In today’s second and final instalment, we catch up with Julien Welsh, Lindsay Park’s head breaker Rahis Baig and Geelong breaker Brad Pearson.
Julien Welsh (Booralite Park)
Raised around horses in Victoria’s high country, and later a successful mountain-racing rider and jumps jockey, Julien Welsh has gone on to become one of the most respected figures in his field.
Welsh and his team at Booralite Park have a reputation for nurturing young thoroughbreds with a minimum of stress as they are broken in and put through their early education, and trainers who use Welsh’s expertise include the likes of Team Hawkes, Peter Moody, Mike Moroney, Phillip Stokes, Mick Kent and John Sadler.
Working with an incredible number of yearlings every year – as many as 350 – Welsh has broken in and educated no fewer than 36 individual Group 1 winners, including the likes of Elvstroem (Danehill {USA}), Reward For Effort and Magnus.
“I suppose that when you think about the total number of horses we’ve broken in during that time, the percentages aren’t all that fantastic,” Welsh said. “You don’t get that many top-liners. The good ones are very rare.
“But it’s always enjoyable when you do get one, and we’ve been lucky enough to have worked with some really nice horses over the years.
"It’s always enjoyable when you do get one (top-line horse), and we’ve been lucky enough to have worked with some really nice horses over the years." - Julien Welsh
“My favourite of those is probably Elvstroem. He was a marvellous horse, winning all those Group 1 races including one in Dubai, and he was just an absolutely beautiful animal. He was a real pleasure to work with.”
Welsh’s skills received a ringing endorsement at Caulfield last Saturday from trainer Grahame Begg, whose 2-year-old filly Libiamo (Written Tycoon) produced an impressive finish to win on debut over 1100 metres.
“I think that’s a very nice filly,” Welsh said. “I broke her in originally, then had her again for a couple of trials a bit later on. She had a few issues with the gates in those early stages.
Libiamo (red cap) | Image courtesy of Bronwen Healy
“But one of her trials in particular really impressed me, so I rang Grahame after that and asked him if he happened to have an opinion about this filly. He said he rated her quite highly, and I replied, ‘Well, I’m not surprised. She just trialled very impressively.’
“Now she’s come out and done it on raceday, and I thought she won really well there on Saturday. Having her first start, she probably wasn’t really entitled to come from where she did and win the race like that, but to her credit she did it. It was an impressive performance from a pretty talented filly.”
This year’s crop of yearlings have made a favourable impression on Welsh as he has put them through their early education.
“We’ve had some nice horses again this year, although maybe not a great deal of absolute standouts,” he said. “I am a bit of a hard taskmaster, because I do so many of them every year.
“Mike Moroney hopefully won’t mind me saying that he has a very nice horse by Tavistock that he bought in Sydney earlier in the year. I broke him in, then put him out before he came back for another couple of weeks with me. He’s a beautiful colt. I really like him.
“Johnny Sadler has had some nice ones come through as well, including an All Too Hard that I quite liked.
Julien Welsh | Image courtesy of Booralite Park
“We’ve also had some nice progeny of Toronado, Pierro, Pride Of Dubai and Capitalist come through, and obviously I Am Invincible always has beautiful horses to work with.
“I think horses are getting better and better every year in terms of their temperaments. They’re better-handled and they’re easier to do anything with.
“The horses with Northern Hemisphere blood are always good to work with, and I like handling the New Zealand-breds as well.”
Welsh prefers to adopt a wait-and-see approach with the newest batch of first-season sires.
“I like to see horses get to the trial stage before making a real assessment, so I don’t have a clear impression yet about the first-season sires,” Welsh said.
“But a young sire that I do quite like is Swear. I’ve got a really nice Swear gelding of my own (named Morecoruba), and I’ve had a bit to do with the sire all the way through – I actually broke him in when he was a young horse.
"A young sire that I do quite like is Swear. I’ve got a really nice Swear gelding of my own (named Morecoruba), and I’ve had a bit to do with the sire all the way through." - Julien Welsh
“I do a lot of work for Team Hawkes, and it was through them that I was able to get the service to Swear. This horse won his second start really well, and I quite like him. Hopefully he can go on with it.
“For a cheap sire, I think Swear has quite a lot going for him. He’s had two winners from hardly any starters (seven runners to date), and Mathew Ellerton and Simon Zahra also had one the other day (Swear Shes Perfect) that didn’t get much luck in the running and probably should have won on debut, so he could have been up at three winners already from just a handful of runners. I think he could be a sire worth following.”
