Seven days in breeding … Early shoots of spring

In this edition:

• Waterhouse-Bott blitz at two-year-old trials as first-season sires shine
• Run The Numbers – The beauty of the blue hen
• Rowe On Monday – Spring bases loaded for The Autumn Sun, US stud fees warning, Capital decisions await Yulong 
• ‘On our own two feet’ – Makiv making the most of an independent Godolphin Australia
• Inglis links with China Horse Owners Alliance to tap into growing market 

The importance of Sydney’s official two-year-old barrier trial session, held at Randwick on Monday, may be diminished compared to yesteryear but history shows it would pay not to be too dismissive of the resulting form.

As owners and trainers show a greater degree of patience with their young stock – last season’s two-year-olds accounted for just 7.4 per cent of Australia’s runners last season, the lowest since at least 2012/13 – the horses with the constitution to be able to cope with the pressures of early training remain a positive sign to their overall ability.

Last year’s session alone has already produced 10 individual stakes winners, including Raging Force, O’ Ole and this weekend’s leading Golden Rose contender Beiwacht.

Those 10 don’t include talented stakes-class horses such as Crown The King, Tupakara, who was placed in the Tea Rose at the weekend, and the fourth-placed Queen Of Clubs who is being touted as a potential Oaks filly.

In 2022, there were 13,339 foals born in Australia, the largest of the past five years as breeders were inspired by the pandemic-induced bloodstock boom, and of that crop, just 0.42 per cent of the population were ready to have a public hit out in late September.

The Sydney trials honour roll in recent seasons also features Group 1 winners Manaal, Lady Of Camelot, Ozzmosis, King’s Legacy and Coolangatta.

This year’s session attracted 58 runners, with Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott training six of the nine trial winners, Bjorn Baker had one and Hawkesbury’s Mitchell and Desiree Kearney, the beneficiaries of a new wave of investment from long-time friend and owner Daniel Springfield, won two heats.

History shows that there will be a good horse among them.

Saturday’s Group 1 Sir Rupert Clarke Stakes winner Sepals was certainly well educated, heading to the jumpouts on no less than 10 occasions prior to his first start in December last year for Mornington-based Cliff Brown.

Brown is a man known for his patience, so it’s unlikely that you’ll often see him getting a two-year-old up and going at this time of the year, but he certainly knows what to do when he has a good horse under his care.

That was proven when Sepals delivered at the highest level at Caulfield, giving Brown his biggest success since his return from Singapore in 2021.

The Calyx four-year-old was bred by Greg Perry out of his Casino Prince mare What’s New, who won multiple stakes races for Brown in Singapore.

“In her maiden season (at stud), she matched up really well with first-season sire Calyx, who was brilliantly fast himself. It was 4×4 inbreeding to Hope, the symmetry is magnificent,” Perry says.

Run The Numbers’ examination of Sepals’ pedigree found that his female family links back to one mare who is responsible for seven Australasian Group 1 winners.

 Calyx, a son of Kingman, shuttled to Coolmore Australia for just two seasons, in 2020 and 2021, and he died prematurely in Ireland earlier this year due to an acute foot injury.

The Autumn Sun also had his health issues last year, but thankfully he is back in fine fettle with a large book of quality mares meeting him in the serving barn at Arrowfield this year.

The son of Redoute’s Choice had a three-year-old double at Flemington on Sunday and he could potentially add two Group 1s to his tally of three in the next fortnight with Autumn Boy and Autumn Glow heading towards feature races.

Arrowfield’s John Messara has every right to be excited about The Autumn Sun, as he tells Rowe On Monday.

The biggest roadblock to Autumn Boy winning the Golden Rose looks like being Godolphin filly Tempted, who was an emphatic first-up winner of the Run To The Rose.

The Street Boss filly leads Godolphin Australia’s charge under its new public training model implemented by managing director Andy Makiv earlier this year.

You can catch Makiv’s full interview on last week’s Straight Talk podcast.

Meanwhile, auction house Inglis has linked with the China Horse Owners Alliance, appointing the organisation as its official representative in mainland China.

Enjoy your racing week.

Regards

Tim Rowe

Senior Journalist

The Straight