Matings mix: B2B Thoroughbreds

Cover image courtesy of B2B Thoroughbreds

Horse breeding is full of swings and roundabouts, and no one knows that better than Riccardo Surace, the racing manager at B2B Thoroughbreds in the Southern Highlands, and the son of stud principal Ricky Surace.

The farm’s foal crop this spring will be slightly down on average years, about 24 it’s expected, but it means that a number of mares will be rolling out for prompt, early covers.

“We’ll have 15 or 16 ready to go on September 1,” Surace said. “There is always a bright side, which in this case is that we’ll have a lot of Magic Millions horses next year.”

Give or take, B2B Thoroughbreds will have 35 mares to breed this spring. Six will be going to Russian Revolution, five to Snitzel and three are heading south to Written Tycoon. At Vinery Stud, Ole Kirk will see four of the B2B broodmares, while Zoustar is booked for two.

There are other stallions in play, but B2B is taking a very commercial approach this spring, according to Surace.

“We’re not using these top stallions to breed big sales-horses,” he said. “If you look at these sires, they’re all absolutely flying. Zoustar, Snitzel and Written Tycoon, they’re top stallions for a reason and they get huge numbers for a reason. They make great racehorses, and that’s the approach for us.

“We have very nice pedigrees that need to be bred to these good stallions in the hope of making a good result, and if you get a good sales return, then that’s a bonus too.”

B2B has been crafting its broodmare band for years now. One of its foundation mares is Leone Chiara, a daughter of Lion Hunter and the dam of Widden’s important resident, Star Witness.

At 23 years old, Leone Chiara is retired now, but the family is an important string in the farm’s bow.

There is also Forbidden (General Nediym), the dam of Group 2 winner Mamaragan (Wandjina), and Vintage Strike (USA) (Smart Strike {USA}), a daughter of Bollinger (Dehere {USA}). Lipstick Lover (I Am Invincible) is a half-sister to Ilovethiscity, and these are just a handful of the rich pickings at home on B2B.

The young Americans

As against previous years, one of the significant points of difference this season for the farm is its addition of three American mares.

Each was picked up at respective sales through 2021, and they are Always Inthe Munny (USA) by Munnings (USA), Ippodamia’s Girl (USA) by Stormy Atlantic (USA) and Nothingbutflowers (USA) by Violence (USA).

Gallery: B2B Thoroughbreds' American mare purchases

The three mares arrived in Australia earlier this year, bought at Fasig-Tipton and Keeneland, and Surace said he happened on them because, sometimes, opinions on good type can vary according to where you are in the world.

“When you go to different parts of the world, they can count good type as something completely different,” Surace said. “In America, they like a scopey, lighter-type of horse that will get over a bit of ground, and obviously in Australia we’re into those compact, strong, sprinter types.

“As a result, horses can fall through cracks, which was where we swept in last year at the Keeneland sale. With the help of Catheryne Bruggeman, we found these three really nice sprinting mares that were all stakes winners and looked like the ideal Australian broodmare.”

Always Inthe Munny was Hip 138 at the 2021 Fasig-Tipton November Sale. Via Bruggeman and Paul Moroney Bloodstock, B2B snapped her up for US$330,000 (AU$480,000).

She is from the Danehill (USA) mare Always A Star (Ire), and she was an 8.5l winner of the 2020 Listed Bara Lass S. at Lone Star Park. She’s a half-sister to the stakes-placed Scatter A Star (USA) (Scat Daddy {USA}) and the very good Group winner Star Of The North (USA) (The Hunk {USA}).

Always Inthe Munny will visit Written Tycoon this spring.

“We’ve had great success in the past with mares we’ve imported into Australia,” Surace said. “We brought in three before these and they’ve each produced a stakes winner, so that was our motive. It’s definitely a growing trend in Australia, and we see a lot of people going over there to identify these nicely performed prospects, and part of that is because they’re becoming the ultimate broodmares down here.”

Surace points to Russian Revolution as an example, who is from an American-bred mare (Ballet D’Amour {USA} by Stravinsky {USA}). He also mentions Home Affairs, who is from a daughter of Ballet D’Amour.

