I find buying weanlings far less challenging than yearlings. Unfortunately, it isn’t possible to fill our portfolio each year by only purchasing weanlings. It would be nice if we could as they generally represent excellent value, but the breeders keep most of their better youngsters back for the lucrative yearling sales.

Breeders are more likely to offer some of their better weanlings by the new sires to get them out there and the buying bench discussing their merits or faults. I love purchasing weanlings and yearlings by the first season sires. About 30% of our best mares go to these sires. Our outstanding fillies Rubisaki, Fituese and Miss Divine Em were out of the first crops of their respective sires.

Other good horses I have been associated with by young sires include Under Command, Unchain My Heart, Horrocks, Bedi, French, Huiskes and Rose Of Scotland. These were outstanding horses. In any year I will normally purchase three or four yearlings by the new sires.

At the 2018 National Sale I purchased three yearlings.

These three weanlings were grown out at Ascot Farm near Pitt Town in NSW and have done a great job. They have raced ten times for five wins. Mr Cashman and Miss Divine Em are Melbourne Saturday metropolitan winners with Gaga’s Belle an impressive winner at only her second start. Collectively, these three nice horses cost $130,000 and have returned in excess of $185,000 already.

This Pariah filly really grabbed my attention. I rated her a 7 which is about as good a rating as I give a weanling. She is a beautifully well balanced, filly with a keen eye and attractive head. It may be a small thing, but I have rarely come across a good racehorse that has an unattractive head. She is also very strong through the hocks.

The filly is a beautiful mover. She walks with a sense of purpose and strength. This is very important. We are looking at buying athletes, not cart horses. She is a nice filly with good length of reign and deep girth. This is where the engine is located. She has plenty of scope to further develop though her girth and through her chest.

The filly was reared at Kenmore Lodge on the Darling Downs in South Queensland. I have been impressed with the yearlings produced by the farm.

The filly is by the superbly bred Pariah, a son of Champion Sire Redoute’s Choice. Redoute’s Choice has left a amazing legacy with his sons Snitzel and Not A Single Doubt amongst our very best sires of the past decade. Pariah is very similar to these two giants of our breeding industry. He was a very fast horse and precocious 2yo winning the Group 3 ATC Canonbury Stakes on debut beating Menari and went on to win San Domenico Stakes as a 3yo. He was placed in the Group 1 Blue Diamond Stakes.

Pariah’s dam is a ½ sister to Australian Champion 3yo filly Melito. Pariah is out of the Hussonet mare Secluded. His pedigree is littered with ‘black type’ performers including the great sire Zeditave.

The cross with Redoute’s Choice over Hussonet mares sees eight stakes performers out 20 foals including the very good horses The King’s Legacy, Panzer Division, Honesty Prevails and of course Pariah. Another young sire I have a big opinion of is Extreme Choice who is by Not A Single Doubt from a Hussonet mare. Not A Single Doubt is by Redoute’s Choice.

Our filly is out of the Street Cry mare Rambla De Flores by the great sire Street Cry. Street Cry is best known here as the sire of Winx.

It might seem silly to write but Street Cry is a relatively young sire from a broodmare perspective but has already had 131 stakes horses produced out of his daughters. The best known here are Con Te Patiro, Farnan and Lyre.

An interesting aside sees the best performed horse out of a Street Cry mare being Group 1 winner Diversify (USA) with 10 wins including six at stakes wins. He is by Bellamy Road. He is the dam sire of our promising filly Embeller.

Rambla De Flores is out of the Anabaa mare and stakes winner Great Anna with the 2nd dam being Great Vintage by Sir Tristram and a Group winner. This is a family that produces very good horses on a regular basis.

Street Cry into Anabaa into Sir Tristram is about as good as it gets on a female line. These three sires have produced 660 stakes horses from their daughters including Triscay, Saintly, Filante, Ethereal, Buffering, Dissident, English, Hartnell, Rostova and the list goes on.

I place a lot of weight on the opinion of Bill and James Mitchell and our vet Dr Tim Roberts. Bill and James do a great job for me eliminating the chaff at the sales. This allows me to spend more time inspecting and investigating the horses that have passed their eyes.

Since Tim Roberts has been doing most of our vet work at the sales, we have had almost 100% record in getting the yearlings and weanlings we purchase to the races. This is important. Tim is also a good judge of a horse and I value his input.

I regard our selection processes as being as good as there is and when you consider I only purchase about 15 youngsters from each crop our results are outstanding.

In conclusion, where is the downside for this filly? As I see it, we have ticks across the board from her sire, dam and the farm she was reared. She is also a great type. I could not recommend a better filly to you. Good luck with her.