Cover image courtesy of Sportpix

Breeder and part-owner Morison says Shalatin will need a bit of luck to win the Silver Slipper, but it was indeed a stroke of luck that put into this farmer’s hands with his dam, Domesday mare Arcadia Delight, a member of the family of $3.2 million Arrowfield Stud broodmare purchase Arcadia Queen (Pierro).

“I think he’s got his work cut out to be fair. You’ve got to be an exceptional horse to win from barrier 13,’’ Morison said of Shalatin’s Saturday chances. “I think the further he goes the better he will get. But I think he could show up this weekend... he won’t be slowing down, put it that way.’’

If the Joe Pride-trained Shalatin does take the win in the Silver Slipper, he will be the third winner from that family in about as many days, his half-brother, Contradeel (Dundeel {NZ}), bred by Morison, a winner at Warrnambool on Thursday while Arcadia Grace (NZ) (Hinchinbrook), a daughter out of Arcadia Delight’s full sister, Arcadia Dream, won at Belmont on Wednesday.

Buying into Arcadia family

Just how Morison got involved in such a prolific family, which includes a string of black-type horses headlined by the Grant and Alana Williams-trained Arcadia Queen, is one story of the luck he says he’s been blessed by during his involvement in racing both in Australia and in New Zealand.

“Peter Jenkins who works for Arrowfield, he rang me with about three or four mares to sell and one was Arcadia Delight,’’ said Morison. “An old mate, who was a pretty amazing old horseman, said to me that mare there (Arcadia Delight) is the only one I should look at.

“We were going down country to look at a mare to send to Dundeel who I had a share in also. Anyway we didn’t go down country, I bought Arcadia Delight.

Morison's racehorse ownership was very much kicked along when he held a share of Dundeel as a racehorse and his breeding interests were boosted when the deal was done, a relationship that, ultimately, would introduce him to Shalatin's mother.

Morison said a few years ago when at an Inglis Classic Sale he ran into Bob Peters who held the reins of the Arcadia family and had put Arcadia Delight on the market, had passed comment that he shouldn’t have sold the mare.

“Arcadia Queen was talked about but I don’t think she’d come up to her star status, she was probably a 2-year-old,’’ Morison said. “She might have shown something. Possibly at around the same point Shalatin is, who knows.’’

Morison says he questions whether or not the West Australian breeder Peters was really cursing selling Arcadia Delight, adding that Peters is one of the best breeders in the world.

“Let’s face it, he probably wasn’t really cursing he got rid of her because he’s got heaps of them,’’ said Morison. “He’s got Arcadia Dream who was probably a better racehorse than Arcadia Delight but they’re both by Domesday and they’re full sisters so the breeding doesn’t go away."

A band of his own

Morison himself is building quite a band of handy racehorses, adding that he enjoys the breeding side of the industry more than the racing side of it.

He said trainer Joe Pride has had some very good horses and he loves Shalatin, which was a positive sign for the horse Morison bred under the watch of David Morrissey at Cannon Hayes Stud where he keeps five of his broodmares. Two more of Morison's broodmares are at Arrowfield Stud, another close associate of his through his ties to sire Dundeel (NZ).

“I bred Contradeel as well. And I have a 3-year-old sister to Contradeel that’s in New Zealand at Mike Moroney’s and she’s going to Australia. She’s going to trial any time, she’s three and she’s a monster, named Gaylia,’’ said Morison.

“I bred her and I’m going to keep her for breeding, I don’t know why as I’m in my 70s but I think I should. I’ll keep 10 per cent and won’t have any trouble getting rid of the rest.’’

As Morison takes you back over his 'good luck' in the racing and breeding game, saying Moroney had done a good job for him in Australia, he mentions his former stake in Group 1 winner and now Yulong sire Alabama Express with a quip of 'who was quite a good one’.

Ones to watch

Arcadia Delight has a Capitalist filly on her but had difficulties foaling leading to Morison choosing to give her a spell this season. She will next season be put to Shalaa again, he said.

