Buy of the Weekend: Verzain adds valuable black type to her pedigree

Cover image courtesy of Magic Millions

The Philip Stokes-trained 2-year-old Verzain (Zousain) broke her maiden in Saturday’s Listed Without Fear Stakes, coming off a second in the Listed Dequettville Stakes. Zousain’s yearlings averaged $96,000 in 2025, so her $40,000 price was a bargain for her sire when she was sold by Goodwood Farm at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale.

Kerrin Stokes, who runs the Adelaide stable, couldn’t see much reason for her relatively low price.

“Brian Cannon and Mick Malone picked her out and they sent her to us. She never had any problems when she first came to us. She was very highly strung when she arrived, very highly strung, and she still was when she came back from Melbourne,” Stokes said.

“But soundness wise, she’s sound as a bell, and she’s actually mentally turning into a really nice horse to deal with. The whole way through, she’s always has been a handful, but after that first up run in the Dequetteville, she's come on and she's really nice to deal with.

“I think she's working it out. She doesn't have to be so crazy all the time.”

Doing homework to steal bargain priced horses

Mick Malone found Verzain as Lot 1067 at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale, on the first day of Book 2, deep into the 1441-lot catalogue for 2025.

“I'm always looking for nice horses and she popped up and she had good quality (about her). She’s just a nice buy for the guys, they are good people and she's a nice valuable filly now with plenty of upside,” said Malone.

“It’s that sort of sale, the second session of Magic Millions, where you can steal something like that. If you just do the homework and you're there and you get that opportunity, they pop up.

“You want to buy them cheap and let them grow into their pedigree.

“Often it's the other way, you pay too much and they don't grow into their pedigree. But whenever I buy horses that are fast, I try to be a bit of a realist about it because it's a tough game. I've had a really good run of late, it’s rewarding.”

Verzain is a case of doing the homework and inspections prior to sale day, as Malone wasn’t on site when she walked through the ring.

“I’d actually already left that day, and I got Adam White at Vinery to bid for me. I rang him and said ‘Whitey, can you just make sure she's all vetted and stand there and buy for me?’ And he did it for me. I wasn't even there but it worked out perfectly.

“Then on Saturday, he texted me after she went bang, and I said, ‘How do you feel, mate?’ He said, ‘Pretty crap, actually’, because she beat home an Ole Kirk, which I was hoping she would do. I think both horses look pretty handy.” In second, only 0.4 lengths behind, was the colt Ole Go (Ole Kirk) with Czech Out (Prague) more than a length away in third.

“Black type's so valuable. It really doesn't matter where it's from these days. Even just look at the race yesterday, the Wellington Boot, (2-year-old races) are hard to win. Everyone's trying to, and every trainer takes horses to those races that are valuable, and in Adelaide, coming into the carnival, you've got every trainer in the country there.”

Trainer Phillip Stokes has stables in both Victoria and Adelaide and he had a stakes double with Arran Bay (All Too Hard) winning the Listed City of Adelaide Handicap.

“It's been really good. I’ve been here for the last a year and a half now. I was working with my brother here for a few months and then he made the move to Melbourne, so it’s been up to me of late, and it's been going great. It helps when you're training winners. It keeps the ball rolling,” said Kerrin Stokes of the stakes double for his father.

The other stakes races on the card at Morphettville on Saturday were won by Victorian-based John Symons and Sheila Laxon with McWoody (Alabama Express) in the Listed Port Adelaide Guineas, and Victorians Anthony and Sam Freedman won the Listed Redelva Stakes with Regeneration (King’s Legacy).

West Australian trainer Dan Morton won the G3 RN Irwin Stakes with Super Smink (Super One), while the locals didn’t miss out as the last stakes race on the card went to Dan Clarken and Oopy MacGillivray-trained Mating Call (Brazen Beau) in the G3 Auraria Stakes.

Goodwood Farm’s good weekend

It was a stakes double for Verzain’s vendor Goodwood Farm on Saturday. They bred G2 Sapphire Stakes victrix In Flight (Flying Artie) who Goodwood Farm sold to Proven Thoroughbreds for $220,000 at the Magic Millions Adelaide Yearling Sale.

“It was a really good weekend for us. They were both bred here. Verzain was a lovely type. I was really happy when she sold and Mick Malone bought her, he's a great judge of a horse,” said Goodwood Farm’s Kerrie Tibbey.

“And she certainly has the right trainer. Phillip Stokes is just perfect for her. He has another 2-year-old of ours, who was originally owned by the same owner (Jen Campin) that owned Written Verse, one out of Mardi, called Rebel Tuesday. Hopefully he'll be back to buy more horses from us.”

Rebel Tuesday (Rebel Dane) has won two of her five starts including the Listed Cinderella Stakes two starts ago.

