O'Brien savouring a special few months for Segenhoe

Cover image courtesy of Bronwen Healy

With four months of the season already in the bank, Segenhoe can boast producing three Group 1 winners during this period; G1 Coolmore Stud S. heroine In Secret (I Am Invincible), who they bred alongside Michael and Siobhan Christian, G1 Epsom H. winner Ellsberg (Spill The Beans) and Perth’s resident superstar filly Amelia’s Jewel (Siyouni {Fr}), who landed her maiden elite-level victory in the G1 Northerly S. at Ascot last Saturday.

The Maloney's New South Wales-based operation consistently produces top-class performers and can lay claim to being the leading farm in the country in terms of the percentage of stakes performers to go through the ring, which sits at an extraordinary 16 per cent.

However, for the farm’s General Manager, Peter O’Brien, the numbers only tell half the tale of what producing top-class racehorses means for the breeders that support the operation and the team around him.

When breeding and raising excellence comes this naturally, one would think the team at Segenhoe may have grown accustomed to this sort of success, but for them every Group 1 is special, but for O’Brien in particular, Saturday’s Group 1 will always occupy a special space in his heart.

O’Brien told TDN AusNZ that the weekend’s win rated right up there among one of the most satisfying achievements of his long career and the gravitas he places on the triumph is largely due to his friendship with the filly’s owner and breeder, Peter Walsh.

“I was fortunate enough to own a bit of Merchant Navy and I was speaking to Walshy on Saturday night after the filly won and I told him that I got more emotional with this win than I did with either Merchant Navy’s Group 1 wins at Royal Ascot or Flemington,” said O’Brien.

“It was Walshy’s first Group 1 winner and he is just the greatest bloke you’ll ever meet. He puts his heart and soul into it, takes the good with the bad and really, truly no one deserved a Group 1 more than he did.

“Saturday was very emotional for everybody involved and although he (Walsh) would downplay it, I know that all he’s ever wanted to do is win a Group 1 and no one deserves to have a filly like her as much as him.”

Walsh and O’Brien’s friendship was forged in the fires of the industry, but it was cemented further following a chance conversation in 2013 around the time O’Brien was weighing up whether to leave his former post at Coolmore and move across the Hunter to and take over the reins at Segenhoe.

“When I was deciding whether to move from Coolmore to Segenhoe and I was bouncing the idea with him (Walsh) and he said to me, ‘Wherever you go, my horses will go’ and I will never forget that,” recalled O’Brien. “Chris and Jane Barham and John Camilleri, they all did the same, but Walshy was the first person to say he was coming with me and that trust has stayed with me. So, when she won it just really meant a lot to me on a personal level because loyalty is one of the most important things for me in my working life and Walshy is similar.”

The Pretty one and The Model

Amelia’s Jewel’s dam Bumbasina (Ire) (Canford Cliffs {Ire}) arrived at Segenhoe fresh off the plane from Europe having been purchased on behalf of Walsh and his wife Annie by Astute Bloodstock’s (FBAA) Louis Le Metayer for 75,000gns (AU$133,700) at the 2018 edition Tattersalls July Sale.

On August 5, 2019, she welcomed Amelia’s Jewel and O’Brien recalls her being a pretty filly, without being a standout.

“She was a very pretty foal, but lacked action. She wasn’t a bad foal, but I didn’t think she was anything special, she was just middle of the road. Obviously, she had quality from that Siyouni head, but wasn’t a standout,” he explained.

However, just shy of a month later, a mare named Eloping (Choisir) also delivered a filly foal, this one by I Am Invincible, who later became to be known as In Secret and in contrast O’Brien didn’t have to wait long before rating her among the top foals born on the farm in 2019.

“In Secret was just a model from the moment she was born, just an extremely beautiful, well-put together filly,” he said.

After passing their early days in the paddock together at Segenhoe, they were set on their own paths.

Indeed, O’Brien’s early impressions of In Secret proved to be well founded and she would go on to sell to Godolphin for $900,000 at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale, incidentally the only yearling purchased by Sheikh Mohammed’s operation in Australia in 2021.

However, unlike the I Am Invincible filly, a sales ring was never on the cards for Amelia’s Jewel, with Walsh making the decision to keep the fillies out of Bumbasina.

“Louis Le Metayer bought the mare for him and he was going to stop bidding and his wife, Annie, encouraged him to keep going,” said O’Brien. “She was never put down for sale. She was born here and went over to Amelia Park after she was weaned, but it was a long range plan to race the fillies out of her, so to have her as the first one is pretty special and also pretty amazing.”

The star qualities

Shortly after arriving at Walsh’s Amelia’s Park, it didn’t take long for Amelia’s Jewel to show glimpses of her potential stardom to the team at the Western Australian farm.

“Sarah Brown runs Peter’s farm in Western Australia and she does all the breaking and pre-training as well and I remember speaking to her after the first time she had done some pace work on Amelia’s Jewel and she said, ‘This is the one’.”

Sent into training with Simon Miller, Amelia’s Jewel breezed through her three races as a 2-year-old, before translating that early promise she showed as a juvenile into her 3-year-old season, landing the Listed Belgravia S. first-up. While that victory looked business as usual the lead-up wasn’t all plain sailing for the filly.

