Lessons Learned This Weekend

Widden's Triumph…

Widden Stud has been home to some of the best stallions in Australian history. Two of its greatest residents were Golden Slipper heroes: Vain (Aus) (Wilkes {Fr}) and Marscay (Aus) (Biscay {Aus}), successful in Australasia's juvenile championship in 1969 and 1982, respectively. That formula has continued to hold good in the 21st century for the stud, whose more recent recruits include 2005 Golden Slipper winner Stratum (Aus) (Redoute's Choice {Aus}) and 2008 hero Sebring (Aus) (More Than Ready).

Sebring was an outstanding juvenile, winning his first five races including the first two legs of the 2-year-old Triple Crown before sustaining his only defeat when touched off by Samantha Miss (Aus) (Redoute's Choice {Aus}) in the final leg. Unfortunately, long-term he was unable to match the exploits of his Golden Slipper-winning distant relative Baguette (Aus) (Rego {Ire}), who was a real trouper over three busy seasons, eventually compiling a record of 15 wins and 11 minor placings from 31 starts. Baguette's big victories included the VRC Newmarket H. and BTC Doomben 10,000 at three, and the STC Hill S. and AJC George Main S. as a 4-year-old. Sebring, however, sat out his 3-year-old season because of injury, and started covering mares as a 4-year-old. He has, though, turned out to be capable of siring horses in the Baguette mould, rather than merely specialist juveniles, with his offspring including the durable champions Dissident (Aus) and Criterion (NZ). He is now justifiably and extremely popular. Two years ago he was accorded the honour of covering the most desirable broodmare in the country, the undefeated 15-time Group 1 winner Black Caviar (Aus) (Bel Esprit {Aus}); while last autumn his yearlings sold extremely well, 57 of them fetching A$150,000 or more.

That latter statistic, of course, puts a massive burden of expectation on Sebring's current batch of juveniles. If he does not come up with dozens of good horses from this crop, there will be plenty of disappointed owners and trainers around the country.

Happily, Saturday's results suggest that Sebring can indeed look forward to another stellar season with his latest batch of juveniles. On the latest Group 1 raceday of the Perth Summer Carnival at Ascot, the 2-year-old race was taken by one of the least-favoured of Sebring's current juveniles: the A$100,000 Mumm Champagne-Crystal Slipper went to his gelded son Keeper Keen (Aus), who had failed to fetch his A$50,000 reserve at the MM Perth Yearling Sale last February. In Sydney, the A$150,000 Goldners Horse Golden Gift at Rosehill fell to his daughter Serena Bay (Aus), a A$200,000 purchase at Inglis's Australian Easter Yearling Sale. Serena Bay will now bid to add another hefty boost to Sebring's seasonal earnings: her next start is likely to be in the A$500,000 Inglis Nursery at Randwick on Dec. 17.

…And Disaster

One might think that, for Widden, recruiting a Golden Slipper winner and watching the money keep rolling in seems as easy as shelling peas. However, where livestock is concerned, nothing can ever be taken for granted. The 2005 Golden Slipper winner Stratum did indeed do extremely well there, but sadly fate intervened two months ago when he suffered a fatal heart attack in his paddock only a few days after the start of the breeding season.

At the time of his death, Stratum had been represented by four individual Group 1 winners. The first of these was arguably the most significant: Stratum joined Vain and Marscay in becoming a Golden Slipper winner as both racehorse and sire when his first-crop daughter Crystal Lily (Aus) took the great race in 2010. Since then, his most distinguished representative has proved to be a filly from his second crop: Streama (Aus) who won four Group 1 races including the 2012 AJC Australian Oaks.

The loss of Stratum was emphasised on Saturday when the feature race in Perth, the G1 Winterbottom S. (1200m) was taken by his imposing 4-year-old son Takedown. Takedown had already won three group races this year: the G3 Gold Coast Guineas–over, confusingly, 1200m–in Queensland in the winter, and two Group 2 sprints at Randwick in the spring. He will now bid to add further to his haul in next month's Hong Kong Sprint at Sha Tin.

Imports Dominate On Many Levels…

We have become accustomed to seeing major Australian owners and trainers hoovering up European middle-distance performers, every purchase seemingly made with the dream of a Melbourne Cup in mind. The result is that the line-ups for recent Melbourne Cups have been dominated by imports. There is, however, obviously only one Melbourne Cup winner, and 24 Melbourne Cup runners each year. The total of European imports every year is far higher than that, so obviously there are dozens doing the rounds of the country's lesser middle- and long-distance races. Saturday's Rosehill card illustrated this when a A$100,000 Benchmark 84 handicap over 2400 metres produced a finish dominated by imports, Irish-bred horses filling the first four places.

Chris Waller ran four horses in the race, two imported and two colonial-bred. His two imports fared better, finishing first and third. The winner was Soviet Courage (Ire) (Dutch Art {GB}) who had won a 10-furlong maiden race at Goodwood in September 2014 before being bought at Tattersalls' Horses in Training Sale the following month for 100,000gns. Waller's other import in the race was third-placed Zourkhan (Ire) (Shamardal), who was bought for €90,000 at Arqana in November 2015 after having scored over 2800 metres at Chantilly the previous month for his breeder HH Aga Khan.

Fourth-placed Der Meister (Ire) (Mastercraftsman {Ire}) also came out of a European horses-in-training sale, having been picked up by David Baker Bloodstock for 160,000gns at Tattersalls in October 2014 after having won three races in England for Andrew Balding. He is yet to win in 18 starts for Paul Perry, but has earned over A$100,000 from his minor placings.

