Something Inevitable for Cornerstone Stud

Cover image courtesy of Racing Photos

Up until Wednesday night, it had been a few years since The Inevitable had commanded racing’s headlines. The last time it happened, it was 2019 and the son of Dundeel (NZ) was motoring through stakes wins at Hobart, Flemington, Moonee Valley and Randwick.

On Wednesday, The Inevitable won the Listed Newmarket H. at Launceston by a half-length to stablemate First Accused (Turffontein), notching his second seasonal win in as many starts for trainer Scott Brunton.

It proved a popular win, the 7-year-old gelding bettering his fourth-place finish in the same race last year.

The Inevitable was hardly a slouch the last two seasons, running second in the G2 Bobbie Lewis Quality in 2020 and second in the Listed Tasmanian S. in January, but he hasn’t been as sharp as his 2019 form owing to injury.

It was therefore a significant celebration for the horse to return to stakes company for the first time in 10 months and to win no less, and it was a point of pride for Cornerstone Stud in South Australia too, who had sold The Inevitable as a yearling way back in 2017.

“I remember The Inevitable being a very good-walking yearling,” said Sam Hayes, the principal of Cornerstone Stud. “But he was really small, and the small part of it was something I couldn’t necessarily get past in my mind. I genuinely thought he might be a bit too small to get as good as what he has become.”

The Inevitable was part of Cornerstone’s 48-horse draft at the 2017 Magic Millions Adelaide Yearling Sale. He was the only one by Dundeel and, despite his size, he made $90,000 when selling to David Brunton, Scott Brunton’s father.

“Tom Murtagh was our stud manager at the time, and Tom was a very gifted horseman,” Hayes said. “He saw something in that little horse that I genuinely didn’t, and he was right.”

The Inevitable was the final foal from a tiny mare called Gift Bouquet, a daughter of King’s High that was hardly a tick over 14.2hh. She was a mare that belonged to South Australian breeders Alistair and Patricia McFarlane of Tori Park Stud, and the team at Cornerstone knew her well, so it was no surprise to Hayes that her son was just as little.

“It is a small family and that was always the caveat,” Hayes said. “We told prospective buyers at that sale that while he was small, it was a trait of the family, while another trait of the family was that they were quite good gallopers. So that did give quite a few buyers confidence, from memory.”

By the time The Inevitable was born in 2015, Gift Bouquet had already produced the 2008 Listed Cinderella S. winner Elysees (Statue Of Liberty {USA}), as well as the very good gelding Blahnik (Jeune {GB}), whose five total stakes wins included the G3 SAJC Adelaide Guineas in 2006.

Gift Bouquet herself had won the Listed SAJC Oaklands Plate in 1997, so there was no shortage of quality about The Inevitable, even if there was a shortage of size.

“He never gave us any trouble when we were selling him for the McFarlanes,” Hayes said. “The only thing that concerned us was if he’d make any money because of how small he was, but as it’s turned out it was an exceptionally good buy.”

Size isn’t everything

On Wednesday night, The Inevitable won his fifth stakes race and 12th race overall from 25 lifetime starts. His earnings are now just shy of $1 million, or nearly 11 times what the Bruntons paid for him in Adelaide.

The longevity of the story has been most enjoyable for Hayes, who has watched this family blossom for a very long time at Cornerstone Stud.

“The horse was bred here in South Australia by Alistair and Patty McFarlane, and they actually bought Gift Bouquet from us,” Hayes said. “She was by King’s High who was a stallion we stood at Lindsay Park, and her second dam was by Bluebird, who was one of the first shuttle stallions we brought out to Australia.

“So the story of The Inevitable has been a bit steeped in the history of our pursuits breeding horses here in South Australia. Even Blahnik was by Jeune, one of the half-relations to The Inevitable, so it was a family we’d had a fair bit to do with.”

In 2002, the McFarlanes had picked up Gift Boutique for $9000 from a Lindsay Park Dispersal Sale on the farm.

“To end up selling The Inevitable however many years later, and to see him go on and win all these races, it’s been very rewarding for us,” Hayes said. “From a purely sale point of view, I would have loved for him to be a bit bigger, but as the story’s ended up, he was the perfect size and we’ve loved watching him win.”

