Cover image courtesy of Magic Millions

Several top syndicators were able to achieve remarkable exit results with quality mares and race fillies on the Gold Coast, with Greysful Glamour (Stratum), owned by Darby Racing, selling for $1.5 million, Star Thoroughbreds' Fiesta (I Am Invincible) for $1.35 million and Moss Trip (Mossman), raced by Triple Crown Syndicates for $900,000.

These were fillies that cost $90,000, $150,000 and $32,000 respectively as yearlings and were not only able to deliver outstanding prizemoney returns on the racetrack, but also the bonus of a huge sale price in a white-hot mares' market at the end of the racing journey.

The average price of a broodmare through public auction in 2021 has jumped to $213,527, up some 69 per cent year-on-year in a resounding show of faith in the long-term health of the thoroughbred industry, and the desirability for quality mares.

The knock-on impact of that explosion in price is set to be felt at the yearling sales in 2022, with the commercial model of buying fillies with strong residual value very much stacking up for syndicators.

First Light Racing dipped its toe into the consignment space for the first time at the National Broodmare Sale, selling its stakes-winning mare I Am Eloquent (I Am Invincible) under its own name, and getting a return of $400,000, when purchased by Belmont Bloodstock on behalf of Tyreel Stud.

For First Light Racing Director Tim Wilson, the economics of investing in fillies with strong residual value such as I Am Eloquent, stack up very well for his clients and owners.

"We bought her for $220,000 as a yearling. The owners have jumped in, she has had her 15 starts, won a stakes race, ran on Cox Plate Day, ran in the Thousand Guineas, and then run in the Sydney carnival,” he said.

"It’s been an awesome experience for those guys to race her. She has won $250,000 on the track and then she has sold for $400,000.

"For a filly like that to have given them such a great thrill and to have effectively doubled their money, that's a great racing story and those owners will go again and re-invest in fillies going forward. Ownership is a reward enough in itself, but to then be financially rewarded is fantastic."

A changing approach

Through bloodstock agent Paul Willetts and its own Bloodstock Manager Ashleigh Dowley, and in response to the evolution of the mares' market, First Light has taken a slight change in approach when it comes to sourcing yearling fillies.

"Seeing the strength in the market has certainly influenced the way we choose our yearlings," Wilson said.

"The way it has shifted for us in the last two to three years, when we are going through our yearling selection process with Paul Willetts, we ask him for two valuations. We ask for the valuation we are buying at as a yearling and the valuation he would give to the horse as an unraced prospect off the track.

"He might say this horse is worth $120,000 in the ring and if she can't race, she might be worth $60,000 as a breeding prospect. That would be your worst-case scenario."

That approach has also enabled First Light to access a slightly different client base, one that sees the potential upside in the fillies market and is prepared to lift their budget accordingly.

"When you buy these fillies that do have these bigger pedigrees behind them, you do appeal to a market that probably aren't there in a pure racing market. They see that as a great longer-term investment," he said.

"You can ask your owners to put more in if they have that protection on that residual level. It’s not like you are putting $300,000 into a horse without a pedigree that has no ongoing value off the track."

It was confidence in the proficiency of Willetts, and particularly Dowley, that First Light opted to sell I Am Eloquent under its own banner, something it will look to continue to do in the future.

"To have that expertise internally is great. For our owners to know that when you get mares like I Am Eloquent, or Aristia, who we sold privately, or Rich Hips, who will be sold in due course, to have that expertise is a big thing," Wilson said.

"Seeing those mare results in the last few months gets you excited for the fillies you have, like Rich Hips, who has won two Group 3s and See You In Spring, who has won a stakes race at two.

"Gee their owners are going to get a big prize at the end of their careers. That certainly influences the way we can approach our yearlings, and the assessment we can give our owners of them."

Fillies close the gap

Yearling sales statistics in 2021 indicate First Light are not the only ones who are seeing the greater opportunities in the fillies' markets.

Colts usually command a premium in the yearling market, and have certainly done so in recent years, with the investment of 'colts syndicates' looking to source stallion prospects supercharging interest.