“These bloodlines mix really well with Australian stallions,” Surace said. “That’s been really apparent in the market for the last 20 years, and we’ve had great success with it. I’m not sure we’d be doing it if we hadn’t had great success with it.”

Always Inthe Munny was the number one pick for B2B from her Sale last year.

“She was the perfect sprinter,” Surace said. “That Danehill influence is there, but also Munnings consistently has a turf and dirt record, and we got her bloodlines checked and she came out a turf pro rather than a dirt pro, which was quite interesting.”

Written Tycoon, Surace believes, will put some scope into Always Inthe Munny, while his second purchase, Ippodamia’s Girl, will visit Snitzel. The latter was purchased at the 2021 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale, picked up by B2B through Bruggeman for US$260,000 (AU$380,000).

“Ippodamia’s Girl is probably the ideal Snitzel type,” Surace said. “She has a bit of scope about her with a really nice hindquarter and well-built shoulder. She’s got a bit of size so we’re not scared to go to Snitzel first-up, and we believe it will produce a really nice foal. Genetically, it’s perfect.”

Ippodamia’s Girl won the Listed Blue Norther S. at Santa Anita during her career. She was Grade 3-placed at the same track, and she’s a half-sister to Georgie Boy (USA) (Tribal Rule {USA}), who won the G1 Del Mar Futurity, plus three Grade 2 events.

The third mare, Nothingbutflowers, was bought at the same sale by Bruggeman for US$90,000 (AU$130,000). She is a daughter of a Listed California Oaks winner, and she is booked to visit Russian Revolution this spring.

“She was one that had really good bloodlines and she was a stakes winner,” Surace said. “We’ve seen from a horse like Russian Conquest, who is bred from an American mare, that it can work, so we had no hesitation in booking her into Russian Revolution. We think it will mix really well, and she’s got a lot of scope about her. He should put a bit of oomph into her.”

In Surace’s eyes, Russian Revolution is as proven a new sire as they come right now, which is why he has six bookings to the Newgate resident.

“If you’re a Champion First Season Sire, it speaks volumes,” he said. “And every trainer I ask, they just want Russian Revolutions. This year he’s at $71,500, but next year I think he could be at $110,000. If he isn’t a stallion of the future, I don’t know what is.”

La Mexicana

Among the local contingent at B2B Thoroughbreds, La Mexicana is a daughter of I Am Invincible that the Surace family has owned since her yearling days.

She was bought via Belmont Bloodstock at the 2019 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale, costing $320,000 from the draft of Lime Country Thoroughbreds.

Trained by Anthony and Sam Freedman, La Mexicana clocked six wins, including the G3 Kevin Hayes S. and Listed William Crockett S. She was second to Dirty Thoughts (So You Think {NZ}) in the G3 Northwood Plume S., in total banking over $500,000 in earnings.

Her last run was in April, and she heads to the breeding shed this spring with a maiden booking to Snitzel.

“She was a very good horse for us,” Surace said. “She grew into an enormous animal and she gave us a lot of joy. Her winning a stakes race on Cox Plate Day was a real highlight, but I don’t think we saw the best of her. Her manners took away from her performances because half the time she either played up in the barriers or was scratched behind them.”

La Mexicana, on paper, is a dual stakes-winner, but there’s more to her story. She consistently ran into the likes of Nudge (Fastnet Rock), Bella Nipotina (Pride Of Dubai) and Away Game (Snitzel) and, if opposition counts for anything, she has runs on the board.

“These are top mares that we’ve seen in recent years,” Surace said. “She was definitely up to it, and she let down into a terrific mare after we retired her.”

Surace said that Snitzel matches well with La Mexicana, but there is the added incentive of her being from a Domesday mare. He said the mating is similar to that of Trapeze Artist, whose dam, Treppes, was also by Domesday.

“If you put it on paper, it’s almost a spot-on mating,” he said. “But if you add on I Am Invincible, the sire of this mare, you’ve got the perfect sprinter-miler on the way, hopefully.”

