Rowe On Monday – Stakes quinella points to end-of-season surge for Home Affairs, happy Daze for bloodstock trader and the breeding game’s great dilemma

Home Affairs on the right course

Home Affairs sired the quinella of the Festival Stakes at Flemington on Saturday, with Gin Twist defeating her Lindsay Park-trained stablemate La Gitana.

With Blue Diamond-placed colt Guest House pressing on to the Golden Slipper and Breeders Plate runner-up I’m Ya Huckleberry back in training, Home Affairs appears well placed to have a strong finish to the 2025/26 racing season. 

Just how well is he tracking, though?

At the same point in his stud career, I Am Invincible had sired eight individual winners, including two stakes winners.

Home Affairs has five, with two of them also black-type winners among seven stakes horses to date. 

I Am Invincible, of course, continued his ascent to become a three-time champion Australian sire, so perhaps that’s unfair for now, given the trajectory he has taken for more than a decade.

At the same stage of their careers, comparing Home Affairs and I Am Invincible’s sire sons is favourable for the young Coolmore-based stallion who leads the first season sires’ title. 

Brazen Beau had sired two winners, one of which had scored at stakes level; Hellbent had two winners, I Am Immortal had sired two winners and Super One had one.

Nolen to have last laugh with Ole Daze?

Renowned horse trader Tal Nolen was restocking at the Inglis Premier sale on Sunday, ensuring he has a draft for October’s two-year-old sales.

But as anyone involved in the breeze-up space can attest, it doesn’t always go to plan and such was the case with Ole Daze.

A half-brother to Group 3 winner Vega Daze, Ole Daze was a $20,000 Premier sale purchase by Nolen, who was unable to find a buyer at an $80,000 reserve at the 2024 Inglis Ready to Race Sale.

So, Nolen retained the now three-year-old by Vinery’s Ole Kirk, who started his racing career in fine fashion on Wangaratta Cup day on Saturday, winning his first start in a maiden by 1.5 lengths.

And punters didn’t forget to back him, either, firming from $6.50 to $4.60 in the last half an hour of betting after double figures were offered in early markets.

Maybe Hong Kong buyers will be calling about Ole Daze nearly 18 months after Nolen hoped he’d be able to sell him.

One-time Yulong target retired from racing

Do you take the money then and there or reject it in an attempt to hit the jackpot?

Savaglee’s retirement at the weekend, announced by The Oaks Stud’s Rick Williams, is another cautionary tale. 

After the Savabeel colt won the 2000 Guineas at Riccarton in 2024, Savaglee’s owner Dick Karreman was offered $8 million by Yulong.

Karreman, a wealthy individual who also owns New Zealand’s The Oaks Stud, could afford to play hardball.

Savaglee finished runner-up in last year’s Australian Guineas, won by Feroce, in a campaign aimed at boosting his stud value.

But in two starts this year, as a four-year-old, Savaglee failed to fire and he will be much harder to place on a roster.

“I would like him to stand in New Zealand because even if we sell him to another farm, we will probably stay in him. We will work through that over the next few days, it (retirement) has only just happened,” Williams said.

“We love the horse, he is a wonderfully intelligent animal, and I am sure he will be very successful in stage two of his career.”

In another case, Griff won the 2023 Caulfield Guineas, having won three races in succession, his owner rejected multimillion-dollar offers. In Griff’s case, things went awry and his commercial appeal diminished significantly that he could not be placed at a major stallion operation.