Cover image courtesy of Racing Photos
Cavalry Girl’s win in Saturday’s Listed Lightning Stakes at Morphettville added another line to Bivouac’s fast-growing record. She became his eighth stakes winner and helped tighten his grip on the Champion Second Season Sire title, with a $100,000 lead over Wootton Bassett (GB) and five days of the season remaining.
For Vinery Stud, the result was more personal. Cavalry Girl is the first foal from Islands, a $320,000 I Am Invincible mare bought by General Manager Adam White for long-time client Patrick Hodgens and Rob Piper from Baystone Farm’s Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale draft in 2021.
As a yearling, she made $110,000 to Prime Thoroughbreds at the 2024 Inglis Classic Yearling Sale. Her stakes win has now rewarded a mating shaped by bloodlines the farm knew from the inside: Exceed And Excel and More Than Ready.
“I bought her for a very good client and good friend, Patrick Hodgens. She was basically straight off the track. Patrick was looking for some commercial mares with good early running families,” White said.
“Rob Piper is also involved in the mare and it's one of his first mares too, so it’s great for him to breed his first stakes winner. He’s as excited as Patrick about it.
“Patrick's been a very loyal client for 20-odd years. He's one of my best mates, and we’ve had a lot of luck. We had Amelie’s Star who took us to a Melbourne Cup and Runway Star who was a multiple group winner.”
Cavalry Girl as a yearling | Image courtesy of Inglis
Amelie’s Star (Testa Rossa) won the G2 Queen Of The South Stakes and two Group 3 races and while unplaced in the 2017 G1 Melbourne Cup, she still made the field which is a huge achievement. Runway Star (Northern Meteor) won the G3 Proud Miss Stakes as well as the Listed Matrice Stakes in two successive years. She’s the dam of Listed Razor Sharp Handicap-placed winner of five races Brave One (Exceedance).
“He loves his breeding and his racing and puts a lot into it, so it’s great to see him get these results.
“He (Patrick Hodgens) loves his breeding and his racing and puts a lot into it, so it’s great to see him get these results.” - Adam White
“It's a hard enough game, but these sort of wins, either in the sale ring or on the racetrack is what it's all about and you got to celebrate it and enjoy it. It’s good for people like Patrick and Rob who are investing so much money into our game.”
Brave One | Image courtesy of Sportpix
A commercial decision from the get-go
The choice to buy Islands was all about the sales ring and getting a return on investment for the owners of Islands.
“She’s a mare with a Magic Millions winner in the pedigree and obviously by a very good stallion in I Am Invincible. She's an exceptionally good-looking mare,” White said.
“Anything to do with Vinnie, they're pretty good sorts. He's consistent in what he produces and that’s an element we liked. A good-looking mare by a stallion who gets good-looking yearlings gives you a good opportunity to get a nice yearling to sell.”
Adam White | Image courtesy of Inglis
The choice to go to Bivouac in his first season at stud came down to similar logic.
“Those first year horses are always popular and Bivouac was a really commercial horse. We liked his pedigree too. He’s by Exceed And Excel who we sold as a yearling, and we’ve got two sons of Exceed And Excel ourselves. And Bivouac is out of a mare by More Than Ready.”
More Than Ready (USA) stood at Vinery Stud, siring 236 stakes winners globally, and as a damsire he’s already clocked up 218 stakes winners with 27 at Group 1 level. Vinery’s two sons of Exceed And Excel are G1 Coolmore Stud Stakes winner Exceedance and proven sire Headwater.
More Than Ready (USA) | Standing at Vinery Stud
“There’s a lot of connections there with Bivouac. With that element of More Than Ready in Bivouac’s pedigree and knowing what Exceed And Excel and his two sons are producing, it’s info in the bank.
“There’s a lot of connections there with Bivouac. With that element of More Than Ready in Bivouac’s pedigree and knowing what Exceed And Excel and his two sons are producing...” - Adam White
“Exceedance raced against him too, beating him in the Coolmore, so Bivouac is a horse we saw race quite a bit. But it was a commercial decision to go with a sexy fresh horse.”
Bivouac stood his first season at $66,000 inc GST. This year, Darley Australia are advertising him for $33,000 inc GST.
