The purchase of The Broken Shore (Hussonet {USA}) and a partnership with Arrowfield Stud was a defining moment for Jonathan Munz's GSA Bloodstock. When GSA Bloodstock Manager Dean Hawthorne signed for the blue-blooded mare for $1.9 million at the 2014 Magic Millions Sale it represented a new approach that’s subsequently paying huge dividends.

“That’s when we decided to invest heavily in breeding and the partnership has been extremely lucky,” Hawthorne said.

“We identified her as a target mare, she was the one we wanted and we got her. We obviously had to pay a lot of money, but the first foal is likely Australian Filly of the Year and in The Everest so you couldn’t ask for much more.”

He was referring to the Anthony Freedman-trained Shoals (Fastnet Rock), the winner at Group 1 level last season of the Myer Classic, Surround S., and the Sangster S.

“She’s won $2 million herself and her brother made big money ($2.3 million) at Easter,” Hawthorne said. “Tides, who followed Shoals, is in work and he’s showing promise as well.”

Size and strength

GSA is now involved in around 100 broodmares spread across New South Wales, Victoria and New Zealand. “We’ve got 12 in partnership with Arrowfield and the balance are in the Hunter Valley with Bhima Thoroughbreds, while the New Zealand ones are based at Haunui Farm,” Hawthorne said. “We’ve also branching out in to the Northern Hemisphere in a small way with a couple of mares to be bred up there.

“The partnership with Arrowfield has been great and we’ve purchased Omei Sword and Abbey Marie and they will be going to Japan to be mated with Deep Impact. We’ve got (Group 1 winner) Fenway and she’s off to Snitzel and so is Lucky Raquie, who’s from the Redoute’s Choice family.

“Breccia (dam of Group 1 winner Tivaci) has a Brazen Beau colt and she’s going to I Am Invincible and Zurella is in foal to him. It will be quite a late foal so, depending on that, she’ll maybe go back to I Am Invincible or Fastnet Rock.

“Of New Zealand interest, we bought Amathea, the dam of the Oaks winner Savaria, and she’ll be going to Pariah. We’ve got a share-holding in him and I understand he’s got a full book in his first season at Arrowfield.”

A commercial enterprise

GSA Bloodstock’s mating plans are a result of a joint effort with a heavy emphasis on the sale ring. “They are done between Jonathan and myself. He has a very strong input and is very good with the pedigree work,” Hawthorne said. “It’s a commercial operation and no matter how much money you throw at it, it’s still got to pay its way.

“Over the last two or three years we have had very, very good results in the ring, hence we have reinvested a lot of the profit into upgrading the broodmares.

“People may say how can you pay seven figures for a mare and make a profit, but anyone in the breeding game realises it’s not based on the short term. It’s about building families and looking at retaining fillies out of the good, proven families.

“We’ll be breeding to 32 different stallions - it’s a big operation and we’ve got 75 foals due this season and probably about 50 yearlings to sell.

“We have extremely well-bred fillies racing and they come off the track each year to be bred. We supplement now and again from the sale ring and it’s all about upgrading and dropping some off. There are some mares that just don’t fit our breeding plans.”

Other racing investments

In addition to a major breeding operation, Munz has significant racing interests with horses in training with Freedman, Hayes amongst others. His investments include the magnificent training facility Pinecliff on the Mornington Peninsula.

The state-of-the-art 40ha facility has swimming pools, treadmills, with Armour track grass and sand surfaces.

This is the facility where Anthony Freedman prepares the star GSA and Arrowfield mare Shoals, plus fellow Everest slot-holder and three-time Group 1 winner Santa Ana Lane.

Gallery: Pinecliff on the Mornington Peninsula

The Anthony Freedman trained Shoals hasn’t stepped out since she triumphed in the G1 Sangster S., at Morphettville having previously struck at the highest level in the Surround S., at Randwick and the G1 Myer Classic at Flemington.

“Her work has been very strong and we’re looking forward to having her back at the races,” Freedman’s racing manager Brad Taylor said. “She’s had a faultless preparation to date and both of her trials were the best of her career.

