Daisy Hill poised for the breeding season

Cover image courtesy of Daisy Hill

Daisy Hill is sat in one of those ideal locations for a boutique thoroughbred stud, less than 30 kilometres northeast of Melbourne in the pretty surrounds of Doreen. It’s been around for the last 20 years or so, and run by the firecracker that is Colleen Bamford and her husband Kevin, and Stud Manager Shane Freeman.

In recent years, Daisy Hill has been the home of Melbourne Cup hero Americain (USA), whom the Bamfords raced and now stand as a resident stallion. Americain kicked off his stud career at Swettenham in 2013, and moved home to Daisy Hill in 2019.

Because of him, Colleen Bamford has her heart set on breeding a Melbourne Cup winner, and she has a particular eye on one of her 20 mares to do it.

Sunnyvale (Ger), by the late sire sensation Monsun (Ger), was imported from Germany in 2015, and since 2017 she has foaled progeny by Americain, Frosted (USA) and Toronado (Ire). She is carrying right now to Yes Yes Yes.

“She’s basically Colleen’s favourite mare,” said Freeman of Sunnyvale. “Colleen brought her out for the Melbourne Cup and the horse basically cut its leg off. Where most people would have euthanised her, Colleen saved her, treated her herself on the farm here and sent her to Americain.”

Freeman said the result of that was a colt called Silicon Valley, who was rejected by all the major sales companies when it came time to sell.

“He’s had two wins now and was one of the favourites for the St Leger,” Freeman said. “He’s about to go back into work again, and Sunnyvale will go back to Americain this year.”

Freeman said Bamford’s affections for Sunnyvale run very deep.

“She’s personally very involved with her,” he said. “Colleen is really hands-on herself, and it’s been a big journey for her all these years. With Sunnyvale, if you look at the pedigree there’s five dams and the progeny are winning in Russia and Finland and everywhere else.”

Sunnyvale foaled to Rubick last year, and her foal by Yes Yes Yes this spring will be one of four that Daisy Hill will welcome this season by that sire. They are the result of a loyalty to the Coolmore operation that Bamford has fostered for the last handful of years.

The fighting Irish

Daisy Hill has about 20 mares headed out to stallions this season, and top of the list is Bagitol (Pierro).

Bagitol has quite a story for Daisy Hill, purchased for a song at $500 from Two Bays Farm at the 2018 Inglis Great Southern Sale.

“We were going to buy her as a trade filly, and the horse that came through the ring was a very immature type,” Freeman said. “I thought it was the wrong horse and I ran out the back to tell Colleen not to bid on it, but she’d already put her hand up.”

It proved incredible shopping in the end, because the farm sent the unraced Bagitol to Coolmore’s shuttler Churchill (Ire) for her debut breeding season in 2019. The resultant foal was the colt We Shall Fight, which sold for $155,000 at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale in January.

We Shall Fight was bought by Peter Morgan, and the now 2-year-old colt is with Grahame Begg at Caulfield. He’s such a nice horse that Daisy Hill will send Bagitol back to Churchill this spring.

“Bagitol throws really nice types, so she’ll go back to Churchill again.” Freeman said. “Colleen visited Coolmore in Ireland a number of years ago for the first time, and she was taken aback by Churchill. She said she’d have to send a mare to him, and Bagitol ended up producing this flashy colt first time out that was really popular at Magic Millions.”

We Shall Fight was credited as being a really excellent type by Churchill when he was sold. The Bamfords retained a share, the colt was broken in by the Coolmore team and Freeman said by all accounts he’s looking a fair horse.

“We’ll go again to Churchill, and hopefully it pays off again,” he said.

In the meanwhile, the mare will foal to Merchant Navy this season and she has a yearling colt by Pride Of Dubai.

Going commercial

Continuing the Coolmore theme for Daisy Hill, the broodmare And Rock (Fastnet Rock) is among the farm’s band that will head to Jerry’s Plains. And Rock is booked to Wootton Bassett (GB) this spring.

The 13-year-old mare was a city winner during her racing career for trainer John McArdle, and she was purchased from Widden Stud by Robert Roulston for Daisy Hill at the 2013 Inglis Easter Broodmare Sale. She cost $130,000, and is also expecting a Yes Yes Yes foal this season.

