In today's Rowe on Monday, Jen Fowler reveals a remarkable backstory to a well-received Great Southern Sale result, high-priced Yulong filly makes an immediate impact and Australian racing's heavy-hitters will be out in force at Royal Ascot.
'They heal my soul' - Jen Fowler's passion for her horses
It was at the peak breeding season, in October 2021, when Jen Fowler suffered an injury in a fall at her farm Merrivale at Gooram in country Victoria.
But with many more foals still to be born and mares to be mated, there was no time to worry about the pain of the injuries she may have suffered, so Fowler battled on.
She did what was needed, putting the horses before herself.
When the pain didn’t subside, and the foals were close to weaning and mares were safely back in foal, Fowler finally sought medical attention early in the New Year.
The report from doctors was alarming.
“By the time I went to the hospital in January, I was septic,” Fowler recalled on Monday.
“They told me I was going to lose my life. And then after a week or so, they said, ‘well, maybe you'll just lose your leg’. I'm a diabetic and I don't heal.
“It was a pretty horrendous recovery. They took two litres of pus out of the leg at the initial operation and I had three emergency operations in four days. So, then they told me I wasn’t allowed to get back in with horses or be farming because I'm one scratch away from death.”
With the medicos’ dire warning, Fowler sold her farm, a semi-isolated and hilly parcel of land, at Gooram.
But as was predicted by her friends, Fowler couldn’t live without her horses despite medical advice to pursue other things.
So, it wasn’t long before she reinvested in another property, on 70 acres and on flatter ground at Congupna, near Shepparton, in the Goulburn Valley.
Her reasoning for doing so was simple.
“There is existing and there is living and they (horses) heal my soul,” Fowler says.
“I also had a responsibility. There were youngsters in the pipeline that I had bred and there were mares that were getting older and I needed to stand up and look after them. And so I thought that's what I shall do.
“Some of my princesses, the old girls, that are coming to their retirement, I'll always look after them through to the end and do the very best I can for them.
“And that's just the way it is.”
The above backstory - and the $335,000 sale of a Too Darn Hot weanling colt sold by Fowler at last Friday’s Inglis Great Southern Sale - resonated with so many industry people.
Fowler’s phone hasn’t stopped buzzing since Grenville Stud’s Bart and Graeme McCulloch, in partnership with Sydney investor Stefan Pardi, bought the colt out of La Magique, a mare Merrivale bred and sold as a yearling in 2016.
“So many people are squeezed and doing it tough that the great joy and achievement I take from this is it's the first time I'm back doing my own draft since the hospital episodes of the last three years,” she said.
“And a lot of people are conflating a good result with that, which is nice. But what is lovely is that I seem to be on the ledger as one of the good guys, and everybody is loving a good result for one of the good guys.”
La Magique, the dam of the Too Darn Hot colt, was also bred and foaled by Fowler who then sold her for $14,000 at the Melbourne Gold Yearling Sale in 2016 to trainer Ryan Balfour.
After her racing career, the Magic Albert mare was bought back privately in a deal brokered by Pinhook Bloodstock’s Dave Mee.
Fowler foaled down the Too Darn Hot colt herself at 2am on October 6 last year - and she wouldn’t have it any other way.
“I should be on a beach somewhere with cocktails, but somehow it just doesn't work for me,” she said.
Signature start for million-dollar Written Tycoon filly
Cool Archie justifiably gained the headlines for two-year-old racing at the weekend, but there was another impressive juvenile winner at Bendigo in country Victoria.
Signature Scent, a filly by Written Tycoon who was bred by Yulong, won her first start by a commanding 4.25 lengths in an 1100m maiden.
She has a long way to go to recoup her purchase price, but it was a good start with possible stakes races in store for her at three for the Ciaron Maher-trained filly.
A half-sister to the stakes-placed Alsonso, who is now in Hong Kong, Signature Scent was bought from last year’s Inglis Easter sale by Baystone Farm’s Dean Harvey and trainer Troy Corstens for $200,000.
Well-known for preparing a draft of two-year-olds for the ready-to-run sales each year, Corstens and Harvey put the filly through the Inglis Ready2Race Sale last October with a huge rap on her talents.
And they were well-rewarded for their judgement. Yulong’s Zhang Yuesheng paid five times what he sold her for, buying the filly back for a then-Australasian record breeze-up sale price of $1 million. (It was eclipsed the following month by a NZ$1.6 million colt by I Am Invincible at the NZB Ready to Run Sale).
The underbidder on the Written Tycoon filly? North Bloodstock’s Mick Malone, who bought Saturday’s Group 1 JJ Atkins winner Cool Archie for Max Whitby.
Top hats and tails in demand ahead of Royal Ascot
It’s not just Henry Dwyer and Asfoora flying the flag at Royal Ascot, nor Ciaron Maher’s new recruit Carl Spackler, a Cox Plate contender later this year, and adopted Aussie Docklands, who ran fifth in last year’s weight-for-age championship at Moonee Valley.
Wagering industry types such as Tabcorp chief Gillon McLachlan and ex-Entain executive Lachlan Fitt will be at the Royal meeting enjoying all the pomp and pageantry that the five-day event has to offer as is premier Brisbane trainer Tony Gollan and Hall Of Famer Gai Waterhouse.
Twin Hills’ Olly Tait, in his capacity working for Wathnan Racing, arrived in London on Monday while a host of others such as leviathan owner Max Whitby, fresh off a Group 1 courtesy of Cool Archie, will be in attendance.
While Asfoora is the defending King Charles III Stakes champion, she will be up against Mgheera, a Zoustar mare part-owned by Yarraman Park, whose Mitchell brothers Arthur and Harry are making a flying visit to watch the race.
Riverstone Lodge’s Starlust, who will be Nick Taylor’s foundation stallion later this year, also runs in the 1000m Group 1 sprint.
Carl Spackler, bought recently by Yulong, and Docklands will clash in the opening race, the Group 1 Queen Anne Stakes over a mile. Also in the race is last year’s Golden Eagle winner, Lake Forest.
The drawing power of Royal Ascot, both horse and human, is almost second to none, so says European agent Richard Brown of Blandford Bloodstock.
“Somebody described it the other day as our Olympics, and I would say that sums it up very well,” Brown told this column.
“It draws great attention. There are horses coming to run from all over the world. It's our showcase meeting.
“In my opinion, it's the greatest race meeting on earth.”
