Purtles searching for Furious atonement

Written by Bren O’Brien

Seventeen years after being narrowly beaten as favourite in the Furious S. with Our Sweet Moss (Mossman), breeder and owner Dr Brian Purtle and trainer Gerald Ryan have taken aim at the Group 2 feature on Saturday with her lightly raced daughter, Enterprise Pomme (Spill The Beans).

Our Sweet Moss, bred on the Purtle family's Enterprise Stud at Beaudesert, proved a terrific racetrack performer, winning five stakes races, including the G2 Silver Shadow S. She has backed that up in the breeding barn, producing six winners, five of them at metropolitan level, among them the stakes-placed Trubia (Show A Heart).

Enterprise Pomme, a winner on debut for trainer Michael Lakey at Doomben in July before finishing runner-up behind the smart colt Alpine Edge (Better Than Ready) at her second start, looms as possibly the best of Our Sweet Moss' foals, and she has been sent to Sydney to join the stables of Ryan and partner Sterling Alexiou.

Ben Purtle, Brian's son, had connected Ryan and his father back when Our Sweet Moss was emerging as a 2-year-old and, over 17 years later, has convinced him to send Enterprise Pomme to the trainer again.

"I'm a veterinarian and I met Gerald first and hung around with him at the sales at Karaka. I connected Dad with him. We were able to send Our Sweet Moss to him and it was a really good result," Ben told TDN AusNZ.

"We thought this filly had shown us enough to send her down to him as well and I said to Dad, we should target the 3-year-old fillies' series, like we did with her mum."

The Purtles' association with the family came when Brian purchased the consistent mare Directe Attaque (NZ) (Straight Strike {USA}) for $13,000 through the Inglis Broodmare and Weanling Sale in 2000.

It was to prove a canny acquisition, with the mare producing four winners herself, while her daughters have added another 11 between them, most of them bred on Enterprise Stud.

"Direct Attaque was a beautiful mare. She was a gorgeous-looking horse, who was handy on the track and was a great producer," Ben said.

"We bred her to Mossman when he was standing his first season at Beaudesert (at Noble Park Stud) before he headed to Vinery and we got Our Sweet Moss."

"She then went on to win about five or six stakes races and was Champion 3-year-old filly in Queensland."

In her dam's steps

After her breakthrough success in the Silver Shadow S., Our Sweet Moss tackled the Furious S. where, ridden by Jim Byrne, she finished third, beaten less than 0.5l.

The Purtles are hoping that Enterprise Pomme may be able to avenge that defeat when she tackles the same race and the same royal blue and white colours, for the same trainer at Randwick on Saturday.

"We tried to get her to run in the Silver Shadow, which her mum won, but she wasn't quite fit enough. The trainers just thought we should wait with her," Purtle said.

"When we put her in the noms for Saturday, she was something like 23rd or 24th in order and we were talking about that she may not get a run. It’s amazing that she is in there. We're super happy about that."

In another parallel, Ryan also trained Enterprise Pomme's late sire, Spill the Beans.

Ben said he had identified fairly early on that the filly had something a bit special about her.

"I liked her from day one. She really stood out. Her full sister is a year older than her and they are very different types. Enterprise Pomme has that athleticism and personality and a bit of spunk about her. She's a natural athlete and that told me she'd be a racehorse," he said.

"She copped a laceration to her knee at one stage and we thought she might have to have surgery, but Dad managed to nurse her through that and that's been the main delay in terms of getting her to the track. She's very much like her mum, with her whole attitude and also physically as well as her racing pattern."

Sweet conclusion

Our Sweet Moss foaled a filly by Encryption last year and is set to foal again to the Eureka Stud resident this spring. Purtle said it is likely to be her last pregnancy.

"She's been a very fertile mare and a great mother. Some of these good racehorses can become very good broodmares," he said.

"Perhaps if we had spent a bit more money with breeding her, we might have done even better still but she's been an amazing mare."

If Our Sweet Moss is retired from breeding duties, the Purtles have plenty of the family to go on with. Her first foal, Lucy Louise (Flying Spur), in foal to Divine Prophet, has already produced a couple of winners, including the metropolitan winner Enterprise Louise (Show A Heart), who in turn produced a Heroic Valour filly this week.

There is also another daughter of Our Sweet Moss, Enterprise Miss (Choisir), who has a 2-year-old colt by Spill the Beans and is set to foal to Encryption, as well as her sister Granada (Mossman) who has a host of progeny with the Enterprise name.

"It's been a good family for us to continue on with. We are pretty passionate breeders. Hopefully this filly goes well on the weekend and we can help the line along a bit," Purtle said.