Cover image courtesy of The Image Is Everything
Matthew Ennis isn’t new to winning Group 1 races, having been there with Hellbent (I Am Invincible). He has helped many clients achieve the same goals through his businesses G1 Goldmine and Stallion Match. Ennis is part of the syndicate that races Group 1 winner Southport Tycoon and buying into the 3-year-old colt was no accident.
A colt with a high rating
Southport Tycoon (Written Tycoon) runs in the time-honoured G1 Doncaster Mile on Saturday and has drawn 20 in a field of 20 with four emergencies, and he will carry just 49kg. Not yet placed at stud, the talented colt seeks to become a 3-year-old Group 1 winner in illustrious company.
“Southport Tycoon was purchased by Nathan Bennett who is a client of ours,” said Ennis.
“He bought the horse at the Gold Coast. We really liked him but didn’t want to bid against our client, but we jumped at the chance to purchase shares in him as he rated very highly with our program.”
The 3-year-old colt was first seen at the races in August 2023, winning his maiden on debut as an early 3-year-old at Geelong, then he came into Melbourne for his second start which he also won. Two weeks later, Southport Tycoon stepped up in the Group company, running second to the then-unbeaten Steparty (Artie Schiller {USA}) in the G3 Caulfield Guineas Prelude. Steparty made it five in succession that day, and Southport Tycoon looked very promising when beaten only 0.1l.
The colt ran only mid-field in the G1 Caulfield Guineas, a disappointing run that had him sent to the paddock for a freshen-up. Back in January, Southport Tycoon ran second in both the G2 Australia S. and G2 Autumn S., before the big one – the G1 Australian Guineas which he won by over a length from Veight (Grunt {NZ}) who went on to win the G1 George Ryder S. against the older horses at his next start.
Southport Tycoon | Image courtesy of Racing Photos
“I went to Southport Tycoon’s barrier draw (for the Doncaster) and had the dubious honour of pulling out the number. The whole event was like a wake, everyone was so nervous about the outcome that it was awkward and oddly competitive. And then I drew 20 of 20, so never again!
“The rain is a question mark, and I’ve been telling myself that he has a light weight and maybe being drawn out wide is an advantage in these conditions. We’ve done the profile on him, and Written Tycoon has fairly good data in the wet, and his first dam is not too bad in the wet, but there’s questions after that in Southport’s pedigree.”
Ennis’ background in data was a big driver for buying a share in Southport Tycoon.
“His impact profile, especially the crosses on both male and female sides, stood out. He has a lot of outperforming crosses, especially with his tail female.
“His impact profile, especially the crosses on both male and female sides, stood out. He has a lot of outperforming crosses, especially with his tail female.” - Matthew Ennis
“When he was a yearling, Written Tycoon was in a little lull, so it wasn’t necessarily his sire that caught the eye, more that the whole package of his pedigree rated very highly.”
Bred by Daandine Stud, who also bred both his sire Written Tycoon and Capitalist, Southport Tycoon is the second live foal of More Than Ready (USA) mare Ready To Rule (USA), who hasn’t been very lucky as a broodmare. Her first foal, a Zoustar filly, died shortly after birth. She then had an I Am Invincible colt, named Impudens who showed plenty of promise when he won his second start and was sold to Hong Kong, but only had one start there back in 2020.
Ready To Rule missed to Hinchinbrook, before going to Capitalist but the foal was still-born, and she had a year off before giving birth to Southport Tycoon. She missed to Capitalist and slipped to Farnan in successive years, before having a Farnan filly in 2023.
Early triumphs
Ennis runs G1 Goldmine which is going through a re-brand into Stallion Match.
“Right at the beginning of our journey in horse racing, we bought into a horse called Deploy with a family syndicate called McEnnis Racing. We had success with Deploy, then bought Tangled.”
Deploy (Fastnet Rock) won eight races including the G2 Theo Marks S. and the G2 Moreton Cup, while Tangled (Snitzel) won the G2 Champagne Classic as a 2-year-old.
“As part of our buying process for our horses, we used G1 Goldmine, and then acquired 50 per cent of the company. A couple of years later, we bought out our partners to own 100 per cent of the company.
“Throughout that time, we were buying yearlings with the data, with Bill Mitchell working with us on the physical inspections. This combination resulted in 15 per cent stakes winners to runners, which is a huge amount of success.”
Deploy
A recent purchase, 3-year-old gelding Pushy (NZ) (Time Test {GB}) won his first three in succession, before placing in the Listed Dulcify S., and was sold to Hong Kong for over $1 million.
