‘He thinks they’ll run’: Gilgai Farm’s racetrack first philosophy

Cover image courtesy of Gilgai Farm

With only five juvenile Group 1 races on the calendar, it’s impressive that last season, two of them were won by graduates of the Inglis Premier Yearling Sale. Rosemont Stud sold G1 Sires’ Produce Stakes winner Vinrock (I Am Invincible) for $300,000 and Gilgai Farm sold G1 Champagne Stakes winner Nepotism (Brutal {NZ}) for $160,000.

Gilgai Farm’s impressive 3-year-old crop

Gilgai Farm have the equal best stakes record for the 2024 Inglis Premier Yearling Sale with three stakes graduates from those current 3-year-olds. Noorilim Park sit in equal position with Listed winner Highvol (Microphone) and stakes placed pair of Beyond Question (Russian Camelot {Ire}) and Onavuitton (Castelvecchio). Stonehouse Thoroughbreds also have three stakes horses from 2024, but one of those passed in.

Gilgai Farm’s 3-year-old Premier graduates, to date, are Nepotism, Group 3 winner Autumn Mystery (The Autumn Sun) and stakes placed Bubion (All Too Hard).

“There seems to be always a Group 1 winner running around off the farm. Before Nepotism, there was Ole Kirk and Masked Crusader, there’s always something. If someone is going to buy a Group 1 winner this year, it's more likely it'll come out of our shed row than anyone else's,” said Gilgai Farm’s manager Kelly Skillecorn.

The farm sold unbeaten Champion mare Black Caviar (Bel Esprit) in their inaugural Inglis Premier Yearling Sale draft back in 2008, and have continue to sell quality horses since then.

“Nepotism is going good. He had chips removed from both ankles after the spring, so he couldn't perform in the spring, and he's going to run first up in the G1 Canterbury Stakes, an open age group race,” said Skillecorn.

Trained by Team Hawkes, Nepotism had four starts as a spring 3-year-old culminating in a seventh place in the G1 Cox Plate. He was sold by Gilgai Farm for $160,000 to International Thoroughbred Solutions (FBAA).

“He’s from the Black Caviar family and we’ve also bred All Too Hard, Ole Kirk, and four or five group winners from it. I don't even know if we've sold a colt out of that family that hasn't won a Group 1. We sold Ole Kirk and All Too Hard. I can't remember any other colts out of that Helsinge line that we sold." Skillecorn paused...

“Except Jimmy, he never won a Group 1, but he died young.

“We don’t have anything from the family this year. A few for next year maybe.”

There are two yearling fillies by Ole Kirk, however. Lot 17 is the first foal of Zoustar mare Divots, who is a daughter of G2 Moonee Valley Fillies Classic winner My Emotion (NZ) (Savabeel), and this is the family of young sire Hawaii Five Oh. A full sister to the up and coming galloper Aerodrome is Lot 329 out of G3 SAJC Sires’ Produce Stakes winner She Shao Fly (Epaulette).

Gallery: Fillies by Ole Kirk Offered by Gilgai Farm in the Inglis Premier Yearling Sale, Images courtesy of Inglis

“We still own a big stake in Ole Kirk, so we support him. He's the main horse we support and we believe in him.”

Ole Kirk, who was crowned Champion First Season Sire last season, added his first Group 1 winner in the spring with Ole Dancer in the G1 Thousand Guineas.

A pair of cheap yearlings who can run

Gilgai Farm’s other two stakes quality 3-year-olds, to date, are led by Autumn Mystery who N Thompson purchased for $15,000. Placed as a 2-year-old, Autumn Mystery won the G3 Caulfield Classic as a spring 3-year-old, and his current earnings sit at $300,000.

“He's going good. I think he's going to Adelaide for the Derby. Bubion, she retired and went to Street Boss this spring. She was cheap too.”

Bubion was bought by Anthony Freedman for $40,000. She ran second in the Listed Debutant Stakes on debut, and won her maiden as an early spring 3-year-old this season before being covered by Street Boss (USA).

The prices might surprise readers, given the farm’s stellar record with producing horses capable to saluting the judge in Australia’s biggest races, but there’s a simple philosophy at Gilgai Farm.

