Over the years we have purchased some very good two year olds and won plenty of races with them.  In many cases these have been small to medium sized but strong fillies.  Some of these fillies include Calming, Hidden Wonder, Hijack Hussy, Greenmount Belle, Sandasta, Transparent Lass, Eramor, Sun Glazed, Maha Chakri, Rose Of Scotland, Huiskes and Atalanta Miss.  The most expensive of this group of fillies was Hijack Hussey at $62,500.  

On Tuesday in Hobart Charlie and Leuella stepped out a Smart Missile filly I purchased for just $35,000.  She won her barrier trial as she liked.  She will be given a short let up and be prepared for the Listed Elwick Stakes, Tasmanian 2Year Old Classic and Gold Sovereign Stakes.  She appears to have terrific ability and comes from a high class NZ female family.

On Wednesday at the Cessnock Barrier Trials (transferred from Gosford) we stepped out a Hinchinbrook filly out of the Magic Albert mare Al’s Magic Miss.  She went on to score as impressive a win as you are likely to see belting her opposition in fast time by 6 ½ lengths.  Again she isn’t a big filly but very strong and athletic.  Like Strike For Victory she came from the Yarraman Park draft.  

We had another two year old named Great Southern trained by Darren Weir run a nice 2nd in a jump out at Ararat on Tuesday.  He is by Husson out of Bel Mer and the most expensive yearling I have purchased.  I am very excited about this crop of two year olds.  Currently we have ten of the 20 on our books in work and we are getting very positive feedback on all of them.

Over the years I hate to think how many times I have purchased these athletic running fillies and then had trouble selling them because people look at them and think they are too small.  Some of the best horses we have had were the hardest to sell because of this including the Group 1 placed Under Command, outstanding sprinter Husson Eagle and multiple winner Believe’n’Achieve.  

There is a big difference between small strong horses with good conformations and weak horses.  The latter are generally never any good.  Two of the very best mares Bill Mitchell trained were Snippet’s Lass (Dam of Snitzel and Hinchinbrook) and French Braids, winner of the $1million Heroic Championship at Randwick.  They were small mares.

BIG WEEK FOR THE PRIME TRAINERS

Congratulations to Darren Weir, Tony McEvoy and Kris Lees who won races during the Flemington Carnival.  

Darren Weir was clearly the top performer and also leads the trainer’s Spring Carnival Premiership.  He has had a remarkable few months (years!!!) and has done the job without the high priced firepower of his opposition.  Tony McEvoy deserves a special mention.  He has worked hard over the past two years on his two state stables in NSW and SA and he has been getting good results.

Kris Lees continues to do the job.  By his high standards he may seem to have been a bit quiet but came up with a big winner when it counted and he sits comfortably in the top 20 on the Australian Trainer’s Premiership along with the other Prime trainers Darren Weir, Tony McEvoy and Tony Gollan.  I have a host of our team trialling with these trainers as well as with Charlie Goggin, John Moloney and Patrick Payne during the next month so watch this space as we head into Christmas.

John Thompson almost got the job done with Honesta which was 2nd in the VRC Oaks in a race where the tempo simply didn’t suit his filly.  I’m expecting her to go on and be a terrific stayer over the next couple of seasons.

AUSTRALIAN BRED HORSES  

The Australian based sires have done a great job with the 27 Group 1 races contested since the start of the season seeing 21 being won by Australian based sires (20 from the Hunter Valley), four from NZ and two from Europe.  

These statistics are quite compelling with 77.7% being won by the local product and only 7.4% being won by European imports.

THE BARRIER TRIALS   

Husson Eagle is set to return to racing on 21 November at Ballarat

We had eleven gallopers barrier trial or jump out earlier this week with there being good merit in all their efforts.  Those that are set to run in the next couple of weeks include Husson Eagle at Ballarat, Bella Venus in Launceston, Bridie’s Brook and Lomazzo at Hawkesbury.  Our only runner this weekend is Annaman at Doomben with Makeadane heading to Rosehill next Saturday.      

I Am Invincible filly out of Belle Amici 2014- Darren Weir to train in Victoria

10 shares @ $10,500

The filly pictured above is a terrific filly by the outstanding young sire I Am Invincible from the well related Catbird mare Belle Amici.  I have inspected her four times at Yarraman Park since May and was keen to purchase her.  She is a very good type of filly with a good hindquarter, great conformation and a attractive head.

The filly is an October foal and will be broken in in February/ March of 2016 with a view to giving her every chance to run as a two year old.  She comes from a very precocious family with Belle Amici’s ½ brother Restless winning as a two year old and being stakes placed as well.  He was placed in six of his seven starts as a two year old and went on to win 10 races including four at Group or stakes level and $578,305 in stakes money.