“Two years ago, we decided to spin Stallion Match off into its own brand. Previously it had been a component of G1 Goldmine, but the new revamped version can offer more to farms and breeders. We also aligned our syndicate name to Stallion Match at the same time.”
The Stallion Match algorithm
“The G1 Goldmine system is very geeky and gets into the weeds of the data, whereas Stallion Match does more automation for clients, making it sexier for the everyday person to use,” said Ennis.
“Clients don’t need to have a deep understanding of statistics to understand Stallion Match.
“Stallion Match looks at the whole pedigree, with the philosophy that past success is an indicator of future success. It’s a global database, not just one nick or cross, but all the different facets of a pedigree with the aim to replicate success.
“The G1 Goldmine system produces an Impact Profile, which looks at around twenty different crosses within a pedigree and rates them as outperforming or underperforming, eg sire line with tail female, or sire/damsire, etc. Basically it’s a compatibility gauge to work out how the males lines on both sides work with the female lines on both sides. The system then throws in the old school data, which is stakes winners to runners for each component.
“Stallion Match looks at the whole pedigree, with the philosophy that past success is an indicator of future success. It’s a global database, not just one nick or cross, but all the different facets of a pedigree with the aim to replicate success.” - Matthew Ennis
This level of comprehensiveness doesn’t stop at the pedigree.
“Lastly, and somewhat controversially, we look at the farm statistics for each yearling in a sale. We want to buy from farms that are proven to sell top quality horses, but we also understand that this isn’t ideal, as farms will often sell horses for clients that the farm hasn’t raised. It is a useful overview.
“We want to buy from farms that are proven to sell top quality horses.” - Matt Ennis
“The output of the system is more than a shortlist. It’s a ranking,” said Ennis.
“With Southport Tycoon, I was expecting him to sell for more than he did, but since he sold within our price range and had a high ranking, the value proposition around him made sense to me.”
In G1 Goldmine, 24 per cent of stakes horses were given a “Perfect Match” prior to running, compared to only 3 per cent of slow horses, and this increases to 56 per cent of stakes winners were rated as a “20/20 match” compared to 32 per cent of slow horses.
Philosophy on sale day
Handsome is as handsome does, or data only tells part of the story, as they say.
“Once we have our ranking list, we inspect everything that rates highly. I’m not a conformation expert, so we send out list to Bill Mitchell for the physical inspections. This narrows down the list, and sometimes the culling at this stage can be brutal, before we send a final list to our veterinarian, Dr Chris Lawler.”
“We are super strict and often walk away from a sale with nothing if there isn’t a horse that meets all our criteria within our budget. We are only a small company and don’t have the luxury of having deep pockets to feed a lot of horses, so we have to be strict. The beauty of Australia and New Zealand is that there are always great horses available at the many sales across the region.”
And what of the future?
Stallion Match will be officially launched for this upcoming breeding season, and the business is going to expand their bloodstock holdings. “We go to all the sales, as vendors and buyers, with 12 broodmares of our own and our syndicate currently has around twenty-five racehorses either outright or in shares,” Ennis said.
Matthew Ennis
“We are shifting our focus to the breeding side. Rather than trying to buy a perfect pedigree, we are going to start breeding them. Most of the time, breeders have to focus on commercial factors when making mating decisions, but we are going to focus on compatibility first.
“Most successful racemares get sent to the most expensive stallion for commercial reasons, and while those stallions are usually successful themselves, the individual mating might not be compatible.”
It’s not all without contemplating commercial factors with Ennis often mentioning that value and price impact on the final decisions they make with their yearling purchases.
“We are aiming to find that equilibrium between outright commercialism and compatibility and will use Stallion Match to come up with a shortlist of stallion options for each mare.
“We are shifting our focus to the breeding side. Rather than trying to buy a perfect pedigree, we are going to start breeding them. Most of the time, breeders have to focus on commercial factors when making mating decisions, but we are going to focus on compatibility first.” - Matthew Ennis
“Half our mares are with the Mitchells (Yarraman Park) and half are with Olly Tait (Twin Hills). It’s not about data first and type second for us, it’s a combination. I think people assume that because we have a data background, that data becomes the basis of any decision. It’s only part of the process. We would never buy a horse that ranks first by our system if Bill says no on conformation.
“Human bias often comes into horse decisions. We all get emotionally attached to our horses, and we are trying to eliminate that bias via the data.”
