'Hottest family in the Australian Stud Book': Learning To Fly returns on Saturday

Cover image courtesy of The Image Is Everything

On Saturday, the hugely exciting Learning To Fly (Justify {USA}) is set to return to the racetrack in the G2 Light Fingers S. after recovering from an injury sustained in the G1 Golden Slipper last year in March.

The daughter of Justify (USA), trained by Annabel Neasham, was a $900,000 purchase by Kia-Ora Stud from the draft of Coolmore Stud S. at the 2022 Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale.

Learning To Fly made an immediate impact on the track, winning the R. Listed Inglis Millennium, the G3 Widden S. and the G2 Reisling S. that saw her shoot into favouritism for the coveted Golden Slipper.

However, it wasn’t to be. Learning To Fly sustained a serious check that saw her rider, Chad Schofield, dismounted onto the Rosehill turf. Fortunately, Schofield walked away with minor cuts and bruises, while Learning To Fly was transported to the Randwick Equine Centre and then sent on the road to recovery. The latest chapter in the story will be written on Saturday in the Light Fingers S. as Learning To Fly works towards her ultimate aim the G1 Surround S.

For renowned bloodstock agent James Bester, it’s an exciting time and a story he has had a major say in, having purchased the grandam of Learning To Fly, Hips Don’t Lie (NZ) (Stravinsky {USA}).

The Thoroughbred Report caught up with Bester to learn more about the story and the ‘hottest family in the Australian Stud Book.’

She’s got hips

Bester transports us back to the 2007 New Zealand Bloodstock Karaka Yearling Sale when he laid eyes on the daughter of the G1 July Cup and G1 Nunthorpe S. Stravinsky (USA) at the Trelawney Stud draft.

“Hips Don’t Lie was bought very much on board on her beautiful flowing action and walk,” Bester said.

Hips Don’t Lie was purchased for NZ$200,000 by Bester and raced by himself and a group of friends.

Bester explained the inspiration for the filly’s eye-catching name that owes partly credit to Bester and a certain timely song released by a Colombian pop star.

“One of my chief selection criteria is what I call the length of a hip on a horse,” he told The Thoroughbred Report.

“I had been saying to my friends for years about hips on horses. I’d tell people, that horse cannot run; they have no hips, and the hips don’t lie, so I won’t buy that horse.

“When we bought Hips Don’t Lie, one of my friends, who came into the ownership, is a music aficionado, and she said, ‘You’re always going on about hips, and there’s a song out by Shakira called ‘Hips Don’t Lie’, can we call this filly that?’ I said, ‘Absolutely mate’.”

The filly was trained by David Hayes and won her first three starts, including the Listed Talindert S. and the Listed Ottawa S.

She was beaten in the G1 Blue Diamond behind Reaan but bounced back to finish second in the G2 Silver Slipper behind Amelia’s Jewel (Redoute’s Choice) and winning the G2 Reisling S.

Hips Don’t Lie was then unplaced in the G1 Golden Slipper won by Sebring. The filly would win once more before retirement.

Can’t let her go

After finishing unplaced in the G1 Winterbottom S. in a field that included Takeover Target (Celtic Swing {GB}) and Apache Cat (Lion Cavern {USA}), Hips Don’t Lie was offered through the 2009 Magic Millions Gold Coast Winter Broodmare Sale where Colm Santry paid $770,000.

However, Hips Don’t Lie had left such an impression on Bester that he wasn’t prepared to relinquish the relationship with the mare.

“Hips Don’t Lie was offered for sale, and I talked my client Kia Ora into trying to buy her. It was ironic because I was retained by Coolmore at the time for various roles, but I ended up standing next to Michael Kirwan, bidding against Coolmore on her.

“Coolmore held sway and outbid me, but right away, I turned to Michael and said, 'I can’t let her go. Can I keep my share?’ which was 20 per cent, so I ended up owning her with Coolmore alongside a couple of entities within Coolmore and Demi O'Byrne, who raced her with me.”

Blue hen mare

Hips Don’t Lie was retired and set for a life of lush paddocks and quality care at Coolmore. She was served by resident sire Fastnet Rock in 2011 after missing to another Coolmore native, Encosta De Lago.

The resultant colt, Burning Mountain, was gelded. He was sold for $900,000 to Mark Kavanagh Racing Stables from the draft at Coolmore Stud at the 2013 Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale and won five races, providing Hips Don’t Lie with a perfect start to her broodmare career.

Her next foal, Lake Geneva (Fastnet Rock), upped the ante, selling for $1 million to Hawkes Racing in 2014 at Inglis Easter. Lake Geneva proved incredibly talented, winning the Listed William Crockett S. and placing in both the G1 Blue Diamond S. and the G1 Golden Slipper.

