Cover image courtesy of Michael McInally

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but the $150,000 that Grenville Stud outlaid for a young mare by the name of Tiare (Flying Spur) a little over two years ago is beginning to look like a bit of a masterstroke.

Purchased from the Newgate Consignment in foal to leading Coolmore stallion Pierro, Tiare only had the one foal to race at the time, Private Cheetah (Pierro), who had already won at metropolitan level and finished fifth in the Listed Brian Crowley S. having fetched a handsome $340,000 as a yearling.

A winner herself and a half-sister to the hugely talented Keen Array (Bel Esprit), who won the G2 Gilgai S. and finished runner-up in the G1 Coolmore Stud S., Tiare also had an unraced 2-year-old by So You Think (NZ) and a yearling filly by exciting young sire Russian Revolution, the latter of which had sold to Dynamic Syndications for $140,000 just a few months before Tiare was sent through the Magic Millions ring.

All of the above led Grenville’s Bart McCulloch to believe that Tiare would stretch the budget too far, but much to his delight, an emptying auditorium saw the daughter of renowned broodmare sire Flying Spur head to the Apple Isle for far less than initially anticipated.

“She was actually in the supplementaries and went through really late one evening,” McCulloch recalled. “We felt that she probably would have made quite a bit more if she was in the main catalogue.

“The auditorium had emptied right out and there weren’t that many people left at the sale. We hung around right until the end for her.

“We thought she was an outstanding type of a mare with a lot of Flying Spur about her. Her first foal was a city winner in Private Cheetah, and we obviously knew that she had a couple coming through, a So You Think and a Pierro, who has also won in the past couple of weeks.

“We just thought whilst they hadn’t been exposed yet, she had a couple of foals coming through that were by really good, proven stallions. That’s how we identified her, but we thought she’d make more than we could afford. Fortunately we were able to get her.”

Despite his delight at being able to secure a proven metropolitan-class producer for $150,000, McCulloch admitted that never in his wildest dreams would he have envisaged that Tiare would become a Group 1 producer so soon after swapping the mainland for the luscious green grass at Grenville.

“It was only about 12 months ago that Think About It had his first start,” McCulloch said. “He won quite well and we thought, ‘Oh well this is fantastic, he might go on and be a city-class horse’, but we never imagined we’d be in this position 12 months later.

“We thought it was very good buying, especially considering her first foal was a city winner, but this is something you don’t really expect to happen, something you don’t budget or plan on.

“We just thought that if the ones coming through by those good, proven stallions could go as well as the first foal did and be city winners, then that would set her up for a nice, long career as a successful broodmare.

“We are continually trying to invest in upgrading our mares and we’ve had some really good results at the sales over the past few years off the back of some continued investment. I know everyone knows with horses that you need a lot of luck, but getting a mare like this enables you to continue to do that and justifies your judgment that you are on the right track.”

One such good result at the sales came as recently as last week, with Grenville selling a Zoustar weanling filly to Blackridge Farm for $280,000 at the Inglis Great Southern Sale, a result that helped them finish second in the leading vendors' standings by average.

Coincidentally, Think About It’s trainer Joe Pride parted with exactly the same sum for another son of So You Think offered by Grenville at the Inglis Premier Yearling Sale earlier this year, before teaming up with Proven Thoroughbreds for a colt by Street Boss for only $10,000 less at the same auction.

All parties will be hoping that either of those purchases can follow in the footsteps of Think About It, who by all accounts is yet to reach his ceiling despite ending his latest preparation as a dual Group 1-winner.

“Proven Thoroughbreds and Joe Pride bought a couple of yearlings off us this year at Melbourne Premier, so we’ve developed quite a relationship with them over the past couple of months and regularly speak to Jamie (Walter),” McCulloch said.

“They don’t think they’ve got anywhere near his (Think About It) best either, that’s the scary thing. Joe Pride says in every interview after he wins that he’s still maturing and developing, which is really exciting.

“He said yesterday that he’s not at that level yet, but that he’s starting to go on the same trajectory as those really top horses, and down the track he could be one of those champions that you look back on and talk about.

