First season sires Pinatubo and Portland Sky butt heads in the Maribyrnong Plate

Cover image courtesy of The Image Is Everything

It is the time of year where there is the utmost anticipation for first season sires as their first juveniles step out in trials and on the turf proper. Of the 14 juveniles facing the starter on Tuesday in the G3 Maribyrnong Plate, Melbourne Cup Day’s traditional kick-off race, three are from the first crops of their sire.

Two are by Darley’s shuttling Champion European 2YO Pinatubo (Ire), and one is a son of Widden Stud’s G1 Oakleigh Plate winner Portland Sky. All three are the first progeny of their sires to step out on raceday - and one of them may just start their sire off with a bang down under.

Just the right type

Yulong will have four runners in their bottle green and white colours in the Plate, and the lone colt is Tales Of Time, a son of Timeform Horse Of The Year Pinatubo, who hails from the stable of Clinton McDonald. He was a $170,000 Inglis Classic Yearling Sale purchase for Yulong from the draft of Milburn Creek, where the colt was born and bred by proprietor John Muir.

“He’s a machine of a horse, and outstanding to look at,” Milburn Creek’s Farm Manager Scott Holcombe said. “We used him again last year and have one booked for this year too.

“The dam Cinderella is one that we raced and did not enter for a sale, as her mother was getting close to retiring, so it was time to keep a good daughter out of her - and Cinderella is a very good looking mare!”

Tales Of Time’s dam Cinderella (I Am Invincible) is a half-sister to Group 1-winning sire Sizzling, and was a three-time winner on the track to her credit.

For Yulong, who stand their own array of Northern Hemisphere stallions including last season’s breakout success sire Lucky Vega (Ire), purchasing the colt was less about his sire and more about his type.

“He was just a nice, balanced horse,” said Troy Stephens, Yulong’s racing manager. “He just looked nice and sharp and racey. I don’t know too much about Pinatubo, but we certainly liked him (Tales Of Time) and he's put his hand up pretty early.”

“Tales Of Time was a ripper of a type at the Inglis Classic sale, and he was a very busy horse during the parade days,” Holcombe added. “He was always a smart, good-looking colt.”

“He had a jump out at Cranbourne, and was very forward," Stephens said. "He's the type of horse we like to see on the track. Hopefully we don't get too much more rain, but he did jump out on a soft track, so it will be interesting to see how he goes tomorrow (Tuesday). It'd be nice to get a run into him and for him to be competitive, and then put him out for a short spell and bring him back for a Blue Diamond prep.”

Last year, the Yulong colours were carried to glory in the G1 Blue Diamond Stakes by a much more expensive purchase, the $1.4 million Extreme Choice colt Devil Night. Tales Of Time was one of the cheaper purchases under the YLP Racing moniker this past yearling season, where the spend averaged over $300,000 for 11 yearlings bought.

That being said, the colt stood out from the crowd enough that the team deviated from their normal purchasing regimen.

“Normally if we are buying something, either we buy one by our own stallions or something that a client's bred that we like, or we buy a proven sire that we want to stand a son of,” said Stephens. “That's the goal for us, to try and produce a stallion prospect.”

A win in the Maribyrnong Plate would be as good a start to a stud career as any. Yulong’s own Tycoon Star (Written Tycoon) won the race with panache last season before running third in the Blue Diamond, and has since added a win in the G3 McNeil Stakes and placings in Flemington’s tough 3-year-old races to his resume this spring. If he can keep it up, there’s a spot for him across the barn from his sire.

Several graduates of last year’s Inglis Classic Sale outran their price tags as juveniles; $280,000 graduate North England (Farnan) nabbed the $1 million Inglis Golden Gift and was subsequently a Group winner, and Yulong-bred Within The Law (Lucky Vega {Ire}) has well and truly smashed the ceiling on her $30,000 purchase price, banking just shy of $1.7 million to date.

Tales Of Time is also in the hands of the trainer that prepared bargain weanling purchase Hayasugi (Royal Meeting {Ire}) for her Blue Diamond victory the year before. At this stage, the odds are in his favour.

Coming full circle with a family

Matt Laurie sends out the first runner for his Group 1-winning trainee with Prince Of Portland (Portland Sky), another exciting jump-out winner when sent around Caulfield last week. Laurie was at the helm for Portland Sky’s 10-start career where the son of the pensioned Deep Field won four races, adding two Group 3s to his Oakleigh Plate, and ran second in the G1 William Reid Stakes.

While it is an exciting moment to race the first progeny of a stallion you had a large hand in developing, it adds to the story when you also raced the dam. Prince Of Portland is the first foal out of Santa Fe Rose (NZ) (Per Incanto {USA}), who was a winner at both of her only two race starts. She is also a half-sister to the durable Saint Emilion (NZ) (Mastercraftsman {Ire}) who was a 15-time winner in New Zealand, including in the G1 New Zealand Stakes over 2000 metres.

“She had some ability, but a few soundness issues,” Laurie said of Santa Fe Rose. “I was able to acquire her for Colin Bourke, who is also a part owner in Portland Sky. Colin has a nomination for him, and we were obviously keen to use it every year - the more mares he gets, the better chance he has.