Hips Don’t Lies’ following two foals, Irish Sea (Fastnet Rock) and continuing the music theme, Sia (Fastnet Rock), was also well received in the sale ring. Irish Sea made $1 million at the 2015 Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale and $500,000 through the 2017 Chairman’s Sale to China Horse Club.

Gallery: Some of Hips Don't Lie's (NZ) high-achieving progeny

Meanwhile, Sia achieved $1.1 million as a yearling before $780,000 at the 2018 edition of the Inglis Chairman’s Sale. The daughter of Fastnet Rock was reoffered through the 2022 edition of that sale, where Hilldene Farm teamed up with James Bester Bloodstock to secure her for $1.6 million.

Incredibly, her first four yearlings achieved $4 million, an average of $1 million.

Hips Don’t Lie is also the dam of the exciting Acrobat, who raced once, winning the R. Listed Inglis Nursery in track record time before an incident on a walker nearly cost him his life.

Fortunately, Acrobat was saved and now stands at Coolmore with his first foals on the ground last spring.

“Hips Don’t Lie was married to Fastnet Rock for several years. She’s the most extraordinary mare because her first four foals averaged $1 million.”

Bester explained why he feels Hips Don’t Lie has been such a successful broodmare.

“Hips Don’t Lie was a high-quality mare. She wasn’t overly big but had a beautiful, refined head. Just quality all over. Fastnet Rock added a lot of strength and a powerful hindquarter, but fillies such as Ennis Hill (dam of Learning To Fly) retained the beautiful head from her dam.”

Coolmore Stud is set to offer the Snitzel filly from Hips Don’t Lie as Lot 68 at the 2024 Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale, while the mare foaled a filly by Home Affairs in October.

“Snitzel is arguably the best sire in Australia on his record and has been the Champion Sire more often than any other living sire.

“So Lot 68 is a very athletic, great moving filly that looks fast.”

The one they couldn't sell

Hips Don’t Lie’s fifth foal, Ennis Hill (Fastnet Rock), is the mare most pivotal to the story of Learning To Fly. Ironically, she was deemed unsuitable for sale given a conformation fault her owners felt would jeopardise her reaching her true value.

“Ennis Hill couldn’t be offered as a yearling because she had corkscrew front legs,” Bester shared.

“If we offered her for sale, relatively speaking, she would have been given away compared to what the others made. Ironically, Ennis Hill has turned out to be the best broodmare of her dam’s daughters.”

Ennis Hill was put in training with Lindsay Park and proved a successful galloper, winning the G3 Chairman’s S.

“Her legs didn’t get in her way as she won the G3 Chairman’s S. and then ran in the Blue Diamond, so she was sound enough.

“Ennis Hills’ sister Lake Geneva was placed in two Group 1s, but she hasn’t hit the same heights as a broodmare like her magnificent, gorgeous, best-looking of them all sister, but with the corkscrew front legs.”

Interestingly, Bester shared that Ennis Hill and Acrobat seemed to throw more to a certain global sensation in Danehill (USA), the sire of Fastnet Rock, than they did their sire himself.

“Acrobat's foals are like peas in the pods. They are clones of himself. There is a lot of excitement about his progeny on the ground. They all have great heads and powerful hindquarters.

“Interestingly, at the time of Acrobat and Ennis Hills’ birth they were the most like Danehill. They were not like Fastnet Rock, from the day they were born, both of them, we said these two skipped a generation and are all Danehill.

“We had seen hundreds if not thousands of Danehills' over the years and they absolutely were him. So, that’s a significant factor. Fastnet Rock has been an incredible stallion and broodmare sire but those two looked more like his Danehill.”

Filly a standout from day dot

Ennis Hill was sent to, arguably, one of the most exciting sire prospects to ever stand in Australia, Justify, at her second mating and together, the two have produced magic.

“Learning To Fly’s power and scope is due to some extent from Justify, one of the world’s biggest, strongest stallions.

“They don’t get much bigger and stronger than Learning To Fly, and yet she’s big but so athletic like Justify, I would say.

“Justify is an adonis of a horse. He’s got the biggest, squareest hindquarter you can imagine, really short cannons, powerful forearm and gaskin and a great hind leg. There’s no question about it, and he’s quite remarkable.”

Bester feels there’s a strong case to be made that Learning To Fly may be the best yet on a page that is deemed the hottest family in the Australian Stud Book. During the spring, the family added a further Group 1 winner in Ozzmosis (Zoustar).

“She definitely does have the potential to be the best in the family. Learning To Fly has never been beaten with a jockey on her back, to put it that way. Judging by what we’ve seen in her trials and exhibition gallop, she’s come back at least as well, if not better than ever.

“Of course, she’s going to be a bit ring-rusty, and there’s no guarantee that she’ll win, but the Surround S. is her main aim.

“But if she could win a Group 1, she’d be the best in that family. I call it the royal family; these families are getting better and better with Ozzmosis. It just gets deeper and deeper.”