“We tried to get a late foal but we put her out and we’re giving her a spell,’’ he said. “She got a bit late and they’ve got to have a year off occasionally.

“But she’s got a lovely Capitalist filly who is very much like Shalatin, according to my mate Dave Morrisey. More of an athletic type… these other ones, the Dundeel ones, are quite big horses.’’

Morison also has an unraced 2-year-old Tarzino (NZ) filly, Mountain Guest, with John Sargent at Randwick and a Fastnet Rock filly, An Charraig, who is from Dundeel’s half-sister Vaayala (NZ) (Volksraad {GB}) in Australia.

“She’s beautiful that Fastnet Rock filly with (Gerald Ryan and Sterling Alexiou) in Sydney. She’s a filly I’ve got a bit of time for.’’

Another of his interests, Toronto Terrier (Toronado {Ire}), also with Mike Moroney, gives Morison something else to watch on Saturday when he lines up in the Listed Talindert S. at Flemington.

And nearer to their Hawke's Bay farm, wife Jenny has her own Dundeel filly, a sister to Hit The Shot (Dundeel {NZ}), second in the G1 Victoria Derby.

“I’ve lived on the land all my life so animal breeding has been part of that. I’ve always loved breeding horses and I’ve had luck… I don’t push but you take it when you get it,’’ Morison said.

Cover image courtesy of Bronwen Healy

For the Darley Australia stallions at Victoria’s Northwood Park, late summer has taken on a relaxed, restive rhythm. The breeding season is over and the shuttlers are gone, leaving behind just Impending, Kermadec (NZ), Holler and Brazen Beau.

For first-season sire Impending, there was cause for cheer this week when the son of Lonhro got his first winner. It came at Sandown in the shape of 2-year-old Sir Bailey, who also happened to be the first foal from the triple Group 1-winner Jameka.

Sir Bailey is among a 118-strong first crop of horses for Impending, who has seen 14 get to the track so far.

They’ve included the Godolphin fillies Moko, who was third to Ebhaar (I Am Invincible) in the Listed Merson Cooper S. in November, and Kin, who has raced twice for two placings. There was also the Tasmanian gelding Bold Instinct, who was third in Hobart last month and runs again in the Magic Millions 2YO Classic this Sunday at Launceston.

Bold Instinct topped the Magic Millions Tasmanian Yearling Sale last year when selling from Armidale Stud to CRT Racing for $150,000.

By the numbers

It’s been a sound beginning for Impending.

The stallion has covered four books of substantial numbers. He got 186 mares in his debut season, a further 177 and 146 in the following seasons, and then 141 last spring, and his yearling sale results have been more than respectable.

Impending’s highest-priced youngster to date is a $250,000 filly from the 2021 Magic Millions Adelaide Yearling Sale, a chestnut that sold to Anthony Ottobre from the draft of Armidale Stud.

His best-priced colt was sold at last year’s Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale, a $240,000 purchase for the Hawkes team from Corumbene Stud.

Across all sales in 2021, Impending’s yearlings averaged a tick over $80,000, which was a decent return against his service fee of $22,000 (inc GST).

This year, the stallion got seven six-figure yearlings at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale, headed by the $200,000 Kia Ora filly that went to Griffiths de Kock Racing, Peter Ford (FBAA) and Heywood Bloodstock.

At the Inglis Classic Sale just gone, the horse’s top-priced yearling was the $65,000 Newhaven Park filly that went to Beasy Racing.

Gallery: Impending's highest-priced yearlings

Impending has 22 youngsters in the catalogue for the upcoming Inglis Premier Yearling Sale next week, a single colt at the Magic Millions Tasmanian Sale, and another 14 for the Magic Millions event in Adelaide.

A dream result

Impending retired from an 18-race career in June 2018.

He’d won $2.4 million and five races that included the G1 Stradbroke H., G1 Kingsford-Smith Cup and a pair of Group 2s, namely the Stan Fox S. at Rosehill. He was third to Astern in the G1 Golden Rose.