“I think Newgate have pulled a good move locking him in for The Everest after Saturday’s performance, that’s for sure.”

Plenty more to come

Regardless of what happens in The Everest later this year, McCulloch can rest easy in the knowledge that Grenville has the dam of one of Australia’s most exciting young stars among its broodmare ranks.

Boasting a 100 per cent record at stud after her 3-year-old filly by Russian Revolution broke through for a richly-deserved success at Goulburn last month, the upside looks set to continue for Grenville and Tiare courtesy of her weanling colt by exciting shuttle sire Wootton Bassett (GB), whose slew of recent juvenile winners in the Northern Hemisphere will only have added to this colt’s ever-increasing appeal.

Set to be sold as a yearling in 2024, the colt will be the first progeny of Tiare sold under the Grenville banner, and McCulloch can hardly contain his excitement at the prospect of offering such a well-credentialled individual.

“We have a Wootton Bassett weanling colt by her here at home and he (Wootton Bassett) is doing amazing things overseas - he’s probably one of the hottest sires in the world,” McCulloch said.

“This colt is a very nice type and was a very good foal who has continued to develop really well. He’s got a lovely head on him, just like Tiare, and a little bit of Flying Spur about him that you can see coming through.

“To have potentially one of the hottest yearlings in Australia next year is really exciting. He’ll get a pretty close eye on him out in the back paddock - you want to take every bit of risk out of it that you can - but it’s sort of one of those things, the more you leave them and treat them like any other horse, the better it is.

“He should be one of the most sought-after yearlings anywhere in Australia and we’re looking forward to selling him next year.”

Whilst Think About It was slightly overlooked by the market as a yearling, selling to the shrewd Pride and Proven Thoroughbreds combination for just $70,000 at the 2020 Inglis Premier Yearling Sale, much stiffer competition will be expected for his Wootton Bassett half-brother, whom McCulloch feels is a perfect example of what the Australian market desires most.

“He’s a strong, forward-looking colt that probably looks like he'll be an earlier type than what Think About It was,” he added.

“Being by So You Think, you’d expect that Think About It is only going to get better and potentially down the track we might see him over a bit more ground, whereas this Wootton Bassett colt looks shorter coupled with a really powerful hindquarter.

“He looks like he’ll be an early-running 2-year-old and that’s really what the market wants - speed and early types.”

Despite becoming a Group 1 producer just two years after her arrival in Tasmania, it hasn’t always been plain sailing for Tiare on the Apple Isle, having missed to Grenville’s resident stallion Zululand last year before injury forced her yearling colt by Pierro to be withdrawn from this year’s Inglis Premier Yearling Sale.

The rising 12-year-old mare is currently enjoying a year off in the paddocks at Grenville and the team are yet to lock in her potential suitor for the upcoming breeding season, which gets underway on September 1. Given the recent exploits of Think About It, however, there is one particular stallion who commands obvious appeal.

“She’s empty now and we haven’t made any decisions yet, but we’d like to get her on a nice, early cover this year,” McCulloch said.

“We haven’t decided where we’ll go yet, but obviously So You Think would be a logical decision.”

Closer to home

Whilst Tiare has earnt the right to go to an outside stallion of the highest calibre, Grenville has an exciting young stallion of its own in Stratosphere, who currently rounds out the top 10 on the first-season sire standings with five winners to his name.

That quintet is spearheaded by Cairns and Encounter Sphere, both of whom are stakes-placed, and the son of Snitzel is on track to create history by siring more individual winners and prizemoney in his first season than any other Tasmanian sire before him.

That being said, McCulloch remains adamant that the best is yet to come from Stratosphere, with the book full sign being readied months in advance of the start of the new breeding season.

“He’s done a wonderful job,” McCulloch said of Stratosphere. “He’s had five individual winners already from a foal crop of just 50 live foals.

“We feel that we are yet to see some of his better ones. There are a couple in the works now that have trialled and shown a lot out of some of his better mares. The five winners that he’s had so far to date, we bred four of them, and being as honest, frank and realistic as we can, they are out of some average mares.

