Cover image courtesy of Magic Millions
When Lot 872 steps into the ring on Monday morning, it will be a bittersweet experience for her syndicate of owners United Syndications’ director Peter Creighton, who bred the daughter of I Am Invincible from his stakes-winning mare Loveyamadly (Bel Esprit).
The filly stands out from the catalogue as the only offspring of her sire at the Magic Millions Gold Coast National Yearling Sale. It will also be a special conclusion to this chapter of Loveyamadly’s life, with the mare set to go under the hammer next week on Inglis Digital.
A special family
Loveyamadly cost Creighton just $60,000 at the Inglis Premier Yearling Sale in 2010, with a page that went back to the fourth dam. Her own dam Beauty World (Danehill Dancer {Ire}) had yet to produce a winner, although she was a half-sister to Listed-winner Firenza (Kenny’s Best Pal), who would foal her G3 Geoffrey Bellmaine Stakes-winning daughter Tuscan Sling (Danehill Dance {Ire}) that year.
When Loveyamadly’s 2024-born foal goes through the ring, the page has undergone quite the transformation. Beauty World is now the dam of five stakes winners in the Group winners Lite’n My Veins (Henrythenavigator {USA}), Written Beauty (Written Tycoon), and Hi World, as well as Listed Talindert Stakes winner Ducimus and Loveyamadly herself. She is also a half-sister to Zoom By (Red Dazzler), dam of G3 Chairman’s Stakes victor Big Sky (Bivouac).
Loveyamadly has done plenty of work herself to add to the page. The winner of six for United Syndications including the Listed Abell Stakes, she set the course record for the 1100 metres at Flemington, and repaid her owners fivefold in prize money.
Loveyamadly | Image courtesy of Sportpix
At stud, six of her eight foals have made it to the track to date, and five are winners. Her first yearling through the ring, Classic Gaming (Medaglia D’Oro {USA}), made $200,000 - a good return on a service fee of $55,000 (inc GST).
“It’s a very special family,” said Creighton. “She cost us $60,000 and she was just a fantastic racehorse. We have had a bit of luck with the progeny as well, she has given us a lot of fun.”
“It’s a very special family... she (Loveyamadly) was just a fantastic racehorse.” - Peter Creighton
The best of those winners are G3 HDF McNeil Stakes winner Immortal Love (Snitzel), conceived the year that Snitzel’s fee crossed the six-figure threshold for the first time, and I’mlovin’ya (Capitalist) who won both the Talindert and the Listed Redelva Stakes. Both were raced by the same ownership as their dam, and I’mlovin’ya rewarded her owner-breeders a final time in 2024, selling for $650,000 at the Magic Millions Gold Coast National Broodmare Sale to Widden Stud.
Her first foal, a colt by Champion Sire Zoustar, arrived in September, and she revisited the stallion the same season.
Another retained by the syndicate was Bella Amore (Snitzel), a city winner whose first foal Loveyamore (Toronado {Ire}) was a three and a quarter-length debut winner at Sale in February. After a short spell, she resumed with a fourth at Caulfield Heath last week, and Creighton is excited to see where she goes.
“She won brilliantly at Sale first up,” he said. “She runs at Sandown in a fortnight. She’s got a little future ahead for us.”
Bella Amore | Image courtesy of Magic Millions
Bella Amore went through the Gold Coast ring last week in the draft of Baystone Farm and was knocked down to Whitby Bloodstock for $210,000 in foal to Written By. The syndicate offered her Capitalist colt at the Gold Coast in January in Sledmere Stud’s draft, where he made $160,000 to the bid of Baystone Farm and Malua Bloodstock. She has a Tassort filly still to come.
The one we have to sell
Having visited stallions of the calibre of Snitzel, Capitalist, Medaglia D’Oro (USA), Not A Single Doubt, and So You Think (NZ), Creighton decided in 2023 that Loveyamadly had earned a shot at a stallion like I Am Invincible. The Yarraman Park Stud resident’s fee had risen to $302,500 (inc GST) that season as he secured the second of his three Champion Sire titles to date.
“She deserved to go to a stallion like him,” Creighton said. “She's done the job, her matings with Snitzel and Capitalist have produced stakes winners already, and she just deserves to go to a really top-end stallion towards the end of her career. She's 17 now, and I just wanted to give her the right stallion to get a good result towards the end of her breeding career.”
“She deserved to go to a stallion like him (I Am Invincible).” - Peter Creighton
Creighton strongly believes that the resulting foal, born just down the road from her sire at Sledmere Stud, is the best her mother has produced to date.
