Bob Peters’ success as a breeder needs little introduction and his mare Arcadia Queen’s fruitful spring, which included two dominant Group 1 victories, further franked the blue hen status of the now Two Bays Farm-owned mare Antique.
Antique herself comes from a family rich of black-type with her sisters Kalatiara, a triple stakes winner and a producer of the stakes-placed Kalahaar (Choisir), and Kentiara a dual Listed winner and the dam of Group 3 winner Kencella (Exceed And Excel).
But Antique’s record is building impressively as a maternal descendant of eight individual stakes winners including Arcadia Queen and fellow Group 1 winner Regal Power.
Antique was purchased by Peters for $130,000 at the 2001 Magic Millions Perth Yearling Sale and raced 10 times with her career on the track culminating with a third placing in the G1 VRC Oaks.
Peters said she was a talented mare but an injury in the Oaks ended her racing career and she was forced to begin her life as a broodmare.
“As a yearling, she was a very nice type and I just liked the pedigree,” Peters told TDN AusNZ. “She was very good for us over here and when I sent her over to (trainer) George Hanlon, I just thought automatically that she would be in the Wakeful and I thought that was her race.
“As a yearling, (Antique) was a very nice type and I just liked the pedigree." - Bob Peters
“But George didn’t enter her for the Wakeful and she went straight into the Oaks. She tore a tendon in the Oaks and ran third and had to be retired.”
Peters said Antique took to being a broodmare well and with her very first mating, Arcadia was born, who would go on to produce four stakes winners including the star Arcadia Queen.
“As a mother she was good,” Peters said. “Her first mating was Redoute’s Choice and that produced Arcadia.
“She (Arcadia) was very nice as a foal and I sent her to David Hayes with a group of about six 2-year-olds.
“I had a discussion with David and said ‘if they’re not showing anything, just send them home’ and he told me that Arcadia wasn’t showing much so we brought her home and we put blinkers on her and she improved out of sight and went back and raced in Melbourne.”
Arcadia had 11 starts for three wins and finished fourth in the G3 Moonee Valley Champagne S. but Peters believes she never quite reached her full potential on the track.
Arcadia when racing
Stallions of choice
When Antique first visited Redoute’s Choice in 2003, he was still very much in his infancy as a sire. It was only his fourth year at stud and he was yet to become that champion stallion that we now know him to be.
Standing for a fee of $33,000, he covered 114 mares in that season, and his oldest progeny were 2-year-olds. Without much race form to go by, Peters said he selected Redoute’s Choice based on type and pedigree, which is the way he likes to go about most of his matings.
“I liked him as a racehorse and I liked him as a type of horse and after Arcadia came along, I kept sending Antique back to him and we sent mares back to him from then on,” Peters said.
“I liked him (Redoute's Choice) as a racehorse and I liked him as a type of horse and after Arcadia came along, I kept sending Antique back to him." - Bob Peters
“We use a mixture of type and pedigree in our matings, we just try to match them up on type and on pedigree as well.”
Similarly with Arcadia, Peters sent her and her sister Broadway Belle to Pierro in his very first year at stud which resulted in G3 Scahill S. winner Arcadia Prince and G2 Western Australia Derby winner Action.
The following year, both mares would return to Pierro and the resulting foals would become Arcadia Queen and Regal Power.
“I think Pierro would work well with any Danehill-line mares,” Peters said. “He was an outstanding horse himself, Triple Crown winners don’t come along very often.
“And I think she (Antique) had seven or eight fillies in a row, there might have been one colt in there, but most of them are going back to Pierro as well.
“Her full sister Broadway Belle, she produced Regal Power who won the All Star Mile and the Derby and the Railway S. here as well, so he’s a brother in blood to Arcadia Queen.”
Pierro | Standing at Coolmore
Antique the top
Peters has built an incredible team of horses in WA and in the grand scheme of his career as a breeder and owner, he believes Antique has played a huge role in his success.
“I think now she would have to be up there at the top,” he said. “We’ve got some very nice families that we’ve nurtured over a lot of years.
“It’s taken nearly 50 years to get to that and at this stage, you’d be looking at her as being the best one.”
In 2015, Peters sold Antique at the Inglis Weanling and Broodmare Sale to the $45,000 bid of Sheamus Mills and Two Bays Farm where she now resides, aged 21.
Still an active broodmare, she has a 2-year-old gelding named Big Apple (Manhattan Rain) and weanling by Toronado (Ire), while she returned to Manhattan Rain in September.
Rob Carlile, Stud Manager at Two Bays Farm, said Antique is as healthy and happy as ever at her home on the Mornington Peninsula.
“If you came down and saw her, you would swear she was about 10,” Carlile said. “She’s all dappled up and she’s probably the best looking mare on the farm to be honest.
“She’s a year-by-year proposition, we won’t be pushing her too hard. She’ll retire here with a good home. She’s such a lovely mare and because she’s a bit older, she’s not out the back with all the other dry mares, she’s in with mares and foals.
“That way she gets a bit more love on the top half of the farm and she’ll make a good nanny once she’s finished breeding.”
