Group 1 siblings at Oaklands

Cover image courtesy of Inglis

Seven yearlings due to go under the hammer from Sunday are half-siblings to horses who have achieved the ultimate success on the track - Group 1 glory. Buyers won’t have to wait too long for the first of those - Lot 53 being consigned by Tarcoola Stud.

A daughter of proven stallion Brazen Beau, she is out of the G3 How Now S. winner Vivacious Spirit (Bel Esprit) who was also bred by Tarcoola’s Ken Williams - and about whose career he still looks back on with a degree of disappointment.

“She was a freakish mare,” Williams said of the bay who impressively won at her Ballarat debut, quickly proving herself a stakes-class horse and enjoying her biggest success at her penultimate of only 12 starts.

“Unfortunately, due to soreness issues we never got to see her best, she had so much natural ability.”

Fortunately, Vivacious Spirit has been passing on ability - her first foal Costa Viva (Encosta De Lago) earning the title of New Zealand Bloodstock Filly of the Year with her win in the G1 NZ 1000 Guineas.

All five of Vivacious Spirit’s subsequent foals have been winners including the stakes-placed Tarcoola Spirit (Stratum) and the city winners Red Horse (Flying Spur) and Exeter (Fastnet Rock) and Williams feels that Brazen Beau is the horse to get the best out of her.

“We have enjoyed great success with Thoroughbred Genetics’ Dr Stephen Harrison and he was adamant that I send Vivacious Spirit to Brazen Beau. We have ended up with a filly who I think is an (Inglis) Easter type with an Easter page but I have two other fillies at the Premier and I didn’t want to break them up.

“She is a lovely filly who is still developing, she has Brazen Beau about her head and good length. Her dam has her best foals by strong stallions and he is that sort of horse - it is one of those cases where DNA and type came together.”

Lot 273 by Capitalist out of Hangin’ Tough (Exceed And Excel), bred and sold by Ben Cooper’s Merricks Station is the next sibling to a big-race winner - the 2022 G1 Toorak H. winner Tuvalu (Kermadec {NZ}).

Capitalist is quite a different mating to Kermadec (NZ), Cooper hoping to get the sort of sprinting type that won Merricks (as part owners) the G2 Rubiton S. with Marine One.

“The mare has a tendency to throw big types and we wanted something more compact which Marine One is. And that is exactly what we got, he is more of a sprinting type of horse than Tuvalu though, being a mid-November foal, he is not as forward - he is going to benefit with being given a bit of time.”

Cooper has been enjoying constant pedigree updates to this colt’s page with just last weekend the dual Group winner Pericles (Street Boss {USA}) from the family running a brave second in the G1 Futurity S. - beaten by Mr Brightside (NZ) whose sire, Bullbars, is also a member of this prolific family.

Cooper has always been happy with the types Hangin’ Tough has produced, saying, “She is a beautiful mare whose foals have that lovely Exceed And Excel movement.”

Cooper purchased Hangin' Tough with Mathew Ellerton and Mark Zahra as a yearling.

Supreme Thoroughbreds’ Brent Grayling sells the next of the Group 1 siblings, Lot 325 a Written Tycoon half-brother to the durable and popular G1 Futurity S. and G1 CF Orr S. winner Streets Of Avalon (Magnus).

The winner of 10 of his 71 starts and over $2.4 million in stakes, Streets Of Avalon was a homebred for Warren Racing who have never sent any of his dam Kamuniak’s (NZ) (Black Minnaloushe {USA}) yearlings through the sales ring.

“She went to Magnus five times and they decided to breed something really commercial to sell and Written Tycoon was that horse,” Grayling said.

“And the colt is a cracker. He has the Written Tycoon length but is not heavy, he is a very athletic horse with a lot of quality.”

“On inspections he has been the most popular colt of our draft,” Grayling said of the son of a full sister to the dual Group 1 winner Jokers Wild (NZ).

Vinery Stud sell Lot 371 for their client, the highly successful breeder Greg Perry - a Toronado (Ire) filly out of the placed Luminova (NZ) (Zabeel {NZ}) whose son Johnny Get Angry (NZ) (Tavistock {NZ}) was a very popular winner of the 2021 G1 VRC Derby.

Johnny Get Angry was also bred by Perry who he remembers as being “a big, strong horse who nobody loved!

