Matings mix: 'It has been a plan for over 20 years which is finally coming off now'

Cover Image courtesy of Trelawney Stud

By Cherry’s own volition the farm’s emergence as one of the most successful breeding operations in the country ‘didn’t happen overnight’ but rather it is the product of meticulous planning coupled with heavy investment.

The farm’s list of graduates makes for impressive reading and they include multiple Group 1 winner and now Waikato Stud-based sire Ocean Park (NZ), dual Group 1 winner and now Yulong Stud sire Grunt (NZ), G1 Hong Kong Sprint winner Sky Field (Deep Field) and I’m Thunderstruck (NZ) (Shocking), who added a second Group 1 to his record in the G1 Makybe Diva S. earlier this month to name a few.

Gallery: Trelawney stallion graduates

Over the past three decades, the redoubtable green and red Trelawney colours have not only become a familiar sight on racecourses in New Zealand but also across the Tasman in Australia.

They were carried to victory last season by the likes of Trelawney’s homebreds like Group 1 winner Two Illicit (NZ) (Jimmy Choux {NZ}), G2 Matriarch S. winner Zayydani (NZ) (Savabeel) and dual Group 3 winner Cheaperthandivorce (NZ) (Savabeel), while Juan Diva (Snitzel) who they purchased from John Camilleri carried their silks to victory in the G3 WJ Healy S. at Eagle Farm.

Many of those aforementioned brilliant race mares now make up the farm’s deep and quality band of broodmares, which has been the Taylors' grand plan for a number of years.

“When we first started at Trelawney over 20 years ago, we took the view that we should sell everything because we had to,” Cherry Taylor told TDN AusNZ. “But in more recent years we have chosen to keep fillies we have loved. These are the really nice fillies, who are athletic, with a bit of personality and we choose to keep them and race them to be our future broodmares.

“We then also buy fillies at the yearling sales, to bring in extra blood, because we believe that you need to keep adding to the gene pool, you can’t just be breeding from the same families.”

The best laid plan

So far, that theoretical plan they hatched has been fruitful and their broodmare band includes some of the very best mares New Zealand has to offer, spearheaded by G1 New Zealand 1000 Guineas winner Loire (NZ) (Redoute’s Choice) and elite-level-producing mare Ruqqaya (NZ) (Van Nistelrooy {USA}).

Meanwhile, their group of mares comprises overseas blood in the shape of Group 3-winning, German-bred Galileo (Ire) mare Igraine (Ger) and well-bred stakes-placed I Am Invincible filly Vamos Bebe, who will embark on her first year at stud this season.

Gallery: Overseas mares that contribute to Trelawney's elite broodmare band

“For all our maiden mares we try to choose a proven stallion, because we both believe to kick off a mare's breeding career if you choose a proven stallion you know produces winners and Group performers, we feel like it gives the mare the greatest opportunity to get her breeding career off to the best possible start,” explained Cherry.

“Proven stallions might not mean the flavour of the month in the sales ring, but ones that can produce a really good racehorse will then give us really good results in the sales ring down the line, because by then not only will the stallion be proven but the mare will be too. In our opinion, if you can kick a mare off with a winner, stakes winner or even just a stakes performer it gives the best possible chance of making it as a broodmare.”

When it comes to choosing which mares go with which stallions, Cherry explains that she leans more towards physicality, while her husband Brent is more drawn in by the pedigree side of things.

“Brent looks through the stallions on pedigree, using Tesio and (G1) Goldmine, and then I am more focused on the stallion on type,” she explained. “In our mind, we think that it is all very well to say that on paper it works perfectly, but if you breed something that doesn’t suit physically you are probably not going to get a good physical type and, more often than not, good physical types make good racehorses.

“Brent and I will have debates, sometimes more heated than others, about where horses should go. It works well for us to have a debate and usually we both end up agreeing.”

