Cover image courtesy of The Image Is Everything
The triple Listed winner Isotope, a talented daughter of Deep Field, will be one of the headline acts of the breeding-sales season, with the 5-year-old mare catalogued for the 2023 Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale. Her announcement for the Gold Coast was made on Thursday.
Trained throughout her career by Eagle Farm master Tony Gollan, Isotope’s six career wins included the Listed Darby Munro S. in Sydney, the Listed Gold Edition Plate and Listed Mode S. in Brisbane, and the Magic Millions Snippets. She is just shy of $1.3 million in career earnings.
However, these facts alone do little justice to the mare.
Isotope was a winner of her first two races as a 2-year-old in Queensland, victorious on debut by 10l, and she then split Rothfire (Rothesay) and Wild Ruler when second in the G2 Champagne Classic at just her third start.
She’s led home 12 individual Group 1 winners, including Thousand Guineas winner Odeum (Written Tycoon), Manikato winner Bella Nipotina (Pride Of Dubai), along with Prague and Away Game (Snitzel).
Isotope was five times Group 1-performed through three seasons. She’s been a star for her owners, Black Soil Bloodstock, who confirmed with TDN AusNZ it will be tough putting her through a public sale.
“We are certainly going to be hunting for her back if we think we can do so,” said Brian Siemsen, founder and principal of Black Soil Bloodstock. “I think we’re going to have a hard job trying to retain her, but we’re going to do our very best and protect her up as high as we can come auction day.”
“We are certainly going to be hunting for her (Isotope) back if we think we can do so. I think we’re going to have a hard job trying to retain her, but we’re going to do our very best and protect her up as high as we can come auction day.” - Brian Siemsen
Black Soil Bloodstock owns 50 per cent of Isotope. Siemsen is hopeful he’ll be able to buy back his mare next month, but he is equally realistic.
“I suspect she might fetch a price that will be well-outside our realm,” he said. “I tried to buy her back from all the ownership, but the opportunity to put her through the sale was too good. We always disperse through either one of the breeding sales and I think that’s the fairest way.”
Siemsen had a valuation put on Isotope earlier this year, which encouraged he and his fellow owners to publicly offer the mare. This is often the case with syndications involved in valuable race mares, and its equal parts bitter and promising.
Brian Siemsen | Image courtesy of The Image Is Everything
“We had valuations come back from two organisations, and they were a lot higher than we anticipated,” Siemsen said. “So that made it realistic to put her into a public sale. But you go into this business to get mares like (Black Soil-owned) Niedorp and Miami Fleiss, and certainly the likes of Isotope, so we’ll do everything we can to get her back.”
Siemsen and his partners, which includes the McAlpine family at Eureka Stud, have already booked Isotope to I Am Invincible this upcoming breeding season.
“That’s how much we think of her,” he said. “It makes absolute commercial sense to put her out there, but if we’re going to lose her, and I say this with the best intentions, we’re hoping she will go for an absolute fortune.”
Isotope | Image courtesy of Ashlea Brennan
This family is blowing up
Career aside, Isotope has plenty of page to frank her value. She is from the Choisir mare Great Dansaar, who is a half-sister to no less than Yankee Rose (All American).
On the track, Yankee Rose was a Champion filly at both two and three years of age, winning the G1 ATC Sires’ Produce S. and G1 Spring Champion S., and she was second in the Golden Slipper and third to Winx (Street Cry {Ire}) in the Cox Plate.
Yankee Rose was exported to Japan in 2017 after a private sale to Northern Farm. Since then, she has been a breathtaking broodmare, her yearlings fetching extraordinary prices at Japanese auctions.
Yankee Rose when racing | Image courtesy of The Image Is Everything
However, the real star so far is her daughter Liberty Island (Jpn) (Duramente {Jpn}), her second foal, who is a Group 1 winner and was Champion Japanese 2-Year-Old Filly last season. As recently as last weekend, she won her second Group 1 in Hanshin in the equivalent of the Japanese 1000 Guineas.
“Liberty Island has been franking this family over and over again,” Siemsen said. “Whether it will spell interest in Isotope from the Japanese parties remains to be seen, but Yankee Rose is top of the billing among Australian broodmares that have sold to overseas.
“There’s a really nice tie-together of the performance of the family and of Isotope going to market, and we’ll be doing everything to hold onto her, as I said, but I don’t like our chances with the way the market is at the moment.”
“Liberty Island has been franking this family over and over again... There’s a really nice tie-together of the performance of the family and of Isotope going to market...” - Brian Siemsen
Isotope’s dam is a half-sister to the G3 Kembla Grange Classic winner Miravalle (Redoute’s Choice), while Isotope herself is a half-sister to the Black Soil-owned Mighty (Spirit Of Boom), who has so far been a 2-year-old winner on the Gold Coast and has raced only twice.
Siemsen has two from the family, including Isotope, so he’s still invested even if he loses his mare next month.
“This whole family is blowing up,” Siemsen said. “We’re lucky enough to have Mighty out of Great Dansaar, and right now we’ve got Isotope. Ideally we’d like to keep the proven one and breed to her, but our fallback is obviously Mighty, and only time will tell if she’s as good as her half-sister.”
Isotope as a yearling | Image courtesy of Magic Millions
Ready for breeding
Isotope is officially retired from the racetrack. When she is offered at the Magic Millions National Sale, it will be as a broodmare option only.
She last raced on March 18 in a set-weights affair, her only appearance this side of Christmas, and while she was third, she wasn’t her usual sharp self.
“She was supposed to come down to Sydney and race on, but the ownership group decided to keep her in Brisbane,” Siemsen said. “She just wasn’t right after that last run and we think she’s telling us she’s ready to be a broodmare. You couldn’t ask for much more from her after 19 starts, six wins and nearly $1.3 million in prizemoney.”
For trainer Tony Gollan, Isotope has been a barnstorming stable addition, defying colic surgery and a race fall in the R. Listed Magic Millions Guineas throughout her career.
“From the day she hit the track, winning that maiden by a big space and right up until her last win, she faced a lot of adversity, more so than most talented horses I’ve trained in my career,” he said. “I don’t know if her best win was first-up after colic, but that was one of the greatest achievements I’ve seen in my time in training, having a horse ready off that type of surgery, which is very invasive.”
“From the day she (Isotope) hit the track, winning that maiden by a big space and right up until her last win, she faced a lot of adversity, more so than most talented horses I’ve trained in my career.” - Tony Gollan
Isotope had colic surgery in her 4-year-old season. She then returned in the Magic Millions Snippets to put away Tycoonist (Written Tycoon) and Away Game by 1.25l. It dazzled everyone connected to her.
“I’ve had Group 1 winners that didn’t have the ability she possessed,” Gollan added. “Although her race record is good, it probably doesn’t give you the whole picture of Isotope. She was better than her record suggests. She’s an exceptionally good type of a horse, a beautiful mare.”
For Siemsen, the next few weeks will be a countdown of sorts and he’s unsure whether to be excited or a small bit heartbroken.
Connections of Isotope after winning the Magic Millions Snippets | Image courtesy of The Image Is Everything
“You set up these businesses for horses like her,” he said. “We bred Miami Fleiss and she was fun, and she’s currently in foal to Zoustar up at Eureka. We’ve also got an I Am Invincible in the belly of Niedorp, but to get another one like Isotope in the barn, it would have really fortified our breeding operation.
“But fingers crossed, you never know. The Inglis breeding sales might be a good benchmark for us to know where we’re at with her heading to Magic Millions next month.”
