Business Booming For Rounsefell

Ten lots from the end of the fourth and final day of the Tattersalls Autumn Horses-in-Training Sale in 2011, young bloodstock agent Craig “Boomer” Rounsefell followed into the ring a gelded bay son of Choisir (Aus) who was being culled by trainer Peter Fahey. As darkness fell on the sale's most unheralded session, Rounsefell and agent Jamie Lloyd had to fend off some persistent competition for the gelding, with the hammer at last falling at 130,000gns–an unspectacular amount by most standards, but more than double the next highest price on the day. It is plain to see why Obviously (Ire) was the most sought-after offering of the day–he had won a Dundalk handicap less than two weeks earlier to extend his record to two from three–but what was not obvious at the time was that the then 3-year-old–who collected his third Grade I win at the age of eight in the Nov. 5 GI Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint–would not only kickstart what is now an internationally successful bloodstock business for Rounsefell, but would also become a crutch for his family during the most difficult period of their lives.

“Obviously holds a very dear place in my heart because I purchased him back in 2011 for my father-in-law [Southern California trainer] Mike Mitchell and his clients Joseph Scardino and Anthony Fanticola,” said Rounsefell, who operates as Boomer Bloodstock. “Mike went on and won a Grade I with him in 2013. Mike unexpectedly developed a brain tumour which cut his life short, but during those periods when he was battling cancer he'd still turn up to the barn, and he said to me what made him come to the barn in the morning was that horse. He was a very special horse to him and for our whole family.”

Expatriated to Mitchell's California stable after the Tattersalls transaction, Obviously didn't take long to develop an affinity for America's notoriously firm turf tracks. He won three straight his first season with Mitchell, including a pair of Grade IIs, and capped the year with a third behind Wise Dan (Wiseman's Ferry) in the GI Breeders' Cup Mile. He would gain Grade I redemption the following summer when winning the Shoemaker Mile for Mitchell, but it was in the name of Mitchell's former longtime assistant Phil d'Amato that he defended his Shoemaker title the following summer. Mitchell had handed the license over to d'Amato on Apr. 20, 2014, and he succumbed to cancer a year later on Apr. 14, 2015 at age 66.

In the meantime, Obviously was campaigned selectively in 2014 and 2015, adding placings in the GI Woodbine Mile and a pair of Grade IIs this year before winning Belmont's GIII Poker S. by 3 3/4 lengths in June. Making just his second start on Santa Anita's downhill turf course when dropping back to 6 1/2 furlongs for the Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint, Obviously took up his customary position on the lead, set scorching early fractions and hung on to win by a nose. Rounsefell was at Santa Anita to partake in the celebration, which didn't include a dry eye.

“I was there,” Rounsefell said. “Unfortunately my wife [Mitchell's daughter McCall] wasn't able to make it, and she's been there for all of his races. She's due with our first child in January so she was in Australia, but I was there with my mother-in-law and Phil, who was Mike's assistant for a long period, and he and I are really good friends. It was really special to be there and experience that.”

“He's been a great horse,” Rounsefell added. “He's won eight graded races, two Grade Is, but I kind of felt on the big stage things never really went his way. All the stars aligned this year and it was really satisfying for the horse to get the recognition he deserves by winning one of the bigger races.”

While it is likely that not even Rounsefell predicted the 130,000gns 3-year-old gelding would take him to the winner's circle on one of the world's great days of racing, it is rather fitting that the Irish-bred by the Australian sire bought to race in America would be the horse to kick start what has become a truly international career for Rounsefell. That global aspect was highlighted just two weeks after the Breeders' Cup when Scales Of Justice (Aus) (Not A Single Doubt {Aus}), a A$180,000 yearling purchase by Rounsefell and trainer Lindsey Smith, won the G1 Railway S. at Ascot in Western Australia. It was the third straight win for the 4-year-old gelding, who has yet to be off the board in 13 starts.

“A few years ago I teamed up with Lindsey Smith, one of the top trainers in Western Australia,” Rounsefell explained. “He's been very successful in the past, but more recently he hadn't been having as much success so he wanted to change his tactics and buy some better horses. We joined forces and the first sale we worked together we bought a couple horses and one of them was Scales Of Justice. He's a very imposing horse physically, a big strong horse with plenty of scope and he had plenty of presence about him. Lindsey has been very patient with the horse; he went shin sore a number of times early on and Lindsey would just keep turning him out into the paddock and take his time.”

Scales of Justice is set to race at Ascot again in the G1 Kingston Town Classic Dec. 3, and he has an eye on more prestigious prizes in Melbourne in the autumn.

