Latest Breeding & Racing News

October 2023

Big news for the month is Ross (Vino Rosso x Madam Loulou '22) and Artie (Flying Artie x Awasita '22) both getting accepted into the Melbourne Premier, albeit the Showcase session, which were the two we expected to get the call-up. Artie was also offered a place at the MM Gold Coast Book 2.

That's not to say our other 4 aren't worthy, more a consequence of being either by "unfancied" sires or, particularly in the case of Star (Omaha Beach x Starship Angel) being by a Spendthrift stallion and no longer supported or marketed in Australia and for being too "International" with full US bloodlines regardless of the dam being a multiple US stakes winner. Go figure.

Mixed results in the breeding barn thus far:

Bails (could be 45 days by end of month)

Stars (30 day check on 16th?)

Cecilia (confirmed 14 day positive)

Shelley (missed on her cover & re-cover to Dirty Work) Second crack weekend of 14th?

Gracie missed to Strasbourg. Decided to take up an attractive offer from Yulong for Alabama Express

Loulou covered 5/10.

Nova covered on 8th by Extreme Warrior - finally - after having mucked around cycling-wise for the last 6 weeks and then taking another 2 full days to ovulate. Fingers crossed 

Suzy also late to be covered more by virtue of having held on for 3 weeks to faol this season and then deciding not to attempt to have her covered in foaling heat (which went on for some 2 weeks!)

Not so good on the racing front?

September 2023

Finally some better news on the foaling side of things.

Loulou didn't wait at all and foaled down a beautiful Strasbourg filly bang on her due

date with no complications. 'Licorice' is coming along nicely but already showing

signs of independence and curiosity

Meanwhile Suzy was crossing her legs before finally foaling down a cracking

Captivant filly some 3 weeks late! Again, no complications. 'Captain' is a bit more

well behaved and does follow her mum around. 

Both mares and foals are now co-habiting the rearing paddock with Captain

already wanting to get into mum's feedbin.

We finally found a suitable mare to send to Coolmore and take advantage of the free return to Pride of Dubai following Stars' unfortunate

late term slip. Oh Cecilia was picked up online on the evening of the 13th and was on a truck to the Hunter by 5pm on the 14th, after having been vetted, swabbed and vaccinated and being determined as nearly ready for cover, and at Coolmore by the afternoon of the 15th. As it turns out, she looks like she was spring-heating a little and wasn't quite as ready as we might have hoped.

Cecilia is a half to Group winning Sirileo Miss (a Pride of Dubai mare herself), a Zoffany out of a Galileo mare and a 3 time winner. Furthermore

she already has a Pride of Dubai filly yearling being retained trainer Michael Kent family & friends.

Good start to the breeding season with 5 of 8 mares covered, the remaining being the 2 with foals getting over foaling heat and cycling properly and Zanova who has been busy spring-heating.

Bails (Bail Out) was served by Rubick nice and early on the 3rd September and subsequently confirmed 15 day positive. Good job by Yulong

Shelley (Court Flying) was covered (and re-covered!) by Dirty Work on 22 Sept,

Gracie (Fields of Grace), overcoming her hesitancy to stay on the float thans to some masterly encouragement by Justine, was also covered

on the 22nd, this time by Strasbourg.  A big day travelling to Widden twice and to Rosemont and a big thankyou to Leo, the float companion!

Stars (Stars Are Out) was covered by Rubick on the 14th,

and finally, Coolmore report that Cecilia (Oh Cecilia) was covered by Pride of Dubai on the 27th

With covers yet to come by Paulele, Bruckner and Extreme Warrior, we're really looking forward to next year's crop

On the track we were surprised to learn that the 8 year olds of Court Flying (I Am Flying - I Am Invincible) and Zanov (Igbo - Equiano x Zanova) were still running. Igbo ran a half-length second over an 850m dash at Gympie - must be the Equiano in him! I am Flying is still looking to break

his maiden and looks like he might be waiting a little longer :(

Not so for Resource's and Stars' 4yo mares. Both (Volpe Risorsa  - Foxwedge and Hearsay - Star Witness) were imprssive winners at Ballarat

and Ipswich respectively. Volpe has now recorded 12 starts for 3:3:2 while Hearsay has recorded 12 starts for 3:2:2. Both very similar to Wanda (Diamond Model) who though ran out of steam recently at Rosehill over too short a distance and wide barrier for new owners and trainer has a record of 12 starts for 3:2:0 and pecisely $100,000 in earnings

Finally, Starship Eighty (Starship Angel's Into Mischief 4yo) finally managed to score a place in Hong Kong after, for the first time ever, settling in the top 3 or 4 rather than constantly out the back and trying to run his race over th elast 300-400 metres and running out of space.