He was a horse that had trained on through John O’Shea, Darren Beadman and James Cummings, somewhat better as a late 2-year-old and then a three- and 4-year-old.

As far as his pedigree went, Impending headed to stud as a son of Lonhro from the Encosta De Lago mare Mnemosyne. He was a half-brother to the Group 3 winner Forget (Exceed And Excel), and a full brother to the Queensland Listed winner Epidemic.

Mnemosyne herself was brilliantly performed, a winner of the G1 Thousand Guineas and G1 Queen of the Turf S., along with the G2 Tea Rose S., G2 Furious S. and G3 Silver Shadow S. She has the dam line of the 1981 triple Group 1 winner Full On Aces (Kaoru Star), who foaled no less than six stakes winners for 14 stakes wins in a staggering career.

At stud, Impending represents an ideal outcross because on both lines he is free of Danehill (USA).

According to Andy Makiv, head of sales for Godolphin Australia and who’s been involved with Impending right from the start, this is a significant uptick.

“It’s certainly a great fact about him,” Makiv said. “He’s by a Champion stallion and out of a Champion race mare who was by a Champion stallion, so his pedigree is outstanding anyway. But his being free of Danehill is something that a lot of the industry seeks these days.”

Makiv said that Impending had been a perfect result for the Godolphin operation.

“From our point of view, to own a stallion like Lonhro and to own a mare like Mnemosyne, then to put them together and get a dual Group 1 winner that looks and moves like Impending, it’s the dream result of what we’re in business to do,” he said. “For us, as a racing-stallion operation, he is exactly what we’re trying to produce.”

Darley sold lifetime breeding rights in Impending, and they’re held by some of the elite breeders around Australia. That bodes well for the young stallion, who has kept up stout books for four seasons.

Autumn beckons

As a first-season sire on the track and a second-season sire in the sale rings, Impending is sitting comfortably according to Makiv.

“He’s in pretty good shape,” he said. “The word out there is that they’ve got a lot of talent.”

Impending didn’t get to the races until April of his 2-year-old season winning impressively first-up at Rosehill. As such, he was a late juvenile and a better three and 4-year-old. Makiv said his expectation was that autumn track results would help move things along next breeding season.

“I’m anticipating I’ll have a pretty easy time selling nominations in him later this year because I think he’ll have a very good April, May and June,” Makiv said. “I think they (the progeny) will be a little bit later, but I don’t think many people bought them thinking they’d be winning those early 2-year-old races.

“They’re strong-topped horses and they’re very good yearlings, which I think adds a lot to his overall profile.”

The Gilgai touch

In a way, Jameka’s colt, Sir Bailey, was a good example of this at Sandown on Wednesday. Carrying Jamie Kah, he won by 1.25l, but there’s more to come.

“He oozes talent, but I think blind Freddie could work out that he’s going to be better later on,” Makiv said.

The story behind Sir Bailey comes with a fair bit of personal pride for Makiv.

For 15 years he’s managed the bloodstock interests of Colin and Janice McKenna (of Halo Racing), in whose colours both Jameka and Sir Bailey raced. He considers the McKennas important friends, so when they opted for Impending it pleased everyone, especially Makiv.

“To get the great mare, a triple Group 1 winner, to go to our Group 1-winning stallion, and to produce that first-up, was pretty exciting,” Makiv said. “And it’s got a bit more of a story to it too.”

Jameka was bred by Rick Jamieson and she returned to Gilgai Farm as a broodmare. The McKennas asked Jamieson to select a stallion for her in her very first season, and Jamieson chose Impending above all others.

“That pleased me tremendously because I work for Darley and I love Impending,” Makiv said. “But having an elite breeder like Rick choose the horse was also special, and Colin, Janice and myself all listened and the result is Sir Bailey.

“Hopefully this triple Group 1-winning mare and this dual Group 1-winning stallion can produce a Group 1-winning son.”

