Impressive WA operation has further Group 1 success in sights

At the forefront of Impressive Racing is trainer Darren McAuliffe, who established the company with Business and Racing Manager Kevin Berry in 2004, and with broodmares and stallion interests in their portfolio there’s a steady stream of talent to be syndicated on an annual basis.

Two shining examples of their system are Gatting (Hard Spun {USA}) and The Velvet King (Universal Ruler), who will run in the $1 million Magic Millions Kingston Town Classic at Ascot on Saturday.

Gatting is closing in on earnings of $2 million and is expected to be a lot more competitive than he was when seventh in the G1 Railway S.

“He got too far back in the run to be honest and it was a bit of a wasted effort to be honest,” McAuliffe said.

“Mitchell Pateman, the jockey, sacked himself so Lucy Warwick will ride him and she’s got a really good association with the horse. I expect him to be hard to beat on Saturday.”

Gatting won the G1 Makybe Diva S. at Flemington during the spring and McAuliffe believes he’s in similar order for the weekend.

“He’s fine and he just needs to be ridden a bit more positively. There will be good speed with Gailo Chop there and my other horse Velvet King,” he said.

“We’ll be positive out of the gates and where we want to be and I’m sure he’ll be right there when the whips are cracking.”

The Velvet King, who’s won just under $700,000, finished sixth last time out in the Railway.

“I don’t know whether he runs out a strong mile. He’s a funny horse and you can’t ride him stereotypically and give him that breather mid-race,” McAuliffe said.

“You either ride him ice cold right from the get go or three sheets to the wind and let him roll and that’s what we’ll do on Saturday. We won’t die wondering.”

Gatting and The Velvet King were bred by McAuliffe and syndicated among Impressive Racing’s vast customer base.

“I bought their dams from the Gold Coast broodmare sales. I breed 20 or 30 a year and am involved in a couple of stallions and we’ve probably got 500 or 600 on clients on the books,” he said.

“People have how many horses they want and obviously some retire or aren’t much good and then those people just buy more shares. I enjoy racing with like-minded people and that’s how we operate.

“It’s just not functional from a business point of view to go to yearling sales and spend $300,000 or $400,000 and the chances of them being pretty successful are slim.

“We find we have a much better strike rate when we breed and raise them ourselves. My wife is a veterinary surgeon and we’ve got a big farm here in WA.

“We’re like a little hippy community and we’re self-sufficient and sustainable.”

Long Leaf joins team

McAuliffe is currently involved in the stallions Universal Ruler and Encosta de Lago’s son Admiration, who as My Admiration was a black type winner in Hong Kong, and recently completed a deal to secure Long Leaf. By Fastnet Rock, he won the Listed Karaka 3YO Classic and the Listed Merson Cooper S. and he was a multiple black type placegetter.

"I bought Universal Ruler from the yearling sales here in Perth and broke him in and trained him. I still own half of him,” he said.

By Scenic (Ire), he won six of his 12 starts including the G3 Belmont Sprint H. and is standing at Scenic Lodge Stud.

“He was leading stallion in WA last year and I’ve got another one here called Admiration. He’s got a couple of handy horses, but I don’t know whether he’s going to make it.

“We’ve purchased Long Leaf off the Coolmore group out of the David Hayes stable. He arrived here with the Railway S. horses a couple of weeks ago and he won’t race again.

“It’s more of a community thing over here. It’s a bit hard to spend a couple of million on a stallion off the track so some of the local studs syndicate them to like-minded people like ourselves.

“Universal Ruler was a little bit different because I trained him and the studs bought half of him when he was retired.”