Swear | Standing at Spendthrift Australia
Rahis Baig (Lindsay Park)
The head breaker at Lindsay Park, Rahis Baig has been a key component of the Hayes family’s operation for the best part of two decades. He has provided an early education to a long line of quality racetrack performers, all the way up to the elite level.
“I’m in my 17th year at Lindsay Park now,” he said. “There have been many, many good horses that have come through our system during that time.
“Some of the horses that have made the biggest impression on me personally are Churchill Downs and Nadeem, and in more recent times Catchy was a very special filly who won the Blue Diamond for us.
“There have been a few hard-luck stories along the way too. Horses like Zamzam and Reemah placed in the Blue Diamond and could have done a lot more if things had gone their way. But that’s the way it goes in racing sometimes.”
Baig oversees the breaking-in of a large number of horses every year, and he believes the 2021 crop of rising 2-year-olds are right up to Lindsay Park’s usual high standard.
"The number that we (Lindsay Park) have through each year depends on how many horses the bosses are buying, but it’s usually somewhere between 120 to 150 every year." - Rahis Baig
“The number that we have through each year depends on how many horses the bosses are buying, but it’s usually somewhere between 120 to 150 every year,” he said.
“I think this year’s group compares favourably with the last few seasons. There are some really nice horses coming through.
“The way these horses are bred these days, they’re all really refined, and they’re all blue-bloods. They’re just really good-quality horses and they’re a pleasure to work with.
“The competition is certainly very strong from other stables in Australia at the moment, but I think that’s a good thing. It keeps our job really interesting, and it keeps us very motivated to try to do the absolute best we can with all of the horses in our program every year.”
Impending | Standing at Darley
Baig has seen good signs from the progeny of a number of up-and-coming freshman sires.
“We have the progeny of a few first-season sires that are looking pretty good, like Impending, Caravaggio and Pariah – I’ve liked the progeny of all of those. We also have some very nice horses by other young sires, like Shalaa.
“But I personally always lean a bit more towards the older stuff. I like the proven sires that I know well. We’ve got some very nice Written Tycoon and Toronado horses coming through for us this year.
“There’s a really good mixture of sires, and it’s a very nice group of horses that I’m quite excited about.”
Pariah | Standing at Arrowfield Stud
Brad Pearson
After a grounding around pony club, Brad Pearson learned his thoroughbred craft under the tutelage of New Zealand trainer Bruce Wallace and, once he crossed the Tasman as a teenager, John Hawkes and Peter and Paul Snowden. He schooled a number of high-class gallopers in the early stages of his career, including Caulfield Guineas winner Helmet.
After establishing his own breaking business in Geelong in 2013, Pearson has quickly built up relationships with a range of clients, and his graduates include Group 1 winners Mr Quickie (Shamus Award) and Krone (Eurozone).
“We’ve had a couple of pretty good ones come through our hands over the few years we’ve been doing this, and hopefully there’ll be a fair few more to come in the next few seasons as well,” Pearson said.
Brad Pearson | Image courtesy of Brad Pearson Breaking
“Mr Quickie’s the obvious one, and also Krone – a very tough filly. I have to admit to being a little bit surprised that she got as far as she did, but she really put her hand up on the track and became a Group 1 winner, which was great to see.
“We have about 50 or 70 horses at a time, so it all adds up. I couldn’t even tell you how many we’ve worked with in total this year.
“We look after horses for a wide range of clients, including some of the more prominent and larger stables, which is great. We’ve been doing a fair bit for Peter Moody lately, as well as some for Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott, and Chris Waller too. There are a few Warrnambool trainers as well, like Symon Wilde and Matthew Williams.”
Russian Revolution | Standing at Newgate Farm
Pearson has been impressed with his latest class of rising 2-year-olds.
“There have been some really nice ones that we’ve had this year – it’s been a good bunch,” he said. “In terms of the first-season sires, we’ve had a few by Russian Revolution. I really liked them from very early on.
“Some of them may not have quite shown the improvement that I would have liked from their first preparations into their second, but one or two have come back in over the last couple of weeks and they’ve really come on quite impressively. They’re looking pretty good now and I wouldn’t be surprised to see them go well.
“Another young sire whose progeny I’ve got a bit of time for is Divine Prophet. A fair few of them have really impressed me this year.”