Cover image courtesy of Bronwen Healy

Dubai, at this time of year, isn’t unlike South Australia. The mornings are fresh and warm before the beating sun of the afternoon, and the evenings are cool.

It’s been just about perfect for the Morphettville trainer Will Clarken, who arrived in Dubai earlier this week. And it’s been more than ideal for his pair of horses, Parsifal and He’s A Balter, who have settled right into life in Dubai since their arrival a month ago.

The two horses have embarked on Clarken's first experience in the Gulf.

On January 28, less than a fortnight after they touched down, they competed in respective events at Meydan. He’s A Balter ran a belter for second, while Parsifal had a pipe-opener running sixth in a Listed race.

Both horses will run again on Friday night in what Clarken says is their grand final of sorts, the G2 Blue Point Sprint at Meydan over the 1000-metre straight turf-course.

“For Parsifal, this is his race,” Clarken said, speaking to TDN AusNZ. “It’s a distance that I like for him and it’s down the straight, which he’s good at. This is a race that we picked up and looked at, and we thought if we could get him to run well over here, this is the race that he’d be right in.”

He’s A Balter is also in the nine-horse field and, after his slashing runner-up effort in his Dubai debut, Clarken thinks anything is possible.

“This fellow has come so far that there's no end game,” the trainer said. “He’s just rolling around on Friday night in this field, and I like the 1000 metres for him too. Although there is another race or two that they could have before they head home, Friday night’s race is the one that really appealed to us.”

In the footsteps of good ones

Parsifal and He’s A Balter are on a path well-trod.

In the past, so many notable Australian stars have headed to Dubai to contest the rich purses of the Dubai World Cup Carnival, and they have included the likes of Buffering (Mossman), Ortensia (Testa Rossa), Elvstroem and Helmet.

Gallery: Some of the Australian stars who competed in the Dubai World Cup Carnival, images courtesy of Sportpix

There hasn’t been an Australian horse to contest Dubai since 2019, when the Lindsay Park horse Faatinah (Nicconi) won over 1000 metres before an ultimate second to Blue Point (Ire) in the G2 Meydan Sprint. Faatinah also won in Dubai in 2018.

Traditionally, the Carnival has suited good Australian sprinters, and it was with this in mind that Clarken opted to nominate his horses this year.

Both Parsifal and He’s A Balter had winning runs on the board, with Parsifal, in particular, running out of options at home.

The 7-year-old gelding was second and third respectively in his last two Melbourne starts. His last outing saw him place behind the undefeated Marabi (I Am Invincible) and Away Game (Snitzel) in the Listed Christmas S. at Caulfield.

Meanwhile, the 5-year-old He’s A Balter has been up and running since April last year. He strung together four consecutive wins through the winter before a last-start third in the Listed Christmas H. at Morphettville in mid-December.

The horse is co-owned by Anthony Panozzo, who had Illustrious Lad (I Am Invincible) compete in Dubai in 2018, and He's A Balter was narrowly beaten in his Dubai debut on January 28, going down by just a neck to the French-trained Batwan (Fr) (Kendargent {Fr}).

The perfect pair of horses

“These were two older horses in the yard that had hit their benchmark in Australia,” Clarken said. “There was no real end game for them, if that makes sense. Running in stakes races in Melbourne they’d get a bit of weight and there’d be horses on the minimum end that might be a bit better than them, and there weren’t a lot of options for them in Adelaide.”

Clarken’s yard is right in the mix of things on Ellis Avenue at Morphettville. The trainer said his local Listed races were very good, and his horses might run into a Behemoth (All Too Hard) or Kemelpasa (Magnus), horses with excellent open-handicap form.

“There wasn’t really a race in Australia for either of these two horses,” Clarken said of his Dubai entrants. “Anthony Panozzo then, who’d been in Dubai before, knew the ropes over here, and he toyed with us on the idea of bringing the horses here. And the more I thought about it, the more I felt we had the perfect set of horses for it.”

Clarken said his horses were already well-travelled long before they jumped on a flight to Dubai.

