Bon investment another boost for resurgent Sadler

While many men of his age are either booking retirement cruises or hooking up the caravan for a life as a 'grey nomad', John Sadler is entering what he hopes can be his most successful period.

Sadler has worked around the world and has had Group 1 winners before, including when he was head trainer for Lloyd Williams at Macedon Lodge, but he has never had the faith of an owner to give him carte blanche to buy what he wanted at a yearling sale.

This happened last week on the Gold Coast thanks to Ho's backing, as working alongside international agent Mark McStay of Avenue Bloodstock, Sadler spent $3.915 million on 10 yearlings.

The unprecedented spend put him in the top 10 buyers of the sale among the biggest training names in Australia, such as Team Hawkes, Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott, Ciaron Maher and David Eustace and Chris Waller.

"I'm very pleased. By my standards it was a very good sale and the best thing about it is that all bar one have been paid for," he said.

"I'm very appreciative of the bloke showing the confidence in me to go and do that. I've had a little bit to do with him over the last 12 months and it’s been pretty much all good. He's giving me an opportunity, which is great."

Link-up paying dividends

Sadler and 'the bloke', prominent owner Ho, best known in Australia as the man behind The Everest runner Classique Legend (Not A Single Doubt), only began their association 18 months ago, but it has proven a fruitful one for both parties.

"He bought a horse for me to go to Hong Kong called Big Night Out and he decided to keep it here and give it a prep before it went to Hong Kong. The horse raced very well. He won a couple at Sandown and Flemington and was to head to Hong Kong, but unfortunately he failed the vet," Sadler said.

"Unfortunately for him, but it was good for me, because the horse is back and hopefully he stays sound and I reckon he's a pretty good horse.

"He gave me three others, one he wanted me to get ready and qualify for Hong Kong and that happened and he's got a couple of others that go alright as well. Without setting the world on fire, I just had a good relationship with him and he said he wanted me to select his yearlings for Magic Millions."

Included among the 10 horses Sadler purchased were Lot 242, a colt by Lord Kanaloa (Jpn) for $650,000, Lot 418, a Shalaa (Ire) colt for $500,000, Lot 169, a Not A Single Doubt filly for $500,000, and Lot 730, a colt by Zoustar, also for half a million.

It could have even been a bigger week for Sadler had Ho not lost out to Ottavio Galletta and his trainer Richard Litt for the sale topper, a Deep Impact (Jpn) colt which went for $1.9 million.

"He went to $1.8 million for him, but you would always rather have four or five for around to that $200,000-$400,000 bracket, than just have one for $1.9 million," Sadler said.

"As a rule, history has shown us that it’s nearly always all downhill with those very expensive horses, except for the odd occasion."

The Sadler revival

Such an investment is a great show in faith for Sadler, whose career was at a crossroads two years ago in the fall out of the Aquanita doping scandal, which he was cleared of any wrongdoing over, but which ended the training network he had been part of for the previous four years.

He also had a spectacular falling out with stewards which led to him to be banned for six weeks for inappropriate behaviour at a hearing, something which was attributed to the stress of the Aquanita investigation.

Sadler has bounced back many times before, and so it has proved again. He is now ready for the most exciting period of his career and is not concerned about what his birth certificate may say.

"My father took on his biggest venture in life when he was 70, and I'm still five years away from that. Age is just a number isn't it?" he said.

Splendor set to shine

One of the other things getting him out of bed in the morning, aside from Ho's sudden investment, is his promising 3-year-old sprinter Sartorial Splendor (Brazen Beau), who resumes in the Listed Kensington S. at Flemington on Saturday.

A stakes winner last campaign, Sadler feels the colt has improved significantly since his last start, when down the track in the G1 Coolmore Stud S. at Flemington in November.

"He's good. He's fit enough to be very competitive over the 1000 metres. He's only had the one jump-out which was last Tuesday and he went well," Sadler said.

"It’s a nice race for him to step out in and have a crack at open company. Hopefully, he has made the necessary improvement of a 3-year-old from spring to autumn and if he has, he's going to be in it up to his ears.

"I'd be disappointed if he hasn’t improved. He has shown us all the signs that he has."

The key to that improvement will be Sartorial Splendor's ability to settle in his races, something he has rarely done in his seven starts to date.

"He is relaxing better in his work. It has been in his races where he has just been getting it wrong, but he was still able to run well. We just hope if he is able to get it right, we can have a fair bit of fun with him," Sadler said.

"He has had to have improved considerably to be up there with the best sprinters. I know he has that ability, but it’s a matter of him showing that under race conditions, mentally. If he can just switch off and then really quicken at the end of the race, he’ll be in business."

Saturday's race will be a crucial guide for how Sadler plans to progress with the 3-year-old, who was a $130,000 purchase for his trainer out of the 2018 Inglis Premier Sale.

"I'm wanting to look at him Saturday and then make a call where we go. There's races like the Oakleigh Plate and the like, but he really has to step up because all he has won so far is a very weak Group 3 on Cox Plate day," he said.

"He is going to have to improve. Whether he has and how much, I’ll see on Saturday and then make some plans for him."

Sartorial Splendor is one of two stakes winners from Listed winning mare Personal Ensign (Rubiton), the other being G2 Blue Diamond Prelude winner Fontiton (Turffontein), whose second foal, a Snitzel colt, sold for $575,000 to Ciaron Maher/Dermot Farrington last week on the Gold Coast.

The half-sister to Sartorial Splendor, Personal Ensign's yearling filly by Manhattan Rain, is being offered by Blue Gum Farm as Lot 356 at March's Inglis Premier Sale.