“Those mares have had a few to race and have really produced nothing, let alone ones that can come out and win early, so there’s no doubt that he’s really upgrading his mares.

“He’s going to have a busy season at stud and his book is nearly full down here in Tassie. It's fantastic to see that breeders are really recognising what he is doing off such a limited first foal crop and we feel that we’re really only seeing the start of this.”

Stratosphere’s promising start with his first crop of juveniles has unsurprisingly been reflected in the sales ring this year, with the G3 Canonbury S. runner-up responsible for the two top lots and the only two offerings to make six figures at the Magic Millions Tasmanian Yearling Sale back in February.

Gallery: Some of the yearlings by Stratosphere who reached six figures at the 2023 Magic Millions Tasmanian Yearling Sale, images courtesy of Magic Millions

Stratosphere, whose full brother became the highest-priced colt at this year’s Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale when selling to Coolmore Australia for $1.6 million, ended the Tasmanian auction as the leading stallion by gross with 12 yearlings offered for 12 sold at an average of $53,000, providing a handsome return on the $4400 (inc GST) service fee which they were conceived off.

“That was off the back of having a couple of early winners and stakes performers, but they’re also just fantastic types,” McCulloch added. “He was a $925,000 yearling himself and he’s an absolutely gorgeous son of Snitzel.

“I was speaking to Henry Field last week at the (Inglis) Great Southern Sale in Melbourne. They (Newgate/China Horse Club colt's syndicate) purchased Stratosphere as a yearling and he just continued to reiterate to me just how much of an opinion Peter Snowden had of him. He thought that he was his best 2-year-old that year and undoubtedly had the potential to be a Group 1 horse, but he sadly went amiss.

“It hasn’t been until this year that they have spent more on a yearling than what they spent on Stratosphere, so I guess it shows just how much they liked him.

“He’s really stamping his progeny, and not only are they doing the job on the track, they look like racehorses too.”

Be it luck, or perhaps more likely a result of superior judgement, hindsight suggests that Grenville has once again pulled the right rein with Stratosphere, just like with Tiare.

Cover image courtesy of Arrowfield Stud

Maurice (Jpn) is set for a much-anticipated return to his second home, Arrowfield Stud, Australia. Despite not stepping on Australian shores for several months, the son of Screen Hero (Jpn) and his compatriots have hardly been out of the headlines.

The last few months have also proved to be a fruitful time at Arrowfield Stud. The John Messara-led super stud is no stranger to producing high-quality horses, and with a host of young and exciting sires on the rise to support their four-time Champion Sire Snitzel, it appears it’s all up from here.

The current king of Arrowfield Stud, Snitzel, enjoyed a superb autumn siring his second G1 Golden Slipper S. winner courtesy of Shinzo.

While the outstanding Dundeel (NZ) unveiled another star galloper Militarize (NZ), who claimed the G1 Sires’ Produce S. and the G1 Champagne S. double, Dundeel is joined by his exciting son Castelvecchio whose first progeny were well-received at the 2023 sales, selling up for $360,000.

Among the host of young sires at Arrowfield Stud is the Group 2-winning Showtime, the extremely good-looking son of Snitzel is making a favourable impression on trainers.

From 15 runners, Showtime has sired four winners, including the Listed Cinderella S. winner Show Royale and the Group 3-placed Tacito.

Alongside the Japanese-based Maurice (Jpn), Arrowfield Stud will also welcome back the stunning Admire Mars (Jpn), whose first Australian-bred foals arrived last spring, and the son Daiwa Major (Jpn) who is a three-time elite-level winner and was an unbeaten Champion 2-Year-Old in Japan.

Redoute's influence as strong as ever

While rosters change, some things stay the same; despite it being four years since Arrowfield Stud lost the incomparable Redoute’s Choice, the former ruler of the Upper Hunter Valley-based stud influence is still strong through his sire sons, daughters and active gallopers.

The grand horse sired his 182nd stakes winner on Saturday courtesy of Rediener in the G3 Gunsynd S. at Eagle Farm.