August 2023

Foaling season went from bad to worse this month with Bails having a red-bag delivery of her Dirty Work foal which, by all accounts, is nothing that can be prevented and totally random. It seems that once a red-bag is identified, it is probably too late for the foal anyway as was the case with this foal with us being on the spot as soon as she had foaled down.

On the plus side, having been the beneficiary of a foster mare last season, we immediately broadcast the ofer of Bails to be a foster mare herself. The offer was taken up by Sam Fairgay at Yulong the following morning to raise a Tagaloa filly that the mare couldn't feed herself. We obviously couldn't have wished for a better recipient to look after Bails and manage her mating commitment to Rubick.

Bails let down as soon as she met the foal and was feeding before the day was out, no mean effort given the foal had been hand fed since birth 5 days prior.

In circumstances similar to last month, we happened to be speaking with Phil Marshall at Widden shortly after the event and they had no hesitation in offeing a free return to Dirty Work. Given Bails is already booked to Rubick, we'll send Court Flying to take up the offer. 

It does mean we're running out of mares to take up nominations!

We have bought yet another mare, a beautifully bred 6yo Pierro mare

(Gracie), as indicated by the G1 table below, specifically to utilise our

breeding rights to Strasbourg and in view of the bloodlines affinity of her

to Strasbourg per the G1 Goldmine tight impact analysis to the right.

Tim Brown of Magic Millions gave us a visit during the month to inspect the yearlings and made very positive noises. For the first time in a while too, it wasn't actually raining during hus inspection and all of the yearlings behaved themselves. Fingers crossed we'll be abe to send one or more to the Gold Coast in January.

On the racing front, Wanda (Diamond Model) ran a solid 2nd on the 16th for her 5th result in 9 starts. It does appear that she may have been sold and moved to a NSW trainer post that race.

Hearsay (ex Stratuzy) recorded her 2nd win for trainer Chris Munce at Beaudesert boasting a record now of 10. 2:2:2

luna had a couple of runs 3rd geelong over extended 1740 then further extended at donald to run 2nd behind a bolter on a leader-bias track

July 2023

Unfortunately Stars Are Out had a late term abortion on the 6th, 2 months ahed of due date. A subsequent autopsy proved inconclusive other than it wasn't herpes or chlamydia related and nothing we could have prevented on-farm. Obviously very sad for the mare and disappointing that we won't have a Pride of Dubai foal this season

Coincidentally, Stars' 2022 Pride of Dubai weanling was offered for sale by Coolmore on InglisDigital soon after prompting a though we might replace one with the other only to learn that the weanling had suffered a stifle injury days out from the Inglis Weanling sale. The discussion with Coolmore, however, turned to Stars slipping the foal leading to an offer of a free return, particularly as we already had her booked to the Coolmore owned Rubick (as was Bail Out). We have gratefully accepted the offer.....now to work out which mare we might send north to the Hunter!

Elsewhere on the noms front, Zanova will be going to visit Extreme Warrior, Loulou to Widden's 1st season Bruckner, Suzy to Godolphin's 1st season Paulele, Bails & Stars to Rubick, Shelley possibly to Daumier. Resi (Resource), with a late cover last season will take the year off.

June 2023

Showdra (Showtime x Phaedra) with Lee Freedman had her first start on the 16th in what was to be more of an educational run but showed a great turn of foot over the last 150m to notch up a maiden win. Needless to say the picture is on the wall

Jet (Zoom Outcome) had a second crack at Rosehill in a Highway Class 3 and ran a very creditable 5th against better company, just getting run over after hitting the lead a couple of hundred metres out. A much better illustration of what he is capable of than the last attempt at the same track when he just never got into the race.

