Matings mix: 'Our overall mission is to breed horses that we'd like to race'

Cover image courtesy of The Image Is Everything

The brainchild of Louis Mihalyka, Laurel Oak Bloodstock (FBAA) is a boutique racing and breeding operation run by Mihalyka, his wife Jill and their small team.

Mihalyka’s full-circle approach means that, although most fillies are sold at the end of their racing careers, some of his ownership groups retain them for breeding, after which he usually lets the market decide whether they “want to pay too much for them” as yearlings, or not.

The approach means Mihalyka and his loyal clients can stand by a mating decision, and it’s proved a successful philosophy.

“Our overall mission is to breed horses that we'd like to race,” Mihalyka told TTR AusNZ.

“We can't keep them all those that we breed, but that's where the sales come in. The ones that are sales quality, we could be bidding on them as potential buyers.”

Rebel Rebel

When reining in on retaining Laurel Oak-raced fillies for breeding some years ago, sentimentality rewarded Mihalyka when he decided not to sell Rebel Dane’s third dam, Georgian Gold (Blue And Gold), a $1000 purchase at the Dubbo Yearling Sale. She was kept despite lacking stakes form as she had been a handy horse, and would turn into a winning producer.

Wind forward to 2008, and her granddaughter, Texarcana (More Than Ready {USA}) had again been successful for Mihalyka, but without gaining any black type. Hence, she wasn’t considered smart enough for Not A Single Doubt when it came to planning her first mating, so Mihalyka sent her instead to California Dane, producing Rebel Dane.

Mihalyka is the first to admit that Rebel Dane’s pedigree isn’t the most fashionable, and that stallion deals weren’t forthcoming when it came time to retire the dual Group 1 winner. However, faith was more than repaid when, from Swettenham Stud, Rebel Dane sired Champion 2-Year-Old Fireburn from his second crop, having already produced the Group-winning juvenile Subterranean from his first.

In between, support withered, the stallion moved studs, and he covered just 11 mares in 2019. That jumped to 50 in 2021, following the exploits of Subterranean and, after Fireburn’s G1 Golden Slipper S.-winning season, Rebel Dane was moved to Widden Stud, where he covered over 100 mares for the first time last year.

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Bred by Laurel Oak, Fireburn was the first foal from her dam, the So You Think (NZ) mare Mull Over. A winning miler, she’s a half-sister to multiple Australian stakes winner Galizani (Galileo {Ire}) and was purchased by Laurel Oak at the 2018 Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale for $22,000, chiefly because the mating to Rebel Dane would provide a 3 X 4 inbreeding to Danehill (USA) which rates so well on Mihalyka’s proprietary Laurel Oak Pedigree Analysis (LOPA) system.

Following Fireburn, in 2020 Mull Over produced her younger half-sibling, the juvenile winner and stakes performer Kintyre (Hallowed Crown) - both are trained by Gary Portelli.

“Because we only have a small team of horses, we didn't want to overkill with Rebel Dane until we had some idea of him,” Mihalyka explained. “So, in what was a grave error in judgement, unless of course Kintyre comes out and wins the Spring Champion Stakes, we went to Hallowed Crown.

“Then we went to Pierata, which is another good mating for the mare. We got a very nice horse, but then Fireburn came along.

“We chose to go back there (to Rebel Dane) last year, but she didn't go in foal. She only went late… so this year we're going early.”

With a 4 X 4 inbreeding to Danehill, Mihalyka reports that the Pierata colt is a lovely type that will likely head to the yearling sales next year.

With Rebel Dane well and truly proven now as capable of producing elite horses despite his modest early support, Mihalyka went on the hunt for a similar mare to further support him.

He landed on Rayjen at this year’s Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale - not so much because she’s also by So You Think, but more because she brings the same Danehill inbreeding to the table. A three-time winner and Group 3 placed, she cost $100,000 and will visit Rebel Dane this year for her first mating.

“She just so happens to be by So You Think, the same as Mull Over, and has Danehill as her second damsire.

“She was a decent racehorse, but it wasn't a stakes placing in a G2 Silver Slipper or something like that.

“Her second damsire is More Than Ready, and More Than Ready is inbred too as well in this particular mating. That's worked for us once before with Rebel Shadow, who’s won three races.”

A high-class connection

Rebel Dane isn’t the only stallion that Laurel Oak holds a stake in; Jacquinot will stand his first season at Widden Stud this year, and whilst Mihalyka has found a nice maiden mare to support him, he’s also got a mare retiring from the track which will head to Swettenham Stud’s Rubick, which will result in an almost identical cross to Jacquinot’s own.

“Jacquinot is by Rubick, out of a Pierro mare, who's out of a Redoute’s Choice mare. Well, our mare's by Pierro, out of a Redoute’s Choice mare,” said Mihalyka.

“So, we go to Rubick, and we create the same inbreeding that Jacquinot has, that particularly includes the 3 X 4 Shantha's Choice (dam of Redoute’s Choice), which is so dominant in his pedigree.”

Picked up at the 2018 Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale, Rockarosa (Pierro) cost $250,000 and won three races for Laurel Oak before being sent to Written By in 2021. That produced a “very nice filly,” which Mihalyka has earmarked for next year’s Inglis Classic Yearling Sale.

