Cover image courtesy of The Image Is Everything
Mills is accustomed to dealing with the pressure that comes with expensive horses, but even he confessed to feeling a touch relieved when $1.55 million yearling purchase Charm Stone maintained her unbeaten start to her 3-year-old season in Saturday’s Listed Atlantic Jewel S. at The Valley.
Just as she did on her return to action in the G3 Quezette S. last month, Charm Stone left a host of talented fillies in her wake as she overcame a tough trip to score by 1.25l, a victory made all the more impressive given it was her first spin around The Valley and first attempt over 1200 metres.
Despite registering what looked to be a comfortable success, Charm Stone was not at her brilliant best on Saturday according to Mills, with the leading bloodstock agent realistic in his assessment of the star filly’s performance.
“I’m probably more relieved than happy to be honest,” he told TTR AusNZ. “I don’t think she was at her best, but to still be able to get the job done was really pleasing.
“I think she won more on class than anything else. When she hit the front she wanted to pull up and she had a good look at the grandstand.
“She just wasn’t as polished I suppose, but when you’re sitting three deep with no cover and still have the ability to win, you have to be happy.”
“I’m probably more relieved than happy to be honest. I don’t think she (Charm Stone) was at her best, but to still be able to get the job done was really pleasing.” - Sheamus Mills
A winner of the G3 Ottowa S. as a juvenile, Charm Stone showed the potential to live up to her lofty price-tag from very early on in her career, but was looked after by her trainers Mick Price and Michael Kent Jnr in her 2-year-old season, during which she had just three starts.
The same approach will be deployed this year according to Mills, who has been particularly taken with how the daughter of I Am Invincible has improved mentally from two to three.
“I think most people, and Damian Lane particularly, have made comments about her mental maturity this time in and how she’s getting there between the ears,” he said.
“I think most people, and Damian Lane particularly, have made comments about her (Charm Stone) mental maturity this time in and how she’s getting there between the ears.” - Sheamus Mills
“The Valley tests horses like that. It’s a bit of a cauldron, you come out through the grandstand and there’s plenty of people up close.
“Before she had her first start she refused to go through the tunnel at Flemington and she didn’t want to go out onto the track. A couple of starts later she won her first race down the straight there and now, next prep, she’s showing us signs that she’s getting there mentally, which is very pleasing.
“The fact that she’s not mentally developed yet and was still doing things wrong today (Saturday), we’re pretty mindful of the fact that she’s still got some upside, or at least we hope she has! I don’t think she’s quite the finished article and we want to look after her.
“It’s an exciting thought to think that there might still be some improvement there.”
With that in mind, Mills confirmed that Charm Stone will not be heading to the G1 Golden Rose S. as was widely reported on Saturday afternoon, with a tilt at the G1 Coolmore Stud S. via the G2 Danehill S. her most likely destination at this stage.
Sheamus Mills | Image courtesy of The Image Is Everything
“She’s not going to the Golden Rose,” Mills revealed to TTR AusNZ.
“I had a good chat to Mick (Price) and we both agree that at this stage of her career, going the reverse direction and up to 1400 metres with two weeks between runs in a foreign environment is not the right thing to do by the horse.
“I think it’s four weeks to the Danehill and then three or four to the Coolmore, which means that we can really refuel her. We can get the edge back on her, have her nice, bright and fresh, and she’s performed down the straight before.
“You really want them on the up going to the Coolmore, and I don’t know if two weeks between runs, up to 1400 metres and going to Sydney is going to catch a horse on the up.”
Cream of the crop
Widely regarded as one of the best judges of horse flesh in the industry, Mills’ name has been a regular fixture at the top end of the yearling sales in recent years, and Charm Stone, being the highest-priced filly at last year’s Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale, is a perfect example of that.
A hefty price-tag does not guarantee success, however, and Mills was in no mood to accept credit for sourcing Charm Stone as a yearling, stating that he was simply delighted to come away with a horse who reportedly featured prominently on the wishlist of most in attendance on the Gold Coast.
Charm Stone as a yearling | Image courtesy of Magic Millions
“They have been a little bit of a graveyard those expensive horses, but she has done everything we could have asked for at this stage,” Mills said.
“The boys invested a lot of money in her and to be able to find one with enough ability to repay them is probably more relief than joy at the moment.