“Verzain was always a nice type. A beautiful walker, quite a muscly, not overly big. She wasn't huge, but she was certainly big enough. But she was always an athletic type of silly. Very much like the mare, actually. And always a nice filly to do anything with too.”

End of the road for Campin

Verzain became the fifth stakes winner for Zousain, whose oldest crop are 4-year-olds. She is the second foal of the Written Tycoon mare Written Verse, who was placed on the track. Written Tycoon now has 12 stakes winners as a damsire, led by Group 1 winner Vibrant Sun (The Autumn Sun). Written Verse's first foal, 3-year-old gelding Spellecaste (Wyndspelle {NZ}) placed recently at his second start. Written Verse has since produced a yearling colt by In The Congo and a weanling colt by Wyndspelle (NZ).

“The original breeder of the mare still has her. Jen Campin owns her, and the mare went down to Victoria and was covered by Wyndspelle. The mare is actually empty at the moment and I believe will go through a sale soon,” said Tibbey.

“Jen owned Wyndspelle, and unfortunately Wyndspelle died. She lives in New Zealand, and she's gotten out of most of her horses. Written Verse will be probably the last one, I think.”

Verzain’s grandam Scrum (Flying Spur) was a dual winning sprinter and a half-sister to outstanding stallion Extreme Choice.

“The owners actually loved the pedigree more, especially Brian Cannon, he liked the pedigree, so it was something that had triggered his interest, and then I like the stallion, he does a good job. I actually looked at the In The Congo (half-sister) this year at the Gold Coast, thinking that this filly would get some black type, but sadly, she failed on x-rays,” said Malone.

“In a game where you can buy plenty of slow ones, it's nice to buy fast one.

“She was just a nice, neat, medium type who looked to be an early running 2-year-old, and often those earlier running 2-year-olds are a little bit smaller. They're more balanced. She's definitely that, but not super small, just medium sized.”

A good eye and some spark about them

Malone’s philosophy is that he’d rather buy the yearling who plays with others in the paddock, who gets into some roughness, because they learn toughness, than one who protects himself. But that comes with a risk of injury, and so he’s more willing to forgive faults or x-ray issues, to get that horse with athleticism and spark.

“I've had plenty of opportunity to see the brain of a horse because I have prepped so many yearlings, and I’ve been involved in selling so many horses in my life. I've been lucky enough to sell horses like Yes Yes Yes, Pierata, Vow And Declare and heaps of other Group 1 horses over the years. I like how they handle the sales and what they do,” said Malone.

“I look for a sharp eye and a horse who is going forward all the time and not being afraid of too much. I think that takes them a little bit further. I always tend to buy the same type of horse. They tend to have good length. A good bright eye, action is important. Confirmation is, to me, not that important.

“I've walked around sales with blokes, my whole life, unbelievable judges, like Mick Price, to all of Gai Waterhouse's team, Duncan Ramage, blokes that are superstar judges, and every single one of them likes a different hind leg, or they might like them toed out. One likes them toed out, one likes them toed in. One likes hocks up underneath them, one likes hocks out behind.

“But every single one of these people have bought Group 1 horses.”

Athleticism is the intangible factor that Malone is hunting for when inspecting yearlings.

“When they turn at the end of their confirmational walk, I want them to roll out of their turn and straight back into it, not crab around. When you're looking at footballers or whatever, they just use themselves so well in every motion.

“When I let a yearling go in the paddock at home when we're prepping them, I look at how they run down the hill and turn and sprint back up and they put their feet in the right place more often than not, where other ones just crab about, or they're slow to take off. Sometimes that can be just immaturity as well, you can really forgive that in a pedigree that looks like they're going to be three or later.

“But when they're a sharp 2-year-old, and you want them to be precocious, I think those things are pretty important. How they use themselves at the sale, if they are playing and they slip, it’s how they catch themselves, that’s what I watch for.”

What’s next for Verzain?

Kerrin Stokes has plenty of time for Verzain, who has developed from a stir-crazy yearling into a filly who understands her job.

“She's really developed in the last six months. Her first ever prep was here in Adelaide. And then she went over to Melbourne and she spelled there and they brought her up and then she came back to Adelaide, which was great. She’s strengthened up into a lovely filly, just built for speed. In my opinion, she is very balanced and just looks like she's built for speed,” said Stokes.

“She is the most athletic and well put together Zousain we've had. She’s one that's really furnished, the deeper we've gotten as well. We’ve had a few Zousains and they’ve all been a little bit different and she's the real racehorse out of all of them.

“She's only two, but the way she's just kept furnishing, and she hasn't even had a proper spell yet this time in. She only had a little two week freshen up and then we targeted Dequettville and the Without Fear. It’s exciting to see what she can do with another big spell.

“She'll go to the Breeders Stakes in two weeks, a Group 3 over 1200 and from there, she'll keep telling us what she wants to do. Hopefully we can do it again in two weeks.”