“I'd like to think that I'm a potential buyer,” Mihalyka said of the filly. “Our modus operandi is that if they look like they're commercial mares or commercial yearlings, we'll put them in the sale to give the breeders a chance for a windfall result.”

A nice yearling by Rubick may do exactly that, and he’s a stallion standing for excellent value in 2023 according to Mihalyka.

“For a horse that produced, basically the champion 3-year-old colt in the country last season, he's still standing at $25,000.”

Jacquinot himself, meanwhile, debuts at $33,000 (inc GST) at Widden Stud this year and will receive a former Chris Waller trainee in Smirk (NZ).

A daughter of Preferment (NZ), Smirk was third in the G2 The Roses and fourth in the G1 Queensland Oaks, and cost Laurel Oak $100,000.

“She's another that inbreeds to a number of high-quality ancestors in her pedigree,” said Mihalyka, who highlighted the success of inbreeding to Rolls (USA) (Mr Prospector {USA}).

“That’s basically achieved through Encosta De Lago and Flying Spur in the same pedigree. There's been a lot of very good horses with that combination, Alligator Blood being a more recent high profile one.”

Amica - Farnan - in foal to Farnan first season, going to Farnan again

Rubick is already represented amongst Laurel Oak as the sire of Amica, a Group 3-placed, five-time winner whom Mihalyka picked up for $220,000 at last year’s Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale.

She herself is out of the stakes-winning Shamardal (USA) mare Femina Fashion, and was bought in foal to Farnan. Laurel Oak will often follow the policy of breeding to the same stallion for a mare's first two years, and hence Amica will return to the Kia Ora resident again this year, though Mihalyka warns that the decision is “subject to seeing her first foal.”

“We're trying to buy one sort of better mare each year, and that's more in our range now,” he added. “In the old days we bought a couple of Group winners at that price range, they're now in the $500,000-plus range.

“We’ve got Rubick who's from Redoute’s Choice’s tail female line, and then Sharmardal, who’s from Street Cry's female line. Old Mr Rasmussen would be drooling over this because we're inbreeding to Santha's Choice, the dam of Redoute's Choice.

“That's worked well in the production of Jacquinot, and we're also inbreeding to Shamardal’s dam, Helsinki, who’s a full sister to Street Cry.”

State Of excitement

Another first-season sire that Laurel Oak has equity in is Newgate Farm’s shuttler State Of Rest (Ire).

“We bought into him when he was a racehorse as a future stallion when Newgate did the Southern Hemisphere breeding rights syndication of him,” said Mihalyka.

“We enjoyed two of his Group 1 wins, including the Ascot win, so now we've got nominations to him, so we were looking for mares that will suit.”

Hence, Mihalyka headed to the Inglis Australian Broodmare Sale with just one mare on his mind.

He parted with $220,000 for Estoril Park (Pride Of Dubai), a dual winner and Group 3 placed. Estoril Park was (and still is) also carrying a pregnancy to St Mark’s Basilica (Fr), her maiden mating. That held great appeal for Mihalyka, who rates the Siyouni (Fr) influence as a match for Australian racing.

Mostly, however, he was happy to find a mare that suited State Of Rest, admitting that it was more difficult to find a match for the heavily American dam side of the sire’s pedigree.

“She's a half to a Group 3 winner as well, so all in all, when she's in foal to St Mark's Basilica, it was a very nice purchase.

“The plan is to go there two years in a row and then we'll look at other options; she's actually an excellent match for Jacquinot, that’s another good mating option, so that's probably one for the future for her.”

Ahead of the curve

One of Laurel Oak’s more expensive yearling purchases, Exoplanet (Snitzel) cost $480,000 at the 2017 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale. She’s well bred, being a half-sister to G1 Emirates S. winner Awesome Rock (Fastnet Rock) and out of Group 3 winner Awesome Planet (Giant’s Causeway {USA}).

“We like to buy one or two really highly bred fillies each year,” Mihalyka explained. “They tend to race well and they tend to have a good residual (value) if we decide to sell them, or otherwise they're commercial mares if we decide to keep them.

“In an ideal world, you have 40 of them, like some of the other big enterprises, but we're humble little Laurel Oak who only gets one or two.”

Held back by injury during her career, Exoplanet retired a winning miler, and in 2021 produced her first foal, a Saxon Warrior (Jpn) filly.

Named Starfire, she was placed with Annabel Neasham and Mihalyka reports that she is progressing well, and looks on course to make an impression as a juvenile this season. With a Pierro filly on the ground, she is currently in foal to St Mark’s Basilica, and will head to Justify (USA) this season.

“Coincidentally, she's had a very Coolmore career,” Mihalyka noted. “It’s just the way her pedigree has worked out. This is a good mating (to Justify), as we'd identified some years ago.

“The funny thing is that we booked in in April - they didn't even know what his service fee was going to be when we booked. Learning To Fly was around, but since then he's ended up as leading first-season sire.

“He's got that City Of Troy in the north, it looks like an absolute star, so he was popular to a point early on, but now they're flocking to him. We've got major breeder clients all wanting a slice in Justify, which wasn't the case back in April.”

Gallery: Some of the matings Laurel Oak Bloodstock (FBAA) are planning in 2023