“We were offered NZ$50,000 and I ummed and aahed over taking it,” Perry said - as happy as anyone to see him progress to Classic success.

A student of pedigrees, Perry sent Luminova to Toronado on the strength of the high degree of female line-breeding with this filly boasting crosses of the terrific mares Special (USA) (Forli {Arg}), Somethingroyal (USA) (Princequillo {Ire}) and Hardiemma (Ire) (Hardicanute {Ire}).

“She (Lot 371) is a late foal who is going to need a bit of time, but she is a nice type. I remember seeing Toronado race in the UK and loved the way he was strong through the line, he was the sort of horse who just kept coming. And he is proving to be a wonderful stallion.”

Lot 388 is a bit more than a half-sister to a Group 1 winner, rather a three-quarter - Yulong’s filly by their resident G1 Phoenix S.-winning stallion Lucky Vega (Ire) being out of the mare Miss Barley (Fastnet Rock) who has produced, by Lucky Vega’s sire Lope De Vega (Ire), the wonderful sprinter Gytrash.

That G1 Lightning S. winner who did such a good job amassing over $4.4 million in stakes with his 10 victories from 28 starts was also Group 1-placed on four occasions as well as finishing third behind Classique Legend (Not A Single Doubt) and Bivouac in the 2020 running of The Everest.

Gytrash is one of Lope De Vega’s nine winners out of Fastnet Rock mares, a cross which has also produced the five-time Group 1 winner Santa Ana Lane and the US-based dual Group 3 winner Faith In Humanity (Fr). And a cross which provides for the duplication of the terrific mare Crimson Saint (USA) (Crimson Satan {USA}), the grandam of Lope De Vega’s great-grandsire Storm Cat (USA) and dam of Fastnet Rock’s damsire Royal Academy (USA).

“She is a very athletic filly who has inherited good things from both her sire and dam,” Yulong’s Sam Fairgray said.

“Miss Barley is a bit of a coarse mare and Lucky Vega has refined her whilst still retaining that lovely Fastnet Rock hindquarter strength.

“She is a good quality filly who is proving popular in the inspections.”

Yarraman Park sells Lot 461, a chestnut colt by the high-class, G1 WS Cox Plate-winning, New Zealand-based stallion Ocean Park (NZ) out of Primadonna Girl (NZ) (Edenwold {Can}) whose outstanding son has made the news for good and very sad reasons.

Dying after routine knee chip surgery in March last year, I’m Thunderstruck (NZ) (Shocking) was a gifted sprinter/miler whose seven victories yielded him in excess of $8.3 million in prizemoney.

Successful at the elite level on two occasions, he won the G1 Toorak H. and the G1 Makybe Diva S. and was competitive with the best of this era’s horses.

Primadonna Girl has produced another three winners from her first four to race with the now Hong Kong-based Cantstopthefeeling (NZ) (Swiss Ace) Group 2-placed in New Zealand whilst Primal Spirit (NZ) (Charm Spirit {Ire}) won nicely at his Benalla debut for I’m Thunderstruck’s trainers Mick Price and Michael Kent Jnr late last month.

“He is a very nice colt,” said Yarraman Park’s Arthur Mitchell. “He is a very strong horse with a good walk and he should prove very popular.”

Showcase offering

The Showcase Session of the sale is home to the final of the Group 1 siblings being sold at this sale - Lot 787 under the draft of Two Bays Farm being a Rebel Dane colt out of the terrific broodmare So Tempted (Jeune {GB}).

Eight of her 10 foals to race have been winners with the South African-based dual Group 1 winner Happy Archer (Dubawi {Ire}) the star of those. Femina Fashion (Shamardal {USA}) is also classy, a Listed winner of the Gold Coast Bracelet and dam of the Group 3-placed dual city winner Amica (Rubick).

A full sister to the G2 Wakeful S. winner Lolita Star and half to the G3 Adelaide Guineas winner Berezny (Bellotto {USA}), So Tempted is owned by Mike O’Donnell who bred this colt - and last weekend’s G1 Blue Diamond S. winner Hayasugi (Royal Meeting {Ire}).

Two Bays Farm’s Rob Carlile is looking forward to taking the bay through the ring, describing him as a neat colt with his dad’s looks.

“He is an athletic colt with great movement, he really gets over the ground well. He rolls out of the box for inspections and does a good job, he is a professional - a real ripper.”