But at Australia's major yearling sales that 'colts premium' has been reduced in 2021.

While colts averaged 14 per cent more than fillies through the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale in 2019, and 17 per cent more in 2020, this year's Sale in January only featured a 12.2 per cent differential between the two.

That trend is even more pronounced in Australia's most select yearling sale, the Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale. From a 21.4 per cent colts premium in 2019, and a 9 per cent premium last year, the difference between them was just 3.8 per cent in this year's Inglis Easter Sale.

Across the four major yearling sales, the difference in average price between colts was only 7.5 per cent - $182,942 for colts and $169,163 for fillies.

Group 1 ambitions

Meanwhile, First Light Racing's key business is still very much about success on the racetrack and hopes are high that emerging 2-year-old Blushing Tycoon (Written Tycoon) can join G1 VRC Oaks winner Aristia (Lonhro) as an elite-level winner in the navy blue, gold and white colours when he tackles the G1 JJ Atkins S. on Saturday.

An $80,000 buy from the Cornerstone Stud draft at the 2020 Inglis Melbourne Premier Yearling Sale, Blushing Tycoon has won one of his four starts for Trent Busuttin and Natalie Young, while he was also runner-up in the G3 South Australian Sires' Produce S. at Morphettville.

It's been a rapid rise to Group 1 company for a horse that debuted in less than impressive fashion at Werribee at the start of April.

"It was an inauspicious start. Blushing Tycoon ran a pretty basic eighth on debut at Werribee at the start of April. At that time, Trent Busuttin had said the JJ Atkins could be a race for him and his owners were wondering what he was on about. He improved sharply to Pakenham second-up and then we took him to Adelaide," Wilson said.

"He shot the lights out when he ran second in Adelaide and then carried that form to his win at Flemington."

Blushing Tycoon was sent to the Gold Coast 11 days out from the race, and that proved to be a bit of good fortune, with Young stuck in Queensland, where she had been holidaying, because of the Victorian lockdown.

"As a result, Natalie has been able to ride Blushing Tycoon every second day and really get a good feel of where he is at," Wilson said.

"We wanted to get him up here early and give him time to acclimatise. Jye McNeil rode him on Saturday and Tuesday morning. It’s great to have the jock riding him in two sets of work ahead of a Group 1 race."

Wilson is well aware that at his fifth run into his first preparation, and stepping up to Group 1 level, Saturday shapes as a major challenge for Blushing Tycoon, but says the horse is thriving.

"It’s funny how often when we buy these horses, we talk about them being 2-year-old types physically, but at the end of the day what makes a 2-year-old is attitude and that's him to a tee," he said.

"He's got a great work ethic. He never turns his nose up. He's got that physical constitution to handle the rigours of 2-year-old racing but he's got the attitude to go hand in hand.

"Every time you throw something at him, he's got that 'Is that the best you got?'-type attitude and wants to know what his next challenge is."

Cover image courtesy of Ashlea Brennan

Glen Boss is a straight-shooter, probably straighter than most, and he had a few things to say about the G2 Brisbane Cup this week. The jockey will pilot Rondinella (NZ) (Ocean Park {NZ}) in Saturday’s staying feature at Eagle Farm, but he said the future is grim for the race, which has little relevance at this time of year.

“The stayers just aren’t around,” Boss said, speaking to Racing.com. “You don’t really need a two-mile race, or that sort of handicap, at this time of year. We’ve got enough of them in Australia. If it disappeared, people won’t miss it.”

There is method to his madness.

Saturday’s Brisbane Cup, run over 3200 metres for the first time since 2006, has attracted a succinct field of only seven.

They are headed by Rondinella, who was second in the G1 Sydney Cup and G2 Chairman’s Quality H. in the autumn, and Carif (So You Think {NZ}), who was a last-start runner-up in the G3 Premier’s Cup a fortnight ago.

However, as small as the field is, it’s a decent collection of Cups-chasing horses, and it can be argued that the Brisbane Cup has had its place in Queensland since 1866. Across 155 years, the race has had its share of very fine horses.

