‘I love his size and his scope’: Brideoake backs Tagaloa - and Salty Pearl delivers

Cover image courtesy of Racing Photos

Mornington trainer David Brideoake announced he will retire at the end of the current racing season, closing the book on a career that has spanned nearly four decades and more than 700 winners.

The timing felt symbolic: just days after confirming the news, a filly he bred - Salty Pearl (Tagaloa) - stormed to a dominant victory at Caulfield, stamping herself as a spring contender and offering a glimpse of the legacy Brideoake will continue to shape through his breeding program. While stepping away from the daily demands of training, the 70-year-old horseman will remain involved in the industry through a new advisory role with his soon-to-be son-in-law, Matt Laurie.

The two Mornington-based stables - Brideoake’s and Laurie’s - will formally merge, combining their resources under a single banner in Laurie’s name. “I have around 35 or 40 horses in work, and really for me it would be better to have 20 or so or go bigger and have 80 or 100,” Brideoake explained.

“The bigger stables benefit from the economies of scale, so we’re going to combine both stables.” The facilities are less than a kilometre apart and will continue to be used side by side, with most of Brideoake’s staff expected to be retained and discussions underway with current training partner Matt Jenkins about his future role.

Brideoake said the shift will allow him to focus on what he loves, horses, without the daily pressures of administration and staffing, while also enabling Laurie to travel more extensively after a standout Sydney Autumn Carnival campaign that netted three Group 1 victories. “If Matt has to travel, he can stay away knowing the stable will be in good hands,” he said.

Brideoake the breeder

Putting in the big strides late to secure her breakthrough victory, Salty Pearl was one of the more impressive winners at Caulfield on Saturday with Maher's Assistant trainer Jack Turnbull describing her as “professional and tractable.”

“She is on an upward trajectory,” he said, adding that “you would have to take a really good think about the spring for her; races like the G3 Scarborough Stakes and the Listed Cap D'Antibes Stakes.”

Settling back and getting off the rails at the 500 metres, Salty Pearl was held up briefly before taking a gap and finding the line well.

“She got further back than we thought but she was able to get the split and she showed a good turn of foot,” Turnbull said.

“We didn't think she was at her best over in Adelaide,” he said of Salty Pearl's third in the G3 David Coles Stakes, “but she had a nice three week gap in between runs and we kept her really fresh.”

Jockey Ben Allen had intended to get Salty Pearl into the box-seat but there was a bit of speed on. “She stepped well but she didn't have the pace,” he explained.

“I knew it was going to be a bit tricky to get to the outside, I just had to wait and luckily enough she's got a really good turn of foot. Once she got the gap she quickened up really well and she was tough to the line.”

It was the fourth start for Salty Pearl who jumped out well prior to her debut in the Listed Merson Cooper Stakes where she struck rain affected going last spring.

She resumed with a good finish when second in the VOBIS Gold Rush before heading to Adelaide where, despite not living up to the stable's expectations, she was able to secure valuable black-type.

Besides being supported by her owners led by Starblue Racing, Salty Pearl was also cheered on by her happy breeder, Brideoake.

Well known as one of Victoria's finest horsemen having competed at the highest level as part of the Australian Show Jumping team of which he became captain, Brideoake began his training career in the mind 1980's with a small team.

Winning and placing in feature hurdling and chasing events with the tough and talented geldings Burrowye Lord (Amyntor {Fr}) and Centrix (Indian Raj), Brideoake turned to training full time in 2000 and has enjoyed Group 1 success with Griante (Good Journey {USA}), Princess Jenni (NZ) (High Chaparral {Ire}) and Grand Journey (Good Journey).

Griante particularly special

The first of those, the G1 Galaxy winner Griante was particularly special, being a home-bred for Brideoake who has always been a keen student of pedigrees.

Buying a farm at Violet Town in Victoria's north-east ten years ago, Brideoake keeps a handful of mares from who has bred from very successfully; at one stage standing his only stallion privately.

That being Griante and Grand Journey's regally bred Group 1-winning sire Good Journey, also sire of the popular triple Group 1 winner Happy Trails.

Brideoake was happy to be able give that horse a home in his later years (he died last year and is buried at the farm), pleased when learning that he was a part of breeding history when told that Good Journey was the last son of the great Nureyev (USA) at stud.

Brideoake has just the two foals due this spring, a Doubtland and a Brazen Beau, and he does very well with his small numbers.

“We have a beautiful bit of creek land at Violet Town and our horses do beautifully there.”

Griante is the best of those he has bred but he is hoping that he has another two extra smart fillies ready to shine, Salty Pearl being one of those and the lightly raced Terilee (Territories {Ire}) the other.

Two exciting fillies

Brideoake sold both fillies as yearlings, fetching $75,000 for Salty Pearl at the 2024 Inglis Classic Yearling Sale and $52,000 for Terilee at the 2023 Inglis Melbourne Premier Yearling Sale.

