Unique set to resume at Warwick Farm on Wednesday

WRITTEN TYCOON COLT OUT OF MISS FASCINATION

D.K. WEIR TO TRAIN

I’m not surprised this colt has been well received by our clients.  He is a cracker and with him ‘the picture tells the story’.  He is heading to the breakers on Monday week and Darren is looking at preparing him for the Magic Millions Reverse Way Classic at Ballarat in November should he be ready.

I have a couple of shares remaining in him and highly recommend this colt as a really good hope of making the grade.  He is a great athlete.  A more detailed report on him is available later in this dispatch.

At $10,500 for 10% or $5,250 for 5% he looks great value to me.

THE WEEK AHEAD

The past few days were a bit frustrating with our two runners at Randwick simply not handing the bottomless track.  There isn’t much we can do about the weather and Sydney has had more than its fair share of rain during the past couple of months.  The forecast going forward is for things to improve which is what we want.  Arrayanes and Naranja ran nice races for second placings in their respective races.

We only have the two runners scheduled for this weekend with Faith’n’Courage down to run at Doomben on Saturday and Maraska at the Gold Coast.  Hopefully we will have a suitable track for these two mares.

The poor weather in NSW has forced us to look a little wider than normal with Raido set to resume at Quirindi on Tuesday.  This isn’t a bad option with the race worth about $14,000 to the winner including the BOBS Bonus. 

Unique is set to resume at Warwick Farm on Wednesday.  His dam Madame Flurry is some broodmare.  As well as Unique she has thrown the outstanding Group 1 performer Happy Trails, the multiple metropolitan winner Heart Of A Lion as well as a couple of other handy gallopers.  She is a ripper and the fickle business we are in saw her yearling by Bernadini which was to be sold at the Gold Coast Magic Millions in January having to be put down after an accident prior to the sale.  It is a cruel business some times. 

I was planning to purchase the colt with mares as good as Madame Flurry a rarity in the racing world.

VISIT TO CHARLIE GOGGIN AND LEUELLA MEABURN’S STABLE

On Saturday 4 July I have arranged a visit to Runnymede to have a look at our horses and the facilities and then to have a bite to eat at the famous Pooley Vineyard on the way home.  We will look at arriving at Runnymede at about 1030am and I have booked lunch with a wine tasting at Pooley’s at 1230pm.  Pooley’s Vineyard is near Richmond on the way back to Hobart.

Maree and I are looking forward to catching up with you on the day and all our Tasmanian clients and any from the mainland visiting the ‘Apple Isle’ on the day welcome to join us. 

YEARLING PROGRESS

It has been a busy time for us with all 17 yearlings we purchased up until the recent  Yearling Sale having been broken in.  The three yearlings we purchased at the National Sale will head to the breakers in the next two weeks.

Our team of yearlings comprises 13 fillies and 7 colts by:

Commands – 1

Hinchinbrook – 3 (2nd season)

Husson – 6

Hussonet - 1

I Am Invincible – 3 (3rd season)

Smart Missile – 3 (first season)

Tough Speed – 1

Trusting – 1 (first season)

Written Tycoon – 1

The average purchase price was about $75,000 up considerably on any of our previous crops of yearlings.  The purchase prices ranged from $17,000 to $240,000.  It will be interesting to see which of the 20 will finish up the best racehorse. 

They all passed our strict selection criteria and I’m certain any trainer in Australia would be happy to have any of them to train.

CAULFIELD CUP WEEKEND HOBART

If you are planning to come to Hobart for the weekend I suggest you book your accommodation sooner rather than later.  Lenna Of Hobart is almost full.

YEARLINGS ON OFFER

Take a close look at these two outstanding yearlings.  They are excellent prospects.  I also have a share available in the Commands filly and a couple in the Tough Speed colt.  He is a cracking type of horse and I expect him to be a middle distance performer.  Tough Speed has had only limited opportunities at stud but is the sire of the good stayer Banca Mo and very good mare Black and Tough.  Details are available on our website.

Written Tycoon colt out of Miss Fascination 2013

$10,500 per 10% share (5% @ $5,250)

Darren Weir to train

The Colt

He is a cracking type with a great looking head, powerful hindquarter, good depth of girth, strong forearm and great legs. I can’t ever remember getting as many compliments at a sale after purchasing a yearling.  In my opinion he was if not the best colt in the sale certainly in the top five as a type.