“He's still doing quite a lot wrong in his races, not relaxing,” Rounsefell noted. “[Jockey] Douglas Whyte just gave him his head and let him go to the front and in that middle stage he did actually relax and he showed a devastating turn of foot in the straight. Another two clients of mine, Chris Wells and Bill Andrews, own the horse, and they've been very loyal to me. It's very satisfying to get a result like that with the horse, and it's still early days. He's four but he's lightly raced and very sound. He's going to run in the Kingston Town, and then Lindsey thinks he'll really measure up racing back here on the East Coast. He'll target the G1 Australian Cup in the autumn in Melbourne.”

A successful international business requires a global education, and Rounsefell certainly has that. His interest in working with racehorses on a professional basis was fueled by a gap year spent working with trainer John Oxx in Ireland. Returning to Australia thereafter to complete a commerce degree, Rounsefell spent three years working for trainer Gai Waterhouse while attending university. Once he completed his degree, Rounsefell was accepted onto the Darley Flying Start programme.

“Through the opportunities there I did an internship with Keeneland and then worked with Neil Drysdale for a year,” he explained. “At that point I was still thinking about training. By the end of that I had met McCall, my future wife, and decided I'd take a different route. I made the decision to go out on my own as a bloodstock agent at the end of 2008. It was kind of a precarious time because the financial crash had happened, but those people around me I take advice from, they told me, 'if you can start up now and get through this period you'll be alright.' It was very tough for the first four years. I did have some support from my father-in-law in America, and he gave me that opportunity to start, and then getting Obviously early on helped things along significantly. I just worked away building my client base in Australia and in America and fortunately I've got very good clients around me. Very loyal and very solid people that have supported me and we've had some good success along the way, and now it's reaching new heights with these big Group 1 winners.”

Rounsefell said operating on a global basis allows him to “weather more storms,” and “get deals done anywhere in the world,” although it does make for a hectic schedule.

“I spend a significant amount of time in America each year, and do all the sales in Australia,” he said. “I'll head over to Europe a couple times a year, and now there's a bit more business I'm opening up in Hong Kong, so I'm heading up there a couple times a year. It's a tough schedule but I enjoy it, and if you want to be a player in these different markets you have to put in the hard work and do the yards. As I get older it'll be more challenging, and as our family grows, but it's something I enjoy and it's something I think where other people might not want to do it I feel like I can go those extra yards and it can really pay off.”

Rounsefell's extra yards this year included Kentucky's breeding stock sales, where he picked up two mares to take back to Australia. There was a significant Australian undertone to the Keeneland and Fasig-Tipton sales, with Newgate Farm making a significant outlay for mares and the top-priced weanling at Keeneland hailing from a celebrated Australian family. Rounsefell said the ever-increasing international nature of the industry has allowed Australian pedigrees to gain international recognition.

“As our horses travel more for the big races and do well around the world I think it draws more attention to Australia,” he said. “The influx of overseas pedigrees into Australia, whether it be stallions, or fillies purchased that are taken back, it's drawn attention from Europeans and Americans watching how those horses develop in Australia.”

“In one of the new roles I have as Inglis's North American representative, I got to speak with a lot more Americans about coming down to Australia and I found the breeders and owners in America are quite knowledgeable about Australian racing and what is happening in Australia,” he added. “I think you're going to see a lot more Americans venturing down to Australia. I think that in turn will see them bring fillies they race in Australia back to America to breed and open the gene pool up again.”

As the Northern Hemisphere breeding stock sales kick on, the Australian yearling sale season is just around the corner, with the Magic Millions Gold Coast yearling sale beginning Jan. 11, and indeed there is little room for rest for Rounsefell, who took time away from yearling inspections in rural Queensland to talk to the TDN. The Australian yearling market turned heads worldwide last year with its robust healthy trade, and Rounsefell predicted things to be rosy again this year.

“I think the economy is holding up pretty well here in Australia,” he said. “Our dollar is quite low at the moment, which is going to draw overseas investors, but I think the biggest positive that's happening right now is prize money in Australia, with Sydney going up to a minimum A$100,000 every Saturday, every race for the entire year. You've got great schemes in Melbourne and Brisbane; all over the country prize money is ticking along extremely well and that's the whole drive of ownership. I've had good enquiries leading into the sales and I think it's going to be another strong sale series starting in January through to April. It's an interesting time; there's a lot of new stallions coming through. Australia is very big into the syndications, probably moreso than anywhere else in the world. You have a lot of people who own a 10% share in a horse. A lot of my friends from university that have no real involvement in the industry, they're now wanting to get a share in a racehorse next year, and it's an exciting thing that we have the young people in Australia that do have the interest in getting involved.”

For the young people in Australia, and around the world, there is a proven young agent in Rounsefell that can help them hit Group 1 heights.