Cover image courtesy of Inglis
About two years ago, in the thick of COVID-19, boutique breeder Larry Young was just getting his business on its feet. Speriamo Bloodstock was a few years old, but its broodmare numbers were small enough and the business plan was just two years old.
Today, the five-year outlook is complete. Young has eight mares in foal, nine mares all up and five racehorses in work. He has three yearlings in the portfolio and four foals on the ground, and, for the immediate moment at least, he isn’t buying.
Larry Young | Image courtesy of Inglis
But what he is doing is selling and, at the upcoming Inglis Classic Yearling Sale, he will present his very first yearling for public auction.
The horse in question is Lot 330, a Deep Field colt from Young’s foundation mare Clearly (GB) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}). He is bay with three white socks, a wild-bay tail and, according to his owner, a fine temperament. He is the first surviving foal from Clearly, her earlier Zoustar colt succumbing to an accident.
In fact, Young has two yearlings in the catalogue. The other is Lot 768, a Russian Revolution colt from the Lope De Vega (Ire) mare First Reading. Both are consigned to the sale by Widden Stud.
Foundation fruits
To understand the significance of Young’s first commercial yearlings, let’s go back to December 2018 and the Arqana Breeding Stock Sale.
On that occasion in northern France, Young purchased Clearly via Stuart Boman’s Blandford Bloodstock, paying €310,000 which, at the time, equated to around AU$490,000.
Stuart Boman and Emma Pugsley | Image courtesy of Tattersalls
Clearly had raced in England, Italy, France and Germany where she was black-type placed, and she was a half-sister to the Sydney Cup winner Polarisation (GB) (Echo Of Light {GB}). She was everything Young was looking for in a stoutly bred, European-performed, Classic-type foundation mare, and she was packed off to Australia.
Since then, Young has accumulated horses along similar lines.
He avoids a heavy Danehill (USA) presence in his mares, and targets those with at least a miler’s pedigree in Europe. He wants to breed Guineas, Derby and Oaks horses, and, if possible, improve their pages with some local silverware.
Clearly went into training with Archie Alexander after her importation, running third in the G2 Queen of the South S. before winning, just a short time later, the Listed Centaurea S. With black type in the bag, she went to Zoustar and then Deep Field, the latter union producing Lot 330.
“The aim of Speriamo is to breed horses,” said Young, speaking this week to TDN AusNZ. “We’ve grown exponentially in a short time, and we’re very focused on the aims of the business, but in 2022 I took my foot off the accelerator a bit to let things happen.
Lot 330 - Deep Field x Clearly (GB) (colt) | Image courtesy of Inglis
“As excited as you might be to see things happen when breeding horses, you can’t rush them and it takes time.”
Perhaps nine mares in five years was a quick turnaround for Young. He doesn’t say it was, but for the moment he’s not adding to the band as new foals are coming through.
He’s also curious as to how his two yearlings will fare at Riverside in about a week’s time, particularly Lot 330.
“I was hoping he’d be an Easter colt,” Young said. “But mainly he wasn’t big enough, which just didn’t fit the Easter mould. It’s a shame but I’m happy with the choice of sires for both of them. Deep Field and Russian Revolution are both in demand, which is good because there’s a fair bit of crystal-balling in choosing stallions with a view to how they might be placed in the market two-and-a-half years down the track.”
“...I’m happy with the choice of sires for both of them (Lots 330 and 768). Deep Field and Russian Revolution are both in demand, which is good because there’s a fair bit of crystal-balling in choosing stallions with a view to how they might be placed in the market two-and-a-half years down the track.” - Larry Young
Lot 330 won’t be an Easter yearling, but if there’s anything to that old saying ‘have the best horse in the right sale’, he’ll be right among it at Riverside.
“He’s certainly got an Easter page,” Young said. “And he’s really come on physically during the yearling prep, so we’ll just to have to see. He might be popular in Hong Kong and he might be popular for all sorts of other reasons.”
A Classic page for Classic?
Speriamo Bloodstock has Classic ambitions… ambitions to breed a Classic winner or race a Classic winner. If he’s lucky, Young will do both.
In a local market flooded with Australian speed, he’s probably at odds with the majority of commercial operators, but he doesn’t seem to mind that fact at all.