Snitzel’s 2022 service fee, back to its pre-COVID days of $220,000 (inc GST), wasn’t a second thought for Surace this year.

“No hesitation at all,” he said. “Snitzel is the GOAT. He’s only got a few years left and he’s had another stellar year with results. He just sired the winner of the first 3-year-old stakes race of the season, and obviously his sales results were extraordinary. If you have a nice, early foal by him, they’re just going to run.”

The Scandinavian touch

Lastly, Surace chats about his 7-year-old mare Skagerrak (Dawn Approach {Ire}), a recent addition that he picked up at this year’s Magic Millions Spendthrift Dispersal Sale for $400,000.

Skagerrak, who is named after a Danish stretch of water, is a half-sister to Rosemont’s resident sire Hanseatic, and the third dam in this family is Scandinavia (Snippets), who needs no introduction.

Some of the names that have dropped from this page include Black Caviar (Bel Esprit), her half-brother All Too Hard and Ole Kirk. Skagerrak was bought in foal to Dirty Work, and she’s already had a colt by Ribchester (Ire) and Omaha Beach (USA).

In line with Ole Kirk being by Written Tycoon, Skagerrak is booked to the Yulong sire this spring.

“She was our number-one pick of that whole sale,” Surace said. “We didn’t think she’d make anywhere near that money ($400,000) because if you look back at her sales results in the past, Spendthrift bought her for something like $250,000, so they did really well with her.

“I arrived a few days early at Magic Millions back in May because I wanted to see her Omaha Beach foal, which made $170,000 or something like that. That foal was beautiful and it convinced us to open up our shoulders a bit and go hard for the mare. We inspected her around 10 times, just trying to find a fault and we couldn’t find one.”

B2B has long upheld the Gilgai operation as the pinnacle of how things are done, and Surace said this family, a Gilgai product, was the best in the Stud Book.

“It was a no-brainer to send her to Written Tycoon because there are horses in the pedigree like Ole Kirk that have done great things,” he said. “It’s a top mating, and it’s a mating that is very apparent within this family.

“I know that Ole Kirk has a half-sister in Gimmie Par that is also going to Written Tycoon this year, so it’s a good, logical mating. The family is constantly being bred back to the stallion.”

Xtravagant emerges

Sires like Written Tycoon, Snitzel, Ole Kirk and Russian Revolution will make up the bulk of the B2B book this spring. It’s a conscious choice, but it doesn’t mean there aren’t other sires in the offing.

B2B has a share in the Newhaven Park resident Xtravagant (NZ), who has posted a roof-raising run for his shareholders. In a way, he has justified that nervous faith that Surace admits to.

“We have 10 per cent of Xtravagant and we’ve waited a long time for his breakthrough,” he said. “I’m not going to lie, we did lose a bit of hope there for a bit when he covered 46 mares last year.

“When John (Kelly, the Newhaven studmaster) invited us into the horse, we knew he was very good on pedigree and that he probably wouldn’t produce a proper Australian 2-year-old, and that’s what happened.

“As soon as his stock reached three, they really came into their own, although this year was a little bit different. He sired an Inglis Millennium winner, which was unreal.”

Xtravagant’s winner of the R. Listed Inglis Millennium was Xtravagant Star, trained at Ballarat by Tony and Calvin McEvoy and a winner now of $1.2 million. The black filly joined fellow Xtravagant stakes winners He’s Xceptional and Devoted, plus the G3 Angus Armanasco S. winner Lavish Girl.

B2B will send a number of its mares to Xtravagant in what is promising to be the stallion’s best book yet. One of them is the American-bred mare Leinin (USA) (Ready’s Image {USA}), who was a multiple stakes-winner before her importation to the Southern Highlands in 2015.

Leinan has been to Snitzel, Dundeel (NZ), Pierro, Lonhro and Pierata in her past. She wasn’t served last season, so it’s likely she’ll go for an early cover to Xtravagant.

“He’s a stallion that might be anything,” Surace said. “He’s definitely going to be exciting.”

Table: Some of the matings B2B Thoroughbreds is planning for the 2022 season