Cover image courtesy of Ellie Giles
Giles' resume of stakes winners bred from her WA farm in recent years is enough to match some of the biggest breeders in the country.
It is headed by Group 1-winning mare Silent Sedition (War Chant {USA}), and also includes the eight-time stakes winner Man Booker (Discorsi) and his dual stakes-winning half-brother Achernar Star (Gingerbread Man), as well as Group 2 winner Quilista (Scandal Keeper {USA}) and her half-brother, Red Can Man (Gingerbread Man), who notched his third stakes win in Saturday's G3 Sir John Monash S. at Caulfield.
The latter two Giles-bred stars are both from Brocky's Ace, who was herself bred by Giles and will turn 18 on August 1. As the star of her broodmare band, she does get a little bit of special treatment.
"I look after her a bit. I've got a rug on her at the moment and none of my other broodmares have, but for her age she is going quite well," Giles told TDN AusNZ.
"I look after her (Brocky's Ace) a bit. I've got a rug on her at the moment and none of my other broodmares have, but for her age she is going quite well." - Ellie Giles
Brocky's Ace has produced five winners from seven to the track, including the two abovementioned stars, and while hers was never a pedigree page replete with black type, the family has become very much desirable to the market through yearling and broodmare sales over the past few years.
Quilista, initially a $10,000 yearling, was sold for $950,000 through the Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale in 2019 and then at the same Sale this year, was snapped up by Cressfield for $1 million, in foal to Pierata.
Her younger half-sister by War Chant (USA) topped the 2020 Magic Millions Perth Yearling Sale when secured by Attunga Stud and Clarke Bloodstock for $240,000.
It's been a stunning commercial emergence from the family of a mare that Giles has always had faith in but had to wait for the market to adjust to her way of thinking.
"She has been a real revelation for us really. She's a very good type. She's by Surtee, and I stood him at stud for George Daly for a number of years and he never got great books of mares or anything, but he did very well off small numbers," she said.
"He was an outstanding type. I initially wasn't that keen on him because he was by Memento and he hadn't been that terribly successful, but the horse was athletic and had won stakes races in four states. He had travelled across Australia and they ran him in the Slipper, where he got bad interference."
Starting out a family
Surtee produced three stakes winners at stud, as well as a further four stakes-placed horses, including Brocky's Ace herself, who finished third in the Listed WATC Gimcrack S.
She was out of Brocky's Gamble (Land Speed Record), who produced just the one foal.
"I took her mother to breed from for the people that raced her. She had won a couple of 2-year-old races in Perth, but she didn't have a fancy pedigree. We bred Brocky's Ace and I was left with her and I sold the dam. I'm not sure what happened to her from there," Giles said.
"Brocky's Ace won one of the first 2-year-old races of the season in Perth, and she was stakes-placed." - Ellie Giles
"Brocky's Ace won one of the first 2-year-old races of the season in Perth, and she was stakes-placed. She was racing with a bit of a problem and didn’t really go on, but we wanted to breed with her."
Giles didn't harbour any huge ambitions for Brocky's Ace as a broodmare but sent her to imported stallion Balestrini (Ire), who was a resident at her Korilya Stud.
"She foaled Brocky's Deal and they raced that foal and he won me five breeders' bonuses. He was very good as a two and 3-year old," she said.
Brocky's Ace with her 2020 War Chant (USA) colt | Image courtesy of Ellie Giles
"Every foal she has had has pretty much shown me something, except one by Vital Equine, who is probably one of the slowest horses I have ever had, but he was probably the horse with the best temperament that I have ever bred as well!
"I sent the mare to Scandal Keeper, because he had a horse which was running quite well in Melbourne and everyone thought he would go well as a stallion. He got a good book of mares that season, but after that he went right off the boil."
A flagbearer for sire and dam
Quilista was part of the late Scandal Keeper's (USA) biggest-ever crop (104) at Yarradale Stud, and would prove to be his flagbearer in a career where she won stakes races in Western Australia, New South Wales and Queensland for a variety of trainers.
Giles always felt the filly was born for big things, but the marketplace begged to differ in its first assessment of her through the 2015 Magic Millions Perth Yearling Sale.
"When Quilista was born, she was always ahead of the game. She was a fortnight old when she was born if you know what I mean." - Ellie Giles
"When Quilista was born, she was always ahead of the game. She was a fortnight old when she was born if you know what I mean. I remember Peter O'Brien making the comment that Winx stood up about 10 minutes after she was foaled and Quilista did much the same thing. She was this big, strong and athletic filly," Giles said.
"I took her to the yearling sales and I thought she was probably the best-looking filly on the complex and nobody wanted to look at her because she was by Scandal Keeper.
"Justin Warwick got her for $10,000 and as you know, she went over east and won some very good stakes races. Justin said she was the best horse he'd ever put a bridle on and he's had a few good ones over the years."
Ellie Giles (right) | Image courtesy of Magic Millions
A second Ace in the pack
Three seasons later, Brocky's Ace produced a colt by Gingerbread Man who carried many of the same characteristics of both his dam and his older half-sister.
"He was always a standout looker. I showed him to everybody and tried to convince them all to buy this horse at the sales. But no-one liked him and the only people that really seemed interested in him were Noel Carter and his syndicate who are all friends with Steve Wolfe," Giles said.
Eventually sold for $50,000 and named Red Can Man, he has gone on to win a Listed Fairetha S. and Listed HG Bolton Sprint for Wolfe and is now with the Mornington-based David Brideoake, with whom he won last Saturday's G3 Sir John Monash S., with grand plans for Group 1 races through the spring.
The War Chant filly which topped the Perth Sale last year is nearing a debut for Bjorn Baker. Named Aitchdeetee, Giles has been getting updates on her from Attunga Stud's Brian Nutt.
"I've had a couple of videos. She had a small prep and I saw a video of her running with another filly, who she put about 3l on. She had another spell, but I believe she is back in work now," she said.
"I'd imagine they are hoping she can run in those good early 3-year-old races. I know that Bjorn Baker was happy with her, but we’ll see down the track if happiness turns into good wins."
More to come
Brocky's Ace missed the following year but produced a War Chant colt last year which Giles also holds high hopes for.
"He's quite like his older sister. We are hoping, fingers-crossed, that everything goes okay for us to take him to the Magic Millions Perth Yearling Sale again," she said.
"She's in foal to Gingerbread Man. She's not an easy mare to get in foal and she has a few breeding problems. Being an older mare, everything is a bonus."
The continued success of Brocky's Ace through her progeny, whether it be on the track or in the sales ring, is something Giles is understandably quite proud of.
"When you are a smaller breeder, stuck over here in the west and you see these horses go over there and compete at the good level, it’s very gratifying." - Ellie Giles
"When you are a smaller breeder, stuck over here in the west and you see these horses go over there and compete at the good level, it’s very gratifying," she said.
"There's a lot of disappointments in this game and they happen on the small studs just as much as they do on the big studs, so when the planets align, it’s very good."
