Kingman heads up Twin Hills Stud's Easter delights

Cover image courtesy of Twin Hills Stud

Over the past 12 months, Olly and Amber Tait’s Twin Hills Stud has enjoyed success both on the racetrack and in the sales ring.

Among their recent achievements, Twin Hills Stud has produced notable graduates such as Straight Charge (Written By), winner of the G2 Silver Slipper S.; Vagrant (Pariah), a Group 3-winning mare; and Wings Of Song (Mendelssohn {USA}), a triple Listed winner bred and retained by Twin Hill Stud.

In the sales arena, Twin Hills Farm has also celebrated significant victories, including the sale of a Justify (USA) filly for $460,000 as Lot 160 at the 2024 Inglis Premier Yearling Sale.

Ahead of the 2024 Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale, Twin Hills Stud’s Olly Tait caught up with The Thoroughbred Report to discuss some highlights of its eight yearling draft.

“Ultimately what we’re all trying to do is produce good racehorses. The property at Cootamundra gives us ample opportunity to do that and it’s very exciting.

“There are obviously different ways that those horses get to the track. Some go straight from the farm into training, or some go to the sales. My father and aunt have supported Amber and I from the beginning and they’ve always bred some really nice horses.

“It’s nice to be part of that and obviously Wings Of Song is one of those and she’s done a brilliant job in Tasmania, winning three Listed races. That was very exciting and hopefully there’s a bit more to come from her. She’s been pointed for a couple of races in Adelaide in the next few weeks.

“Through the sales we’re had the likes of Azula and Vagrant, both stakes from our yearling drafts. So, we’re very pleased with our results.”

Confidence ahead of Inglis Easter

The recent success has given Tait confidence ahead of the 2024 Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale and the belief buyers have an opportunity to source a stakes winner from their eight-lot draft.

“We aim to raise our horses well, and Twin Hills Stud is a beautiful farm with a long history of producing good horses. There’s no reason why we shouldn’t be breeding good horses and it’s quite a thrill to see when it happens.”

From the moment the horses are born, Tait is thinking ahead where they’ll be best placed and he’s more than pleased with the eight he’ll be offering under the Twin Hills Stud banner.

Offering further insight into the selection process Tait said, “To be honest you’re thinking about it from the day they’re born. When they are born, you start to think, well that could fit in at that sale or this sale (Inglis Australian Easter Yearling).

“A lot depends on the pedigree, the gender, the conformation. Probably by this stage of the year I’ve got a fairly good idea about where we would like our soon-to-be yearlings to go next year.

“I’ve got a list written down at home with Easter next to horses for next year, and Magic Millions, the Inglis Premier Yearling Sale and the Inglis Classic Yearling Sale. So, then you start the dialogue with the sales companies in the middle of year and then you finetune that list.

Darn hot start

Tait was keen to highlight Lot 95, a filly by Too Darn Hot (GB). The filly is the third foal from the Exceed And Excel mare Kaiken. Her first two foals, Tanto (Churchill {Ire}) and Nodachi (No Nay Never {USA}) are both winners. Additionally, the latter was placed in the G3 Sires’ Produce S. and finished fourth in the G2 Edward Manifold S.

Lot 95 is from the family of the triple Group 1 winner Flamberge (Exceed And Excel), the Group 2 victress Sword Of Light (New Approach {Ire}) and the Listed winner Curtana (Exceed And Excel), who was also placed in the G1 Coolmore Stud S.

The filly’s sire Too Darn Hot, who shuttles to Darley, New South Wales, has made a tremendous start to his stallion career. His first-crop Southern Hemisphere runners have resulted in six individual winners of eight races from 17 runners, including four stakes performed juveniles.

“The Too Darn Hot filly out of Kaiken is a lovely filly. The sire is off to a great start at stud in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.

“Lot 95 was bred by David and Jenny Moodie and it’s a really noteworthy pedigree. The Moodies have probably been breeding from that family for 30 years, and it is just stacked with high-class stakes winners.

“The filly has a fair bit of Too Darn Hot’s sire, Dubawi about her. She’s a neat filly but has a lot of strength and moves well.”

Quality colts

Among Twin Hills Stud’s eight offerings is Lot 78, a striking brown/black colt by the recently pensioned Lonhro.

The colt is the first foal from the Written Tycoon mare Impetus. She was lightly raced, winning once as a juvenile. Impetus’ dam Gybe (Fastnet Rock) claimed the Listed Gimcrack S. and the Listed Sheraco S.

Impetus is a full sister to the Listed Valley Pearl S. victor Crosswinds, who was a $1.1 million purchase from the 2021 Inglis Premier Yearling Sale. Additionally, this is the family of the dual Group 1 winner Anabandana (Anabaa {USA}).

“Lot 78 is a striking colt by Lonhro and is from the Written Tycoon mare Impetus. Obviously, Lonhro has been retired from stud duties, and is getting to his last crops to be offered or raced. This colt is just beautiful and he’s got plenty of his sire about him.”

Twin Hills Stud will also offer the sole lot by Juddmonte Farms’ Champion Miler Kingman (GB). The colt catalogued as Lot 387 is the first foal from the unraced Night Of Thunder (Ire) mare Wednesday (GB).

She is a daughter of the Group 3-placed Midweek (GB) (Motivator {GB}) and from the family of the G1 Captain Cook S. victress Two Illicit (NZ) (Jimmy Choux {NZ}). Meanwhile, Kingman has sired 21 individual winners from 31 runners in the Southern Hemisphere.

They are headed by the G1 JJ Atkins victor King Colorado and the G1 VRC Oaks winner Zardozi.

“The Kingman colt (Lot 387) out of Wednesday is from a great Juddmonte family. He’s a horse who is going to be a later 2-year-old and 3-year-old. Obviously, the statistics Kingman has achieved in Australasia have been sensational.

“Kingman is a world class sire, and his results have translated into performance on the racetrack here.”

Rounding out Tait’s selections is Lot 305, a colt by the also pensioned Deep Field from the Medaglia D’Oro (USA) mare Something Silver. The colt is the second foal from Something Silver, who won six races from 1100 to 1600 metres.

Lot 305 hails from the family of the Listed winner Anjana, a daughter of Sepoy, she also finished fourth in the G1 One Thousand Guineas.

“The Deep Field colt (Lot 305) is out of Something Silver. She was a very tough race mare trained by Clinton McDonald. Being by Deep Field from a daughter of Medaglia D’Oro we’d certainly expect there’d be plenty of interest for him from Hong Kong.”

Tait expects strong sale

Tait expects the 2024 Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale will be a strong sale with plenty of competition.

“No matter what sale you’re in, you know it’s a fairly professional market in attendance. People who take it seriously and are looking for the next good horse.

“However, with Easter (Inglis Australian Yearling Sale) it’s a fixture on the Australian bloodstock calendar and has been for what has felt like forever - there’s good reason for that. They’re all very good horses here and I’m sure it’ll be a very strong sale.

“Personally, I think all the sales overall this year have been fairly decent. They’ve held up fairly well and I think we can all look forward to a fairly strong sale here starting on Sunday.”