Cover image courtesy of Ashlea Brennan

The Chris Waller-trained filly, having just her second start, showed an impressive turn of foot, swooping on the lead, and then powering away to a comprehensive win over Gleneagles (Capitalist) and Swift Witness (Star Witness).

She's All Class had debuted with a third in the Victory Vein S. in October behind Captivant (Capitalist), in a race where she tried to lead all the way, but ridden with a sit on Wednesday, she proved far more effective. Her odds for the $2 million feature race on the Gold Coast were immediately shortened to $4.50 equal favourite with her stablemate Shaquero (Shalaa {Ire}).

Waller's stable representative Dan Cobby said it was hard not to be impressed by the manner of the Wyong victory.

"Full credit to Chris and the team. They have done a really good job with her. She had the option to race a couple of weeks ago, and again last week. The owners again were really patient with her, clearly they made the right decision with her," he said.

"She was in the perfect position. They went very hard in front. She had shown good early speed in her first start and they went mad in front there was well. We were pretty confident coming into today and she's shown up.

"She'll join Shaquero and potentially a couple of others on the Gold Coast, we are looking forward to the Magic Millions."

The race panned out well for jockey James McDonald, with outsider Snowdrop (Capitalist) and Mezenjit (More Than Ready {USA}) vying for the early lead. The field bunched up noticeably before the turn, but She's All Class kept up her momentum and swept around them.

"She's a hyper little filly, but Chris has done a marvellous job, he and his team, tinkering with a couple of things. She really impressed me in her recent trial, albeit she was a bit quiet," McDonald said.

"We always knew she had ability and she works like a good horse at home. The team have always had that high opinion of her. The idea was to see how she would do today. She wasn't that comfortable around the track, but she got the job done."

The filly was a $200,000 buy for Brae Sokolksi from the Yarraman Park Stud draft at the 2020 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale, and carried his colours, made famous by 2019 The TAB Everest winner Yes Yes Yes.

Bred by Gall Bloodstock, she is out of the unraced mare Shirra Nui (Viscount), who has now produced six winners from as many to the track. Shirra Nui is a half-sister to stakes winner Khemosabi (Commands) and stakes-placed Zyzzx (Danehill {USA}), from the Group 3 winner Geordoba (SAF) (Cordoba {USA}).

The two placed horses both performed with considerable merit on debut. The Trent Busuttin and Natalie Young-trained Gleneagles was there to challenge the winner at the top of the straight but lacked the turn of foot to go with her. However, she obviously has promise.

Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott's Swift Witness started race favourite and lost few admirers. She looked set to be swamped early in the straight but fought on well to only be beaten a 0.2l by the second placegetter.

Another Gold Coast trip on Eleven Eleven's agenda

Eleven Eleven (Fastnet Rock) bounced back to form with an impressive victory in the R. Listed Magic Millions Wyong 3YO & 4YO S., as he heads for more riches on the Gold Coast in 2021.

The Greg Hickman-trained 4-year-old won the Magic Millions 3YO Guineas in 2020 thanks to the disqualification of Alligator Blood (All Too Hard) from the race but has been winless in four starts since.

He put to bed any concerns about his current form, swopping on his rivals to defeat Yao Dash (Smart Missile) by 0.75l, with Spaceboy (Deep Field) another 1.5l away in third place.

The Gary Portelli-trained favourite Spaceboy had led at a relatively leisurely pace through the early part of the 1200 metre race, before coming under pressure from the Waterhouse and Bott-trained Yao Dash on his outside.

Eleven Eleven had tracked wide throughout but he had plenty to offer and when Keagan Latham pulled him to the outside of runners, he finished strongly to record his fifth win in 17 starts.

Animate (Animal Kingdom {USA}) worked home well for fourth, while the well-fancied Barbaric (I Am Invincible) missed the start and was never a factor, pulling up last of the eight runners.

Hickman said the win would top Eleven Eleven off nicely for another trip to the Gold Coast in January.

"It will be good to be back up there again. It’s working out okay. He's been a little up and down this preparation, but he won really well today and Keagan gets on so well with him," he said.

"I think there is one more run before he gets there. I'm not 100 per cent sure where that might be. We will see how he pulls up after that."

Bred by Ian Smith of Edinburgh Park, Eleven Eleven is a son of imported mare Smokin Alice (USA) (Smoke Glacken {USA}). He was purchased at the 2018 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale for $230,000.

The burgeoning Black Soil operation was founded a couple of years ago by Principal Brian Siemsen, who, with considerable help from McAlpine, trainer Tony Gollan and bloodstock consultant John Foote, has overseen its considerable early success in the ring and on the racetrack.