One hundred percent clearance rate is the goal

“We just take them up there and sell them. We're not stuffing around or putting reserves on. Every year, it’s 100% clearance. We don’t want to do all this work to get them here, and then bring them home again,” Skillecorn said.

“It’s a solid enough draft. There's a few that should go pretty well. There's a Too Darn Hot colt that'll sell well, and there’s an Extreme Choice colt who has been popular. I don’t think we have a $1 million horse this year, but I know one thing they'll be runners in there.

“There’ll be a group horse among them.”

The Extreme Choice colt is bound to grab a lot of attention, given that his sire had only 44 live foals in 2024. Listed as Lot 411, he’s the second foal of juvenile stakes placed Total Babe (I Am Invincible). Her first foal is a 2-year-old filly by Toronado (Ire), and Total Babe is a daughter of G1 Auckland Railway Stakes winner In Style (NZ) (Fast ‘n’ Famous) who also produced Group 3 winner Brazen Style (Brazen Beau).

The Too Darn Hot (GB) colt, Lot 499, is out of winning Street Cry (Ire) mare Baveno, who is a daughter of Group 1 winner Neroli (Viscount).

It’s all about getting a racehorse

Most farms will tell you that their first priority is to breed a racehorse. There’s nothing special in saying that, but at Gilgai Farm, the list of stallions represented in the draft tells the story in a way that indicates the truth in the statement.

The 17 yearlings include progeny by highly sought-after stallions such as Extreme Choice, Ole Kirk, Toronado (Ire) and Too Darn Hot (GB), all of whom are strongly favoured in the marketplace. But it also features yearlings by stallions that stood at more moderate fees.

“The boss (Rick Jamieson), he doesn’t pay attention to what a stallion’s fee is. We bought that mare Turaath for a $1 million privately and he’s sent her to an eight grand stallion. He doesn’t care about the fee, he just tries to breed racehorses.”

Turaath (GB) (Oasis Dream {GB}) won her maiden in England, before being purchased for 35,000 gns (AU$70,000) by John Nicholls and sent to Australia where she won five more races including the G2 Let’s Elope Stakes and Listed Black Pearl Stakes. Gilgai Farm bought her privately at this point and her first foal, a Kermadec (NZ) filly is Lot 419. Turaath has a colt by Toronado (Ire) on the ground and was covered by Dundeel (NZ) in 2025.

“Listen, that's what he does. A lot of his horses are obscure stallions. All Too Hard was by an obscure stallion, and at the time, Black Caviar was by an obscure stallion, Jameka was the same.”

Jameka (Myboycharlie {USA}) won the G1 Caulfield Cup, G1 Victoria Oaks, and G1 BMW Stakes. The lesson here is not to dismiss a horse in this draft because it’s by a stallion who stood for a non-commercial fee. Arguably Nepotism’s sire Brutal (NZ) fits the same category. He was at an uncertain position in the marketplace until Nepotism became his first Group 1 winner.

Pedigree combined with a nice farm

There’s something in the water over at Gilgai Farm, and something in the way Jamieson looks at a pedigree, that elevates a horse into Group 1 glory.

“The Ilovethiscity is my son’s horse, he’s a pinhook.” Lot 803 was a $5000 weanling and is out of Contamination (Hallowed Crown) whose first foal is a winner in Western Australia.

“But the others, more or less, are all bred by Rick. They are all bred because he thinks they’ll run.”

The farm itself holds one of the biggest keys to their outstanding results. Gilgai Farm is located near Nagambie in Victoria on 520 acres of rich alluvial river flats.

“He’s got a good farm. It’s fully irrigated so they are eating grass every day of their life. Not many farms around here are knee deep in grass at this time of year,” said Skillecorn.

“That's why he breeds so many good 2-year-olds. They're mature because they're eating grass all the time, not dirt and hard feed. They’ve got bone strength and good joints and ligaments, so they are very sound.

“Black Caviar was sound even though she was quite offset.

“You can line up to buy one of his horses and you won't have to buy what the vendor thinks is worth. You just have to pay what the market thinks it's worth, because he's not going to take any of them home.”