Lot 330 has the potent speed lines of Deep Field but, at first glance, the rest of the page is heavy with staying blood. Clearly’s half-brother was a two-mile Sydney Cup winner, while her dam, Concordia (GB) (Pivotal {GB}), is a half-sister to the English Derby and Arc winner Lammtarra (USA).
Additionally, on the third line, the dam is the English Oaks winner Snow Bride (USA) (Blushing Groom {Fr}), with not a traditional sprint in sight.
However, Young hit a curve ball when genetic testing on Clearly concluded that she possessed a 48 per cent C:C speed gene. The science of this can get complicated.
A majority presence of the C:C speed gene suggests the subject is likely to achieve their optimal performance if trained and raced as a sprinter/miler. It was a confounding result for Young in the face of Clearly’s dense staying pedigree. It also means that Lot 330 has a high likelihood of performing well over shorter courses.
“If I’m trying to breed Classic horses, I can't be crossing sprinters with sprinters,” Young said. “I thought I’d bought middle-distance bloodlines, but it turns out Clearly has the sprint genes, and perhaps if trained differently she might have got different results.”
“If I’m trying to breed Classic horses, I can't be crossing sprinters with sprinters. I thought I’d bought middle-distance bloodlines, but it turns out Clearly has the sprint genes, and perhaps if trained differently she might have got different results.” - Larry Young
Clearly isn’t the only instance for Young where genetic testing has defied the page.
“I bought another filly that I thought was going to be my Oaks filly and she’s a 1000-metre sprinter,” he said. “She was a half-sister to a Queensland Derby winner but she’s got the sprint genes. I had another one who I thought was a 1000-metre sprinter and she had the double stamina gene.
“So I need to know what I’m dealing with, which is why the science is so important to me.”
Gene testing isn’t a new thing in breeding thoroughbreds. It has been perfected by many around the world, but particularly by Professor Emmeline Hill and her team at University College Dublin who discovered the ‘Speed Gene’ in thoroughbreds that identifies their optimum racing distance. The findings were released in 2010 and have changed the way many breeders plan their matings.
Dr Emmeline Hill
C:C represents the sprinting genes and horses best suited to short-course racing. C:T is the most versatile of results, with horses best suited to middle-distance racing (albeit 2-year-old performance over the short courses is common). The T:T gene is that which is best-suited to the staying or late-maturing type.
Knowledge of the speed gene in a thoroughbred cross is useful and becoming more common. Young tests all his stock, and he likes to know if his chosen stallions have been tested too. On some farms, that information is readily available and, on others, it isn’t.
Knowledge of the speed gene in a thoroughbred cross is useful and becoming more common. Young tests all his stock, and he likes to know if his chosen stallions have been tested too.
In the case of Lot 330, is it an example of the inevitability of Young breeding sprinting types in Australia, as much as he isn’t setting out to do so?
“I’m determined to play the longer game and aim to breed, at the very least, milers or 2000-metre horses,” he said. “But I’m not afraid of breeding something with genuine stamina either, even if I’ve inadvertently bred another sprinter.”
Clearly defined
Young won’t be ringside next week to witness his colts at Riverside. He’ll be on a boat in southern Australian waters, albeit still tuning in.
“It’s pretty exciting to be taking something to the market for the first time,” he said. “I’ve attended enough sales to know that sometimes auctions can stall, and then they keep running and the results are fantastic. Other times they run out of speed, so I’m going to be spared the nerves of that experience.
“But it’s important, from a business point of view, to get on the board. I’ve got four foals for next year to consider, but three of them are fillies so I’m facing an agonising decision there as to whether I retain one or more of them.”
“...it’s important, from a business point of view, to get on the board. I’ve got four foals for next year to consider, but three of them are fillies so I’m facing an agonising decision there as to whether I retain one or more of them.” - Larry Young
Speriamo keeps a bulk of its mares with Toby Liston at Three Bridges Thoroughbreds. The others are at Arrowfield and Widden.
Clearly, herself, is at Arrowfield Stud on a joint venture for four years. It’s a wonderful alliance for Young and his business partner, his sister Sally Young, and Clearly, as a result of it, foaled a colt by The Autumn Sun in the spring under this arrangement, and she visited Snitzel thereafter.
It will be interesting to see how much attention Lot 330 gets at the Classic Sale this month, especially with an investment by Arrowfield Stud into the mare’s immediate future.
Either way, Speriamo Bloodstock will be on the board commercially and tracking exactly as Young had planned in 2018.