Wanda (Diamond Model) racked up her 3rd win in just 8 starts with a run-on win over 1429m at Sale on the heavy.

On the breeding side - very much about locking in noms for the season. Thus far looking at the likes of Rubick, Daumier, Paulele, Bruckner, Extreme Warrior. Fortunately too, a couple of the studs have come to the party with some decent foal-share opportunities.

May 2023

A big month for PT Thoroughbreds welcoming 3 more mares and 3 weanlings.

8yo Stars Are Out (Fastnet Rock x Moon Is Up ex Woodman) I/F to Pride of Dubai, was purchased from Sheikh Mohammed in the Coolmore draft at the Australian Broodmare Sales as was Resource (Tale Of The Cat x Legible ex Zabeel) I/F to Exceedance.

10yo Stratuzy (Stratum x Suzy Smart ex Smart Strike) I/F to Captivant was identified and bought by Justine on InglisDigital while everybody else was distracted by the Magic Millions Broodmare Sale that was in progress!

All have good credentials whether they be Trusting's full sister (Resource), very nice pages, well received and/or well performed progeny etc.

We've also dipped our toe into the pinhook market with 3 weanling purchases:

A Merchant Navy x Land Ahoy filly,

A Flying Artie x Awasita filly, and

A Press Statement x Sorel Point colt (to keep our Vino Rosso weanling colt company)

Zoom Outcome jumped to a BM74 at Taree on the 9th, running a huge race to run second, just being overhauled by the favourite and top weight at Taree

April 2023

A relatively quiet early April got busy toward the end of the month with extensive digital platform and on-site sales catalogues necessitating many days of research and shortlisting of weanlings and broodmares as we look to bolster both our foal produce this year and our candidates for next year's yearling sales.

We do welcome Bail Out into our broodmare band this month. A Charge Forward mare out of Pay My Bail, champion 3YO Sprinter in NZ, she is half to two stakes winners and 4 other race-winning siblings. More importantly, she is in foal to son of Written Tycoon, Dirty Work, who's first weanlings were very well received in the Sydney sale, with a second season covering and is a proven producer with 3 winners in Australia and HK. Her most recent foal, a 2YO Press Statement gelding was purchased by Annabel Neasham at the 2022 Classic Sale

April was a busy month for the breeding industry generally with most, if not all stud farms releasing their 2023 roster and fees. We have secured a nom to Darley's Daumier, the 2022 Blue Diamond (& G3 BD Preview) winner, beating off Revolutionary Miss and Jacquinot, and were it not for the absolute bog tracks in Sydney, might have improved upon 4th placings in both the Golden Slipper and the Sires Produce. 

We've also secured a nom to Darley's Paulele, the muliple Group winning and placed son of Dawn Approach, who's already impressive stakes record may improve further in the forthcoming Queensland carnival.

Late in the month, Lee Freedman indicated that Showdra was ready for a jump-out and is aiming for a trail at Deagon in mid-May, fully expecting her to get to the races this prep particularly on softer tracks and where the 2YO races start stretching over a bit of distance. Her half, Invincible Missile, dropping back to C4 in HK, with Hughie Bowman on board, put the field to shame on the 26th to record his 6th win.

Finally, in what we thought was going to be a quiet news month, we headed to Adelaide & Morphetville for Oaks Day taking the opportunity to attend Scott Westover's stables to visit 'Siri' (Super One x Court Flying '20) in which we retain an interest. She is a seriously impressive and well developed 2YO and heading out for first jump-out. Funny to also catchup with our former trainer, Peter Gelagotis (whom we seem to run into at every track we attend) who was stabling Long Arm with Scott for the weekend ahead of the Port Adelaide Cup run.

Great day at the races though for some better than others with she, who shall remain nameless, picking $60 winners around the country while yours truly couldnt get a collect on the day !

March 2023

The yearling sales are done and dusted. We managed to get 'Alan' (Strasbourg x Aultone) and 'Miss Vicki' (Castelvecchio x Madam Loulou) away, despite them being offered so late in the last major sale of the year when most buyers have had their fill, but 'Randy' (Strasbourg x Rapala) managed to injure himself in the stall on the morning of him being due to go into the sales ring and had to be withdrawn.