Prince Of Portland is the mare’s first foal, she has a yearling full brother also on the ground and is due to foal another by him again this season.

Suffice to say, Laurie is happy with the results of the mating.

“This is quite a nice horse,” he said. "He’s had two jump-outs and he’s still pretty raw. I'm not sure he's a genuine five furlong horse, but we think he's got a bit of quality and we're just keen to get some experience under his belt and then allow him some time off before preparing for next year.

“I really think he (Prince Of Portland) has got a lot of quality. We've got some others as well that we really like that have good size, strength, good bone, and all shown something.

"Deep Field needs no introduction, obviously, and maybe Portland Sky can take the mantle and be a popular horse for Hong Kong racing as well. Deep Field’s progeny are obviously very good over there, so it will be interesting to see how Portland Sky’s offspring develop.”

Deep Field’s first son at stud, Cosmic Force, has taken off with a bang with his colts and geldings, and is following in his father’s footsteps with popularity in Hong Kong. Laurie believes that Portland Sky has the right attributes to join in - or perhaps even take over altogether. There are a number of Portland Sky colts in his stable at present, and all have pleased him to date, showing the attributes that aided their father to success.

“He (Portland Sky) had a good brain,” Laurie said. “He was a beautiful horse to train, he loved his work, and he had good ability. If he can put that into his offspring, then you'll get good results for sure.”

Laurie is intimately aware of the delicate balance that dictates a juvenile’s racing career day to day, and makes no plans for the colt’s future just yet.

“We just want him to run well,” he said. “We think he’s a horse with a lot of promise.

A champion for a princess

Carnevale is another from the first Australian crop of Pinatubo and is also the first foal out of multiple Group winner Fiesta (I Am Invincible), who was raced by Denise Martin’s Star Thoroughbreds. Rosemont Stud purchased the winner of the Darley Princess Series for $1.35 million at the 2021 Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale and subsequently she produced Carnevale as her first foal.

As the winner of the Princess Series, Fiesta came with an additional bonus for her new owners; a nomination to a Darley stallion of their choice.

“By winning the Silver Shadow and performing so well in the series, she was the eventual winner, so the decision was made to send her to Pinatubo,” said Ryan McEvoy, Rosemont’s General Manager of Bloodstock. “There was a bit of method to that. On paper, it was a dynamite mating. For instance, if you go back through Carnevale’s pedigree, there is a double up of Kris through the sire’s damline and the dam’s sireline.

“Pinatubo also physically presented as the best option for her. He really impressed us when we saw him in person, and she’s about 16.1 hands high, she stands over a bit of length and size. We just felt Pinatubo just might neaten her up a fraction.

“And the result was gorgeous. He'd be up there as one of the better-looking yearlings we've bred in recent years, I reckon. Everybody that saw him on the Gold Coast loved him, and he ended up being the highest priced Pinatubo sold at the yearling sales this year.”

It was a just reward for the mating, with Lindsay Park Racing signing the docket at the 2025 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale for $700,000. Rosemont have stayed in for a slice of the colt, and the team is thrilled to have him as one of two graduates from their Magic Millions draft in the Plate - the other being Tornado Valley (Too Darn Hot {GB}), trained by Ciaron Maher.

“He went through the Lindsay Park system like all of their other horses, and they have been on fire with their 2-year-olds lately, so it was them in the driver’s seat,” said McEvoy. “If the horse tells them he’s ready to go, that’s great - and he’s done that.

“From our understanding, he's just been a really straightforward horse the whole way through. With every gallop, he’s improved and improved, and I know certainly in the last month that he's really shown them that he could be a bit special.”

The first crop of a sire is always a venture into the unknown, but the Hayes brothers clearly liked what they saw. Carnevale was a purchase very much at the upper end of their scale, particularly for first season stock, but sometimes you have to stretch the budget to secure something you really want.

“We just loved him as a type,” said co-trainer Will Hayes. “And so did our clients. So we went hard. We’re very excited for tomorrow. He is a lovely colt - hopefully the track isn’t too wet, but he looks to be very versatile.”

A commanding jump-out win at Flemington two weeks ago sealed the deal that the colt was ready for his debut.

“He jumped out very well, he ticked every box, and most importantly he pulled up very well from them,” Hayes said.

An eye infection prevented Pinatubo from shuttling in the first year he was meant to fly south, so his Northern Hemisphere-bred stock are a year ahead. The winners have come thick and fast, while he has only notched the three stakes winners to date, but McEvoy gets the feeling that his Southern Hemisphere offspring could be quicker off the mark, a la his explosive barnmate Too Darn Hot (GB).

“He started off reasonably well in Europe, but I thought his stock down here as yearlings looked sharp and like real Australian types,” he said.

“We’re excited to see what he could put down here in Australia with his 2-year-olds. We have a Pinatubo colt going to Magic Millions out of a Siyouni mare that we purchased overseas and he’s an absolute belter. He’d be one of the better physical types on the farm this year.”