Rowe On Monday – Silverdale warming into spring, another Bow to the Australian stallion ranks and Nakhle’s new rising star
In this week’s Rowe On Monday, as a new generation of yearlings is welcomed, Tim catches up with Steve Grant on his crop for the 2027 sales, ponders whether a European star might be bound for Australia, and checks out an impressive filly in New Zealand.
Businessman and horse breeder Steve Grant returned from a European jaunt, having endured a heatwave and an eye-opening visit to Ballydoyle, to a brutal reminder of the NSW Southern Highlands weather.
Grant, who has invested heavily for more than a decade developing Silverdale Farm and its associated bloodstock portfolio, admitted he had to seek comfort from a beanie during yearling inspections last week.
Magic Millions’ Barry Bowditch, Dane Robinson and Lochie Bruce braced the cold alongside Grant and Silverdale manager Rob Petith in the Southern Highlands to view their 2025-born foals.
“Silverdale in the Southern Highlands was their first visit for the season, so it went well,” Grant told us.
“(But we) were feeling the cold a bit, let me tell you. Halfway through it I had to go and get a beanie myself. It was cool. It was a lazy old wind. It was going straight through us, it wouldn’t go around.”
Among the Silverdale crop destined for the sales in 2027 was a Snitzel daughter of Sweet Sherry and an I Am Invincible filly out of Paredo, making her a half-sister to this year’s Todman Stakes-winning colt Paradoxium.
The Snitzel-Sweet Sherry filly is a half-sister to Eneeza, a three-time stakes-winning two-year-old.
“We’re always trying (to find good mares) around the edges and promote mares that probably aren’t the top-liners that produce nice foals and all of a sudden they’re turning into absolute treasures,” Grant said.
“We’ve got two stars in Sweet Sherry and Paredo turning out million-dollar horses and a couple of the new ones have absolutely blossomed, so it’s going to be great to see.”
Sweet Sherry’s I Am Invincible filly sold for $1.7 million at this year’s Inglis Easter sale, a year after her Snitzel daughter made $1.6 million at the Magic Millions.
The Silverdale stock left an impression on Magic Millions, providing options for Grant and Petith as to where to place their yearlings next year.
“It was a good time together, there were good inspections and good comments from the guys,” Grant says.
“And that’s what we like about both companies, Magics and Inglis. They give us their feedback pretty much straight away.
“With Barry and Dane, there’s no playing cards close to their chest. They’re right up front.”
Another interesting member of the Silverdale Farm broodmare band is Ruthin, a Listed-winning daughter of Ribchester who Grant and Boomer Bloodstock bought for US$400,000 at the 2022 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale.
She is a half-sister to Exceed And Excel colt Hit The Bid, who won two Group 3s in Ireland.
Her first foal, a filly by Russian Revolution, was bought by Tricolours Racing for $100,000 at this year’s Inglis Classic sale. She has a colt by I Am Invincible who will go to the sales next year and is in foal to Too Darn Hot.
“Ruthin has got a really interesting history in that she was bred in the UK, sold to America and went across there,” Grant said.
“They thought so much of her early on that they sent her back to go to Royal Ascot, but she ended up not racing there as she got an injury.
“So, she went back to America, where she was trained for her three-year-old season, then went back to Royal Ascot again and she again missed out.
“So, she’s well-travelled and she’s an absolute pearler. I’m sure people are going to be really impressed with her (I Am Invincible) colt.”
Inglis’ Chris Russell visited earlier this year and he and his colleagues are expected to pay another visit in the near future, sizing up the yearlings suitable for the company’s Classic, Easter and possibly Premier sales.
Bow Echo bound for Australia?
Could the unbeaten Bow Echo, who is taking all before him in the UK for trainer George Boughey and jockey Billy Loughnane, shuttle to Australia when his racing career is over?
Owned by the late Sheikh Mohammed Obaid, who won the 2023 Caulfield and Melbourne Cups with Without A Fight, Bow Echo appears to have the pedigree and racing style that would appeal to Australian breeders.
He’s by Night Of Thunder, who left an impression despite shuttling for just one season to Darley’s Northwood Park in 2016, out of sprinting Invincible Spirit mare Aristocratic Lady, a half-sister to stakes winners Royal Rhyme and Victoria Harbour.
Bow Echo, who has beaten Coolmore’s Gstaad (a son of Starspangledbanner) in all three starts at a mile as a three-year-old, again demonstrated a turn-of-foot to extricate himself from a pocket to land the Group 1 Sussex Stakes at Goodwood last week.
As has been written about a lot in recent times on The Straight, the Dubawi sireline is making its mark in both hemispheres, with Australian studs Darley, Arrowfield, Rosemont, Coolmore and Woodside Park among those to embrace the sireline for the 2026 breeding season.
For the pedigree buffs, Bow Echo is 3×3 to Zomaredah, the dam of Dubawi and the colt’s second dam Dubai Queen.
Shalabiya a star on the rise for Nakhle
Closer to home, while watching the early races from New Zealand on Saturday (after mowing the lawn, just for the record) it was hard to miss the performance of Shalabiya at Ruakaka.
A half-sister to Crocetti, a Group 1 Railway and 2000 Guineas winner, New Zealand owner-breeder Daniel Nakhle may have unearthed another above average horse out of his mare Gracehill.
Trained by Danny Walker and Aaron Tata at Byerley Park, Nakhle’s private training facility near Karaka, Brazen Beau filly Shalabiya launched her career on the first day of the new season with a 5.2-length victory over 1200m.
And it wasn’t just the margin, but the way she did it.
Jockey Warren Kennedy had her bounce out of the gates but he was able to settle her beautifully when other horses went around her before unleashing a brilliant sectional to put the race beyond doubt.
That professionalism will take her a long way, starting with the Group 3 Cambridge Stud Northland Breeders’ Stakes.
Nakhle also has more of the family in his keeping, retaining a Proisir filly who will be trained by Roger James and Robert Wellwood.
“I was always a bit 50-50 about selling her and she has broken in well and she’ll be going to Roger and Robert,” he told the New Zealand Racing Desk.
“She’s sitting in our paddock at the moment and we’ll give her a bit of time being a November foal.”
The Proisir filly was passed in at the New Zealand Bloodstock Karaka Yearling Sale in January.
As for Shalabiya’s sire Brazen Beau, he has already had a winner on Darwin Cup day on Monday, two days after his son Boldinho won the Palmerston Sprint.
Perhaps the data nerds can back up this columnist’s theory, but the Brazen Beaus seem to handle hot and humid conditions better than some others.
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