“We can’t fault her and while there’s still improvement to come, we’re confident she’s going to be competitive. We’re not too worried about the opposition – Nature Strip has got a big boom on him and we’re happy to fly under the radar.”

Shoals was the fifth runner locked into The Everest when claimed in mid-June by slot-holder The Star Entertainment Group. “After this run, she’ll go back to the Valley for the Moir S., and then head off to Sydney,” Taylor said.

“It’s an exciting six weeks ahead. Tim Clark will be on her and he’ll be riding her right through the campaign. There will be plenty of speed in the race and look for her to be coming home strongly.”

Bred and raced by Arrowfield Stud and Jonathan Munz’s GSA Bloodstock, Shoals is a daughter of The Broken Shore (Hussonet {USA}) who was a $1.9 million Magic Millions Broodmare Sale purchase and is a half-sister to the champion stallion Redoute’s Choice (Danehill {USA}).

A brother to Shoals was sold for $2.3 million at the Inglis Easter Yearling Sale earlier this year to Freedman, who will have a strong hand in The Everest with Santa Ana Lane (Lope De Vega {IRE}) to represent Inglis.

Triple Group 1 winner

Last year’s G1 Sir Rupert Clarke S. winner Santa Ana Lane added the G1 Goodwood and the G1 Stradbroke H., to his record during his last campaign. He impressed when he came from the tail of the field under 60kg when a recent resuming fifth in the G3 Heath at Caulfield.

“He's come through that run really well,” Taylor said. “He'll improve second-up and be peaking third-up in the Everest.”

An $80,000 graduate of the Inglis Melbourne Premier Sale, the son of Fast Fleet (Fastnet Rock) is expected to run next in the G2 Shorts at Randwick on Saturday week.

The brainchild of Bahraini-born and Dubai-based businessman Amer Abdulaziz, Phoenix Thoroughbreds has sourced backing through its unique investment fund model to make a huge splash at bloodstock sales around the world, including Australia.

Since the start of 2017, Phoenix has acquired over 150 horses, spending nearly A$50 million across UK, Europe, USA and Australia.

Globally, Phoenix's best horses have already made headlines with 2-year-old filly Signora Cabello (Ire) (Camacho {GB}) winning the G2 Queen Mary S at Royal Ascot, while Gronkowski, by Australia's own Lonhro, ran second in the Belmont S behind Triple Crown winner Justify.

The Bob Baffert-trained Dream Tree (USA) (Uncle Mo {USA}) and Martyn Meade-trained Advertise (GB) (Showcasing {GB}) both won Group 1 races as 2-year-olds for Phoenix. Dream Tree was a winner of the Starlet Stakes (G1) and Las Virgenes Stakes (G2), while Advertise took out The Curragh’s G1 Keeneland Phoenix S. last month.

"It’s been a wonderful year," Adbulaziz told TDN AusNZ. "It's all an exciting time and we keep adding more horses all the time."

Phoenix has already had a handful of runners in Australia, with 14 horses currently with trainers including David Vandyke, Ciaron Maher and Toby Edmonds.

The Vandyke-trained filly Hard As (All Too Hard {Aus}), a $210,000 buy at the 2017 Easter Sales, became the first Australian winner under their ownership at the Sunshine Coast in February.

Two other 3-year-olds trained by Vandyke for Phoenix Thoroughbreds are also highly rated by Abdulaziz. Miss Quaintly (More Than Ready {USA}) has won two from three starts, while Asharani (I Am Invincible {Aus}), has had one start for a win at Ipswich.

Miss Quaintly was bought for $280,000 by Phoenix's agent David Lucas at the National Yearling Sale, while Asharani was a $440,000 buy at the Easter Sale.

Building the breed

But the emphasis in Australia to date has been on breeding, something Abdulaziz sees as a huge strength in the local industry.

"With Australia, the set-up is different from Europe and America. We started with the broodmares. We have about 35 of them. We have more focus on the breeding side in Australia," he said.