Redoute’s Choice is leading the Australia broodmare sires for the 2022/23 season on prizemoney and is in the top six across all the categories.

Excelling as a broodmare sire, 'Redoute's' Champion daughter Miss Finland is proving to be one of those rare mares whose talent on the racetrack is translating in the broodmare barn, having already produced the G1 Thousand Guineas victress Stay With Me (Street Cry {Ire}).

She looks to have another smart galloper in the waiting if the placed performance of her daughter Miracle Of Love (Dundeel {NZ}) in the G1 JJ Atkins was anything to go by.

Also on Saturday, No Looking Back, a Listed-winning daughter of Redoute’s Choice, daughter Comrada Rosa (Capitalist), scored the valuable G2 Dane Ripper S. at Eagle Farm and looks to have a strong chance in the G1 Tattersall’s Tiara on June 24.

It has been a memorable couple of weeks for Jon Freyer, bloodstock manager at Arrowfield Stud.

“It was amazing for Redoute’s Choice to sire his 182nd stakes winner,” Freyer told TDN AusNZ.

“He had Petronius last Saturday and Rediener on Saturday. It was great. And, of course, he’s leading the broodmare sire list, which is remarkable.

“Redoute’s Choice is an extraordinary stallion, and I think it will be a long before we see another one like him.”

The Autumn Sun on the rise

Rounding out the Arrowfield Stud roster, fittingly, is The Autumn Sun, one of the finest colts to race in the modern Australian era and the best race son produced by Redoute’s Choice.

His first crop debuted this season and has already produced the Group 3 winner Autumn Ballet and the Group 1-placed Tulsi.

While The Autumn Sun’s former trainer Chris Waller declared his filly Tutta La Vita as one of quality and believes the filly could be a major contender in the spring.

On Sunday at Hawkesbury, The Autumn Sun added a third winner to his CV, once again in the care of his former trainer Waller, Ashfall made amends from his placed effort on debut to score the 1400 metre maiden.

“Ashfall came from a race at Kembla Grange that looks like it will be a strong form reference. He was placed behind King Colorado and was arguably unlucky. Obviously, King Colorado won the JJ Atkins on Saturday. Ashfall looks like another promising horse for The Autumn Sun going forward.”

Marvellous Maurice

Like The Autumn Sun, Maurice enjoyed a successful weekend and winter carnival adding two new stakes winners in a fortnight.

Last Saturday, Maurice’s daughter Azula, trained by Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott, showed plenty of fighting qualities to score the Listed The Phoenix S. at Eagle Farm. She became Maurice’s 14th stakes winner.

She was a $100,000 yearling purchase by Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott and Kestrel Thoroughbreds from the draft of the Twin Hills Stud at the 2022 Inglis Classic Yearling Sale.

Azula is out of the winning Redoute’s Choice mare Shutout, which is becoming a bit of a theme for Maurice.

On Saturday, Maurice added his 15th stakes winner courtesy of Namesake, trained by Ciaron Maher and David Eustace, with the flashy colt winning the Listed Oxlade S. at Eagle Farm.

He was a $100,000 yearling purchase by Ciaron Maher Bloodstock from the draft of Arrowfield Stud at the 2022 Inglis Classic Yearling Sale.

And like the filly, he is from the Redoute’s Choice mare Banksia, who has already produced the Group 2-winning Bank Maur for Maurice.

“Maurice’s recent stakes winners, Azula and Namesake, are out of Redoute’s Choice mares in the last fortnight. Hitotsu is, of course, out of a Redoute’s mare, and Mazu is out of a Flying Spur mare, so Maurice is clearly working with Danehill-line mares. With that blood, he is producing Classic winners, juvenile winners and sprinters.”

On Sunday in Japan at Tokyo, Maurice appears to have unveiled a new Northern Hemisphere star, with the highly anticipated debut of the Noriyuki Hori-trained Danon Ayers Rock (Jpn).