A lot can change in a year in terms of stallions and Cherry and Brent make it their business to inspect every stallion they can before making the decision where to send their mares and no stallion in the world is off the table.

“We like to go around the farms to see every stallion in New Zealand and we also go to Australia as well, except obviously during COVID when that wasn’t allowed and sometimes we change our minds when we see the stallions in the flesh,” she said.

As has been the case every season, the Taylors are throwing their support behind Waikato’s peerless multiple Champion Sire Savabeel.

“We are breeding quite a lot of our mares to Savabeel, the way we do every year, but this year in particular because he is getting older. We have been shareholders in him since the start and we have picked up other shares in him since we’ve gone along,” Cherry explained.

“We just believe he is a super sire and we think he is going to be just as good as a broodmare sire and we will be breeding big time to him again this year in New Zealand.”

Standing at 20 years old, it is no secret that Savabeel is heading into the twilight of his years in the breeding shed and as a result, the Taylors have strived to support some of the younger stallions coming through the ranks in the country.

“New Zealand, unfortunately, doesn’t have a lot of proven sires, like Savabeel. There are stallions that have done enough to start with and hopefully they can go on with it. We have bought a lot of shares in a lot of stallions going to stud in New Zealand, as long as we like the horse and the pedigree and then we have the option to send our mare to whichever stallions we would like.

“We haven’t got any shares in stallions in Australia because we took the view that if we were sending mares to Australia and we had shares in stallions, we were pretty much committed to sending our mares to the stallions we have shares in,” said Cherry.

A nice touch

German-bred Igraine will be set for a date with Savabeel in the coming weeks. In the thoroughbred industry, some plans fall into place and for the Taylors, they could have never predicted the 65,000gns (AU$110,700) Paul Moroney spent on their behalf for the daughter of Galileo at the Tattersalls December Mares Sale in 2017 would come to look like such a shrewd investment.

At the time of purchase, Igraine had landed one minor contest in her native Germany and had one famous brother in the shape of Group 1 winner Ito (Ger). Fast forward to the present, Igraine’s pedigree has kicked up a gear with the emergence of her younger half-brother In Swoop (Ger), who won the G1 German Derby and finished second in the G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe.

Meanwhile, Igraine herself has also been doing her bit for the family, when she arrived in New Zealand she was immediately sent into training with Robert Priscott and added five further victories to her record, headed by a win in the G3 Counties Cup and Listed Caloundra Cup.

“We were very lucky with her after her purchase. I think when we bought her she had won once, but then she went on to win a couple of stakes races for us and became a very valuable mare,” said Cherry.

“We sent her over to be covered by Fastnet Rock for her first two seasons, for obvious reasons because that cross is so good and we were lucky enough to get a filly, who we are going to race and her second was a colt. She is in foal to Savabeel and she will go back to him this season.”

Using the tried and tested plan that maiden mares should visit proven horses, three-time winning, stakes-placed mare Vamos Bebe was one booked to Savabeel and has already been covered by the stallion.

Purchased by Paul Willetts Bloodstock on behalf of the Taylors for $200,000 at the Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale in 2018, Vamos Bebe is out of Group 1 winner Hurtle Myrtle (Dane Shadow) and is an older sister to dual Group 3 winner Holyfield.

Due to issues with bleeding, the daughter of I Am Invincible never achieved her full potential on the racetrack, but the Taylors are confident she can prove to be a hit in the breeding barn.

“She was very fast and unlucky not to win a stakes race,” Cherry explained. “She bled twice during her racing career, including in the Hallmark earlier this year, and that is why she was retired. She had so much more ability than her record shows and I feel really confident breeding from her and I feel like we are going to get some really nice racehorses from her.”

Another of the Trelawney mares that struggled with health problems during her time on the racetrack and therefore never reached her full potential was Ruqqaya.

However, over the years the mare has more than repaid the farm’s faith in her as a broodmare. She has four winners to her name, headed by dual Group 1 scorer and now stallion Grunt and Group 2 scorer Zayydani.

