Petit Artiste's victory confirms 'healthy, happy horses' ethos for Amy and Ash Yargi

Cover image courtesy of Racing Photos

Amy and Ash Yargi travelled to Morphettville from their Mornington base on Saturday on a mission for black-type with progressive Earthlight (Ire) filly Petit Artiste - and their efforts were vindicated when the juvenile trounced six opponents by 3.46l in the Listed Without Fear Stakes. It was a huge result from the small investment of just $15,000 at last year’s Inglis Premier Yearling Sale.

It is vindication for the Yargis prioritising the mental wellbeing of their equine team, having spent the last decade building up ‘Mayfair’, their property that sits adjacent to the racetrack in Mornington, into the perfect training centre. Petit Artiste is just their latest success, and she is particularly thrilling for the team as she is one of just a handful of yearling purchases made last year.

A professional mind

“I picked her out myself as a yearling,” Amy Yargi shared. The daughter of Earthlight was offered by Collingrove Stud and is out of More Than Ready (USA) mare Little Artist, a winning half-sister to Listed Werribee Cup winner Apprehend (Hold That Tiger {USA}) out of Regal Touch (NZ) (Touching Wood {USA}), whose eight wins include both the Listed Wagga Cup and the Listed Canberra Cup.

“We only paid $15,000 for her, so we’ve had a great time. She’s already got a nice pedigree and now she’s a stakeswinner, which makes her a nice, valuable broodmare going forward.”

The Yargis had always thought that Petit Artiste had the potential to be a stakes filly; they launched her career in the G3 Ottawa Stakes in March, where she surged forward from 10th at the 400-metre mark to finish fifth to Military Tycoon (Written Tycoon). It was proof enough to take another shot at her third start, after coming within 0.16l of a maiden victory at her second start at Sandown.

“She has been exceptionally professional from day one,” Amy said. “She’s got a really mature mind on her, and nothing phases her. Ash and I have always felt that with horses with great attitudes like that, they can usually excel as 2-year-olds, which she’s done.”

It was mind over physical for Amy when selecting the filly, who didn’t originally have the appearance and background of being the early type - particularly as she is born in November.

“It’s pretty uncommon, I reckon, to have a November foal be a stakeswinner as a 2-year-old, but I think that just goes to show the level of education that she has had and what a great attitude she has.”

Petit Artiste has benefitted from the Yargis’ many years working under members of the Freedman family; experiences that all of their horses can benefit from.

“I've been privileged to work for Lee and Anthony Freedman, who, in our opinion, are the best 2-year-old trainers in the country, if not the world,” Amy said. “So we've been blessed to see a recipe that works exceptionally well for a very long time at producing juveniles. That’s the way (ours) are always educated.”

A third generation horse trainer, Amy worked under Lee Freedman in the time that he managed the careers of Makybe Diva (GB) (Desert King {Ire}) and Alinghi (Encosta De Lago), whereas Ash committed more than 15 years to working under the Freedmans, earning himself the Assistant Trainer title to Anthony Freedman before the Yargis took the leap into training themselves.

All of it has “fallen into place” for Petit Artiste this early.

“She’s done a great job, and I’m really proud of our team,” Amy said. “We only buy a couple of yearlings a year, so to go to the sales with $15,000 and get a stakes-winning 2-year-old, I think that’s a pretty good effort. It goes to show we have a good eye for a horse, you don’t have to spend much money, and we’re just as capable as anyone at educating them and producing them at stakes level.”

She added, “hopefully people can acknowledge the job that we've done with her in particular and maybe take notice of us. It's very competitive out there for young trainers like ourselves.”

Preparation is the key to success

“We never rush our 2-year-olds,” Amy said. “They’re all educated the same way, and the way we see it is that they all need the same level of education (to start with), whether or not their bodies will allow them to be early.

“At least when they are physically ready, they’ve all got these tools in their toolkit already to equip themselves with. We always try to give them really good, positive experiences and lots of in-and-out preparations. We let them guide us as to when they are ready.”

The Yargis make use of several different breakers around the Mornington area, matching the type and personality of each yearling with the style of breaker.

“We have great horsemen and hrosewomen in Victoria,” said Amy. “We try and tailor everything to the individual horse and what we think they are going to need.”

Prioritising happiness

The same can be said for their property.