Its distinctive black and white colours with a stylised horse face on the front have featured regularly in the winners' circle for Gollan in the past 12 months, chiefly through stakes winners Isotope (Deep Field), The Actuary (Sebring) and Niedorp (Not A Single Doubt).

Expectations are particularly high for flying filly Isotope, who is a favourite for both Saturday's Listed Gold Edition Plate and next month's $2 million R. Listed Magic Millions 3YO Guineas.

"We're still very early into what we are trying to do. You always want a good horse to represent the brand, that's pretty crucial for us," McAlpine told TDN AusNZ.

"We are lucky she has got a decent support act as well, with Niedorp and The Actuary as well as Palladas who won last weekend. The colours are getting plenty of publicity, which is good. It would be nice to go to the next level and have a real star filly there."

Isotope boasts plenty of talent but a few tricks as well and two starts ago at Doomben, bombed the start by several lengths before charging home to finish second, Gollan was left to explain her behaviour to the stewards and find a remedy, which he appeared to have done as she subsequently bolted in by 3l in the Listed Mode Plate earlier this month.

"She has developed a few tricks, which were a bit irritating, but Tony sent her out for a couple of weeks of extra handling after that first-up run where she bombed the start," McAlpine said.

"Tony was very, very bullish before that last start that he'd fixed her, so hopefully that's her sorted now. Tony has had a big opinion of her for a long time. Ironically, she was one of cheapest fillies we bought at the Sale that year. It often turns out that way."

Ramping up investment

Black Soil Bloodstock, so named because of the Darling Downs roots of both Siemsen and McAlpine, first made a splash at the 2019 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale spending $1.67 million on five fillies, including $170,000 on Isotope. Bred and offered by Daandine Stud, she is by Deep Field out of Great Dansaar (Choisir), the half-sister to Champion filly Yankee Rose (All American).

In 2020, it took a lower profile at the Gold Coast, purchasing two fillies, by I Am Invincible and Vancouver, for a combined $660,000.

"We also bought into Tony's colts' package that he ran. They will be wearing our colours and he has got three very nice colts. They have all shown they won't be pre-Christmas, but I’ll say we will see a fair bit of them in the next year," McAlpine said.

But emboldened by the success Black Soil has had on the track this year, its investment will ramp up again at the Gold Coast next month.

"I’d say we will be back at that 2019 level of investment. That was an experiment for us to go and buy these good fillies, with John Foote and Tony and it couldn't have really worked out better. We are going to pursue that pretty hard again. We will spend similar money, I'd say," he said.

Starting in the Hunter

McAlpine is currently in the Hunter Valley doing the rounds of yearling inspections at the major farms, with an open mind on horses he feels can get on Black Soil's radar.

"It’s a big catalogue, so you have to start in the Hunter and knock a few over before you get up to the Gold Coast," he said.

"We generally like to buy them by stallions that have had runners, just so we have got a bit of proven there. We also like them to be from pedigrees that have already produced. Those two things need to be tied together with type.

"At the end of the day, you never know quite what you are going to find. You often end up having horses on the list that you didn’t have in the first place that might catch your eye."

One thing that has become apparent as he does the rounds of the farms with other prospective buyers is the level of confidence in the market ahead of the 2021 sales season.

"I think the market has turned around completely from a few months ago when Victoria was in full lockdown, and things were a bit sketchy on what the future may hold," he said.

"Now the country has opened back up, there seems to be plenty of people around and all the trainers I have spoken to so far have sold everything from this year, and they say they are going to go equally as strong as they have previously."

Open mind on retaining fillies

As for Black Soil's breeding operation, while still in its early stages, with six broodmares, things are expected to ramp up with some of its race fillies to join the band in the coming years.

Whether that band will include the likes of black-type winners Isotope, Niedorp and The Actuary will likely come down to commercial considerations, according to McAlpine.

"It’s a bit case-by-case. The reasoning behind targeting the fillies we have is that the market is very hot for them when they finish racing. We are sort of inclined to proceed to put them through a sale when they are finished racing," he said.

"We race a lot of these horses with partners, so it might be a case of deciding whether we buy the other owners out or let them go on the market. It will be case-by-case, but we have currently got about six broodmares that we are breeding from. We'll bolster them with a few of these fillies once they are finished."

Cover image courtesy of Ashlea Brennan

Darby Racing is no stranger to syndicating a good horse, with an honour roll that includes the likes of G1 Golden Slipper S. and G1 Spring Champion S. winners, and despite not winning a Group 1, yet, Greysful Glamour, is quickly moving her way up the list of the syndicators’ stars.

The flashy grey 5-year-old mare has been racing at a high-level since running second in the G1 VRC Oaks over two years ago but Saturday’s all-the-way win in the G2 Villiers S. at Randwick was the biggest scalp of her 33-start career.

“It’s always exciting to see a front runner win like that,” Scott Darby, Director of Darby Racing told TDN AusNZ.

