was a classic example of the impact of the ‘EI’ era and he was just in the right place at the right time, the best option for the mare that year. No matter. Lot 53, Aqua D’Amore’s yearling colt, sells for $290,000.
Despite the sale’s name, it takes 121 yearlings to go through the ring before even the half million mark is reached, magic or otherwise—and this is probably money well-spent, when Melbourne trainer Peter Moody secures a full-brother to his flying filly Headway, runner-up in last year’s Golden Slipper.
More than a hundred horses later, there is a winning $700,000 bid for the second foal of Ha Ha, who Gai Waterhouse once trained to win the Golden Slipper several years ago. The actual number of yearlings listed for sale is down this year too, with only 910 yearlings catalogued for the first five days, and another 300 lesser lights heading into the arena next week.
If the million-dollar target is to be hit at all in January 2010 it might be tomorrow night, when buyers are really on a roll after a heady day at the Gold Coast races, a smorgasbord of thoroughbred temptation on display for several hours, right next to the bar. And what a day Magic Millions Race Day turns out to be, and not just for the auction’s high-profile owners, Gerry Harvey and John Singleton.
David Pfieffer, a young Sydney-based trainer who’s only had his licence for 15 months, wins the first $1 million event with a three-year-old filly called Graceful Anna. As a yearling, she cost a mere $25,000, and has now won more than $800,000.
It is a victory that almost seems personal, given the fact that two years ago, just before he started training full-time, this young horseman actually broke in Harry, who was then an unraced and rambunctious three year old.
‘I’m numb with excitement,’ David tells reporters on the Gold Coast course.
‘For a young bloke like me to get a horse like this and be winning a million dollar race after just two years as a trainer is mind-boggling. Someone could pinch me, but I wouldn’t feel it.’ It goes without saying that all young trainers dream of this scenario, just as all owners would love to own a filly as flash as Graceful Anna—especially for such a (relatively) small outlay.
As if this six-degrees-of-separation moment isn’t exciting enough to bolster our confidence for Harry’s appearance at Warrnambool tomorrow, Robbie Griffiths heads to the races in Melbourne with four runners and posts three winners. This is an amazing performance for any trainer at a city meeting, but it is especially significant for Robbie this weekend, as the main race has been named in honour of his mentor—veteran trainer Laurie Cleary, who died on Christmas Day.
Never one to overdo the hype, Robbie’s restraint is also tinged with concern for the non-winning member of his team. Meteor Miss finished third, a creditable run considering she ‘got galloped on and has a puncture wound to the leg’. She’s not exactly lame, but she’s certainly sore.
‘They drive you mad, Helen, they really do,’ Robbie admits. ‘It’s all about management, (because) every day there’s always something that happens.’
Nevertheless he remains optimistic about Harry’s upcoming race.
‘The attitude adjustment we gave him seems to have done the trick. He’s a bit of a rude horse, he likes to do things his way and he’ll stand on top of you if he can, so I realised he just needed a bit of focus. But he’s responded to the shake-up.
‘It’s a bit like going to boot camp and realising, “Oh geeze, I’d better not be rude.” With some horses that’s all it takes for them to show a lot more respect.
‘So yes, I’m keen to see how he’ll go today and I think he’ll go particularly well. I also think he’ll improve again, once he’d had this run and steps up a bit further in distance.
‘He will also need some luck to get off the rail and get going, and there’s a couple in the race that could go OK. As you know, there’s always going to be a couple like that in every race and one of (trainer) Darren Weir’s is going all right. But Harry’s form is better than the rest of them.’
To add shine to this pre-race picture, our jockey Luke Currie partnered two of Robbie’s three winners at Caulfield, which surely bodes well for the stable at Warrnambool.
‘He’s ten foot tall at the moment,’ Robbie laughs.
Still, no matter what Harry achieves, this weekend’s racing headlines are all about this year’s two year olds—especially Military Rose, the flying filly who cruises to victory in the Magic Millions Classic. This is not the richest race for babies: the internationally famous Golden Slipper, run in April, holds that mantle. Never-theless, Military Rose has picked up a $1 million cheque for a little over a minute of work, and catapulted trainer Gillian Heinrich into the main arena.
To make the trainer’s victory even sweeter, the filly is raced by the Heinrich Bloodstock Syndicate, headed by her husband Hoss. And Military Rose is only the second locally trained horse to win the event since its inception 23 years ago. The roll call started with Snippets, who went on to become a successful stallion; ten years later, the handsome chestnut colt General Nedyim won the race and he became an even bigger hit at stud.
And this afternoon, that stallion’s legacy continues, as Military Rose is the second of his very speedy daughters to emulate his feat. If nothing else, this alone highlights the importance of breeding for specific qualities, not to mention the relevance of the yearling sale itself.