Bivouac | Standing at Darley Australia
“We’ve seen a bit of Island’s family too with Espionage. Campione D’Italia is a Group 1 winning 2-year-old this year from the family. It’s the early running pedigree that we wanted for Patrick at the time.”
Islands is a half-sister to G2 Reisling Stakes and R. Listed Magic Millions 2YO Classic victrix Military Rose (General Nediym) who is the granddam of G1 Sires’ Produce Stakes winner Campione D’Italia (Snitzel) and dual Group 3-winning juvenile now sire Espionage.
A high quality filly from the outset
Prime Thoroughbreds spent $110,000 to purchase Cavalry Girl and she’s been a great purchase for Joe O’Neill’s team with five wins from 15 starts and earnings over $310,000.
“She was a nice yearling, very tidy, lovely conformation, great attitude. Nothing seemed to worry her at the sales. She looked like a high quality filly. We’ve had a lot of good fillies over the years, and she had the same qualities. I’ve got three of them (Bivouac) and they all look very similar,” O’Neill said.
“She was very loose in her action as she walked. I thought Bivouac was a good chance, a son of Exceed And Excel, and she reminded me of the good Vinnies too. He’ll be a champion broodmare sire one day.
Joe O’Neill | Image courtesy of The Image Is Everything
“Bivouac is doing a fantastic job. He even had an Oaks winner out of a Pierro mare, who is a sensational broodmare sire.” Fireball Miss is out of Femme Fireball (Pierro) and went through Vinery Stud’s Inglis Easter Yearling Sale draft, a few months after O’Neill purchased Cavalry Girl at Classic.
“We’ll run in two weeks at Caulfield in a mares race, then make a decision. We’ll probably back off her and aim her at a couple of runs around Melbourne Cup week. From August to December is the toughest time for a 3-year-old turning four, when they are still really three and they have run against those tough older mares. You have to be careful how you place them in that period.”
Cavalry Girl begins the journey for Islands
Cavalry Girl is the first foal of dual winner Islands, who has unraced 2-year-old filly Pacifico (The Autumn Sun) and yearling filly My Island Girl (Russian Revolution).
“Cavalry Girl sold well enough. Joe O'Neill has bought many nice horses off us and does a really good job with his syndication group. He sent her to Tom Dabernig who we’ve got a good association with as well. She’s very typical of the family, being up and about early,” White said.
“She won at Flemington as a 2-year-old. You worry about how those types might train on. She wasn’t a big filly and she’s from a very precocious family, so sometimes those types of horses don't train on but the way she won yesterday, wow.
“She (Cavalry Girl) wasn’t a big filly and she’s from a very precocious family, so sometimes those types of horses don't train on but the way she won yesterday, wow.” - Adam White
“I think those short course mares races, she's going to be right in. It was nice to get that stakes win under the belt for the mare. Now Islands has left a stakes winner with her first foal and she's going to be a really commercial mare going forward.”
Pacifico as a yearling | Image courtesy of Magic Millions
Pacifico was bought by MyRacehorse, Bjorn Baker and Clarke Bloodstock (FBAA) for $350,000 from Vinery’s Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale. She’s yet to be seen at the trials but is listed as active on Racing Australia. The current rising 2-year-old filly My Island Girl has been retained to race by Hodgens and Piper.
The next foal is bred on a proven cross
White is looking forward to the next foal for Islands, who was covered by Stay Inside at the end of September 2025.
“She's in foal to Stay Inside. He's doing a really good job. His first stakes winner was the Breeders’ Plate winner Incognito who is out of an I Am Invincible mare as well,” White said. Group 3 winner Incognito is out of Bleu Zebra (I Am Invincible) who won three times, twice in Brisbane.
Stay Inside | Standing at Newgate Farm
“That cross has already worked. And we're looking forward to seeing the foal soon. It’s still up in the air on where she’ll go this year, but I think after yesterday, there’s a good possibility she’ll go back to Bivouac.
“He's had a hell of a year. We also reared and sold Fireball Miss.” Bivouac has sired two Group 1 winners with his first crop of 3-year-olds. Godolphin’s good sprinter Beiwacht who won the G1 Golden Rose and G1 All-Aged Stakes this season and Fireball Miss who won the G1 Queensland Oaks.
“We've had a good association with Bivouac, and he's done a good job for our farm.”