Bred by Northern Farm, Danon Ayers Rock has a strong Australian connection; he is a son of the champion Mosheen, a daughter of Fastnet Rock, who is a son of Danehill (USA), who Maurice combines so well with.

Mosheen won the G1 VRC Oaks, the G1 Australian Guineas, the G1 Randwick Guineas and the G1 Vinery Stud S. in a remarkable career that also saw her placed in the G1 Golden Slipper.

He was an AU$5.2 million yearling purchase by Danox Co from the 2022 JRHA Select Yearling and Foal Sale.

Partnered by Australian Damian Lane, Danon Ayers Rock was sent out a hot favourite in the 1800 metre Newcomers race; the promising colt saluted much to the pleasure of Freyer.

“The connections feel Danon Ayers Rock is the next star they have by Maurice. It was very much expected for the colt to win and win well. I’m thrilled he has pulled it off.”

Maurice was near-peerless on the racetrack and is now proving to be equally effective as a stallion; TDN AusNZ asked Freyer why he feels Maurice is so successful, “For starters, he was an exceptional racehorse, and that’s a big thing in his favour.

“It was one of the things that attracted us (Arrowfield Stud) to him. He is a magnificent-looking animal, and he was capable of nearly anything as a racehorse.

“Maurice is similar to Dundeel in that they have brilliant speed, but they can get over ground. Consequently, they are siring horses that are sprinters, horses that can run over a bit of ground and are Classic horses,” Freyer enthused to TDN AusNZ.

“When they are this versatile, they have a lot of strengths to their bow.”

Maurice was a six-time elite-level winner in Japan and Hong Kong, winning such races at the G1 Yasuda Kinen, the G1 Hong Kong Cup and the G1 Hong Kong Mile.

He was crowned Horse of the Year, Champion Sprinter and Champion Miler in Japan 2015.

With the box of performance and looks ticked, there was only one glaring unknown. Maurice was, by the little-known in Australia, Screen Hero (Jpn), a son of the American horse Grass Wonder (USA).

Screen Hero was a quality performer winning the G1 Japan Cup. Maurice’s dam is the unplaced Carnegie (Ire) mare, Mejiro Frances (USA).

Freyer admits that Maurice hails from an unconventional pedigree, but he and the Arrowfield Stud team viewed this as a strength, “There was never any doubt from our point of view but from commercial breeders' view, they struggled to get their heads around his pedigree.

“Because the pedigree is something they didn’t know; I have likened it to horses like Street Cry by Machiavellian and More Than Ready, a son of Southern Halo,” Freyer told TDN AusNZ.

“People couldn’t get their heads around those sires, but once they are established as successful sires, that is seen as a positive because it is seen as outcrossing to so many of the lines that we have here (in Australia).”

Now Maurice is well established as a sire of quality stock, sought after on and off the track, reflected by his 2023 breeding season fee of $82,500 (inc GST). It has Freyer excited for his future.

“We’ve been his biggest supporter all the way, and these horses you see now are not from massive crops. But since the success of those early smaller crops, the last couple of Maurice’s books have been limited to 165 mares, and they are full books full of outstanding mares.

“Maurice is going to have significantly more representation in seasons to come."

With his return to Australia imminent and his effectiveness with Danehill blood, what does Freyer feel suits Maurice best physically and what is the typical Maurice foal?

“Maurice is a big strapping horse, and I think early a lot of people made the mistake of thinking he’ll dominate the mares, so they put smaller mares to him. We (Arrowfield Stud) have tended to mate just quality mares of average size to him.

“He likes the Redoute’s Choice mares, and we have plenty of those. In terms of a mare physically, I feel an average-size mare fits the bill, and with those, Maurice is producing quality foals,” Freyer shared with TDN AusNZ.

“Maurice is throwing plenty of substance and leg and muscle into his progeny. These horses we’ve seen have so much quality.

“What you see now is just the tip of the iceberg.”

Cover image courtesy of Ashlea Brennan

Before he had even stepped out in public for the first time at the official Randwick 2-year-old trials back in September, Ozzmosis had been singled out by the team at Darby Racing as a horse with any amount of potential.