Battalion (Battailous) was one of its earliest heroes in 1897, a horse good enough to compete at the best levels in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne with 11 stakes wins.

Later on, the Brisbane Cup had top horses Lough Neagh (Bacherlor’s Persse {GB}) and Spear Chief (Spearfelt), along with Hydrogen, Redcraze (NZ) (Red Mars {GB}), Tulloch (NZ), Balmerino (NZ) and Reckless.

More modern winners include Cups hero Viewed (Scenic {Ire}) and six-time Group-winning mare Lights Of Heaven (NZ) (Zabeel {NZ}), while the most recent winner, Sixties Groove (Ire) (Sixites Icon {GB}), also won the Listed Grafton Cup in 2020.

So, while the commercial weight of the Brisbane Cup, with its dour two miles in winter, may be dwindling, the race is a grand old lady of the Queensland carnival, and there are still plenty who want to win it.

Order up

Among them are Melbourne owners Ray and Susie Montague, who will have English import Knights Order in Saturday’s race.

The Montagues are joined in the ownership by a large group that includes Jack Bongiorno and David Lilley, the latter a majority owner in good horses like Vangelic (Vancouver) and Group 1 runner-up Invincible Star (I Am Invincible).

Knights Order raced initially in England as Knight Errant (Ire), bred by Kildare-based Airlie Stud and trained through nine British starts by William Jarvis. Initially, he was a moderate offering. The colt cost just €5000 (AU$7861) as a Goffs yearling in 2015, then 6000 gns (AU$11,970) a handful of months later at Tattersalls.

From Lamanka Lass (USA) (Woodman {USA}), who has an all-out American pedigree, Knights Order is a half-brother to Dark Islander (Ire) (Singspiel {Ire}), who won the G2 Oak Tree Derby at Santa Anita, along with five other races.

And, on the track, he proved more than adequate in England.

Knights Order won four of his nine races for Jarvis, and was third to Danceteria (Fr) (Redoute’s Choice) at Sandown. He was consigned for sale at the 2018 Tattersalls Horses In-Training Sale, where he sold to bloodstock agent Johnny McKeever, in partnership with Gai Waterhouse, for a tidy 250,000 gns (AU$498,750).

The horse was found by both McKeever and Waterhouse’s Bloodstock Manager, Claudia Miller, who had been sniffing around for a Cups horse to bring home.

“Claudia had a shortlist of horses which she gave to Robbie Waterhouse, and he shortened it again,” said Susie Montague. “Knights Order was on the top of that list, and they gave us a call saying he was physically correct and suitable for Australia, and would we be interested? Ray and I have had a few So You Thinks in the past, and we were quite interested in getting a purchase that might be a potential Melbourne Cup horse. Isn’t that what everyone is always after?”

The then 4-year-old gelding was flown to Australia, and he had four trials in Sydney before making his debut at Port Macquarie in October last year. He was sixth, but improved a fortnight later to win the Listed City Tattersalls Cup at Randwick.

“It took some time for him to acclimatise, and that’s the thing with these horses when you buy them overseas,” said Susie. “You’ve got to be prepared to give them plenty of time, and Knights Order did need plenty of time. We had to change his name, and he needed to be gelded, but he’s really getting there.”

The horse has had seven starts for Waterhouse and Adrian Bott, and was third in the Listed Pakenham Cup and first last time out in the Listed Winter Cup at Rosehill. In fact, it was this victory last weekend, when he put away the field by nearly 2l, that spurred his nomination into the Brisbane Cup.

“He hasn’t raced over 3200 metres in Australia yet,” Susie said. “But we’ll see what happens. We wouldn’t be travelling there if we weren’t a little bit confident."

The Montagues, who have been in Port Douglas for the last five weeks, will be trackside on Saturday.

"Gai has a great history of bringing these horses over and giving them plenty of time," Susie added, "and she and Adrian have never given up hope on Knights Order while he’s been taking his time.”

Fruit and film

The Montagues have a long association with Waterhouse.

