Hinterland Thoroughbreds a new name in the breeze-up game

Cover image courtesy of Hinterland Thoroughbreds

At any Australian sale, breaking into the vendor space isn’t for the light of heart. It’s expensive, competitive and risky, often months of hard work boiled down to a few minutes in an auction ring.

For Sarah Gardiner, this cool reality has been part of her life for the last few months as her new business, Hinterland Thoroughbreds, readies itself for the Magic Millions 2YOs In Training Sale. Gardiner will present her first draft under her own banner at next Tuesday’s sale.

Through the jigs and reels of withdrawals, it’s concise with three 2-year-olds and they represent the stallions Justify (USA), Grunt (NZ) and Shalaa (Ire). At the time of writing, two of the youngsters had posted smart breeze-up times of under 11s.

“I’m fairly confident most of the way through these sale preparations until that split second before they actually breeze-up,” Gardiner said, speaking to TDN AusNZ. “When they’re out on the track and anything can happen, and it’s completely out of your hands, those 15 seconds are the most stressed that I get.”

Gardiner, who is new to selling but not at all new to preparing horses, relaxes after the gallops, knowing that all the hard work has been done and sale time, all being well, is the happy conclusion.

“You just want the very best result for your client, at the end of it all,” she said. “And this is what we do for a living. I enjoy the day-to-day of the ready to runs because it’s challenging. In the pre-training business, we do a lot of slow work and a lot of conditioning, so it’s nice to have young horses to take through into that gallop work.”

At Magic Millions, Managing Director Barry Bowditch said the 2YOs In Training Sale was a great place for first-time vendors to start.

“It’s a great trading market,” he told TDN AusNZ. “It provides those people with expertise a reason to buy yearlings or bring horses through for their clients, and it gets new vendors into the marketplace.

“Given the expertise of people like Hinterland Thoroughbreds, with their background in pre-training good horses, the 2-year-old sale is a genuine place for them to begin.”

Who is Hinterland Thoroughbreds?

Hinterland Thoroughbreds is based in the pretty surrounds of Canungra in southeast Queensland, about an hour west of the Gold Coast.

This place has a soft climate all year round, and it’s just about perfect for the year-round schooling and resting of young and mature thoroughbreds.

The property that is Hinterland Thoroughbreds is owned by Tony Fung, and early in its days, it was set up with all the bells and whistles you might expect of Fung’s investment. As such, Gardiner has magnificent facilities at hand, including 50 spelling paddocks, post and rail fencing, an indoor arena, stables, water walker, treadmill and three training tracks across grass, synthetic and sand surfaces.

Gardiner’s business is pre-training, breaking and spelling. She’s been doing it a long time, but Hinterland Thoroughbreds came about less than two years ago.

“I’ve done a whole variety of different things with horses, but I stumbled upon Elysian Fields, which was Tony Fung’s initial property and had about 20 racehorses in work,” Gardiner said. “I started working with Kacy Fogden there, riding a few of the pretrainers and looking after the spellers. With only 20 horses we basically did it all ourselves, Kacy and I together.”

A few months after Gardiner’s arrival at Elysian Fields, Fung purchased the main Aquis farm a little further away. It was the old Patinack Farm, and Gardiner moved around the operation in various roles before returning to the pre-training business.

“That was about six years ago and I was with Kacy initially,” Gardiner said. “We did a lot of the babies together, educating horses like Dubious, Farnan and Lean Mean Machine before Kacy got her trainer’s licence and the opportunity came up for me to basically run the breaking and pre-training facility.”

Eighteen months ago, Aquis offered Gardiner a lease on the property to run as her own, with Aquis being a major client. She accepted, and Hinterland Thoroughbreds was born and blossomed from there.

“The facility was basically here and going nicely when we took over,” she said. “I walked into a readymade facility with really, really good infrastructure. None of it was done on the cheap or poorly, so it was really well-designed and thought out.”

Hinterland Thoroughbreds had about 150 horses in its system last year and about 120 the year before that. They’re good numbers for a new business.

