The $400,000 doubt behind Natural Fling’s spring rise

Cover image courtesy of The Image Is Everything

There is always a moment after spending serious money on a broodmare when the doubts creep in, and Jamie Lovett remembers having them after Australian Bloodstock paid $400,000 for The Natural (Fastnet Rock) at the 2022 Inglis Chairman’s Sale.

She was carrying a foal by Wootton Bassett (GB), whose Northern Hemisphere record had convinced Lovett to take the gamble, while her female family gave him reason to believe there was more improvement to come.

Spending money to make money

“I was punting on the Wootton Bassett factor, seeing how he was going in the Northern Hemisphere,” Lovett said. “Thinking back on when I bought her at Chairman’s, I had looked at her family and thought, ‘they’re all fillies so they are all going to get bred up’.”

The Natural is one of five stakes-producing daughters of Cryptic Miss (Snippets), amongst her other daughters are the dam of G1 Spring Champion Stakes winner El Castello (Castelvecchio).

She is also the dam of Group-placed Wordplay (Fastnet Rock), who has had two stakes performed offspring to date, and Fiveandahalfstar (Hotel Grand), winner of the G1 Victoria Derby and the G1 BMW Stakes.

“We were always hopeful that there would be a bit happening in the family, but we would never have dreamed that she would produce two stakes horses,” Lovett said.

And with her first two foals as well. The Natural’s Wootton Bassett filly sold for $375,000 at the 2024 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale to Laguna Partnership and John Sargent. Named Wootton Lass, she was a juvenile winner at Kensington at her second start and ran third in the G3 Hawkesbury Guineas in her most recent preparation.

“We were lucky that the first foal was a cracker, and she sold well, so we were essentially paid off in one foal,” said Lovett. “In that regard, we were very fortunate, because it can all turn pear-shaped fairly quickly if you have a bad first foal. So we feel pretty lucky.”

On the right leg

The choice to go next to another first season sire might seem a risky move, but again, Lovett had a touch of luck on his side. The pendulum swung in his direction when speaking to a member of the sales team at Coolmore after The Natural delivered her first foal.

“Tom Moore, who’s a very good judge and has a great handle on the different mares going to each Coolmore stallion, showed me some of the mares booking in to Home Affairs,” Lovett said. “I knew Home Affairs’ first crop of foals would be very highly sought after. I was guided by Tom a bit, and obviously it was a very good recommendation at the time.

“The rest is history. Home Affairs has had 20 or so juvenile winners, several stakes winners, and a Golden Slipper winner. You have to believe you are well and truly on the right leg with a stallion like that.”

Natural Fling marks the stallion's first 3-yea-rold

Lovett felt even more confident in that belief when seeing Natural Fling as a foal.

“Natural Fling was physically the best foal I have ever bred,” he said. “I expected to be well paid, but for her to turn into such a good race filly already is the stuff that dreams are made of.”

Natural Fling followed in her sister’s footsteps to the Gold Coast, where she sold for $550,000 to McEvoy Mitchell Racing and Belmont Bloodstock Agency (FBAA). She must have shown shades of her mother during parading, as Tony and Calvin McEvoy had trained her dam to three wins in Victoria and South Australia as well.

Being selective

The Natural’s next foal and current 2-year-old is The Whiz, a colt from the first crop by Brave Smash (Jpn) since his move to Yarraman Park Stud in 2023. Winner of the G1 Manikato Stakes and the G1 Futurity Stakes in the Australian Bloodstock colours, Brave Smash started his stud career at Aquis before catching the eye of the Mitchells.

The Whiz was a $300,000 Inglis Classic Yearling Sale purchase this year for Graham Begg Racing and Rohan Hughes Bloodstock.

“We’re a shareholder in Brave Smash, and Natural Fling was bred and raised at Yarraman Park where Brave Smash stands,” Lovett said. “And since we had two very nice foals out of the mare, I thought if I sent Brave Smash a good mare, then I could get another good foal.

“And when you sell them, it’s all relative to what you pay in service fees. To get 10 times the service fee is a terrific result.”

“I was delighted that Graham Begg bought the colt, so he'll get every chance as well,” Lovett said.

Lovett is excited to see the first crop of Hunter Valley-bred Brave Smash foals hit the track this spring.

“Fertility wise, he doesn’t want a huge book of mares,” he said. “But between Harry and Arthur and Emirates Park and us, we know the quality of mares he has gotten should put him well on the way to doing even better than he has already.

“With the mares we have between us, we can be a bit selective about what he gets, so all the foals he has deserve their chance in a Book 1 catalogue. It gives all us shareholders a good twist in the sales ring

“Next year, he should average a good deal more than he did at this year’s yearling sales. I have seen the lineup of yearlings that are going to the Gold Coast alone, and he is right on track. We’re very lucky to be involved with him.”

Blessing in hindsight

The Natural has no yearling headed to the 2027 sales, having missed on one late cover to I Am Invincible, but Lovett and the Australian Bloodstock team eagerly await her Too Darn Hot (GB) foal, who is due to arrive any day now.

“We had one shot with Vinnie late in the season and I said to Arthur, ‘if we get it, we get it’, but in hindsight it was a blessing because we rolled around and got her in foal first cover to Too Darn Hot,” Lovett said.

“If everything goes to plan there, well, it's exciting what we might have in the sales ring going forward.”

With mares in the immediate family producing yearlings and foals by the likes of Stay Inside, Castelvecchio, Snitzel, Shinzo, and Pierata, the page could become all the more exciting as time progresses.

As for Natural Fling, Calvin McEvoy drew comparisons on Saturday to previous stable star Sunlight (Zoustar), who ran in the same colours, and has circled the G1 Moir Stakes and G1 Coolmore Stud Stakes as possible spring targets for the filly.

“She’s in a great stable, being with the McEvoys,” Lovett said. “If she could reach anywhere near the heights of Sunlight, that would be very exciting. She’s second in the line of betting for the Coolmore and it would be incredible if she could show up in a race like that.”

In the meantime, no 2026 stallion has been pencilled in yet for The Natural as Lovett and the team wait to see what her Too Darn Hot foal looks like. With two stakes performers from her first two foals, she would have an easy time getting into any stallion’s book, so it is all about making the right choice on who.

“As I say, with a lot of luck, because if anyone ever tells you any different, he's lying to you,” Lovett said. “It's half luck, half good management.”

But when you make your own luck, you have to give yourself some of the credit too.