“Amelia’s Jewel is not a big filly and she did not winter well at all and when she came in for her prep, she wasn’t coping at all with this preparation,” said O’Brien. “She only started ticking all the boxes there two months ago, so her first run back this season, everyone couldn’t believe it because she was probably 30 per cent ready - which is quite unbelievable.”

The eastern adventure

In the past, some of Western Australia’s best horses never venture east and O’Brien said it is testament to Walsh’s sporting nature that the star filly will be touted against some of the best horses Australia has to offer next year.

“I think what the most exciting aspect to the filly is that I think she is only getting going and I for one can’t wait to see her east, taking them on,” he said.

“Walshy is not worried about bringing horses to Melbourne or Sydney, any good horses he has had he always brings them here to challenge them. They wanted her to tick as many boxes as possible and work out the ideal trip and so forth, and then take on the best in the country. Walshy is the ultimate sportsman and he certainly won’t die wondering.”

Next year's plans for the filly were finalised on Monday and she will kick off her third preparation in Western Australia's new slot race, The Quokka, before making a trip to Sydney for the $10,000,000 Golden Eagle.

However, before the 3-year-old makes her first much appearance on the Eastern Seaboard, her Blue Point (Ire) half-brother is sure to garner a certain amount of attention when Segenhoe offers the colt at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale in January.

With on-farm inspections having properly gotten underway on Monday, O’Brien said he received good feedback from buyers who got an early preview of the colt, who is among a draft of 31 yearlings the farm will offer at the Queensland sale in January.

“He has more size and scope than Amelia’s Jewel and being a colt he is far more robust than she was, but what he does have is an action to die for,” said O’Brien. “We have had two parades on the farm so far and everybody has been very impressed with him. He is the perfect horse for Magic Millions, big, strong and an action to go with it - he looks like a rocket.”

The readymade racehorse

In terms of the success stories for Segenhoe in the last few months, Ellsberg is a different kettle of fish altogether. The colt is from the first crop of the late Aquis Farm-based stallion Spill The Beans and he caught O’Brien and Shane McGrath's eye at the 2018 Magic Millions National Weanling Sale. With an action to match his physique, O'Brien gave $50,000 for the youngster.

“Shane McGrath and I bought him as a weanling off Kitchwin Hills. He didn’t tick my normal boxes for pinhooking,” O’Brien explained. “A foal by Spill The Beans wasn’t top of my list of the stallions, but he was an absolute standout type and we weren’t leaving the sales without him and because of that we paid a bit more than we would have liked.

“He had that hardy look about him and he looked like a readymade racehorse from very early on.”

After being prepped for the Magic Millions at Segenhoe, O’Brien was rewarded for his investment when prolific trainer Gerald Ryan, who also trained his father, instantly took to the youngster and fronted up $280,000 for him at the sale.

The 5-year-old has proved a revelation for his connections, winning nine of his 24 starts and he added the G1 Epsom H., a victory he shared with Top Ranked (Ire) (Dark Angel {Ire}), to his triumphs in the G3 Festival S., G3 Liverpool Cup, Listed South Pacific Classic and $2 million The Five Diamonds which has seen him bank $3,310,000 in career prizemoney.

“Gerald Ryan fell in love with the horse and just kept coming back to him at the sales. He was a very mature horse, with a lovely action and a big hip on him and he just looked very fast from very early on.

“I am delighted for Gerald, because I remember when he did his first bit of fast work he rang me up and said, ‘That Spill The Bean horse, he’s got some engine’ and I will never forget that. He is just a warhorse, who keeps getting better and better.”

The horse heaven

This season more than ever has been a heavy reminder to O’Brien how much winning important life-changing Group 1s can mean to breeders and he said for breeders like Walsh and the Christians, the triumphs cannot be judged by monetary values.

“I was with Michael and Siobhan Christian at Flemington and we watched the Coolmore together and they were incredibly emotional after the race and to see what that meant to them, having bred her and her mother as well, was amazing,” he said.

“For breeders like Walshy and the Christians, it’s not about prizemoney or future earnings from the mares, it is just simply about breeding a Group 1 winner - that is what it is all about. Breeding winners at the highest level is a rarity and it really hits home how much it means to these people.”

As for the farm’s continued success, O’Brien said the quality of stock he is lucky enough to deal with on a daily basis places the farm at a huge advantage and also the team the Maloneys have invested in is a huge contributing factor to the success.

“The main thing, I think the farm is a very special farm in terms of the land. It has river flats and undulating hills and for me it’s heaven for horses,” he said.

“We also have terrific breeders, which probably is the most important thing. They have quality stock and breed to quality stallions, which makes a huge difference.

“Before I started at Segenhoe, Bill Mitchell and Royston Murphy had bought beautiful mares for the Maloney family, so the canvas already had its first coat, but since then I tried not to stuff it up.

“Brian Clarke is the stud manager and the staff retention is testament to the Maloneys and having that constant experienced team around has been a major factor in the success of the farm.”