Making a big impression when racing away to a three length debut victory on the Caulfield Heath track in mid April, the Michael Kent trained Terilee has not had a great deal of luck since.

“With the speed and turn of foot she's got, she is going to be a nice miler,” Kent said of Terilee who, like Salty Pearl, has nice line-breeding patterns with Brideoake researching each of his matings.

“My go-to from the beginning has been the book 'Inbreeding To Superior Females,” he said, noting that that respected publication by Rommy Faversham and Leon Rasmussen is one he still consults.

“There is no doubt that that sort of line-breeding works,” he said.

It is the reason Territories was selected for Terilee's multiple city winning dam Street Spun (Hard Spun {USA}) whose dam Street Belle (Street Cry {Ire}) was also bred by Brideoake who professes a great admiration for Street Cry (Ire).

The breed-shaping Street Cry

“He is a breed-shaper,” he said, happy to have supported that G1 Dubai World Cup winner on a number of occasions when he stood at just $16,500.

“The Street Cry breed have got so much punch,” he said. “They can sprint, they can stay and they never give up, they try hard right to the wire.”

Street Cry's G1 Irish Oaks winning dam Helen Street (GB) (Troy {GB}) has been proving her worth as a line-breeding subject and Terilee is a winning example with Territories having her as his fourth dam.

Brideoake is still contemplating where to send Street Spun to this spring but Victor Ludorum (GB) is high on the list being bred on a 3 X 3 cross of Helen Street; his third dam and the grandam of his sire Shamardal (USA).

Sadly Brideoake lost Salty Pearl's dam Leaven Of Malice (Sebring) aged only nine to colic last year. A $14,000 Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale purchase, she has a 3-year-old twice placed daughter called Stormy Malice (Ilovethiscity) in work at Wagga Wagga and a yearling Nicconi filly purchased for $54,000 by Tzaferis Racing/Peter Morgan at this year's Magic Millions Adelaide Yearling Sale.

“She is the first horse bought by Jessica Tzaferis as a trainer,” Brideoake said, pleased at where she has ended up.

“I knew Jessica when she was apprenticed at Mornington. She is a great girl who is doing a wonderful job. James (Tzaferis) showed me a video of the filly last week and she is coming along beautifully.”

Brideoake purchased Leaven Of Malice as a fan of her family, one which he says “has been so good for Victoria for so many years.”

She is one of the five winners (from as many to race) for the R. Listed Magic Millions 3Y0 Trophy winner Tempest Tost (Statue Of Liberty {USA}) whose daughter Mildred (Hinchinbrook) won three of her 11 starts including the G3 Chairman's Handicap and the Listed Maribyrnong Trial Stakes.

Named in honour of the champion Emancipation (Bletchingly) (Mildred being her nickname), that mare was a $45,000 yearling for Neville Begg, on sold as a broodmare to Rosemont Stud for $850,000 three years ago; subsequently visiting high class stallions.

The remarkable Lady Violet

Tempest Tost is one of the 12 winners produced by the remarkable mare Lady Violet (Old Crony {USA}) who owns a unique part of Australian breeding history having produced a record-breaking 18 consecutive foals.

The Group 1 sprinter Notoire (Export Price) and the dual Listed winner Well Known (The Pug {GB}) were amongst her talented progeny bred by Trevenson Park Stud's Ed Barty, a Victorian legend.

There are lovely female line-breeding patterns in Salty Pearl's pedigree, her grandsire Lord Kanaloa (Jpn) a descendant of (and out of a mare line-bred to) the legendary matriarch Somethingroyal (USA) (Princequillo {Ire}) to whom Salty Pearl's second dam sire Statue Of Liberty (USA) is line-bred 4 X 5 via her great sons Secretariat (USA) and Sir Gaylord (USA).

Brideoake is pleased to have contributed to the early success of Tagaloa being a big fan of him (“I love his size and his scope”) and his high achieving sire Lord Kanaloa.

“I saw one of his Group 1 wins in Hong Kong and thought I'd never seen a more dominant sprinting performance. He made it a one horse race and it stuck in my mind.”

Making Brideoake happy to support a G1 Blue Diamond Stakes winner by him.

And he was happy with the result, noting that Salty Pearl always impressed.

“She was a good type of yearling, a great walker. She was of medium size with great balance.”

As Salty Pearl and Terilee pursue black-type for other stables, Brideoake is looking forward to the next stage of his career.

Having recently turned 70, he is happy to take somewhat of a back seat whilst still able to hold on to his stables and his horses whilst his future son-in-law Matt Laurie takes the reins.

“We are in a good position for an amalgamation,” he said with Matt marrying David's daughter Kate later this month.

“It just seems like a natural progression,” he said, noting that the current economic racing climate makes things tougher for smaller stables whilst looking forward to being able to leave staffing and administrative issues to others.

“It is good at my age to just be able to focus on the horses,” he said.