An Evergreen spring ahead for the Bott family

At Heatherbrae in the Lower Hunter Valley, there's a spring in the step of those at Tony Bott’s Evergreen Stud Farm, and only partly because of the time of year.

The boutique broodmare property, which also houses a significant pre-training facility, will have its eye on the races this weekend with Argentia set to contest the Listed Atlantic Jewel S. at The Valley. She is set to meet a hot field.

Argentia will need to fend off Listed winner Mac ‘N’ Cheese (Sebring) and the undefeated Nicconi filly Scorched Earth, but she’s already stamped herself as a valuable proposition either way. She’s a daughter of Evergreen’s top broodmare Princess Coup (Encosta De Lago) and the European sire of the moment, Frankel (GB).

Evergreen sold Argentia as a yearling at the 2020 Inglis Easter Yearling Sale. She was bought by James Harron on behalf of John Camilleri, costing $670,000. At the time, the market was bubbling away through the first wave of COVID-19, and Tony Bott said she was sold to keep the wheels turning.

“We had so much of the family already, so we just thought we had to sell something,” he told TDN AusNZ. “We weren’t going to give her away. If it had been a bad result, like $200,000 or $300,000, we would have passed her in.”

But the filly wasn’t passed in, and the Botts were pleased to see her fetch that sum and head south to Anthony and Sam Freedman. Argentia won impressively on debut at Flemington in early June, and her appearance on Saturday will be only her second start.

In a way, she’s been a second coming for the stakes-winning broodmare Princess Coup, whom the Botts purchased for a plump $3 million at Magic Millions back in June 2009. Princess Coup is 18 years old, has produced 10 foals already with another by Dundeel (NZ) about to arrive, and she heads a three-generational family on Evergreen’s breeding sheet this spring.

Princess Coup and co.

Aaron Bott looks after Evergreen Stud Farm alongside his father, Tony. He has spent the first two days of the new breeding season floating horses around the Hunter Valley, with about 40 on the farm’s run-sheet set to breed throughout the spring.

Aaron said Princess Coup had been a steady, significant presence on Evergreen since her purchase 12 years ago.

“She’s been a wonderful mare,” he said. “She was obviously an expensive mare to get, but she’s been worth every dollar. It would be interesting in today’s market to see what she’d be worth. She’s paid her way with us and given us some great results and horses, and it’s good to be able to keep the family going.”

The earliest of those results was city winner Vanilla Princess (Lonhro), the mare’s first foal. Thereafter there was Thewizardofoz (Redoute’s Choice), who was an exceptional gelding in Hong Kong.

Argentia, lately, has given the family something like a second wind.

“Argentia looks a very special filly and from the get-go it was an amazing mating,” Aaron said. “We all know how good Frankel is, but this matched up really well on pedigree and physicality, so it was great to see it all come together for the Bott family and the Siu family, who are partners in the farm.”

Princess Coup is booked to Arrowfield stallion Snitzel this spring, while Evergreen equally has Vanilla Princess booked to Exceed And Excel. The mare’s seventh foal, Dorothy Of Oz (Redoute’s Choice), is also on the farm and she will visit Pierro at Coolmore. Whipping in the third generation is Apicius (Redoute’s Choice), a daughter of Vanilla Princess, who is booked to So You Think (NZ).

The matron Princess Coup is getting along, but Aaron said there was no reason to think that older mares these days couldn’t keep producing top youngsters.

"The general rule of thumb for a long time has been that older mares don’t produce, but I think that’s changing with time and with the way horses are managed these days," said Bott.

“There are no real rules in the horse game, as we know,” he said. “Whenever you say something won’t happen, or can’t happen, it happens. But the general rule of thumb for a long time has been that older mares don’t produce, but I think that’s changing with time and with the way horses are managed these days, with the way they’re fed and trained and looked after.”

In evidence, Aaron said multiple Group 1-winning Champion So You Think was a later foal for his dam Triassic (NZ) (Tights {USA}), as was G1 Golden Rose S., winner Denman for his dam Peach (Vain). In other words, Argentia is a good indication that Princess Coup was still capable of good things.

Her booking to Snitzel this spring will be her second visit to the Arrowfield stallion, her first being her sixth foal, Mistress Oz, whom the Botts sold at the Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale in May. She was in foal to Pierro when she was purchased by Paul Willetts for $220,000.