Their over and back in trucks and floats between Adelaide and Melbourne, a 10-hour trip one way, had equipped them with good travel legs, and this was a major impetus for considering Dubai.

“They’re basically a pair of old codgers that you can do anything with,” Clarken said. “If there were ever two horses that we could experiment with and use as a fact-finding mission, these were the perfect two.”

Right at home

Parsifal and He’s A Balter shipped out on January 17. They travelled perfectly, touching down in the illustrious surrounds of Meydan Racecourse a day or so later.

For Clarken, it’s his first experience in Dubai and he’s impressed. From the facilities to the track to the horse care, every detail has been covered by the Dubai Racing Club.

“I’d never been here before and they’ve been so good to us,” the trainer said. “The Club is fantastic, all the support staff are amazing and the training facilities are really, really good. John Nicholls, the head of quarantine here, has been a great help to me regarding the lay of the land and, short of sounding arrogant, it’s been very easy.”

As often happens, the two Australian horses have soaked up the environment and blossomed.

Parsifal has put on 16kg and, by his trainer’s account, he’s doing better in Dubai than he regularly does in Australia. The horse raced on January 28 simply because he was doing too well.

“Parsifal travelled so well that I was worried about him getting away on me, about him getting too fat,” Clarken said. “So we ran him more or less to have a look at the straight, because the grandstand is very imposing, and he blew out so that saved me doing all the hard galloping on the track. He’s come on in leaps and bounds since it, so much so that I’ve put the blinkers on him for the first time.”

Both horses work under Morphettville jockey Caitlin Jones, who rides work for Clarken at home alongside the trainer's stable jockey Todd Pannell.

Jones partnered the pair on their journey to Dubai and she has ridden each in their respective races to date. On Friday night in the G2 Blue Point Sprint, she will pilot He’s A Balter.

“’I’m very proud of the way Caitlin’s embraced the whole thing,” Clarken said. “If someone had told her six months ago that we’d be in Dubai together, she’d have said it was 20 million to one. But she said yes when I asked her, and it shows that she’s got some up-and-go."

Being realistic

Jones flew with the horses to Dubai in Clarken’s absence because circumstances prevented his travelling.

After time at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale earlier in the year, during which he bought five yearlings for a $985,000 output, Clarken caught COVID and he missed his horses racing on January 28.

Gallery: Some of the yearlings purchased by Clarken Bloodstock at the 2022 Magic Millions Gold Coast Sale, images courtesy of Magic Millions

Nevertheless, he said Jones had done a brilliant job and that handling the horses from afar hasn’t been difficult. He’s had more than enough access to weight and temperature data, and he’s got heart and speed trackers with the horses locally.

“I can really manage them from abroad,” Clarken said. “We’ve had great vision of them trotting up and we can get their weights through the scales. Like I said, it is just so easy dealing with these two horses so it has all worked perfectly. They almost train themselves.”

Friday’s race is the feature sprint on a card that also contains the G3 UAE Oaks and G3 Nad Al Sheba Trophy.

It’s a race worth US$180,000 (AU$250,000), so it’s hardly the dazzling prizemoney that Australians are growing used to, but it will be a tidy return if Parsifal or He’s A Balter get home.

“I told the owners of these horses that we’re not coming over here expecting to make a huge profit,” Clarken said. “It’s not like we’ve discovered a little gold mine. We’re just coming over here to enjoy the experience and see what happens, and some of the ownership group are coming over to watch on Friday night. We’re all really looking forward to it.”

If either horse finishes in the top three on Friday, Clarken said there was the possibility of their being invited into the very rich Dubai World Cup meeting on March 26. It’s a long shot, but he who dares wins.

“Obviously we’d be absolutely mad not to do that if the opportunity came up,” the trainer said. “But we’re under no illusions. These are not Group 1 horses; they’re good, open-handicap horses.”

Hindsight and far-sight

For Clarken, the whole experiment has been bountiful. He’d heard about how much travel could change racehorses, but he’d never witnessed it with his own eyes.