Fast forward nine months and the son of Zoustar has done nothing to suggest that he won’t live up to that billing, having cruised to three trial victories and backed up his debut win against the older horses with a taking success at Royal Randwick on Saturday.

Although it has taken slightly longer to get him to the races than everyone would have liked, Ozzmosis has done an excellent job of making up for lost time, and his connections will now spend the rest of the winter dreaming of what might be in the spring.

“He’s probably one of the most exciting colts that we’ve been involved with,” Darby Racing’s Scott Darby said. “From day one he showed us that he had plenty of talent and he’s just continued to get better.

“We thought we had a Breeders’ Plate colt early on, but he probably just lacked that little bit of maturity. He was like that at the Magic Millions sale, just a little bit backward, and I think had he been a little more forward at the sale he would have commanded more money.

“I think we did a video of him galloping for the owners in July or August. It was the very first gallop he had and he put five or six lengths on his mate. From that moment we thought, ‘Gee, we might have something pretty special here’.

“I remember the first day we jumped him out up the straight at Warwick Farm and he put panels on his rivals. He won his trial at Randwick but then he just had a little bit of a setback, so we tipped him out, which was probably a blessing in disguise really. He’s had time to mature and he’s really starting to put it together now.”

A $250,000 purchase from the Sledmere Stud draft at last year’s Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale, Ozzmosis has earned glowing praise from all those who have worked with him ever since he first stepped foot in Bjorn Baker’s Warwick Farm stables.

In the immediate moments after he preserved his unbeaten record at Royal Randwick on Saturday, Baker was quoted as saying he had not been that nervous about a racehorse for some time, sentiments that were echoed by Darby and the rest of his team.

“We’ve been in some of the biggest races and Golden Slippers, but we were very tense and nervous yesterday and at his first run,” Darby admitted. “I suppose that attests to what we think of the horse.

“A lot of them can disappoint you once you get to raceday. That’s probably where all the nerves and tension comes from - when you think you’ve got something pretty good, you just want to see it on raceday.

“Obviously, we had the Yankee Rose and She Will Reign days, but certainly he’s the most promising colt we’ve been involved with since Time To Reign, who won a Silver Slipper and finished fifth in a Golden Slipper.

“Even though he’s only won a Gosford maiden and a Randwick winter 2-year-old race, the buzz around him is huge.”

Saturday’s race may not have been as competitive as the G1 Blue Diamond and G1 Golden Slipper earlier this year, but the field did include a pair of previous metropolitan winners in the shape of Fleetwood (Encryption) and Sovereign Fund (Capitalist), the latter of which already had a stakes win to his name having landed the R. Listed Magic Millions Wyong 2YO Classic on debut earlier in the season.

There was also plenty of hype surrounding the eventual runner-up Royal Tribute (Snitzel), a $500,000 fellow Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling graduate who had looked the goods for the Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott stable in two bloodless trial victories prior to Saturday’s competitive debut.

With that in mind, Darby has no qualms about letting Ozzmosis take his chance in the major 3-year-old contests come the spring, and given that he hails from the famous Hips Don’t Lie (NZ) (Stravinsky {USA}) family that counts the likes of Coolmore stallion Acrobat and this year’s leading juvenile filly Learning To Fly (Justify {USA}) as members, the stallion dream will well and truly be alive should he handle the step up in grade successfully.

“We have to think about it carefully,” Darby said when considering a potential spring target for Ozzmosis. “I’d say it’ll be either the Golden Rose or we’ll wait and target the Coolmore Stud Stakes.

“The turnaround for the Golden Rose is pretty short, so if we went that way he’d only get a few weeks in the paddock.

“We’re very mindful that he’s got an extremely good pedigree and he profiles well for a future stallion prospect if he can win the right races, so we’ll focus on the spring now.”

Driving home the double

Another of Darby Racing’s progressive young horses, Iowna Merc (Winning Rupert), also has spring riches in his sights after successfully backing up his recent first-up win with yet another hard-fought victory at Royal Randwick on Saturday.