“She was a little bit out of form after a good effort at Randwick a few starts back, but she’s certainly bounced back to form and she just loves a firm track.”

For a long time, Greysful Glamour has been a mare just knocking on the door of the major carnival features.

She was fourth in the G2 Matriarch S. last year and returned in the autumn to win the G3 Mannerism S., but Darby believes that after her victory in the Listed ATC Cup and before her Villiers triumph on Saturday, she is now in the top echelon of horses to wear the white and navy Darby Racing colours.

“I think up until her last two wins, she was more of just a well-loved stakes-performed mare that had won at Group 3 level and was Group 1-placed as a 3-year-old,” Darby said. “Just a tough and consistent horse that was no sort of star.

“But she’s really on the rise now and she’s certainly up into our top five or six horses that we’ve syndicated and I think there’s still more to come with her.

“She’s just got to get things to suit her obviously which is the key for a front-runner.”

Racing loves a consistent horse, a front-runner and a grey, and Greysful Glamour is all of those things, making her not only a high earner of prizemoney for Darby Racing, but also a great mascot for them.

“From a marketing and advertising point of view, there’s none better,” Darby said. “Not only is it that she’s running in all the good races and now winning some of those races, but just her colour gives an extra dimension to her.

“Everyone seems to have fallen in love with her and she’s quite photogenic so from a marketing and business point of view, she’s a real dream.”

A real dream

At 5-years-old and a multiple Group-winning mare, Greysful Glamour is a valuable broodmare prospect for whenever her connections decide to retire her, but Darby said at this stage, they haven’t made any firm plans for her to head to the breeding barn just yet.

“It’s play it by ear, but I would say more than likely she’ll head to one of the sales at the end of the autumn, whether it be Inglis or Magics,” Darby said. “But that’s entirely up to the owners, we can only make a recommendation.

"I suppose it would be hard to retire her if she’s still at the top of her game come the end of the autumn.

“At the moment she’ll keep racing, we would normally put her out for a spell to get ready for the autumn but whilst we’re going to get the hard tracks, she’ll keep going. I think her next target is the Summer Cup over 2000 metres because come autumn, generally speaking, it’s a little bit wet and pretty much anything from a soft 5 or 6 onwards, she’s just nowhere near as effective at that level.”

Tried and true

For now, Darby has his sights set on the 2021 yearling sales to find his next stable star and despite a record year sales-wise for the syndicate, he said they won’t be going in with all guns blazing, but will continue to purchase with their tried and true method.

“It’s an interesting one because it’s been a record year despite the pandemic,” he said. “We’ve sold more horses than ever before by a long way, but I think to get too confident going into next year could be dangerous.

“I think you’ve just got to play it by ear early on, but I think the Magic Millions Sale will be very strong.

“Just the feeling of people kind of being let off the leash after being cooped up for so long, provided the borders stay open, there will be a big attendance there of local buyers and I think it will be quite a strong sale due to that fact.

“But overall selling shares, there’s no reason it won’t still be strong but I think we’ll just be a little bit apprehensive going into next year, just to see how we go but with all that through the pandemic, we’ve had a record year so it’s hard to pick at the moment.”

Darby Racing is known to target a variety of price ranges when purchasing their stock, with the Golden Slipper winner She Will Reign (Manhattan Rain) costing just $20,000 at the Inglis Classic Yearling Sale.

Darby said that they will again go in and look for the best yearlings from a variety of price ranges in 2021.

“I think our model is to purchase from all ends from as little as a few thousand dollars right up to $350,000 to $400,000 and I think we’ll continue that way,” Darby said.

“We’ve got plenty of clients that are looking for the cheap end, the middle-end and the high-end, so we’ll continue to try and build the team around that and pick the best horses we can for the amount of money being spent.”

With purchasing shares a luxury rather than a necessity, it was extremely uncertain times for syndicators when the country went into lockdown at the start of the year.

But with racing continuing and people looking for a way to spend money on what would have been used for a holiday on something else, syndication shares have boomed and Darby said he was hopeful that would continue into next year.

“It’s quite amazing to think back because when we went into the lockdown at the start of March, I think we still had 16 horses to sell and whilst I didn’t panic, you sort of started thinking ‘how much money do we have in the bank to keep us going without selling another share?’, he said.

“The first few weeks were a little bit quiet, but then it gradually picked up and then it just went berserk. Who could have thought that?

“Most people would have thought that shares would have suffered that way but I think with people being locked down and not be able to travel, they wanted to spend their money on something and racing was thriving and still going to the industry’s credit, so that helped a lot.

“Syndication in Australia is very vibrant, you’re seeing the syndicators winning big races all the time and I think that spreads right throughout Australia and it just keeps the market strong.”