Most famous is Susie’s co-ownership of Global Glamour (Star Witness), which earned her, and many others, a lot of exposure via the It’s All About The Girls Syndicate, created in the wake of the Magic Millions Racing Women’s Bonus.

The Montagues were also involved with Missrock (Fastnet Rock), the three-time stakes-winning filly that topped the Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale in 2019 with a $2.3 million pricetag.

They’re no strangers to racehorses.

Susie has shares in about 30 all up, and a few in partnership with her husband. This weekend they are also hoping to cheer home Amish Boy (Star Witness), who is the first emergency for the G1 Stradbroke H. on Saturday.

Additionally, they will keep an eye on Jamie Kah at Sandown, who is booked to ride their 4-year-old gelding Jayrod Too (NZ) (Pentire {GB}) against a handy field. He’s an important horse to the couple, named after Ray’s late son.

“We’ve changed a bit,” said Ray. “We used to have 50 per cent in horses and control them, but now we just take two and a-half to five per cent and stay in for the fun and the relationships. We have a few at 10 per cent, but when we had more the costs were running away and we decided there were other priorities.”

Those priorities are fruit and film.

Ray’s family has been a preeminent fruit grower since 1948, with orchards in three states and operations Australia wide, while Susie was a critical producer behind the Michelle Payne biopic "Ride Like A Girl".

The couple has little interest in breeding bloodstock, although they have dabbled in it in the past. They bred Lorente (Fiorente {Ire}) from their mare Lonhruge (Lonhro), with Lorente now a winner of four races in eight starts for Ciaron Maher and David Eustace, and only once unplaced.

“It’s a whole other thing when you’ve bred a horse yourself and watch it win,” said Susie. “But we know what we’re good at it, and it’s racing horses, not breeding them.”

The Montagues sold Lonhruge in 2019 after three foals by Toronado (Ire). The mare was again sold this week through the Inglis Digital June Sale, prepared by Swettenham Stud and headed to Doug Walker for $50,000.

The softer touch

Knights Order will jump from barrier five on Saturday. He has Tim Clark booked to pilot, the jockey riding the horse in his last two outings at Rosehill.

Knights Order was fifth in the Listed Lord Mayor’s Cup last month, and Clark said to Waterhouse after the race that the horse was constantly switching leads.

“Tim noticed that he was switching right to left, left to right, six or seven times during the race,” Ray said. “And not just when he was tired. So they worked on that during training, and they put a female jockey on him during his slow work, and a male rider doing the fast work. In his last race, he only changed leads a few times, and his performance was outstanding.”

Ray can’t offer any suggestion as to why this strategy worked. Susie suggested it was the softer touch of female hands.

“Gai said she just wanted to slow things down with him,” Ray added. “She said he was a very good horse and she just wasn’t getting the best out of him, so she was going to try some things.”

Knights Order headed to Brisbane this week with happy trainers behind him.

“He’s really starting to hit his straps now,” said Adrian Bott. “I’m sure he can get out the trip, and he’s in great form at present. It looks a nice race for him.”

The gelding has a 98 handicap rating in Saturday’s event, behind Rondinella, Brimham Rocks (GB) (Fastnet Rock) and Carif, and is one of four European-bred horses to make up the field.

Cover image courtesy of Caitlin Lavin

Uncommon James is co-trained by Caitlin's husband Matt Hoysted, who is less than a year into his training partnership with Steven O'Dea at Eagle Farm, a combination which has yielded 45 wins, but none yet at stakes level.

The Cable Bay (Ire) colt only had his first trial a month ago but the promise he showed there has been followed up by a close-up second on debut at the Gold Coast and then a comfortable 3l win at the Sunshine Coast last Friday.

The quick back-up into his first stakes test is not the usual path with a 2-year-old, but he has shown such relish for what has been put in front of him, the decision was made by Lavin and Hoysted to raise their sights with him.

"We have been monitoring him every day since his last run. Backing up 13 days into eight days is probably not the most ideal campaign, but it turned out that way because they put that race on at the Gold Coast a couple of weeks back," she told TDN AusNZ.

