Highs and lows – how an SA breeder kept the faith in Benedetta

As Benedetta tries to win another Group 1 race in the Doomben 10,000, Brenton Parker recalls the fortuitous moment when the mare he bred and sold as a yearling came back into his life.

The auctioneer’s gavel fell too soon for Brenton Parker’s liking, but the South Australian breeder accepted it as part of the deal when selling thoroughbreds and meeting the expectations of the market.

Parker moved on. But he never really let go because that’s the way it is for a lot of breeders.

They are always wondering, trying to source even the smallest piece of information that might influence their decisions for the next breeding season and beyond.

The Hellbent filly he offered at the Inglis Premier Sale in Melbourne in 2021 was sold to Laurence Eales for $75,000.

Eales discovered fame in racing as the owner of Melbourne Cup winner Shocking and has since used his profile to publicly sell shares in racehorses.

No one is more thankful than Parker that Eales turned his hand to syndication because a search on the internet revealed that shares in the filly were available.

With the click of a computer mouse, Parker had found a way to reconnect with the filly he thought deserved to make six figures in the sale ring and here was a fortuitous window to back his judgment by securing a small percentage.

Benedetta has since upheld her side of the bargain, becoming one of Australia’s best female sprinters with a Group 1 Goodwood win in 2024 and the opportunity to add another in a potentially busy Brisbane campaign that starts in the Doomben 10,000 on Saturday.

“At the time, I probably wasn’t overly happy with the price she sold for,” Parker told The Straight.

“But it was a COVID year and I didn’t go over to Melbourne at the time. As it turned out I couldn’t get any information on how she was travelling.

“And then maybe five or six months after the sale I ended up looking for something on the Eales Racing website and there was still a little bit of her for sale.

“I bought a little bit back into her and the rest has been a good journey. Probably in hindsight, I should have bought more back into her.”

Nevertheless, Benedetta’s rise through the sprinting ranks has been the missing piece in Parker’s breeding enterprise that started in 2003.

He had bred a Group 1 winner in the South Australian underdog Happy Trails – “the cheapest yearling I have ever sold at $11,000” – but claiming some ownership status had been an elusive pursuit for the 77-year-old.

“That thrill of winning the Group 1 there last year, I suppose it’s every breeder’s dream,” Parker says.

“She’s the first Group 1 winner that I’ve actually bred that I’m still a part-owner of … and I’ve got my fingers crossed that she can get another one before she goes off to stud.”

Given the bloodstock industry’s frenzy for mares of her ilk, Benedetta’s value after her racing days have finished is assured.

But she has already made a significant contribution to the viability of Parker’s small-scale bloodstock operation, which has also produced the dam of Randwick Guineas winner Communist and is weighted towards supporting first-season sires.

Without the fanfare associated with other sales of similar importance, Parker privately sold Benedetta’s dam Whatalovelyday in foal to Hellbent to the Hunter Valley-based Segenhoe Stud.

It was a transaction based on a need to maintain cash flow as much as it had to do with the timing.

The ebbs and flows of raising and selling horses are a reality that Parker tries his best to navigate from a state where stallion numbers have dwindled.

“At the time, I probably wasn’t overly happy with the price she sold for.” – Breeder Brenton Parker on the 2021 sale of Benedetta

Once influential sires such as Without Fear, At Talaq, Jeune and Rory’s Jester are now just a reminder of the South Australian breeding industry’s halcyon days.

“I’m a trader and after Benedetta won the Goodwood last year I got an offer that was good enough,” Parker said.

“I accepted it because I had about five or six stud fees to pay at that stage.

“I knew she was having a colt. If she was carrying a filly, I might have kept her but it took a little bit of financial pressure off because last year I didn’t have a very good year at the sales.

“Mill Park Stud do all my agistment and sales preparation … I don’t have a paddock that I can just stick them in and give them a bale of hay every week.”

Jason Warren, confident he has sent the mare to Queensland with enough freshness in her legs to make an impact, doesn’t underestimate the important role Benedetta has played in his training career.

“A mare like her means everything for a small stable,” he says

It’s the same for breeders like Parker.

“It’s a game of big surprises and huge disappointments … as long as there is a balance between the two, between the highs and the lows, it’ll keep me going,” he says.