Lot 872: I Am Invincible (AUS) x Loveyamadly (AUS) filly | Image courtesy of Magic Millions
“We normally race one and sell one, to help everyone pay the bills and stay involved,” he said. “Expenses are only going up, and it can be difficult to pick which ones to keep and which to sell, but this one is the one we have to sell. She is a beautiful filly. She’s faultless - she’s got a beautiful attitude, a lovely walk, clean x-rays.
“We have kept the best of her foals so far, but this filly is probably the best type of all of them. Immortal Love was a good type, I’mlovin’ya was a little small, Bella Amore was correct, but this filly just has a bit of that X factor that you look for in fillies. I know I wouldn’t be able to afford her if I saw her at a sale and tried to buy her.”
“I know I wouldn’t be able to afford her (Lot 872) if I saw her at a sale.” - Peter Creighton
The filly will be presented by Newhaven Park, who have brought a draft of seven up to the Gold Coast complex for the last yearling sale of the season. She was originally bound for the Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale, but her preparation suffered a small setback that had connections rerouting for the June sale instead.
“Royston at Sledmere has done a fantastic job in preparing her for the sale,” said Creighton. “He didn’t have a draft coming up to the Gold Coast this time, so John Kelly at Newhaven is selling her on our behalf.
“She's been well received at the inspections so far. She is there to sell and she should make some nice money for the syndicate involved in her. There’s a lot of interest in her, so fingers crossed the market values her well on Monday.”
What makes United unique
Creighton has run United Syndications with his wife Lauren Creighton for over three decades, with an emphasis on integrity and communication at the core of their business model. They deliberately maintain a small pool of horses in the syndicate to ensure that they can personalise updates to every owner, which in part involves sending twice-weekly video updates.
Every Tuesday and Saturday, Crichton heads to the Cranbourne Training Complex to video his horses, who are all trained by Mick Price and Michael Kent Jnr, going through their paces.
Peter, Lauren, the late Angus Armanasco and Mick Price | Image courtesy of John Tapp Racing
“The business is unique as far as communication goes,” Creighton said. “I love doing the videos and updates, and I’m at the track every Tuesday and Saturday at 5.30 to 6 o'clock to video the track work. I’m the only one mad enough to do it!”
“I love doing the videos and updates, and I’m at the track every Tuesday and Saturday to video the track work.” - Peter Creighton
Creighton’s ethos is that if you are transparent with your owners, you will keep them passionate for the animal.
“People like to see their horse, and they can assess for themselves whether the horse has or hasn’t got ability,” he said. “We're very transparent. Mick (Price) has been fantastic to me, allowing me access to do all that sort of stuff, he keeps saying I'm part of the furniture there. I know all of the staff and we will organise a time the day before that I will arrive at the track, and once they know that I’m there, they will send out our horses to work. It’s fantastic.
“Mick (Price) has been fantastic to me... he keeps saying I'm part of the furniture there.” - Peter Creighton
“I love that side of it and I love giving that to everyone so they can see their horse develop. You see the good, the bad and the ugly of it - you see bad gallops and good gallops, and that’s really important to show people. That's real transparency.”
Mick Price | Image courtesy of The Image Is Everything
The technique has led to a loyal clientele staying with the Creightons long-term and joining the syndicates that have successfully taken Loveyamadly and her daughter Bella Amore to stud.
The end of one chapter
United Syndications will retain Loveyamadly’s Acrobat weanling filly as well as Bella Amore’s Tassort weanling filly, but will part with Loveyamadly herself in the next Inglis Digital sale in early June. It will be a bittersweet parting, but Creighton is realistic about what his owners face financially, inside and outside of the Thoroughbred world.
“She will be offered unreserved,” he said. “She is empty and it’s a struggle for some of the owners, what with everything going on in the world. We realised that if we get her in foal this year, then we will obviously have to wait until August or September next year for the foal, and then another 18 months to go to the sales for a return. Everyone has made the decision that that is money we would like to save at the moment.
“We will race the last two, the Acrobat and the Tassort. The group is happy to do that, but we have to be realistic with her.”
Creighton is hopeful that another breeder will recognise what Loveyamadly still has to give.
“I am sure there will be a stud that will buy her, as she is a lovely mare with a great record behind her,” he said, reflecting on the 16-year journey that Loveyamadly has taken the syndicate on. “She has been fantastic to us.”
“She (Loveyamadly) has been fantastic to us.” - Peter Creighton
While one chapter closes, another will begin for whoever makes the winning bid on Monday for a filly with such a rich page behind her.
