Commands filly out of Already – John Thompson to train at Randwick

Only one share remains

THE GRAFTON CUP CARNIVAL

The Grafton Cup Carnival gets under way on Sunday with the running of the South Grafton Cup and then heads to Ramornie Day on Wednesday, Grafton Cup on Thursday and the Maclean Cup meeting on the following Sunday.  I’ll be there for Wednesday and Thursday.

This is a great Carnival and is very well supported by the local community with many visitors heading to Grafton for the week.  We will be well represented with Terra Amata, Stimuli and Naranja set to run.

THE WEEK AHEAD

Apart from our runners at Grafton we have Savoureux at Rosehill on Saturday as well as Raido and Sanosuke which have been nominated in several races as we look to get a decent surface for them.  Rumeron and More Than A Rose may start next Wednesday at Canterbury and the Sunshine Coast respectively.

VISIT TO GOGGIN STABLE SATURDAY

We have arranged a visit to Charlie and Leuella’s complex at Runnymede on Saturday morning at 1030 am.  We will head to Pooley’s Vineyard after for a bite to eat.  Please email me if you are intending to come on Saturday to primethoroughbreds@hotmail.com

I need final numbers by 4pm Thursday afternoon.  At this stage I have Brendan Murray (3), Harvey Gibson (2). Rob Harvey (2), Kevin Russell (2) and Patrick Cronin joining us.

Maydena, Bella Venus, Husson’s Kiss and the Tough Speed colt out of Vickers are at Runnymede.

YEARLINGS ON OFFER

Take a close look at these two outstanding yearlings.  They are excellent prospects.  I also have a couple of shares available in the Tough Speed colt.  His ½ brother LuckyI’mbarefoot won a heat of the Winter Championship recently at Cranbourne and the win took his stakes money past $300,000.  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.  

Written Tycoon colt out of Miss Fascination 2013 $10,500 per 10% share (5% @ $5,250)

Darren Weir to train

The Colt

This colt really took my eye at the Magic Millions National Yearling Sale.  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.