Ankara Lass as a yearling, set to run at Goulburn on Friday. Good luck to her many lady owners!

We certainly have had a week to remember.  The UK are out of the European Union, the Wallabies lost a home series 3 – 0 for the first time since 1971, The Australian cricketers won the tri series in the West Indies and now we have a federal election on Saturday.  Oh, and the big news but not unexpected was that the mighty Queensland Maroons sealed another victory in the State Of Origin Series against the hapless NSW Blues.  Ten series wins in 11 years is some record at this level.

We have had some very ordinary tracks to race on with many being well and truly soaked by the big rain event about a month ago.  Since then they have been topped up with enough rain to ensure they simply don’t dry out.  The cold weather has added to the situation.  I can’t see us getting many firm tracks in NSW, Victoria, South Australia or Tasmania for the next couple of months with the BOM predicting a wetter than normal winter.  The one good thing to flow from this is that our dams are filling up which is important as those in Victoria and Tasmania were getting low again.

These conditions make it very difficult to accurately assess the form due to horses coming from different track surfaces.  In particular the horses coming from racing well on the synthetic tracks at Pakenham and Geelong back onto the grass can have spectacular form reversals and the same the other way. Be careful.      

STABLE VISIT JOHN MOLONEY

We will be having visit to John Moloney’s Stable on Sunday 3 July 2016 from 10am with light refreshments provided.  All our clients are invited to meet John and his staff.  The address is 134 Kambrook Road Caulfield.  If you get lost call me on 0433762700.  

The SAJC Sire’s Produce Stakes winner Flying Jess, Maldicion and the Sebring filly I purchased for John should be at the stable.

John’s had great run recently and consistently punches above his weight.  From our perspective he has had two horses race for two winners, one in Group 3 Company and the other raced in Listed Company which is exceptional. Only a very small percentage of horses get to race in Group or Listed Company during their careers.

MAJOR SALES CONCLUDE

The major sales held in Australia are now completed for the year. The results coming from the Inglis Great Southern Sale in Melbourne last week continued the very positive results that have been a consistent feature of all our sales this year.

We have a lot of new money coming into the industry which is very encouraging.  I finished up with 13 yearlings from the sales. This was about the number I was after this year.  These additions see our racing team maintaining a level just above 50 horses.

I can never remember so many horses being retired to stud.  There seems to be another announcement every other day of a new sire.  It will be interesting to see how well they are supported and who supports these horses.  Good luck to the studs standing them.  It isn’t an easy task getting a new horse up and running particularly with the ‘right’ mares.  

ON THE TRACK

We had a very quiet week on the track but this is set to change with Annaman, Naranja, Ankara Lass, Awasita, Reneged, Go Arrivederci, Shining Brooke and Lomazzo running in the next week.  It is nice to have Metropolitan runners with Reneged running in the Group 3 Sunshine Coast Guineas, Awasita at Rosehill, Annaman at Doomben and Lomazzo at Canterbury.

The group 3 winning mare Savoureux had an easy trial on Monday and we have quite a few horses coming into the stables over the next

NATIONAL JOCKEY’S TRUST LUNCHEON

Over the past few weeks we certainly have been reminded of the dangerous job being a jockey can be with bad falls in NSW and Victoria.  It probably hit home a bit more for many of our owners with Michelle Payne being injured in a bad fall at Mildura.

I certainly recommend you attend the National jockey’s Trust Luncheon on 19 July as a mark of your appreciation for the job the jockeys do for us.

The National Jockey’s Trust do a great job raising funds to help jockeys and their families who are doing it tough through injury or in some cases where the rider was killed in an accident.  There is no more dangerous profession that being a jockey and the risk their lives each time they ride one of our horses.  

The Trust conducts several functions each year to raise funds and their annual luncheon is being held at Caulfield on 19 July at a cost of $195 per head.

If you wish to attend please forward your attendance with the number of tickets you require to: primethoroughbreds@hotmail.com

I will forward out details and accounts once I have final numbers.  I will be closing the function off on Wednesday.

The function will be held in the The Skyline Level of the Rupert Clarke Grandstand and the package includes:

• Entertainment Jim Cassidy to speak
• 4-course meal (Entree, Main, Dessert, Afternoon Tea)
• Premium Beverage package (Beer, Wine, Sparkling, Soft Drink)
• Guest Speakers
• Raffle & Auction Items
• Enjoy the day with leading former jockeys
• Racebook on Arrival
• Racecourse Entry
• Reserved Grandstand Seating
  

YEARLINGS ON OFFER

This week I will highlight the Snitzel filly out of Signoret.  I have been very pleased with the reaction to our yearlings and I can see light at the end of the tunnel. I am hoping to have all our current syndications complete by the end of July which would be the earliest we have achieved this in the past decade.

SNITZEL FILLY OUT OF SIGNORET- MAGIC MILLIONS AND SUPER VOBIS QUALIFIED

Darren Weir to train, 10 shares @12,000

The filly

This is a very athletic filly and she reminded me a lot of our high class mare Hidden Wonder when I inspected her at the sale.  This filly is a great walker and has a lovely stride.

She has a very attractive head and a great hindquarter.  She also has a deep girth and vetted out without any issues.

I was thrilled to get her as I expected she may have fetched quite a bit more at the sale.  A big bonus is that she was paid up for Super VOBIS which wasn’t advertised.  This was a big mistake by the vendors but a big help to the people who eventually race this filly.

She wouldn’t have been out of place in a much higher profile sale.

Snitzel

Snitzel is one of our very best sires and is currently 9th on the Australian General Sire’s List.  There are about 700 sires standing in Australia.  Snitzel was a high class racehorse winning four races as a two year old and highlighting his career winning the Group 1 Oakleigh Plate.  

I was keen on Snitzel as a yearling.  He was out of the high class mare Snippet’s Lass trained by Bill Mitchell.  She has gone on to be one of the very best broodmares in Australia and is also the dam of Australia’s leading first season sire last season in Hinchinbrook.  

You can never underestimate just how important the female line is when assessing a sire’s chances of making it as a stallion.

It is fair to write that Snitzel is the most prolific sire of two year old winners in Australia with him having sitred 25 individual two year old winners this season.  Compare this with Written Tycoon 8 and Not A Single Doubt 6.

Snitzel’s best filly was the wonderful race mare Sweet Idea.

Signoret

Signoret is by the Champion broodmare sire Anabaa.  Anabaa was a very good sire and was very well managed in Australia where he only served limited books of select mares.  Anabaa is currently 6th on the National Broodmare List.  Again there are hundreds of broodmare sires in Australia.  

As a result his daughters were very well bred and many come from ‘a’ grade families.  When you look at his statistics the big thing that stands out is the small number of runners which have put him in the this elite top 10 position with the likes of Zabeel, Danehill, General Nediym and Encosta de Lago .  Other horses of a comparable age in the top 10 are Encosta de Lago with 575 runners and Flying Spur with 450.  Anabaa only has 190 runners but many are high quality ones including Buffering.

VISIT TO DARREN WEIR’S TRAINING COMPLEX AT BALLARAT

We will be having a visit to Darren Weir’s training complex on 25 September.  We will meet at the Stable at about 1030 am and have a BBQ lunch before heading home.  More details to follow but his facilities are exceptional and I’m certain you would leave with a very positive impression of DK Weir Racing.  What Darren has achieved has been remarkable.  He hasn’t inherited an empire, he has created one!!!