Converge family

As Argentia has put a pep in Evergreen’s step this year, so too has the broodmare Conversely (Ire) (Shamardal {Ire}), the dam of recent G1 J J Atkins S. winner Converge (Frankel {GB}). That colt, now 3 years old, also won the Listed Fernhill H. earlier this year in the Evergreen colours and is trained at Randwick by Gai Waterhouse and Aaron’s brother, Adrian Bott.

He was the first foal for the broodmare Conversely, the product of a Southern Hemisphere-time covering to Frankel. She is booked back to Frankel again this season, but it hasn’t been without its headaches.

“She’s not quite there yet,” Aaron said. “We’d planned on sending her months and months ago, but there’s a cut-off for flying them pregnant. We were going to have her foal-down up there, but we missed the cut-off by four days so we’ve had to foal her down here.”

Conversely produced a Divine Prophet filly on August 21, and the mare will be prepped and readied to visit Frankel before the season is out.

The resultant foal will be a full sibling to Converge, the latter of whom is nominated for a number of big spring targets, namely the G1 Golden Rose and G1 Caulfield Guineas. His name is also among the nominees for the G1 Cox Plate.

“Hopefully she’ll be covered by the first week in October,” Aaron said. “We’d love her to almost jump off the plane and be covered the next day in an ideal world, but we’ll see how it goes. Once she’s in foal she’ll come back down here.”

Conversely has a yearling colt at Evergreen by the Aquis sire Invader, whom Aaron said was a neat, forward type that would likely either be retained or head to the Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale in 2022.

Bubbles for Farnan

Aaron is particularly excited this spring about the prospects of broodmare Bubble Below, who is a daughter of Hussonet (USA) from the Caerleon (USA) mare Lunaliona (GB). Evergreen bought Bubble Below from the Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale in 2017 for $700,000, and Aaron said they were lucky to get her.

She is the dam of Hong Kong performer Lucky Bubbles (Sebring), who has won seven races including the G1 Chairman’s Sprint Prize and G2 Sprint Cup at Sha Tin.

Evergreen has booked Bubble Below to Kia Ora’s new sire Farnan, with the Botts getting the inside track on that stallion through his racing days with Adrian.

“She’s a Hussonet mare and Hussonet crosses very well with Not A Single Doubt,” Aaron said. “That’s evident with Extreme Choice, who has done very well from a limited book, and also within the family is Colorado Claire, a Hussonet Group 2 winner who is the dam of Gunnison by Not A Single Doubt.”

Gunnison won the G2 Todman S. in 2017, boasting this cross nicely.

“It’s worked within the family and this is a really nice mating, we’re looking forward to it,” Aaron said. “Obviously Adrian trained Farnan, so we know how good he was. We tend to follow these top horses that Adrian has a little more closely, so it doesn’t influence our stallion choices as such. It’s just a handy and very useful inside scoop to have.”

Spreading the love

Of some of the other mares on Evergreen’s run-sheet this spring, there is the American mare Black Mamba (USA) (Black Minnaloushe {USA}) who is 19 years old. She will visit Exceed And Excel at Kelvinside.

“She was an exciting mare to have on our farm as well,” Aaron said. “Dad travelled to America to buy her at Keeneland, and she was a Group 1 winner over there. As a racehorse she was phenomenal winning over a mile plus, and she’s been a good breeder. We sold a Tavistock filly out of her at Easter. It was a lovely horse that went to Jonathan Munz through Dean Hawthorne, so we hope that she does well for them and for us.”

Additionally, Evergreen has Mysterious Light (Fantastic Light {USA}) booked to Japanese shuttler Maurice (Jpn) at Arrowfield. This mare hails directly from the family of Fastnet Rock, her third dam being Piccadilly Circus (Royal Academy {USA}), who foaled the Coolmore stallion in 2001.

"We are using a lot of younger horses that you might consider we’re taking a punt on, like Flying Artie, who’s had a great start, and Winning Rupert. We think we’ve spread our mares around really well this year.”

Also, there is homebred Shao Miss (Where’s that Tiger {USA}) booked to debut sire North Pacific at Newgate, while Swing Dancer (Danehill Dancer {Ire}) will visit returning Darley shuttler Street Boss (USA).

“We’re using a wide range of stallions, but I think for some of these mares you’ve got to use proven sires where it makes sense,” Aaron said. “It’s a hard enough game at the best of times, and we’re always trying to breed racehorses, and not necessarily for the sale ring.

"We are using a lot of younger horses that you might consider we’re taking a punt on, like Flying Artie, who’s had a great start, and Winning Rupert. We think we’ve spread our mares around really well this year.”

Table of some on Evergreen Farm's matings for 2021