This week’s column from Tim Rowe looks into how Antino went from impulse buy to Group 1 winner, reflects on another Group 1 success for Written Tycoon, rumours of a monster offer for Savaglee and the breeding back story of Ka Ying Rising.
Antino a lucky charm for Hong Kong owner Ramchandani
Jeetu Ramchandani admits to suffering from itchy fingers and a dose of good luck when he bought his Group 1-winning miler Antino as a two-year-old for a bargain basement price.
The Hong Kong-bound gelding, who won the Group 1 Toorak Handicap for his trainer Tony Gollan and Ramchandani, went agonisingly close to defeating Mr Brightside in the Champions Mile at Flemington on the final day of the carnival, four years after Ramchandani bought him.
The six-year-old has since banked $2.2 million in prize money and won 11 of his 22 starts.
At the 2020 New Zealand Bloodstock Ready to Run Sale, with internationals unable to attend the sale in person, Ramchandani had others compile a short list of horses for him.
Antino was on that list, but Ramchandani had little intention of participating in the sale and hadn’t paid too much attention to the horses that had been put on his radar.
Almost out of boredom, as many were suffering during the pandemic, the Hong Kong owner was at his computer while the sale was on.
While he was focusing on his businesses rather than horses, he had the live stream running in the background when the Cheltenham Stables-consigned son of Redwood out of an unraced mare entered the Karaka ring.
Antino, as he would later be named, was Lot 285. A couple of minutes later with a few clicks of the mouse, Antino was Ramchandani’s for just $27,000.
That’s when he started his due diligence, discovering that the veterinary report suggested Antino was scoped as a 3B, so there was a higher risk than was ideal that the horse may suffer from breathing issues during his career.
As it has turned out, that hasn’t been the case and has proven to be as sound as a bell without any issues.
“I didn't really go into much detail because I was quite busy that day and I just saw this horse come into the ring,” Ramchandani told The Straight.
“I wouldn't really say I had any idea of what I was buying. It was just one of those things. I said, ‘you know, I might as well just buy something for the sake of buying it’, and ended up spending $27,000 on a horse that I had no idea about.
“Eventually, when we were about to send him to a pre-trainer, and we looked back at his vetting, and he was 3B. So we're like, ‘OK, well, we don't know what we just bought, but we'll just roll the dice and see where we are’.”
Ramchandani is friends with Troy Schmetzer, whose partner Renita Beaton trains on the Gold Coast, so Antino was sent to Scone to be educated by Troy’s brother Mark who gave him two barrier trials before the horse was transferred to Adam Campton.
It was there that Ramchandani called on friend Brett Prebble, who had returned to Australia after a successful career riding in Hong Kong, to road test Antino in a Gold Coast barrier trial in early January 2022.
He won the trial by six lengths but against only two other horses.
“Brett didn't really think much of it, to be honest. It was a three-horse trial,” the owner said.
“But obviously, he went out on his first start and won quite impressively.”
That victory was at the Sunshine Coast and subsequently Gollan was handed the keys to Antino by Ramchandani.
A Hong Kong Jockey Club permit holder, Ramchandani has the unraced Spill The Beans gelding Magic Beans in training with Francis Lui and another horse, Territories three-year-old Leliyn, is expected to barrier trial soon for Hawkesbury trainer Stephen O’Halloran with a view to him being exported.
A manufacturing businessman who supplies fashion stores around the world with clothing, Ramchandani’s interest in the sport of the thoroughbred was triggered in a Hong Kong bar close to 20 years ago. Where else?
He overheard two men discussing racing over a drink and he joined the conversation.
“They were commentators, John Bell and Murray Bell, I remember if memory serves me right,” Ramchandani recalled.
“One of them was like, ‘if you ever get into racing, please let us know’ and the rest was history. Ever since that day, I've taken an interest in racing. It's been an expensive hobby … but it's all worth it.”
Boomer Bloodstock’s Craig Rounsefell now manages Ramchandani’s New Balance Racing operation.
Impulse buys like Antino are a thing of the past with a more calculated business model in operation.
“We have a very professional relationship, and we have a very good, friendly relationship as well,” Ramchandani says of his relationship with Rounsefell.
“He's been very good to me and he's guided me and taught me a lot about the industry and about horses.”
Antino is entered for next month’s Hong Kong Mile on International meeting on December 8 at Sha Tin.
Another chapter for Written Tycoon
Champion sire Written Tycoon’s one year spent at Arrowfield has certainly proved productive, as has been written in this column previously, with the stallion’s 2020-conceived crop adding a fourth Group 1 winner to his tally.
Saturday’s New Zealand 1000 Guineas victor Captured By Love joins Caulfield Guineas winner Private Life, Lady Of Camelot and Velocious as Group 1 winners from 153 live foals, a crop that has produced eight stakes winners so far.