Ruqqaya produced a filly by Super Seth last year and is expecting a foal by Cambridge Stud shuttler Hello Youmzain (Fr) in the coming weeks. She will be covered by Savabeel which will be her third visit to the Champion Sire.

Ruqqaya’s first trip to the son of Zabeel (NZ) was a fruitful one and produced Zayydani, whose career was curtailed by a tendon injury she sustained in the G3 Lord Mayor’s Cup in May.

Trained throughout her career at Lindsay Park, Zayydani will stay in Australia for the breeding season and is set for a date with Widden Stud’s superstar stallion Zoustar, which is a mating the Taylors are confident will produce a beautiful type.

“She had a lot of options in terms of stallions, but when we arrived at Widden, we just thought that physically she would produce a really beautiful yearling by him and we thought that was just a really good physical mating for her and it also works on paper.

“She could have gone on racing had she not done her tendon in that last race, where she finished fourth in Brisbane.

“She is an interesting one because when she was a yearling she was very much an ugly duckling. She was quite long and narrow, but as she’s got older she’s developed into a lovely mare, with a really nice depth of girth. She’s a very pretty mare and I think she will produce a really nice colt or filly for us.”

The perfect match

Another mare having her first foray in the breeding shed is the high-class performer Two Illicit, whose victory in the G1 Captain Cook S. headlines her six wins at stakes level, while her record also includes a second-place finish in the G1 New Zealand Derby.

A mare with such a record deserves to go to the best the world has to offer and the Taylors decided she was the perfect match for Arrowfield Stud’s multiple Champion Sire Snitzel.

“Two Illicit has already been covered by Snitzel and she is about 10 days away from having her first test, so fingers crossed she has gone in foal. Physically, she is such a good type that she can really go to any stallion. She is really balanced, she’s got good length, good depth of girth and she’s a good size,” Cherry explained.

“When she was born we decided to keep her because we thought she was a really good type, who would make no money in the sales ring. So, we decided to put her in the paddock and treat her like a gelding unless she proved to be something better, which she did.

“We chose Snitzel because he is also a beautiful type and I think it will really match up physically. I will be very surprised if she doesn’t produce us an outstanding yearling.”

Another Group 1 winner amongst the high-class broodmare band is the 2019 G1 New Zealand 1000 Guineas winner Loire, who produced a filly by Juddmonte’s immeasurable Frankel (GB) last season and she has already been covered by the son of Galileo (Ire) again this year.

“We decided we wanted a Frankel and we thought they would be too expensive for us to buy in the sales ring and so we bit the bullet and sent a mare up there. In our minds, she had to be a Group 1 winner, or she wouldn’t be worth sending and she fit that profile,” Cherry explained.

“Her filly on the ground, we have seen photos of her, and she looks nice, so fingers crossed she will develop into a nice type for us.”

The Trelawney mares board with Adrian and Philipa O’Brien at Hazelwood and have two covers in the Northern Hemisphere, before making their way back south with a foal at foot and one in utero.

“She has already been covered this year, which is obviously exciting. As soon as she is safely in foal she will be back on the flight to New Zealand and we hope to have her back here by December.

“She is a really super type and is the most beautiful mare. She was the most spoiled filly in the stable when she was racing because they all loved her and she got up to all sorts of antics because she was so spoiled.”

When the Taylors set out 30 years ago their aspirations were clear and Cherry said the broodmare band currently assembled is one they are proud of, especially given the time it has taken for them to get to this point.

“We’re thrilled with what we’ve got in the broodmare band, but this has taken over 20 years to get to this point, it certainly hasn’t happened overnight,” she said. “We had a plan to weed out the bottom end of our mares and keep buying, breeding and racing to get that top end. It has been a 30-year effort and plan, which is finally coming off now.”

Table: Some of the matings Trelawney Stud is planning for the 2022 season