Runner-up Danjeu (Ire) (Montjeu {Ire}) is a minority in not having changed hands at the end of the European part of his racing career. When he went through Tattersalls' October Yearling Sale in 2012, he was bought for 725,000gns by Australian-based Waratah Thoroughbreds, with the aim of racing in the UK before heading Down Under when he was a bit older. He duly headed to Australia after a season with John Gosden in Newmarket, during which he only ran once, when seventh of 12 in a 2-year-olds' maiden race on the Rowley Mile. He joined Waller's team on his arrival in Australia, winning twice at Randwick and once in Melbourne (at Sandown) but this year was switched to John Thompson's team.

Earlier in the afternoon, Waller had sent out the ex-French The Rumour File (GB) (Dansili {GB}) to take a A$100,000 Benchmark 76 1800 metre handicap. The Juddmonte-bred The Rumour File was bought out of Andre Fabre's stable last year, having won three times in Paris in Prince Khalid Abdullah's colours at distances up to 2000 metres. This was easily The Rumour File's best performance in 10 runs since heading Down Under, hence his 60-1 starting price. The following afternoon Waller sent out Loving Home (GB) (Shamardal) to land the A$50,000 Traralgon Cup over 1900 metres in Gippsland in Victoria. The gelding (who comes from the immediate family of the Normandie Stud-bred Dubawi (Ire)–Fallen For You (GB) colt who fetched 2,600,000gns at this year's October Yearling Sale) was initially raced in the UK by his breeder Normandie Stud, for whom he won a 12-furlong maiden race as a 3-year-old at Lingfield in August 2014 as the 1-20 favourite. Two months later Waller bought him at Tattersalls for 100,000gns, and he has now raced 19 times in Australia, scoring twice at Canterbury, once at Scone and now at Traralgon, earning A$191,162.

Small World For Loyalty Man…

We all know that the bloodstock world is a very small one, but even by the usual standards the saga of the 20-year-old U.S.-bred mare Imperial Beauty (Imperial Ballet {Ire}) covers some ground. Imperial Beauty was easily the best horse sired by Imperial Ballet, a son of Sadler's Wells trained for the late Robert Sangster by the late Sir Henry Cecil to win the Royal Hunt Cup at Royal Ascot under the late Pat Eddery in 1993, 16 years after his dam Amaranda (GB) (Bold Lad {Ire}) had won the G3 Queen Mary S. at the same meeting. A lightly raced 4-year-old, he took his record to four wins from only seven starts with that victory, but sadly a bowed tendon meant that he never ran again. He was bought by Venezuelan banker Dr Carlos Stelling and retired to stud in Venezuela in 1994 before moving to Montesacro Farm in Kentucky in 1997. He moved again in 2000 to Ballyhane Stud in Ireland, whence he was eventually relocated to Allevamento Torre di Canicarao in Italy. Easily Imperial Ballet's greatest achievement at stud was to breed Imperial Beauty for Dr. Stelling.

Imperial Beauty's dam Multimara (Arctic Tern) was one of three mares covered by Imperial Ballet to Northern Hemisphere time in 1995 and brought in foal to Kentucky. Imperial Beauty, conceived in Venezuela, was therefore born in the U.S. in 1996. She was then brought to England as a yearling in 1997 to join the Wiltshire stable of Peter Makin. She remained there for three seasons until, following the death of Dr. Stelling in September 2000, she was sold at the Tattersalls December Sale. By this time she had some excellent form to her name. Her best win had come in listed company at Makin's local course (Newbury) while she had finished second in the G1 Cheveley Park S. and the G1 Prix de l'Abbaye de Longchamp. She had also finished a very good fourth of 23 in the G2 King's Stand S. She was bought at that December Sale by the BBA (Ireland) for 950,000gns on behalf of the Coolmore team, a price which she justified by landing the G1 Prix de l'Abbaye de Longchamp as a 5-year-old the following season, trained in Chantilly by John Hammond.

Imperial Beauty started out at stud in Ireland in the Tower Bloodstock fold, her most notable offspring being Ipswich (Ire) (Danehill Dancer {Ire}), a dual winner in France for the Wildensteins who was thrice Group 3-placed; and Macdonald Mor (Ire) (Dansili {GB}) who fetched a six-figure sum as a yearling but achieved little. Eventually she headed to the antipodes to Coolmore Australia. There she stuck with the Danehill sire-line, being covered in 2011 by that season's champion sire, Fastnet Rock (Aus) (Danehill). The resultant colt headed to the Magic Millions' 2014 Gold Coast Yearling Sale, where he was bought by bloodstock agent Paul Moroney for $350,000.

Now a four-year-old gelding named Loyalty Man (Aus), this horse is trained at Flemington by Moroney's brother Mike and is clearly a decent horse, with current figures of five wins and four minor placings from only 14 starts. Arguably his best performance to date came last season when he finished a close fourth in the G2 Stutt S. at Moonee Valley, but his most notable victory came on Friday when he landed the $90,000 Wodonga Cup.

Situated on the Victorian bank of the Murray River, Wodonga– although a fair-sized city by regional Australian standards with a population of approximately 38,000–is generally a long way off the beaten track as far as internationally significant racing goes. However, thanks to Loyalty Man it's now up there with Venezuela, Kentucky, Royal Ascot, Longchamp, Newmarket, Chantilly, the Gold Coast and Flemington as a chapter in the Imperial Beauty story.