Makeadane winning at Scone – great result  and excellent ride

THE WEEK THAT WAS

I got a terrific buzz out of Makeadane’s great win at Scone on Friday.  He was the first yearling I syndicated with John Thompson and he looks to have good ability.  His win was strong and he beat a very competitive field.  He will line up again either at Randwick on Saturday or Canterbury next Wednesday.  A good performance there could see him head onto the Queensland Derby at Doomben on Stradbroke Day.  Good luck to his owners.

Earlier in the day I was standing on the finishing post with Pat Parkes a part owner of Stimuli and a continuous client of Prime Thoroughbreds for over 16 years when the three year old looked to have won his maiden only to go down in the closest of finishes in the first race.  He has now been placed 2nd in both his starts with each race being run in class record time.  For a few moments Pat was beside herself.  Her first horse with Prime Thoroughbreds was Calming and the 2nd Zelady.  The progeny of both these mares raced with distinction over the weekend.  Pat raced these good mares with her husband Allan who sadly passed away a couple of years ago.  The strength of our business has been the solid support we have received over many years from people like the Parkes family as well as many more. 

Stimuli is out of Mal De Mer which makes him a ½ brother to our very good three year old filly Believe’n’Achieve which was placed 4th in the Group 1 Myer Classic as well as winning 8 races.  Mal de Mer was a handy race mare that I purchased as a yearling and then managed her racing career for Con Retsas who was Prime Thoroughbreds first client back in 1997. Con and his wife Barbara still race with us today.  Other handy horses out of her include the metropolitan winners Sea Tryst and Believe’n’Receive.

Maraska as a yearling at Edinglassie Stud

Maraska is Savoureux’s ½ sister by Bel Esprit and has always displayed good ability.  She has been a slow maturing horse and looked the one to beat at Ipswich earlier today.  She was well ridden by Jim Byrne who had to straighten her up in the run home before she forged away from her opposition.  Tony Gollan has done a good job with the mare and she gives every indication she will get a longer trip.

It has been a great few days for the progeny of other former Prime Thoroughbreds race mares with Calming Influence (Calming) and Excites Zelady (Zelady) running second in stakes races at Scone and Morphettville on Saturday. Electric Power (Miss Polanas) won at Canterbury and Whittington (Maha Chakri) ran a terrific 4th at the Sunshine Coast in the Listed Bribie Handicap.  One More Red (Red Centre) also won in Hobart on Tuesday.  Many of our former syndicated fillies and mares have done a great job at stud.  Interesting the most expensive of this group of mares was Maha Chakri which I purchased for $47,500.

While on our former race mares, this Saturday sees the running of the Listed Andrew Ramsden Stakes at Flemington.  Unchain My Heart won this race in the past two years but now has been retired to stud and is going to Pierro.  Good luck to her, she deserves a good retirement.  It is significant Unchain My Heart was one of only two Australian bred horses to run in last year’s Melbourne Cup.

Our other runners over the past week ran nice races with a special mention for the 2 year old Naranja who was placed behind the older horses at Cessnock.  He should make amends shortly.  Our team of two year olds is coming together nicely.

We have decided to retire Beau Jez.  He looked like being a really good horse but feet problems have held him back and he will be well cared for in retirement.  His best performance was a 2nd placing in the Group 3 National Stakes.

SCONE CUP CARNIVAL

Once again The Scone Cup Carnival was superb and set a standard that other race clubs not only country and provincial ones should aspire to reach.  The two days of racing went off without a hitch and the associated events made the whole week a wonderful experience.

The crowd of 9000 on Friday were well catered for with the standard of racing first class.  I’m a great supporter of these stand-alone meetings and the reports I have received from those that attended the Toowoomba meeting were also very positive

Well done to Scone Race Club Chairman Noel Leckie and his hard working committee on a job very well done.  Their attention to detail was superb with betting turnover reported to be up 40% on Friday.

DAVID MOODIE

I was pleased to see the appointment of David Moodie as Chairman of RVL. His early press releases and interview in the Australian with Brendan Cormick indicate he is intending to mend the strained relationship that exists between Victoria and NSW racing.  This is a must and his acknowledgement of the importance of Tabcorp to Victorian Racing is a pleasant change and step in the right direction.

It appeared to me for too long that the corporate bookmakers were getting preferential treatment in Victoria particularly on the now defunct TVN network.  At the same time Tabcorp were providing $340 odd million per year to the racing industry in this state.

The hierarchy in NSW have certainly acknowledged the importance of the Tabcorp relationship and have embraced the betting giant.  The booming result coming from Scone is testament that the acceptance of the coverage on Sky Thoroughbred Central which in the main seems to be very well received. 

Sky has assembled a team of excellent presenters and I really enjoy their coverage.  In my situation I want the four major racing states on the one channel and I am not interested in switching from channel to channel.  It simply doesn’t work for me.

THE WEEK AHEAD

We have quite a bit happening with Hijack Hussy to be reunited with Michael Rodd in the Listed Fred Best Classic at Doomben on Saturday.  She will appreciate the step up to 1350m but again has a tricky barrier draw.  This is her final lead in to the Queensland Guineas to be run on Stradbroke Day.  As I wrote earlier Makeadane runs at Randwick or Canterbury, Arrayanes is set to run in Bendigo, Invincible Me at Geelong and Bella Venus heads to Launceston.

