Rowe On Monday - Bronco boost for Taltys, blue hens and big results, and lessons learned the hard way

In this week’s Rowe On Monday, Tim talks to Mick Talty about the joy of breeding both Group 1 winners and an NRL player, examines a run of global elite wins from progeny of blue hens and looks as the lessons Daniel Allam learned when it came to placing his yearlings in the right sales.

Taltys savour son’s league perseverance with Broncos debut

Mick and Michelle Talty bred Group 1 winners and sold horses for millions of dollars, but witnessing their son’s National Rugby League debut may have eclipsed those thoroughbred industry achievements.

The Taltys, who ran Edinglassie Stud near Muswellbrook for more than three decades until semi-retiring two years ago, were at Accor Stadium on Friday watching their son Ben run out for the Brisbane Broncos for the first time.

A month ago, 26-year-old Ben was playing for the North Sydney Bears; now he’s an NRL player, spending 10 minutes on the ground for the Broncos either side of half-time in his first grade debut.

Mick Talty says it’s been a whirlwind experience for his son.

“He got a phone call out of the blue to come up and talk to them and meet them all,” Talty says.

“Then he was up there training full-time five days later and three weeks after that, he's playing his first game, which was just a great thrill. He's been waiting a long time. He's persevered, so it was fantastic.”

The Broncos won 22-18 in a come-from-behind victory on Friday night during primetime. 

“(Broncos coach Michael Maguire) Madge said to him, ‘I’ll put you on 10 minutes before half-time and 10 minutes after half-time’ and that's exactly what he did.

“He understood what he had to do and the job he had to do. It all worked out really well.” 

Talty, who along with Michelle has 25 mares at their property near Denman in rugby league heartland of the Hunter Valley, raised the likes of Deep Field and his Group 1-winning brother Shooting To Win while operating Edinglassie.

They also sold the stallions’ mother Listen Here for $3.4 million in 2016.

“In any sport, just because it's your son, I suppose it rates pretty highly. We've had a few or quite a few Group 1 winners off Edinglassie. And that's always a big thrill,” Talty says.

“They're very hard to win, Group 1 races, but not everyone can say they've played at the elite level (as Ben has). Just to see him achieve his goal was just brilliant for everyone.”

The Taltys were joined at Accor Stadium by their daughter Izzy, who works in sales and marketing for Annabel and Rob Archibald.

“I think his mother was more nervous than Ben was, to be honest,” Talty said.

“And we had a lot of our family, even my mother was there and she was 92. So, we had a debutant and we probably had the oldest fan there, too.”

Ben Talty, who is assured of his place at the Broncos until at least the end of 2026, has also inherited the love of racing and horses, obtaining an interest in a few of the family’s broodmares as well as a racehorse or two.

He played junior rugby league for Muswellbrook and at Denman in the under 18s. He has played more than 85 NSW Cup games and trialled on several occasions for the Melbourne Storm.

On confirming Talty’s debut, Broncos coach Maguire said:  “It gave me a real sense of what it really means to play.

“He’s been trying for a long time, so it just goes to show how special it is.”

On the thoroughbred front, Mick Talty expects to have seven homebred yearlings on offer at select sales in 2026.

“I think you've got to have a bit of quality there. You need your nice mares to pay for your other ones,” he said. 

Families that only big money can buy continue to pay dividends

There’s a reason horses out of high-class and strong-producing families are worth the debt of a small island nation - and it’s because they tend to reproduce over and over again.

And we saw examples of that internationally again at the weekend.

In the Coral Eclipse, the blueblood colt Delacroix won his first Group 1 and made it five wins from nine starts to ensure the Coolmore-owned three-year-old has a place at stud, possibly next year.

He is by champion sire Dubawi out of six-time Grade 1-winning mare Tepin, a US$8 million purchase by Coolmore’s MV Magnier at the 2017 Fasig-Tipton November Sale. Tepin is also the dam of Group 1 winner Grateful. 

In South Africa, another well-bred entire won the Grade 1 Durban July, Africa’s biggest race.

Trained by Dean Kannemeyer, who has now won the Durban July on four occasions, The Real Prince is out of Grade 1 winner Real Princess, a blue hen mare.

As well as The Real Prince, she is the dam of three-time Grade 1 winner Gimme A Prince and Grade 3 winner Gimmie’s Countess.

The trio are by top South African stallion Gimmethegreenlight, an Australian-bred son of More Than Ready, out of the Canny Lad mare, Yes She Can Cancan, who was trained by Ron Quinton.

The Real Prince, bred and owned by Lady Christine Laidlaw, has won five of his 10 starts for Kannemeyer.

His sire Gimmethegreenlight, who is a half-brother to Group 1 Coolmore Classic-winning mare Ofcourseican, has 2020 Cantala Stakes winner Yulong Prince standing at stud in Tasmania.

Allam learns bloodstock lessons the hard way

Over the next three months, bloodstock teams at Magic Millions, Inglis and New Zealand Bloodstock will be traversing the country inspecting thousands of young horses.

Many breeders will be hoping that their soon-to-yearlings will be deemed good enough to make a select sale, the Magic Millions in January, Book 1 at Karaka or Inglis Easter.

But Allam Bloodstock’s Daniel Allam, who has a small broodmare band in partnership with his father Steve, has learned the hard way that “overplacing” your yearlings can be counterproductive.

“I think we made a lot of mistakes when we started, like we had this idea of trying to protect the mare and horses that probably weren't going to cut it, like yearlings we tried to hold onto,” Allam told the Straight Talk podcast. 

“Lo and behold, most of them couldn't gallop. We soon realised that if you take a horse to a sale and all these good judges look at it and they're not keen on buying it, there's a reason why.

“And that was a key moment for us in terms of what we were doing and, and we changed our approach.”

Allam, whose family bred Saturday’s Group 3 Winx Guineas winner The Three Hundred, said advice from Segenhoe’s Peter O’Brien and Kestrel Thoroughbreds’ Bruce Slade had made a difference to the way they operate their thoroughbred breeding business.

“I'll just say it, if you've got a horse or a yearling by one of the top stallions and you're going to take it to a Magic Millions and you're going to be in the 20th to 30th best, it makes it a bit difficult,” he said. 

“You can sort of fall between the cracks and that's happened to us before.”