The Aultone colt, purchased by Ryan Pendergast, will likely be pinhooked into the Ready to Run sales later this year whilst the Castelvecchio filly was purchased by Flying Start Syndications and will be trained by Simon Wylde in Victoria. Really excited about the future of both horses.

Sadly, later in the month, we lost our beautiful Johannes Vermeer filly in a tragic paddock accident.

January 2023

Sadly we lost our Omaha Beach yearling colt, 'Bob' (ex Starship Angel) on the 18th following a freak paddock accident.

Captured on CCTV at the yearling prep farm (Bob was Lot 657 in the Inglis Premier Sale), a rear and flip resulted in massive brain injury. 

He was a magnificent specimen, very intelligent and as kind-natured as his mum who we also lost post-foaling Bob's full sister last year.

Luna Diva (Odyssey Moon x Clever Clogs) notched her second win at Benalla on 5th Jan winding up from the turn to fly past most of the field on the outside. This proves her at the mile after running second over a similar distance last start. Suggestion from the trainer is potentially 'metro or better'. Luna was ridden by Michael Poy who also rode Diamond Model ('Wanda'), Luna's paddock mate growing up, for her maiden win at Wodonga

Gaslight, Starship Angel's 4YO by Wicked Strong and half to 'Star' by Omaha Beach, started the new year with a bang, recording his 3rd win on the 1st. Gaslight was Angel's last US born progeny before being imported to Victoria by Spendthrift in foal to Into Mischief producing Starship Eighty (running in HK) 

December 2022

Titan I Am (Kuroshio x Aultone) bred by PT Thoroughbreds, broke a long drought on 29th Dec at Naracoorte following up from a creditable 3rd a month prior. The second win goes along with his 7 minor placings and credit goes to Vicki Dishon for getting Titan back on track.

Luna Diva (Odyssey Moon x Clever Clogs) runs 2nd at Cranbourne after being totally blocked for a run between the 400 and 200 but pushed through and broke away from the pack evidencing a smart turn of foot. Unfortunately the winner had already gone by time Luna got through. Positive and promising run nonetheless

November 2022

Titan I Am (Kuroshio x Aultone) bred by PT Thoroughbreds, showed a far improved effort at Naracoorte on 18th November coming from a long way back over 1000m to finish just 1.6L behind. A step up in distance should suit

Star Legend (Exosphere x Rapala), half to Randy (Strasbourg x Rapala '21), a $155k 2020 Inglis Premier graduate just misses on debut by just a 1/2 length at Kranji (Singapore)

October 2022

Luna Diva (Odyssey Moon x Clever Clogs) breaks her maiden on 20th October at Ballarat over 1400m under a masterful ride by Damien Lane

Zanova, after delaying for a couple of weeks decided to foal down a magnificent Johannes Vermeer filly ('Hannie') on her own. The filly was discovered at morning feeding time standing in the wash bay with mum standing on the other side of the gate. Not sure how the foal got in there but nobody was stressed :). Both mare & foal doing well

Court Flying foaled down a typically nice Strasbourg filly ('Sandy')on the 3rd. The mare continues to throw magnificent types. Mare & foal both doing well

September 2022

Diamond Model (Akeed Mofeed x Caminetto), runs a very creditable 4th at Flemington on 18th September in the Kennedy Oaks preview on a very rare bog track (Heavy 10) and in the worst ground

Madam Loulou presented us with a cracking Vino Rosso colt on 8th September. Looks just like his Sire, one of the more impressive stallions standing in 2021

Diamond Model (Akeed Mofeed x Caminetto), bred by PT Thoroughbreds, salutes on debut on 5th September over 1400m at Wodonga by an impressive 2.5L under Michael Poy

August 2022

Starship Angel, in the ongoing teeming rain, foaled down a lovely Omaha Beach filly on the 29th. 

Sadly, we lost Angel during the night with post-foaling complications. Despite the obvious pain she was in, Angel stayed on her feet and nursed the foal as long as she was able.

On a positive note, we were able to secure a similarly coloured maiden mare that had foaled and lost the previous evening such that we had a foster on site within 12 hours. The mare adopted "Star" with minimal fuss.