On Monday we saw Awasita, Raido, Sanosuke, Lamozza, Terra Amata and Unique barrier trial.  These horses will all resume shortly.

HINCHINBROOK

Anyone who has been reading Prime Dispatch over the past 12 months or so should have picked up on the very high opinion I have of the young stallion, Hinchinbrook.  On Saturday he had his first stakes winner when Flippant scored a most impressive win at Scone.  He may not get to hold the title as ‘Leading First Season Sire in Australia’ but he won’t be far away.

Our clients who have bought into the five fillies I have purchased by the stallion should be feeling very pleased with their investments.  As I walked through the paddocks at Yarraman Park on Sunday morning I got the feeling that the Mitchell’s have a lot to look forward to as the progeny of this fine young horse continue to hit the racetracks.

The other important facet to these purchases is that I am very confident these fillies will prove to be great breeding prospects in the years ahead.  Each of them come out of good race mares with nice families to back them up.

Bill Mitchell trained Hinchinbrook’s dam Snippets Lass who I rightly regard as one of the best mares to be trained by Bill.  As well as being the dam of Hinchinbrook she also has outstanding sire Snitzel and Wiener amongst her progeny.  Her pedigree is top class and I’m not surprised she has been such a great producer. 

It is amazing just how many of the mares Bill trained that have gone on to have very successful careers at stud.  The secret is that he didn’t race the guts out of them and seemed to know instinctively when to back off them.

Hinchinbrook (Fastnet Rock-Snippet’s Lass)

YEARLINGS

This week I am featuring the Tough Speed colt out of Vickers.  He is a ripper and hopefully will be a nice middle distance horse for us.  He as impressive a type of colt as I have seen at the sales this year.  I was pleasantly surprised when Darren Weir approached me asking if he could train the horse.  This is the only time he has approached me about a yearling and he is a very good judge of a yearling.

This family had a good week with LuckyI’mbarefoot winning at Warrnambool and Bella Capri out of Vickers full-sister White Heart Lane running a terrific 4th at Flemington.

The old saying ‘winning families tend to keep on winning’.

Tough Speed colt out of Vickers 2013

10 shares @ $5,790 each (5% shares $2,895)

The Colt

When I attended the Tasmanian Magic Millions Sale this year I was taken by this colt.  I had inspected the high profile colts in the sale but was more impressed by this fellow than any of the other ones on offer.

He has a beautiful easy walk and gets around very well.  He is a beautifully relaxed horse and our vet Tim Roberts was also very impressed with him.  I don’t purchase too many colts but was determined to get this fellow.  To put it simply he oozed class and is out of a very good Flying Spur mare by a stallion that can get a very good horse.

I expect this colt to run at two and have paid him up for the Tasmanian Magic Millions but really expect him to excel as a three year old and beyond where his best distances should be at 1600m.

The colt will be a great addition to our team of horses trained by Charlie Goggin and Leuella Meaburn at Runnymede Stud in Tasmania.

Tough Speed

Tough Speed has stood at Armidale Stud in Tasmania for nine seasons serving relatively small books of mares.  In the main this was due to the Tasmanian economy and the uncertainty surrounding the state of the thoroughbred Industry.  It is interesting to note in the 2013 breeding season he served his biggest book of mares.

In any case his results have been very good with his best being the Stakes winners Black’n’Tough, Banca Mo, Lyell and Tough Chick as well as the stakes placed Settler’s Joy, Speedy Sky and Jay Bee’s Gee Gee.

When assessing a stallion I like to look at the number of stakes winners to winners a horse has.  Very few have a 10% or greater conversion rate.  Tough Speed has a 6% conversion rate which is very good considering the quality of mares he served.

Many of his progeny go on to win multiple races with 79% of his winners being metropolitan winners. 

Australia’s leading sire Fastnet Rock has 66% winners to runners compared with Tough Speed’s 56% which gives you an idea of his effectiveness.

In my opinion Vickers is one of the highest quality mares to go to Tough Speed.

Vickers

Vickers is by the Champion broodmare sire Flying Spur who is currently 4th on the Australian Broodmare List.  Vickers was a very good race mare winning metropolitan races at Flemington, Caulfield and Sandown.  She ran a terrific 5th in the Group 3 Tranquil Star Stakes.  Unfortunately she had a race fall and this ended her racing career.

Vickers comes from one of the best families in Tasmania being out of the stakes winning mare Eascapada.  The 3rd dam is Knightly Belle a high class Sydney two year old and dam of the stakes winners Poacher’s Star, The Old China and of course Escapada.

As a broodmare Vickers has done a very good job with four of her six foals winning on for mainland.  I purchased the first foal out of the mare for $70,000 but unfortunately she had to be put down after a paddock accident. 

It should be noted she missed getting into foal in the season before she had this colt.  The odds of a mare getting a stakes horse increase after missing a year and a good mare like Vickers is entitled to get a very good horse.  Hopefully it is this colt.