“We're very focused on the happiness and well being of our horses, so they're all outside during the day,” Amy said. The racing team benefits from yards and paddocks for two horses, as well as having their own treadmill and swimming pool on site.

“Ash and I have worked incredibly hard to build our property up, which we've owned for about 10 years now, and we've worked incredibly hard to get to where we're at and be able to have a nice property like we do.

Gallery: Yargi Racing's stable complex and training centre, images courtesy of Yargi Racing

“We utilise local beaches and trails, and really go out of our way to reinvigorate horses.”

The latter is where the Yargis have really excelled.

“We've had really good success with tried horses. We bought Rebel Racer, for example. He was rated 58 at the time and we got him to win an Adelaide Cup within three starts.”

Purchased online for just $35,000, Rebel Racer (Rebel Raider) hadn’t won a race in almost two years when he joined the Yargi team in 2023. Debuting second at Moonee Valley, he relished the change of scenery and catapulted himself into the spotlight with a front-running performance in the 3200-metre G2 Adelaide Cup that March, almost exactly two years since his previous victory.

“That was another huge achievement of ours,” Amy said. “And that was just through providing a change of scenery and really varying his workload, and doing things that he's never done before.

“We’ve worked very hard. We’re proud of what we have achieved.”

The difference with providing turn-out has been game-changing for the horses in Amy and Ash’s care.

“Everyone comments when they come to our property (on) how quiet and happy our horses are,” Amy shared. “And they really are. We've got four paddocks as well, and we double them up in the paddocks. We'll find a couple of geldings that get along well and they go in together, and it’s the same thing if you've got a couple of picky fillies that don't eat overly well. You chuck them in together and they become besties, and find that they do a lot better.

“So we really try to focus on what makes the horses happy and what's going to make them perform at their best. We're fortunate to have these good facilities where we can do that.”

Another boon for Yargi horses is direct access to the track via a 600-metre path that eliminates the need to float horses to and from the track to work.

“They don't have to get on the truck every day and stand in the tie ups,” Amy said. “They get the warm up as they walk up our trail and straight onto the track, and then they get a good cool-down as they come home.”

It’s just one more piece in the puzzle that contributes to the Yargis’ aims to make their horses as happy as possible.

What the future can bring

Given their affinity with rejuvenating older horses, the Yargis never buy yearlings in great numbers, and this year has been no different, with three purchases made so far.

“We’ve been chipping away,” Amy said. “We bought a couple of cheapies online, and we bought a Hanseatic filly that’s a half to a city winner. We only paid $10,000 and she’s a really nice filly.”

Merricks Station offered the daughter of Club Tropicana (Smart Missile) at the Magic Millions Adelaide Yearling Sale, whose half-sister Tropicconi (Nicconi) has been first past the post on four occasions, including striking gold at Moonee Valley.

The Yargis have also made great use of online auctions, purchasing fillies by Rebel Dane and Trapeze Artist through Inglis Digital.

“We don't spend much money, but we do a really good job with the stock that we've got,” Amy said. “Hopefully people take notice, so next year we can go to the sales with a bit of a bigger budget and can keep on building on that.”

Amy expressed that the team isn’t drawn to a particular stallion - although she is “a sucker for a Zoustar filly, just like every other person in the world” - but Petit Artiste’s performances and attitude has made her pay attention to the Earthlights.

“I've always had good success with tried horses of all different shapes and sizes and breeds, and this is the first Earthlight that we have bought, and we’re just rapt with her,” she said.

Former Darley shuttler Earthlight’s oldest Southern Hemisphere-bred crop are currently two, and while he didn’t return for the 2024 season, there are still two crops to come - totalling 48 foals between them - with the potential among them to contain the Yargis’ next Petit Artiste. Delivering the sire’s first winner and stakes winner in one fell swoop certainly makes the breed more attractive.

As for Petit Artiste, the team is still watching how she pulls up after Saturday, and Amy is hopeful that the filly will be up for another stakes level offensive.

“There's a couple of other options back in Adelaide in two weeks time and again in four weeks time, there's a couple of Group 3 races for 2-year-olds, so potentially we could look at taking her back over there for those,” she said.

“We also feel like she's going to be even better when she gets into the ground. She always works very well on rain-effected going, so we're hoping to try and plan a bit of a winter campaign for her as well, but for now we'll just let the dust settle. We’ve got plenty of options.”

When you have already ticked off the stakes win, there’s no need to rush.