Ending up with a pit pony

Alistair McFarlane caught up with The Inevitable’s result on Wednesday night about an hour after the horse crossed the line. He’s been in the business of breeding horses a long time, including the dual Group 1 winner Hollow Bullet (Tayasu Tsyoshi {Jpn}), but it still gave him and his wife Patricia a significant thrill to see the gelding return in such good order.

McFarlane may have sold The Inevitable as a yearling in 2017, but he was savvy enough to retain 10 per cent after the $90,000 was realised.

“I said to my wife at the time that I was going to keep a leg of that horse,” McFarlane said, speaking to TDN AusNZ. “I’d just had a brain seizure, and she said she didn’t know if I was going to live or die for three weeks or end up a vegetable. Six months later I’d had a heart attack and dual bypass, so what the hell was I thinking, she said, buying a share in that horse?”

Duly sanctified, McFarlane snuck out the back of the sale ring and negotiated 10 per cent in The Inevitable, five per cent each for he and Patricia. The pair are listed among the shareholders, along with the estate of the late Don McPherson.

“We could have been $150,000 richer by now, but that’s the last thing I’d want to do, cast that up in her face,” McFarlane joked.

The pair have been married for 52 good years and the story of Gift Bouquet and her gritty Tasmanian son has been a solid highlight. McFarlane remembers his decision to send Gift Bouquet, then 20 years of age, to Dundeel at Arrowfield Stud.

“Nick Columb used to work for Arrowfield all those years ago as their Victorian representative, and he phoned me up one day,” McFarlane said. “I’d met him when Elysee won her first start in the Cinderella, and we got to be good mates after that.

“He said he wanted me to send that bloody good mare of mine (Gift Bouquet) to Dundeel, and I asked him why I would send my runt mare to his runt stallion. Nick just said 17 Group 1 wins and I shut my mouth after that and sent her.”

Columb was referring to the 17 Group 1 wins he'd been associated with his long career in racing, and that was almost enough for McFarlane.

It wasn’t that the South Australian was concerned about sending senior, pintsized Gift Bouquet overland to the Upper Hunter Valley. She’d already had foals by Bel Esprit, Lonhro, Redoute’s Choice, Henrythenavigator (USA) and Smart Missile. It was more to do with that old chestnut again, her size.

“All those stallions she’d gone to were huge buggers,” McFarlane said. “Bel Esprit was 16.2hh, Redoute’s was 16 plus. They were all big stallions, so we were worried that we’d get another pit pony with Dundeel, and we did.”

The Inevitable, despite standing over as much ground as a Connemara pony, showed promise as early as his first start. He was third in a Hobart maiden in June 2018, then he won his next five starts. Among those was the G3 CS Hayes S. at Flemington, the gelding’s first appearance on the mainland.

“When he won that race in memory of CS Hayes, it was David Hayes who presented the trophy to us, and that was particularly enjoyable,” McFarlane said.

Southern comfort

For Sam Hayes, the story of The Inevitable has continued to go around since 2017. There is no more progeny of Gift Bouquet to look forward to, but the family is a good reminder of the core southern roots of his Cornerstone Stud operation.

“I think it’s a product of not moving interstate,” he said. “We’re very parochial about South Australia and we love the Barossa Valley. We’ve probably carried on standing stallions in this state beyond it being truly viable, and we’ve done that in part as almost a service to the industry.”

The Cornerstone roster currently has Sir Prancealot (Ire) at $8800 (inc GST), Valentia at $6600 (inc GST) and Akeed Mofeed (GB) at $5500 (inc GST), and the trio are among just 14 total stallions standing in South Australia.

“We want breeders to have an option here at home if they want to send mares, rather than sending to Victoria or New South Wales,” Hayes said. “People like the McFarlanes and the late Ken Smith, who passed away only recently and had Narrung Stud, those sorts of local breeders supported us and thanked us for doing that.”

There’s no doubt that part of the success behind The Inevitable is Dundeel in the sireline, and Hayes will readily admit that. But the female part of The Inevitable’s pedigree is entrenched in old South Australian blood, and it’s a good advertisement for Cornerstone Stud all these years later.

“Sometimes, all of us commercial breeders have to send our better mares away from time to time,” Hayes said. “But it’s been nice to give local breeders an option here since 1965, so for the past 55 or 60 years. It’s a long time to build relationships, and those relationships have now spanned generations.”