Cover image courtesy of Arrowfield Stud
Written by Jessica Owers
With Moree races abandoned on Thursday owing to surface water, which was the same fate that befell Bendigo’s meeting, plenty of attention was cast on Gosford, which hosted a seven-race card throughout the afternoon.
The 2-year-old gelding Daichi, by the first-season sire and Arrowfield shuttler Maurice (Jpn), gave his sire his eighth individual winner this season when taking out the third race, the Pirtek Central Coast Mdn over 1200 metres.
Trained at Randwick by the Snowdens and raced by Triple Crown Syndications, Daichi was having only his second lifetime start.
He jumped from barrier six with Jason Collett, and was handy to the speed in the early running. Turning for home, he was pressed by Spitfire (Pierro) and Godolphin colt Retrieval (Medaglia D’Oro {USA}), before running on well in the straight.
The final margins were 0.95l to Spitfire, with 3.01l third to Retrieval.
The four 2-year-olds in the six-horse field led home the two older horses, 3-year-old Beholder (Deep Field) and 4-year-old The Flasher (Lucas Cranach {Ger}).
Ausbreds by name
From the sidelines of his Sydney office at International Animal Health, Chris Lawlor cheered Daichi home. The gelding was bred by Lawlor in 2018, the result of a Maurice mating with Lawlor’s homebred mare Ausbred Friend (Manhattan Rain).
Daichi is the second foal from the mare, sold at the 2019 Inglis Australian Weanling Sale for $105,000. He was then picked up by Triple Crown Syndications in January 2020 when on-sold by Rushton Park at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale for $110,000.
The breeding is more than interesting.
Ausbred Friend is a half-sister to Hong Kong Champion Able Friend (Shamardal {USA}), who was bred by Stuart Ramsey at Turangga Farm. Both are from the broodmare Ponte Piccolo (NZ) (Volksraad {GB}), whom Lawlor picked up for a song at the 2013 Inglis Easter Broodmare Sale. He paid just $35,000.
Chris Lawlor | Image courtesy of International Animal Health Products
“Able Friend had not hit the highs in Hong Kong at that point,” Lawlor said. “I remember sitting at home a few months later, and there he was having his first start in Hong Kong, and he ran a tick over 1.08s in winning first-up, and I said to my wife that this horse was an absolute superstar.”
"He (Able Friend) was having his first start in Hong Kong, and he ran a tick over 1.08s in winning first-up, and I said to my wife that this horse was an absolute superstar." - Chris Lawlor
Able Friend was certainly that, because over the next few seasons in Hong Kong he was Champion Horse, Champion Miler and Equal Leading Older Male on the 2015 World Thoroughbred Rankings (Mile). He was also front and centre of the 2015 rankings in the sprint division.
At the time that Able Friend began his gig, Ponte Piccolo was carrying Ausbred Friend. In 2015, Lawlor jumped on a plane to attend the 2015 G1 Hong Kong Mile, and it changed a few things.
“The first horse into the parade ring was Maurice, and I looked at him and thought, wow. How the hell do you beat a horse that looks like that?” he said. “Roll forward a bit and I said to my wife, how could we get a mare like Ponte Piccolo to Japan, and then Arrowfield announced he was going to stand in Australia, and I booked two mares to him straight away.”
Maurice (Jpn) | Standing at Arrowfield Stud
The two mares were Ponte Piccolo, who dropped a colt in 2018 (later named Global Ausbred), and Ausbred Friend, who dropped Daichi. Global Ausbred is with Brad Widdup at Hawkesbury, and races in the Lawlor colours with two races under his belt.
Daichi was sold because of the simple fact that Lawlor couldn’t keep everything.
“I watched the horse win and I cheered,” he said. “Even if I don’t own them, I still cheer them on.”
Plans upcoming
Ponte Piccolo died in 2019, with Global Ausbred her last named foal. Her daughter, Ausbred Friend, is rising nine, and produced a colt by All Too Hard after Daichi, which Lawlor retained, while she will foal to Alabama Express this spring.
“That’s a good story in itself,” Lawlor said. “I was at the sales and I got approached by Mike Moroney, who said he had a couple of colts for me to look at, and one of them was Alabama Express. I was doing other things at the time, and I told Mike that I couldn’t go into the horse, and of course the damn thing won a Group 1.”
“I got approached by Mike Moroney, who said he had a couple of colts for me to look at, and one of them was Alabama Express... I told Mike that I couldn’t go into the horse, and of course the damn thing won a Group 1.” - Chris Lawlor
Lawlor thought there was something to this, and he elected to send Ausbred Friend to the horse he had passed up.
“I don’t really mind what we get,” he said. “As long as we get a nice healthy foal, because I’m interested in breeding the best racehorses I can.”
All up, Lawlor has four breeding mares with more on the way through. One of those is Barinka (NZ) (Shinko King {Ire}), the dam of Prime Star (Starspangledbanner), who won the $2 million R. Listed Inglis Millennium for the Newgate-China Horse Club partnership last year.
Lawlor has kept two fillies from Barinka, one by Deep Field and another by Dundeel (NZ).
Looking ahead to the upcoming season, he was waiting for Daichi’s result on Thursday to decide on concrete plans.
“I was waiting to see how Daichi went as to whether to go back to Maurice with Ausbred Friend,” he said. “She’s been to Maurice and All Too Hard, and I’m happy with both of those matings, so I haven’t really made up my mind. I don’t normally chase the first season horses, because I generally go for the proven ones, but when Maurice came to Australia, it was just a no-brainer.”