As far as the whole concept of the Magic Millions Yearling Sale and race meeting goes, this hometown win is a publicist’s dream. In less than a year, a yearling who cost $155,000 has repaid her owners ten times over, a success story if ever there was one!
But still Harvey and Singleton want more, urging the Queensland Government to kick in extra prize money to make the 1200-metre sprint the richest race in the world—bigger than our greatest races, in other words, including the Melbourne Cup, the iconic WS Cox Plate and Golden Slipper, and other great races around the world like the Kentucky Derby and the Dubai International.
Are they serious? Should an exclusive race, open only to a handful of very young thoroughbreds purchased through one auction house, really be worth such an extraordinary amount of money? More generally, should two-year-old racing, run over such short courses, be worth so much more money than traditional classic races run over longer distances? Most owners and breeders and race goers I know think not. If swift young sprinters become the most sought-after investment of the Aussie turf, what happens to our great staying races, and indeed our great stayers? Surely the ongoing success of horses that come through their sale will remain the best advertisement for their product.
Twenty-four hours later, on the fourth day of this year’s auction, it’s clear that Military Rose will head to Sydney for the prestigious Golden Slipper, in a bid to become the first filly to emulate the feats of Phelan Ready and Dance Hero, the only two year olds who have been fast and hardy enough to win both juvenile sprints.
But this year, the Slipper will be run on Easter Saturday. Three months away. It’s a long enough time on any calendar. For anyone trying to hold a young racehorse together, it must feel like a lifetime away. The trainer needs to plan and focus on how to keep Military Rose in shape and in form for her next big race.
Gerry Harvey is still talking too, but not about Military Rose.
He is characteristically direct about the lack of major money at the very top end of this year’s Magic Million market. For the first time in five years, in fact, not one yearling has sold for $1 million or more.
‘The top end of the market disappeared,’ Harvey admits. ‘That end is cyclical. It will change.’
Bloodstock agent Bill Mitchell is even more blunt.
‘The big money wasn’t there. With no Coolmore, Darley, Bob Ingham and Patinack Farm buying in that bracket, the market wasn’t propped up. When they’re not throwing their arm in, the top market comes down.’
At last, someone has used the phrase that most don’t even want to whisper, let alone discuss in public: ‘propping up’! If the big boys don’t come to town to buy each other’s horses, the cash registers just don’t turn over the more preposterous prices. Surely it has just been a matter of time before even the world’s wealthiest buyers had to stop and take stock. After all, it is one thing to pay good money for a horse that looks to have every chance of turning into a decent galloper, but another entirely to spend ludicrous sums that will be virtually impossible for the horse to make back.
And as the more independent racing and breeding media notes, all ten winners on the Magic Millions race day could have been purchased for less than $600,000.
‘Their cost ranged from $155,000 for Military Girl to $6000, the pocket-money investment that resulted in Warrior Girl, winner of the $250,000 David Jones Magic Millions Sprint,’ The Winning Post reports in its Breeding Scene section on 16 January 2010.
There are several intriguing issues winding through this report, not the least of them being that, despite what the top-end breeders insist year after year, top-rung stallions (with their over-the-top fees) aren’t the only route to quick, determined racehorses.
Living, galloping proof of this comes out of the 2009 Inglis Classic sale in Sydney. Lot 464, the smallish filly by first-crop sire Snitzel, was offered for sale by Glenlee Farm at Wallabadah, New South Wales and knocked down to Michael Tubman, a trainer based at Kembla Grange, on the state’s south coast. Her price tag was just $15,000. Even so, it was money Tubman didn’t really have to spend; indeed, he had to borrow most of it to pay for the youngster, who now races as Chance Bye. But she has already paid him back ten times over by winning the $170,000 Inglis Nursery at her first start.
To make this even more financially sweet, her connections—knowing just how fast their bargain basement buy was—manage to pull off one of the biggest betting coups Sydney’s bookies have seen for years. They backed her in from 80-1 to $4.50, a massive plunge. One bloke, wearing shorts and short-sleeved shirt, took a plastic bag full of money into the ring to bet with, and walked out with a much larger one packed with his winnings.
A couple of weeks later, Chance Bye promptly doubled her earnings at her second start, winning the 2010 Inglis Classic, another sprint restricted to Inglis sales graduates, and the filly is now on the second line of betting for this year’s Golden Slipper. But horses bought this cheaply don’t usually perform at this level, at any stage of their lives. This is why, at the first yearling sale of 2010, buying is most competitive for horses in the mid range of prices, which these days is $100,000 to $300,000.
By the end of the five-day auction on the Gold Coast, the million dollar baby has failed to materialise, although one colt—by Australia’s most expensive stallion, Redoute’s Choice—goes close, snapped up for $925,000, a tidy return even on his mega service fee.