Among those bought at the Gold Coast National Broodmare Sale in May were Red Fez (Red Ransom (USA}), a stakes-placed mare who is close relation to stallions Deep Field and Shooting To Win. In foal to Snitzel, she was purchased for $470,000.

Phoenix have also been in the stallion market as well, taking a share in the G1 winning son of Snitzel, Invader, ahead of his first season at Aquis.

"We have invested in Invader. We have about 25 per cent. We are looking for stallions in Australia and he's a Group 1 horse, by a proven sire. We loved the horse and that's why we invested in him," Abdulaziz said.

That strategy mirrors what has been happening in Europe, where Phoenix took a 50 per cent share in Aclaim (Ire) (Acclamation {GB}) ahead of his first season at the National Stud.

Phoenix also teamed up with Aquis, as well as Yulong Investments and Ciaron Maher, at this year's Magic Millions Yearling Sale to pay $1.6 million for another son of Snitzel, who is a full brother to Newgate stallion and G1 winner Sizzling.

It also acquired a lifetime breeding right in Yarraman Park's star stallion I Am Invincible at the Chairman's Sale, a deal that was brokered by respected Irish agent Dermot Farrington.

With such a heavy involvement in the progeny of Australia's top two sires, Snitzel and I Am Invincible, it's clear Adbulaziz is positioning himself at the top of the market.

And Phoenix is keen to be involved in in all aspects of the selling game, including pinhooking, raising $1 million with the sale of four yearlings at this year's Magic Millions in January.

What’s next?

The next 12 months promise more of the same, but with more focus on finding potential champions on the track as well.

"We will be acquiring more yearlings and 2-year olds and some more broodmares to add to our band. We are hoping to raise more of our horses there," Adbulaziz said when asked about the plans for 2019.

"We are always acquiring horses privately, so that's what we are doing in Australia too. The two-year olds with good pedigree that have the potential, we are looking at them as well."

Abdulaziz sees enormous upside in the investment in Australia, with the racing operation a key strategic pillar in any success moving forward.

"Slowly we are building that operation, but it’s going to be a huge operation. Australia is the second biggest market after the USA, and the prizemoney is huge there. We are giving it a lot of attention and focus," he said.

"You have so many Group 1 races and prizemoney is half a billion a year. The market is very healthy in Australia."

The quality of yearlings, especially with the strength of the stallions now shuttling to Australia, also appeals greatly to Phoenix as does the relatively affordability of yearlings when compared to overseas.

The passion behind it all

Underpinning all that investment is Abdulaziz's passion for horses. Raised on an Arabian farm in Bahrain, he told TDN in an earlier interview that his love of thoroughbred racing came from his time in the USA.

“I had a good friend who was racing thoroughbreds so I went with him to all the races and started reading about the whole thoroughbred industry and building my own knowledge and database," he said.

"When I graduated I went into the corporate world, and decided no, this isn’t what I’m going to do, I’m going to go back to horses. That’s where the fund idea came from."

He elaborated on that in his interview with TDN AusNZ, saying that he saw a lot of that same passion in those who are involved in the industry in Australia.

"I'm very passionate about horse racing worldwide and I'm very passionate about the thoroughbred industry in general. I grew up on a farm back home with Arabian horses and I celebrate that," he said.

"(In Australia), there are lot of people are involved in the industry and a lot of people who are not in the industry, who know a lot about horses as well."

The goals for success

Phoenix Thoroughbreds is unique in that it is funded by a five-year investment process, with the assets, such as stallions, racehorses, broodmares and yearlings, then flowing into subsequent funds.

"We’re not looking to come into the market and liquidate after five years; there will be equine fund numbers one, two, three, four…we’re here to stay,” Abdulaziz has said of the model.

There are obviously commercial goals in place in order to realise returns for the investors, but in terms of Australia, Abdulaziz's short-to-medium goals are fairly straight forward.

"We certainly have the goal of winning our first Australian Group 1 race," he said.

Watch: Invader winning the 2017 Group 1 Sires Produce Stakes