“I’d heard David Hayes say this, that physically the horses change but their personalities do too because they’ve got one person basically with them all day,” he said. “And I’ve seen these horses change and do so well here. It’s been a real experience in that respect.”

Clarken will certainly repeat it in the future, even if he does it a little differently.

“I think if you were bringing a horse along, like a younger horse that had less starts than these two, if you were to bring them here you could really get them to the next level,” he said. “It’s something that I want to do in the future, and now that I’ve seen it all, I can see how I can get more out of a horse.”

The trainer cast his mind back to previous horses he might have brought to Dubai.

“Had I had my time back again, a horse like Beau Rossa would have been perfect,” Clarken said. “He was a horse that lacked confidence early and, while it takes a bit to get them here, once the horses are here, it just makes them so much stronger mentally.”

Parsifal and He's A Balter will contest the G2 Blue Point Sprint on Friday night local time.

Cover image courtesy of Sportpix

Colin Sidney Hayes was 75 years old when he died in 1999, one of the great geniuses of horse racing. His kind expression, square spectacles and utter brilliance had been known the length of Australia, as much a legend as Bart Cummings and TJ Smith, and as much a master as Ireland’s Vincent O’Brien.

Even today, it is hard to grasp the South Australian’s complete success.

From two Melbourne Cups to three Cox Plates, a Golden Slipper in 1985 and four Victoria Derbies, Hayes won almost everything. He took three Blue Diamonds, four Newmarkets, a Caulfield Cup and a Sydney Cup, and he trained 524 individual stakes winners.

Hayes won 28 Adelaide trainers’ premierships and a further 13 across the border in Melbourne, and he had horses like Dulcify (NZ) (Decies {GB}), Zabeel (NZ), At Talaq (USA), Rory’s Jester and Special (Habituate {Ire}). He set a world record in 1982 of 10 city winners in a single day and, through his 43-year training career, his records went on and on.

Gallery: Some of the influential Group 1 winners Colin Hayes trained, images courtesy of Sportpix

He was posthumously inducted into the Australian Racing Hall of Fame in 2001, its very first year, alongside Cummings, Smith and Phar Lap (NZ) (Night Raid {GB}), Carbine (NZ) and Bernborough.

Like the greatest horsemen, Hayes had an instinct for his craft. He knew what it took to be successful and to produce winning thoroughbreds, and in 1976 he spoke about it.

“Horses are four-fifths hard work and routine, and one-fifth intuition,” he said. “It’s probably that last fifth that is so important in selecting winners.”

In 1965, after an inspiring visit to country England, Hayes brought together Harry Cornell, Ron Hutchinson, Don McKay, Wyndham Hill Smith and Peter Richardson, and together they purchased the 400-acre estate of Lindsay Park. With its red gums, ivy-clad stone walls and 130-year-old colonial homestead in the Barossa Valley, the property was a revelation.

Hayes was told that Lindsay Park was too far out of town, that owners would desert him to remain in the metro enclaves, but if it happened, it wasn’t noticeable as the training and breeding operation became one of the best of its kind the world over.

Lindsay Park stood the likes of Jeune, Rory’s Jester and Without Fear (Fr), as all the while Hayes worked alongside the legendary Robert Sangster to establish the shuttle-stallion concept in Australia and the Northern Hemisphere ideal of breeding to Southern Hemisphere time.

In 1977, the property hosted a visit by Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip, but that esteemed pair simply joined a long line of prime ministers, politicians, television stars and Arab royalty that frequented the Lindsay Park drawing room in its glorious heyday.

For Hayes, family was everything.

Son David was just 27 years old when his father bowed out in 1990, handing over a legacy to both he and his now late brother Peter that was more priceless than any in Australian racing. The patriarch lived for another nine years before he passed away on May 21, 1999.

It had been a long and magnificent career for Colin Hayes, one as much filled with hard work as success. It had started in working-class row with a £9 gymkhana pony called Surefoot, and, by the end, it was as decorated a career as racing is ever likely to see again.