Just like his stablemate Ozzmosis, Iowna Merc claimed the scalp of another highly touted Waterhouse-Bott runner in the shape of Kibou (Maurice {Jpn}), who had beaten subsequent G1 Caulfield Guineas winner Golden Mile (Astern) on his last outing in the G3 Up And Coming S., albeit almost 10 months ago.

Iowna Merc has enjoyed a more humble start to life than his year younger stable companion, but such has been his progress since being gelded after his first preparation, Darby and Baker can afford to raise their sights once again with a first crack at stakes level now under consideration for the 3-year-old.

“It’s quite an interesting story, I actually bred the horse,” Darby revealed. “I had the mare and a good client of mine bought him off me as a weanling and I sold the mare on.

“A year later he rang me and said, ‘Would you be able to syndicate him for me?’. He didn’t want a lot of money, he wanted to stay in the horse, so we syndicated him and he has been an absolute blessing.

“He’s a great money-spinner and we just don’t really know where his ceiling is. If you saw him physically you’d see that he’s still got plenty of improvement to come, but for a cheap horse he’s doing amazing things.

“Whether Bjorn gives him another run this time in and then gives him a break before targeting something in the spring, I’m not sure, but at the moment he’s just getting better all the time.”

Despite being deemed not commercial enough to put through a sale, Iowna Merc left a favorable impression on Darby when he first laid eyes on him again as a yearling, so much so that the leading syndicator did not hesitate when the son of Grandview Stud stallion Winning Rupert was offered back to him.

“I do a little bit of breeding and I was selling a few mares and weanlings, trying to upgrade the stock, and we went up and saw him,” Darby added.

“The farm we had him at said, ‘Look, I probably wouldn’t put him through a sale, he probably won’t be commercial enough’, but myself and my offsider Mark Holland really liked him, he was a great moving horse. He wasn’t overly correct in front, but there was just something very athletic about him.

“So when he was offered back to us I sort of jumped at it. Winning Rupert wasn’t really doing the job at the time, but funnily enough, he is really starting to produce them and I think he had a double at Randwick on Saturday.

“I know he’s moved on from Newgate now, but he’s starting to kick some goals.”

Two of the best

Just like Darby’s two winners at Royal Randwick on Saturday, Winning Rupert was trained by Bjorn Baker, with whom Darby Racing have enjoyed a hugely successful relationship over the past decade, most recently courtesy of the inaugural $4 million The Quokka winner Overpass (Vancouver).

Following the recent departure of Mark Newnham to Hong Kong, Baker now trains more horses for the G1 Golden Slipper-winning syndicators than any other trainer, and Darby could hardly be more complimentary of the Kiwi horseman.

“Sometimes you just click with a trainer and that’s what it has been like with Bjorn,” he said.

“You see him getting interviewed and he’s quite the larrikin, but I can assure you when you spend as much time as I do with someone like him, you definitely see that underneath he’s a real thinker and a smart man.

“I would never let his interviews fool you over his ability to train a horse. He’s got determination, which I love, and it’s no wonder that he’s so high up in the premiership.”

Better known for its ability to source elite talent, Darby is equally effusive in his praise for the China Horse Club operation, which bred both Ozzmosis and another of Darby’s highly regarded juveniles who has yet to make his racecourse debut.

“They’re such a big player in the game and they’ve had some amazing results, but the great thing is that they are sellers as well,” Darby said of China Horse Club.

“When you see an organisation like that having such success, you just think that they’re going to race the best ones and sell the worst, but they are actual sellers and they’re doing a great job.

“We bought another 2-year-old off them named Warrant, who if you looked at his form he’s actually run two lasts in trials, but I can assure you that he’s loaded with ability.

“He pulled up crook from his first trial and went out for a while, and the other day he missed the start by about four or five lengths. He’s one of those horses that has nothing to show at this stage, but both Mark Newnham and now Michael Freedman have said he’s loaded with potential, so keep your eye out for him, even though he hasn’t shown it at the trials just yet.”

Having been bang on the money with Ozzmosis, consider yourselves warned.