Three of those four Group 1 winners, Captured By Love, Private Life and Lady Of Camelot, are all out of mares by Arrowfield’s four-time champion sire Snitzel.
A $525,000 Magic Millions purchase by David Ellis from Milburn Creek’s John Muir who sold her on behalf of Makybe Stud’s Tony Santic, the Te Akau Racing-owned and trained Captured By Love is Written Tycoon’s 17th Group 1 winner as a sire.
Love conquers all. In the 1000 Guineas from Riccarton, it's Captured by Love who wins it♥️
— Trackside NZ (@TracksideNZ) November 16, 2024
Over the last 150 metres, it was the race we expected between our two star 3 year old fillies. ⭐️
Ridden by Josh Carr for @TeAkauRacing#NZCupWeek @LOVERACINGNZ @YulongInvest pic.twitter.com/mfiz5m0ymm
Captured By Love’s younger half-brother by Too Darn Hot, the Peter Moody and Katherine Coleman-trained Maldini, was purchased for $500,000 at this year’s Gold Coast sale by Rosemont Stud, Suman Hedge, his trainers and Spicer Thoroughbreds.
Moldova has a yearling filly by Toronado, but she missed to Justify in 2023. She was covered by Coolmore shuttler Wootton Bassett in September.
Interest in Savaglee
Speaking of Guineas winners, there has been interest in the Dick Karreman-owned New Zealand 2000 Guineas winner Savaglee from stud farms.
This column was in Christchurch at the weekend for the New Zealand Cup and 1000 Guineas meeting at Riccarton where talk of the substantial offer to buy the Pam Gerard-trained colt swept around the racecourse.
A hat-trick of wins to Savaglee who wins the G1 NZ 2000 Guineas in style - and that’s three winners at Riccarton for Sam Spratt! pic.twitter.com/5YZAVm9he8
— SKY Racing (@SkyRacingAU) November 9, 2024
It is understood that Karreman, the owner of New Zealand’s The Oaks Stud, has rejected the purported offer which is said to be closer to $10 million than $5 million.
Sire sons of Savabeel include the Newhaven Park-based pair Cool Aza Beel and Mo’unga, Waikato Stud’s Noverre and Cambridge Stud’s Embellish as well as The Oaks Stud-based The Chosen One.
Auret’s beginner’s luck with Ka Ying Rising
It’s not a bad way to start: New Zealand trainer Fraser Auret’s maiden foray into the breeding caper produced Hong Kong’s next superstar, Ka Ying Rising.
The David Hayes-trained four-year-old sprinter made it eight wins from 10 race starts with his stunning track record-breaking victory in Sunday’s Group 2 Jockey Club Sprint at Sha Tin.
His 1:07.43 seconds for the 1200m, with his jockey Zac Purton sitting up on him to salute the crowd, set a new mark that had been held for the past 17 years by Hong Kong champion Sacred Kingdom, causing some pundits to label him the world’s best sprinter. He is being targeted at next year’s Everest.
Auret and his wife Erin bred Ka Ying Rising out of his talented but troublesome Per Incanto mare Missy Moo, a Group-performed winner who he trained to win five races.
“She had a few problems with arthritis and bits and pieces like that and the owner was an elderly chap who didn't want to breed, but because I had a lot of faith in her I thought, ‘well, why not have a go?’,” Auret said.
Auret always held Ka Ying Rising in high regard from the time he started educating him until he sold him to connections of Hayes after giving him a jump out at Levin in late 2022.
“That's as far as I could get with him really, because he was a very, very impressive horse right from day one,” he said.
“Right from breaking him in and taking him through the system sort of thing, he just had a real x-factor that you don't find very often.”
Here's some extremely rare footage.
— Garrick Knight (@GarrickRKnight) November 18, 2024
This is the only public appearance in New Zealand of superstar sprinter Ka Ying Rising for his original trainer, Fraser Auret.
This is a jumpout win at Levin in January last year, ridden by Madan Singh.
He was purchased off the back of this. pic.twitter.com/hhtNAVxyP1
Auret believes Ka Ying Rising’s sire Shamexpress, who stands at Windsor Park Stud, punches above his weight.
“He was a great horse and obviously he's an underrated sort of stallion, too, with a few little fertility issues and things, but goodness me, he's left a lot of good horses,” Auret says.
“As I say, I certainly didn't bring out any breeding notes or do any line breeding or anything. I thought, ‘look, I've got a good mare and a good stallion and we'll try our luck’.”
Missy Moo, a $500 purchase in 2014 by the Griffin Family Trust from an NZB mixed sale, had just two foals before she had to be euthanised due to ongoing issues with her arthritis. Her second, by Turn Me Loose, is the unraced Ka Ying Glory who is also in Hong Kong with Hayes after being bought privately from Auret.
Shamexpress has sired 13 stakes winners from 224 runners. He’s had six winners from 14 runners in Hong Kong with Ka Ying Rising clearly his best.