The colt has many things going for him including:

• He is the first foal of a well related Redoute’s Choice mare from a nice female line that has produced plenty of winners with the 2nd and 3rd dams being stakes winners.  These mares have had 18 to race for 14 winners.
• He vetted out without any issues and has good–rays.
• He has thrown very much to his grandsire Last Tycoon and the cross with this great sire’s daughters to Redoute’s Choice has produced an incredible 24 individual winners from just 29 runners with 8 stakes horses including Bonaria, Master Of Design and Drumbeats.  The latter two being sires standing in Australia.

Written Tycoon

He is by a sire that has done a remarkable job since commencing stud duties in Australia.  Here are some important points on Written Tycoon.

• He is by Iglesia a super sprinting son of the great international sire Last Tycoon.  Iglesia still holds the track record at Flemington of 1 minute 7.16 seconds for 1200 metres.
• Written Tycoon is out of the very well-bred Marscay mare Yodells which again points to him being a sire that will get good fast horses but also nice 1600 metres types such as Rich Enuff.
• Written Tycoon is right up there with the best this season with 10 stakes wins to his credit.
• He had five individual stakes winners in February 2015, a remarkable performance.
• The breeders have continued to strongly support him with him covering his biggest book of mares last season at 177.  This is a big figure for a Victorian based sire.
• Written Tycoon crosses well with Danehill line mares.
• 15/06/15 Written Tycoon gets 100th individual winner for the season.

Miss Fascination

There isn’t much more to write about Miss Fascination.  This is the first foal of the mare and I do like purchasing first foals and particularly those out of Redoute’s Choice mares. I now have quite a few horses in our team out of Redoute’s Choice mares with Hijack Hussy being the best and only one to run at this stage and she was also a first foal.

There are a lot of myths about first foals but in my experience good breeders send their young mares to the best sires they can afford and I’m certain this is the case here.  To be successful mares need their progeny to come out running.

Only two Redoute’s Choice mares have had runners by Written Tycoon with Masthead being the best. He won $969,167 in stakes money.

Smart Missile filly out of Pride Of Pine 2013

10% shares @ $12,500 (5% @ $6,250)

Kris Lees to train

The Filly

This filly is a strong well balanced athlete that will continue to go forward as she commences breaking in at about the end of June.  She has a great hindquarter and is without doubt the best credentialed filly I have ever offered for syndication. 

• She is a ¾ sister to the outstanding 3year old filly Lone Rock and winner of the Group 1 SAJC Goodwood Handicap.
• The filly is also a ¾ sister to Pride Rock the VRC Riverside Handicap and Lucia Bella which was trained by Kris Lees and displayed great ability before going amiss.

The filly has many upsides including:

• As the ¾ sister to a Group 1 winner she has residual value and if she were to gain black type would be an extremely valuable breeding proposition after she completed her racing career.
• She comes from a great female line that includes some of the best mares in the Australian Stud book, Procrastinate, Personify, Galapagos Girl.
• There are quite of number of well-bred fillies high up on the page that should continue to see the pedigree page continue to improve.

Smart Missile

I was confident after starting to inspect the weanlings and then yearlings of Smart Missile that he would make it as a sire and he is my pick to be Leading First Season Sire in 2015/16 season.

He has almost every important characteristic I look for in a potential sire.  In his case these are:

• He has a great pedigree coming from a strong female line that consistently produces black type horses that compete at the highest level. 
• His dam is a ½ brother to the outstanding young sire Northern Meteor who gave us a glimpse of his great ability as a sire in the three crops that have raced.
• He had explosive speed and was an exceptional two years old.  This is very important in Australia.
• He is by Fastnet Rock and represents the most successful sire line ever seen in Australia with his grandsire being the great Danehill.
• Importantly for a son of Fastnet Rock he isn’t too big.  In fact he isn’t unlike Australia’s current leading first season sire Hinchinbrook, also by Fastnet Rock in this regard.
• He was selected to stand at Arrowfield Stud by John Messara.  Studs always don’t get it right when standing sires but Arrowfield under Messara’s stewardship haven’t made too many mistakes when standing a new horse.
• Smart Missile is Australian bred and competed at the highest level in this country in our harsh conditions.  I can never understate how important this is.  If you want to confirm just how important this characteristic is have a look at the leading sire’s tables.

Pride Of Pine

There isn’t much more to write about Pride Of Pine.  She was a fast race mare that has done a great job at stud throwing three winners from four to race including the Group 1 winner LONE ROCK.

Pride of Pine is by Lion Cavern who is quite a good broodmare sire internationally but not well represented in Australia.  His two Australian Stakes horses are by Danehill line sires which may well be the key to his success.  He also has a very good horse by Exceed and Excel named Flashman’s Papers which won 17 races two at stakes level.