“It was a really good opportunity for me,” Gardiner said. “I was able to go out on my own a little bit with this arrangement, take on my own clients and run the day-to-day how I’d like it, but with the added bonus of having the support of Tony Fung and his racing stock, which is a massive advantage that a lot of people don’t have.”

About 60 to 70 per cent of the horses at Hinterland Thoroughbreds are Tony Fung stock, with the remaining being outside clients’ horses. Those numbers ebb and flow with time of year.

Gardiner has been in the Aquis fold for seven years now, and Fung knows her, trusts her with his horses and, equally, Gardiner is well across his expectations and standards.

“Last year, I did quite a lot of outside work for people like Annabel Neasham and Grandview Stud,” she said. “I had a lot of outside clients at that time, but this time of year those horses will off to outside trainers and they don’t come back into my system. Whereas Tony Fung’s horses will come back to spell at Hinterland and do all their pre-training with us.”

Hinterland has a crew of about 40 these days, which is a sizeable number for a new business. Gardiner wears many hats every day, which has had its ups and downs the last 18 months.

“It’s a huge amount of responsibility comparative to being under someone else’s banner,” she said. “You live and die by your decisions, but by the same token, it’s been really rewarding. I love what I do every day and I’m really lucky that I do love my job, and that makes everything easier.”

The draft

Gardiner’s draft next week is Lot 91 by Justify, Lot 123 by Grunt and Lot 124 by Shalaa. All are colts or geldings, and the Justify and Shalaa youngsters are being offered on behalf of Tony Fung.

The Justify gelding is yet to breeze, but Lot 123 posted a good time of 10.97s in his Eagle Farm breeze-up on October 6, and Lot 124 was quicker again, galloping in 10.58s on the same day.

“I really like the Shalaa colt,” Gardiner said. “He’s a really early 2-year-old type. He’s a lovely colt with a bit of an attitude where he really enjoys doing his work. He loves having a job to do.

“He breezed up in a good time and he’s your perfect, ready-to-run type. You could literally buy him on Tuesday, take him home and he’ll be at the trials in a few weeks. He’s ready to go and easy to do anything with.”

The second dam of Lot 124 is a full sister to Back On Target (Barely A Moment), who is a South Australian Listed winner and stakes placed. The first dam, Sista Act (Falvelon), is herself a full sister to Heart Skipt A Beat, who was third in the G1 JJ Atkins S.

The Shalaa colt is nominated for the Magic Millions Race Series, along with the Golden Slipper and Blue Diamond races, while Lot 91, by Justify, is nominated for the Golden Slipper.

“The Justify horse has actually been gelded now,” Gardiner said. “He was a little bit behind the other boys, which is why he will breeze up on Friday.

“He’s been quite surprising, actually. Walking down to the tie-ups, it looks like he’s not showing any enthusiasm for anything, but the second you put him on the track, he knows his job and he gets in to have a go.”

Gardiner said Lot 91 was a lovely style of horse that will be much better with time.

“The more time and energy you put into him, the better he will get,” she said. “The options are endless with him, and the Justifys have been a really nice crop. We’ve had four or five through our system and they’ve each been lovely types, and they all look like they’re going to run.”

Lot 91 comes from the Fastnet Rock mare Mongolian Beauty, who is a full sister to the New Zealand Group 2 winner Mongolian Falcon. There is plenty of international flair in this family through the fourth dam, the American Champion 2-year-old filly Phone Chatter (USA) (Phone Trick {USA}), who was an outstanding, stakes-producing broodmare.

Finally, Lot 123 is a bay colt by Grunt that has surprised Gardiner.

“He’s a big horse and he covers the ground with a huge action,” she said. “He breezed up under 11 seconds as well, a lovely, laid-back colt. You think he doesn’t have the willpower to go when you get him out on the track, but the second you ask him, he gets up on the bit and goes after it. He covers the ground beautifully and he’s a super-casual character.”

Lot 123 has a page that boasts the G1 QTC TJ Smith Classic winner Outback Prince and his half-brother, the dual Group 1 winner Hotel Grand. It’s also the same family as the top-rated New Zealand 3-year-old, Scott Base (NZ) (Dalghar {Fr}).