“There’s no victory or glory in having found her, though. People have asked me in the past about her underbidder and I’ve said to them that the bloke with the seeing eye dog was underbidder, because blind Freddie could have found her.
“Everyone at the sales complex wanted to buy her, it was really just a matter of who was going to leave their hand up the longest, and thankfully my man lasted a little bit longer than everyone else.”
“Everyone at the sales complex wanted to buy her (Charm Stone), it was really just a matter of who was going to leave their hand up the longest.” - Sheamus Mills
By arguably Australia's best stallion and a sister to 2-year-old stakes winner Najmaty (I Am Invincible), Charm Stone’s appeal from a pedigree perspective was somewhat obvious, but Mills recalls her physical attributes as the reason he was prepared to go all the way to $1.55 million to secure her from the draft of her breeders Emirates Park.
“She was an obvious horse at the sales, an absolute standout yearling, and she was as good a yearling as I’ve ever seen,” Mills recalled.
“Her and Queen Of The Green - the Written Tycoon-Karuta Queen filly - are probably the two best yearlings I have ever seen. I can’t remember a horse, Queen Of The Green included, who looked like she could go to the races that Saturday. She looked like a fully developed racehorse on a sales complex full of yearlings.
“She was more physically developed than the others and she still is. We’re talking about spring 3-year-olds, half of them aren’t even three by their birthdate, they still have a lot of physical development to go, and there were a lot of horses in that mounting yard on Saturday who I thought were very good-looking fillies - but she’s like the Year 6 kid who is more physically developed and looks the part, whilst the others are all still developing.”
Sticking to the brief
Charm Stone was not the only daughter of I Am Invincible hitting the headlines on Saturday, with Te Akau’s multiple Group 1-winning mare Imperatriz arguably producing the performance of the day in the G2 McEwen S., leaving last year’s winner Rothfire (Rothesay) and reigning The Everest champion Giga Kick (Scissor Kick) trailing in her wake as she sauntered to a comfortable 2.5l success.
Mills and his clients have been big supporters of Yarraman Park’s flagship stallion in recent years, both in the sales ring and in the breeding barn, and the leading bloodstock agent is confident that the best is still ahead of Australia’s reigning Champion Sire.
“He has served better quality mares every single year, and he’s shown that the better the quality of mares, the better he goes,” Mills said.
“He won the Champion Sire title two years ago and won it again last year - I think early days he’s on track to win it by even further this year. We saw Imperatriz, Tiz Invincible, they’re just lining up and I think he’s set for his best ever year.
“We just had an I Am Invincible filly out of Bonham the other day and Odeum is due to foal this week, also to Vinnie. We have long been a supporter of his and we have a lot of his progeny under our management now, thankfully.”
“We have long been a supporter of his (I Am Invincible) and we have a lot of his progeny under our management now, thankfully.” - Sheamus Mills
At the culmination of what promises to be a hugely successful racing career, Charm Stone will join the likes of Bonham (Per Incanto {USA}) and Odeum (Written Tycoon), as well as fellow stakes winner Persuader (Zoustar) and the Group 3-placed mare See Me Exceed (Sebring), in a small but select broodmare band assembled by Mills and his clients.
Those clients include prominent owner Heath Newton, who along with some of Charm Stone’s other owners, handed Mills the enviable task of sourcing blue-blooded fillies to race and breed from further down the track, a task that Mills is relishing despite the obvious challenges associated with breeding racehorses.
Connections of Charm Stone after her win in the Listed Atlantic Jewel S. | Image courtesy of The Image Is Everything
“Our whole plan was to buy, develop and breed with good fillies, with the long-term aim of establishing a high-class broodmare band,” he said.
“They’re a group of guys who have been with me from the start and they gave me the brief a couple of years ago to try and establish a high-class group of racehorses that could then go to stud.
“I wanted to make it a proper commercial venture and these things take time to filter through from the racetrack and then onto the breeding barn, but we’re just trying to chip away, keep our numbers low and see if we can bob up in black-type races with some well-bred horses.
“It’s a very hard game given x-rays, scopes and all the things that can go wrong, but we’re trying to give ourselves a chance to have that investment make some sense.”
She may have cost a pretty penny, but suffice to say, Charm Stone is doing more than her bit for the cause.
