By Nicolas de Chambure
I am back a little later than I expected, but it has been a really full week and I am only now writing again on my flight back to Paris. After a day of inspections on Sunday, Apr. 3, Ghislain Bozo and I woke up in the middle of the night Monday to travel to the Hunter Valley and return to the sale early enough the same afternoon. If you can avoid the Sydney traffic, it's actually an easy trip to do in one day, not as bad as the Australians made it out to be. The major difficulty was the numerous speed cameras on the way. Viewing the enormous mines on the side of the road was scary and I have a better understanding now of the breeders' fight against the mining industry. We went to see a few different farms and stallions. Although the Hunter was a little dry, all the horses we saw looked really well. I like the calm of the farms and the nice hilly shape of them. Back in Sydney, we enjoyed a very nice evening at the Inglis party in Bondi Beach.
Tuesday was the first day of the sale, which continued through Thursday. It starts every morning at 10 a.m. and never finishes after 5 p.m. local time, which allows everyone to enjoy a drink at one of the vendor marquees before going back to the city. The sale was probably a bit more selective compared to the previous yearling sales of the year in Australia, but there was amazing competition for the right horses. A lot of money was coming from Asia, a lot more than from Europe. I thought it was a really good group of yearlings. We had selected eight fillies for our program, but the top end the market was really strong and we were unfortunately beaten on each of them. Luckily, we managed to buy two fillies off the track, who will come home as broodmares. I am really excited to breed from them in France. On another note, I was very impressed by the first All Too Hard (Aus) (Casino Prince {Aus}) yearlings. Being a half-brother to champion mare Black Caviar (Aus) (Bel Esprit {Aus}), he is going to have every chance to make it as a stallion. It was also interesting to see how well the Australian market received the Frankel (GB) (Galileo {Ire}) yearlings. As a wise man mentioned to me, Frankel resembles Danehill a lot more than Galileo physically, so he is a great chance to work Down Under.
Friday was also spent on the road. After visiting the Hawkes team at Rosehill, we went to see a 2-year-old Foxwedge (Aus) (Fastnet Rock {Aus}) filly out of De Lago Mist (Aus) (Encosta de Lago {Aus}), who we purchased last year. She is enjoying a spell
after a couple of promising trials. I would love her to be able to run in some of the 3-year-old filly races during The Championships at Randwick next year.
We enjoyed another great day at the races on Saturday. The prize money is really, really good and I am surprised that more European trainers don't target The Championships. The 2000-metre or longer races were dominated by Kiwi-trained horses and European imports. I hope for Australia that the likes of young stallions Dundeel (NZ) (High Chaparral {Ire}) and Fiorente (Ire) (Monsun {Ger}) will help change this trend. After the last race, the whole race course is changed into a huge concert/night club and after a couple of drinks, we were sensible enough to go back to the city for dinner. I would love to see the new Longchamp attracting young people from Paris to the races. Without forgetting about the horses and the sport, it's great to see this sort of atmosphere on a race course.
After a last swim at Bondi Beach and a nice brunch on Sunday, we were off to the airport. We'll be back next year.
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