“She’s had three on the track for three winners, the first two being Americains,” Freeman said. “She’s had a Pierro that sold on the (Magic Millions) Gold Coast for $160,000, and another Pierro that went to the Freemans for $170,000 this year. That was a November foal.”

For the five foals that Daisy Hill has sold from And Rock, four have made six figures at the yearling sales, and the choice to go to Wootton Bassett was a commercial one.

“He’s done it the hard way in France, and he’s a new horse to the market here,” Freeman said. “If things work out here, he’ll be a popular horse. We’re trying to get into the commercial side of things now, because originally we were just breeding to race, and now we’re looking for sales horses too.”

The track returns are very good for Daisy Hill, nevertheless. The farm runs on just under 70 per cent runners to winners, but the shift towards commerciality occurred in 2017.

“And that’s one of the reasons why we support Coolmore a lot,” Freeman said. “They were one of the only guys to help us get into some of those more popular stallions.”

Among those hugely commercial sires is the imposing Triple Crown winner Justify (USA), and to whom Daisy Hill is sending its mare Paper Round (GB) (Street Cry {Ire}) this season. She is an imported mare from England, purchased from Yulong for $300,000 (via Robert Roulston) at the 2017 Inglis Chairman’s Sale.

At the time, she was in foal to European Champion 3-Year-Old Golden Horn (GB), and that colt sold to Rifa Mustang for $425,000 at the Inglis Premier Yearling Sale last year.

“Paper Round is in foal to Fastnet Rock at the moment,” Freeman said. “She’s got a yearling by Justify already, and he’s a lovely, big, leggy horse. He’ll head up to the Gold Coast no doubt, and we’re very impressed with him. Using Fastnet last year, we thought it might be one of the last years to get one by him.”

Going local

About a third of the Daisy Hill run-sheet this season will head to Coolmore, while the rest are dotted among other stallions in New South Wales and locally in Victoria.

The mare Miss Shamrock (NZ), by Zabeel (NZ), is booked for Doubtland at Widden Stud Victoria, while Great Panache (Magnus) will go to Zousain, also at Widden but north of the border.

Miss Shamrock has had foals by Smart Missile, Americain and Real Impact (Jpn), and her Pride Of Dubai gelding, now a 3-year-old, is called Pride Of Galway and is with Grahame Begg. She has a 2-year-old filly by Merchant Navy and a yearling filly by Rubick.

Great Panache, meanwhile, is a younger mare for Daisy Hill. She has had only one foal, a filly by Hellbent in 2019, and was served by Zousain last season. The decision to use the same stallion again is one that Freeman said was largely dependent on the foals that arrive.

“Depending on the resultant foal, we are more than happy to go back,” he said. “Zousain is a lovely looking horse and if he gets early 2-year-olds, everyone will be on them. Capitalist is a good example there. You could pick up his yearlings quite easily at the Gold Coast this year. We were the underbidder on one for $170,000, and a couple of weeks later at Classic you couldn’t touch them, they were just too much.”

On this theme, Daisy Hill will send its stakes-producing mare Tahnee Topaz (Lonhro) to debut sire Hanseatic this season. The stallion is an exciting new addition to the Rosemont Stud roster at $17,600 (inc GST).

Tahnee Topaz was picked up by Daisy Hill last year at the Inglis Digital August Sale 2, already the dam of stakes winner Evalina (I Am Invincible). She cost $52,500, and the farm sent her to Strasbourg last spring, who is also at Rosemont and by I Am Invincible.

“Evalina is showing a lot of form, but we couldn’t afford to send this mare to I Am Invincible, so we went to the next best thing in Strasbourg,” Freeman said. “Hanseatic is one of those old Godolphin-Woodlands matings, Street Boss over a Lonhro mare, and we think it will work for us.”

The Daisy Hill broodmare band is a neat set of horses, and the farm’s alliance with Coolmore and willingness to support the middle market of local stallions has lent itself well to the Bamfords’ success. Freeman said they shop regularly for good mares.

“We’re always on the look-out for top-line fillies, but also something we can trade and get a return from,” he said. "It's usually a case of the right horse coming along."

Table: Some of the Daisy Hill coverings for the 2021 season