Cover image courtesy of Goffs
A week is a long time when Royal Ascot is ongoing, but it’s been just over a week since Gai Waterhouse (with McKeever Bloodstock) stood ringside at the Goffs London Sale, buying the 3-year-old New Bay (GB) gelding New Endeavour.
At £260,000 (AU$490,000), the horse wasn’t as much of a splash as Hoo Ya Mal (GB) (Territories {Ire}) 12 months before (at $2.25 million), but he came with the bonus of being a Royal Ascot runner when he lined up last Thursday in the Britannia S.
Sent out by Roger Varian, New Endeavour was 0.5l second in the Britannia to the OTI-owned Docklands (GB) (Massaat {Ire}), the result franking his good recent form. At Kempton in early June, New Endeavour had been a winner over seven furlongs, and Thursday’s result brought the gelding’s total record to eight starts, two wins and three placings.
Waterhouse and co-trainer Adrian Bott are the new registered owners of New Endeavour as the Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott Syndicate. Until last week, the gelding had been owned by Teme Valley and Ballylinch Stud.
On Wednesday, we caught up with Adrian Bott about his new charge, Bott sitting out Royal Ascot this year to keep things ticking at Tulloch Lodge.
“It was a very encouraging run from the horse last week,” the trainer said. “It was his first attempt at the mile, with all his previous form being over the seven furlongs. He’d shown a great turn of foot previously, so it was really encouraging to see him stretch out over a strong, testing mile and still be as effective, as explosive as he had been before.”
The margin of the Britannia result was narrow enough to suggest that New Endeavour had handled the mile perfectly. He and Docklands were clear of the pack by 2.5l at the line, albeit split by the width of the straight, and, speaking after the race, Varian said the gelding “won his side well and he’s a lovely horse”.
“The Britannia opens up a lot of options for him down here in Australia, in terms of the distances he can be effective at,” Bott said. “He’s got a good turn of speed, which you need down here, and that he's been able to stretch out for a tough mile at Ascot, there’s plenty of nice races for him down here. He may even be able to stretch a little bit further in time.”
“The Britannia (at Royal Ascot) opens up a lot of options for him (New Endeavour) down here in Australia, in terms of the distances he can be effective at.” - Adrian Bott
For the short term, New Endeavour will remain with Varian at Newmarket, and it’s likely the horse will race again in Europe before he makes the move to Australia.
“We can’t really get him to Australia for a while,” Bott said. “Logistics wise, there is plenty of time to have another run in Europe. There’s a shipment that comes here almost straight away in July, but he didn’t have all the vaccinations done in time prior to his sale. So he wouldn’t be able to fly until the next few shipments, which would be August or September.”
The September shipment would most likely include the spring carnival horses from Europe on their way to Sydney and Melbourne’s big-money races. But Bott and Waterhouse didn’t have an Australian race in mind for New Endeavour when they bought him, so they’re in no hurry.
“He wasn’t bought for Ascot or Australia specifically,” Bott said. “We just thought he’d be a nice horse to get down here. After his run as Ascot, it gave us a good idea of the types of races we could potentially plan for, but in terms of his rating, we’d probably still need to see him run again in Europe in Listed or Group company, and he’d need to be effective in that race to get his rating up to be eligible for the decent races in the Australian spring.”
“...in terms of his rating, we’d probably still need to see him run again in Europe in Listed or Group company, and he’d need to be effective in that race to get his rating up to be eligible for the decent races in the Australian spring.” - Adrian Bott
Such a race could include the $10 million Golden Eagle, which will come up quickly on November 4. But on his current rating (which sits at an a RPR of 107), New Endeavour is underqualified. In his eight career starts, he is yet to tackle stakes company, despite the merit of the Britannia result.
“We're considering right now what his program could look like in both countries, having a run in Europe prior to getting on the potential carnival shipment in September,” Bott said. “He’s back at Roger’s at the moment, and this is something yet to be discussed in detail.
“Roger’s thoughts on the horse and his preparation, and what’s achievable over there, is going to be key to that plan. It’s a busy week for them and there’s been plenty on… we wanted to give them a few days to get the horse back to the yard and get over Royal Ascot.”
Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott | Image courtesy of The Image Is Everything
When New Endeavour arrives in Australia later this year, he’ll be a 4-year-old by the Southern Hemisphere calendar. Technically, he will have six months on his local peers, which would be to his benefit should he take his place in a Golden Eagle.
“He’d need to win a decent race to be on the order of prizemoney for a race like that, or to be even thinking about making the field,” Bott said. “Yes, he ran a great race the other day but he’d need to be winning an event like that.”
Sold out
New Endeavour was among the 28 horses catalogued at last week’s Goffs London Sale, which was as much a cocktail event on the grounds of Kensington Palace as it was a horse sale.
In the end, 21 horses were offered and 11 sold, with New Endeavour among the two that Waterhouse and Bott purchased. The other was Cuban Dawn (Ire) (Teofilo {Ire}).
New Endeavour was consigned by Varian Stable as Lot 15. He had a BHA rating of 95 at the point of sale, and his pedigree was decent. By New Bay, who stands at Ballylinch Stud and represents the Dubawi (Ire) line, he is from the Invincible Spirit (Ire) mare Moody Blue (Ire).
New Endeavour (Ire) | Image courtesy of Goffs
Moody Blue is a half-sister to Luminous Eyes (Ire), a Bachelor Duke (USA) mare who was imported to Australia in 2010. Luminous Eyes is the dam of the G2 Caulfield Sprint and G2 Moonee Valley Classic winner Lumosty (Fastnet Rock), so there is local form to be had with this pedigree.
However, none of that mattered to Waterhouse and Bott when they were buying New Endeavour last week. They have already syndicated the horse to a select group of owners who they’ve been involved with for many years, some of whom were ringside at Goffs last week.
“He’s been syndicated to a number of Australians who were either at the sale or who have supported us through a lot of those sales in the past,” Bott said. “The horse raced last week in Larry Nestadt’s colours, and Larry races a number of horses with us. He’s raced a number of horses with my dad (Tony Bott) over the years too.”
“The horse (New Endeavour) raced last week in Larry Nestadt’s colours, and Larry races a number of horses with us. He’s raced a number of horses with my dad (Tony Bott) over the years too.” - Adrian Bott
Larry Nestadt lives in Johannesburg. He’s a finance guru, a co-founder of Investec Bank, but he has been involved in racehorses for over 40 years around the world. Among his topical horses in Australia right now is Let’sbefrankbaby (Frankel {GB}), who last month won the G3 SAJC Fillies Classic.
However, when it came to sourcing New Endeavour, it was Waterhouse’s sleuthing that did the trick.
“With Gai being based over there at this time of year, she was able to go down to Newmarket and do some pre-sale inspections,” Bott said. “She had a good look at them and Rob’s been able to do some form going into the sale. It’s not a concept that’s unfamiliar to us. We’ve tried to be pretty active at this sale each year.”
New Bay in Australia
New Endeavour will be one of the few progeny of Ballylinch sire New Bay running around in Australia when he arrives. To date, the stallion’s best representative has been New Mandate (Ire), who was imported in August last year and won the G3 Hawkesbury Gold Cup in April for Chris Waller.
New Mandate (Ire), winner of the G3 Hawkesbury Gold Cup | Image courtesy of Ashlea Brennan
New Bay is a young sire in Europe, but he’s an emerging force with three Group 1 winners in the 2022 Northern Hemisphere racing season. He’s pushing an eight per cent stakes winners to runners ratio in the UK and Ireland, and he is currently leading the European third-crop sire table.
So far, his best performers have been the likes of the dual Group 1 winner Saffron Beach (Ire), the G1 Champion S. winner Bay Bridge (GB) last year and the G1 Queen Elizabeth II S. winner Bayside Boy (Ire).
This stallion is from the same family as Kingman (GB), and Juddmonte is also involved while he stands at Ballylinch Stud for €75,000 (AU$120,000).
New Bay (GB) | Standing at Ballylinch Stud
“I’m not familiar with New Bay a great deal,” Bott said. “Once the stock is exposed and they’ve have had a few race starts, and there’s enough data and information to go off, we’d probably use that to base our selections on as opposed to pedigree.
“But at this point, if the physical type matches up in Australia, and the form’s there, I think you can confidently push forward with a horse like New Endeavour. So without having any great deal of experience with New Bay, we liked everything else.”