"Since last week, he has eaten up. I believe the chiropractor has been over him, everyone is happy with him, he's been working well and is full of beans."

Pick of the bunch

Lavin runs Lavin Racing and Breeding, which is based at Noosa, and while the operation has scaled down from when she conducted her own training operation there five years ago, she still has a small band of broodmares she breeds from.

One of them is Pickabee (Jet Spur), a talented stakes-placed mare which she won five races with as a trainer in the family colours, and who is the dam of Uncommon James.

"I raced Pickabee and I personally thought highly of her. She had a few issues towards the end of her career, but I had a good opinion of her," she said.

"She was quite a massive horse, a massive broodmare, so I needed a stallion which wasn't too big. I was looking around and I had heard about Cable Bay at Woodside Park.

"I was in contact with Rick Jamieson and he was very interested in mating Pickabee with him. Rick was selecting the mares for him. He gave Pickabee the highest rating with Cable Bay. Obviously, he is a man who knows what he is talking about when it comes to his strike rate with breeding, I trusted that and went for it."

The resultant colt was foaled in late October 2018, and while he had some time to make up on the others on the farm, it quickly became apparent he had the right attitude to make a decent racehorse.

"He was one of four colts on the farm that year and he was the youngest by a few months, so he was always a little behind them in size and maturity, but nothing ever went wrong with him. He never went shinny, he never went fizzy in the head. He was always keeping up to the work he was given," she said.

"It’s an easier job when you have a horse with no issues or hiccups. We just keep pressing on and he just keeps delivering. He's still very green, but that's good, because there is a lot to work with there. He's a sound, happy horse and so we have been keen to keep raising the bar."

Lavin, who in a busy year is still completing the paperwork to officially change her surname to Hoysted, admits it's an added advantage being married to the colt's trainer.

"The updates I get are probably a bit better than the average owner," she said.

Ten-week old Lydia is keeping Caitlin busy as well, as she tries to fit her and Matt's routine with the horses around their new-found responsibilities as parents.

"She came to the races last week to see Uncommon James win. That was her first win, and she slept through the whole thing!"

A passion shared

Caitlin still travels up to Noosa for a few days each week to keep an eye on the Lavin family farm.

"We’ve only got a couple of broodmares. We scaled down a lot. We had 60 horses all up, which were 100 per cent owned across the Lavin family but we want to concentrate on quality not quantity," she said.

"We want to build up a bit but be able to afford the stallions that might cost a bit more, rather than have to spread across the cheaper ones."

Pickabee is a good example of that having been to Newgate's Capitalist and Coolmore's Yes Yes Yes in the past two years. She produced a Capitalist filly last year.

"She's a little pocket rocket. She's a good size, a muscly little thing. She's got some attitude in her, but she's a nice filly," she said.

In foal to Yes Yes Yes, a stallion hasn't been chosen for Pickabee to go to in 2021 as yet.

Caitlin has great memories of her short but successful training career, where she was able to prepare 23 winners, having taken over from her father Peter. Most of those winners came in the white and blue hoops of the Lavin family.

"I loved it. I was obsessed with it. We had a lot of horses. Unfortunately a few years ago, Dad got terminal cancer, so I had to stop training and work in the family business. That was what caused me to get out of training," she said.

"I still hold my licence but my husband now has his training career with Steve, so I wouldn’t look to go back as yet.

"We’ve got all the training facilities here on the farm, where I live for half of the week, with the treadmill and the pool and walker and all that kind of stuff. It’s there if I need it but after having a baby and with Matt and Steve's partnership going really well, I'll leave it at that for now."

Hoysted, who has worked for Lloyd Williams and Michael Moroney before joining up with O'Dea, comes from one of Australia's great racing families and as his biggest supporter, Caitlin sees a long and successful career for her husband.

"His background is immense for the age he is. He was worked with horses pretty much from the day he could walk. He's got that great history with his family on both sides. He is very meticulous and pedantic about the horses and likes everything to be perfect. He's a hard worker and a good trainer," she said.