Pinhooking to racetrack success!‏

With horses such as Pierro and Zoustar being pinhooked from weanlings through to the yearling sales, this market has a proven track record of producing quality gallopers.

With the 2014/15 season having come to a close I thought it would be interesting to take a look back at the race performance of Sheamus Mills Bloodstock sold pinhooks during the season.

In 2014 SMB sold 12 pinhooks at the yearlings sales and so far the stats read;
7 runners
5 winners (4 on debut)
2 placed (1 at Flemington in only start)

Perhaps the most pleasing thing though is 5 of these 7 have contested black type races.

Eclat (Beteau - $65,000 Magic Millions)
Betalyk (I Am Invincible - $17,000 Classic Sale)
Cool Snitzel (Snitzel - $105,000 Magic Millions)
Parmalove (Snitzel - $200,000 Sydney Easter)
Tiz My View (Snitzel - $110,000 Sydney Easter)
Minetti (Star Witness - P.I Magic Millions)
Mr Individual (Starspangledbanner - $240,000 Magic Millions)

Hopefully the trend of tough, sound stock looks set to continue as the first 2YO trials of the new season appear. At Cranbourne on Monday the first 2YO trial in Victoria was won by the Statue of Liberty colt out of Magic By Gosh pinhooked by SMB through the Magic Millions and sold to Jason Petch. Now named Claro El Banco the colt is being aimed at the Listed Maribyrnong Trial stakes at Flemington on October 4th.

With that colt among 7 horses pinhooked for the new season hopefully there will be a few more winners among them!

Mr Individual

Eclat

Minetti

  

No doubt about Redoute’s

Redoute's Choice

For those of you who can’t be bothered reading any further I’m going to spell it out in the first paragraph. Redoute’s Choice is going to be Champion Broodmare Sire. Soon.

What’s that I hear you say? Der? Tell us something we don’t know!

Well before the discussion goes the way of mentioning that he covered just about every good mare in the country and so it’s a given he will be a leading broodmare sire by default, I think there are some really interesting observations on his exploits so far in this department.

With 12 Graded Stakes winners and another 14 Listed Stakes winners from 309 runners as a broodmare sire in Australasia, Redoute’s Choice currently sits fifth on the Australian Broodmares Sires table with his 181 runners this season netting $4,499,272 in earnings.

Those above him are the greats Zabeel and Danehill, followed by the closely related pair of former Champion Sires in Encosta De Lago and Flying Spur.

With star sprinter Zoustar leading the charge for him, Redoute’s Choice has achieved this position from just 181 runners. That’s 158 fewer than the next lowest Encosta De Lago (339) with Flying Spur (359), Zabeel (363) and Danehill (474).

But by far the most interesting point for me is that it’s his moderately performed mares that are doing the job for him at stud. Let’s look at his Graded Stakes performers;

Zoustar (dam Zouzou) – had 10 starts with her only win a Maiden at Gosford at her seventh start.
Sacred Falls (Iguazu’s Girl) – won two races of $5,000 total in New Zealand.
Luke’s Luck (Red Queen) – won 4 of her 12 starts and $118,650 with wins at Rosehill, Randwick and Canterbury to her credit.
Chase The Rainbow (Illusional) – won a Maiden at Hawkesbury from 7 starts.
Ms Funovits – also out of Illusional.
Bennetta (Diva’s Magic) – won a Maiden at Tamworth at start 9 of 10.
Ego (Buckling) – unplaced in 2 starts.
That’s The One (Chosen) – unraced.
Maschino (Tahni Girl) – won 3 of 16 starts and $398,500 including the Group 3 McNeil Stakes and second in the Group 2 Magic Night Stakes.
Kiss A Rose (Hurl) – won 4 of 24 starts and $92,970 including a second in the Listed Juanmo Stakes at Eagle Farm.
Direct Charge (Lady Of Choice) – unraced
Eight Till Late (Future Choice) – unraced

While all of this doesn’t mean his best race mares wont produce in the breeding barn what it does show is that you certainly can’t put his success as a broodmare sire down to having provided some Champion race mares.

It also shows, much like current Champion Broomdare Sire Zabeel, that it doesn’t matter if they were unraced, unplaced, moderately performed or brilliantly performed – when Redoute’s Choice appears as the broodmare sire of a yearling you like, put an extra tick on that horses credentials.

Long time no see...

Such is the age of social media these days instant forms such as Twitter and Snapchat have completely taken over the flow of information. The humble blog (or mine certainly at least) has become the victim of easy 140 character bite size snippets.  

Something you cant squeeze into 140 characters though are the attributes of a superbly bred and conformed race filly. SMB only offer ownership percentages in one filly per year and the details of our current offering are below.  

Just like recent SMB purchases You're So Good (NZ$80k - LR winner and G1 2nd), La Venta (NZ$150k- city winner and sister to G2 winner), Kona Breeze (NZ$120k - LR placed) and Surf Poet ($25k - full sister to $1.5 million earner Sweet Idea) this filly has the pedigree, confirmation and presence to succeed on the track and still hold good residual value when her racing career is over to protect owners. 

STAR WITNESS x LA ITALIA

The filly's sire STAR WITNESS was named the second best 2YO in the country after he won the Blue Diamond Stakes-G1 and the best 3YO sprinter in the country after his win in the Coolmore Stud Stakes-G1. Previous Blue Diamond winners include Champion sires Redoute's Choice and Bel Esprit while Coolmore Stakes winners include Encosta De Lago, Northern Meteor, Sepoy and Zoustar. 

To put it bluntly, Star Witness could not be better credentialed to make it as a stallion and his first crop of yearlings averaged over $120k at the Magic Millions sale last week. 

Her dam LA ITALIA was named the second best filly in New Zealand after winning the Wakefield Challenge Stakes-G2, and New Zealand Bloodstock Classique-LR while she was also third in the ARC Diamond Stakes-G1. 

This is just the third foal from La Italia who is by leading broodmare sire Stravinsky with the likes of Group 1 winners Mosheen and Rip Van Winkle out of his daughters. 

A copy of her pedigree is available on request but you will see there is a stack of black type performers with the Caulfield Thousand Guineas-G1 winner Irish Lights included. Don't want to bore you with pedigree analysis but this filly is a direct descendant of arguably the best family anywhere in the world with her 3rd dam River Crossing being a half sister to one of the best broodmares ever in Fall Aspen. 

I have attached a photo and a link to some video of her can be found by clicking HERE. She has great presence about her, a beautiful head, good bone, deep girth and a powerful hind quarter. She still has some growing to do which I like and she will furnish into a really quality filly. I suspect she will be a sprinter early in her career and then get out to 1600m or so later on.


I'm very pleased to announce that John, Wayne & Michael Hawkes are going to train our filly. Having run the Ingham and then Darley operation with great success for many years there is no better educator, conditioner and traveller of horses.

Our filly is both BOBS (NSW) and Vobis (VIC) qualified as well as paid up for Magic Millions (QLD) so there is plenty of extra prizemoney on offer for her to be placed to advantage in either state. John has stables in Sydney and Melbourne meaning she can get used to racing and working in both directions should we find the best race for her is interstate.

Its probably fair to say there is no one going better than the Hawkes stable at present and with John closing in 100 Group 1 wins its great to be able to give the filly to someone who has shown he can win anything from Golden Slippers to the Oaks and Derby.

Ownership opportunity is available with just about everything included except prizemoney! Purchase, insurance, breaking in, transport, vetting, Vobis Gold, BOBS, Magic Millions race series nomination and all costs to 1st May. Full PDS and prices available on request. 

Please contact Sheamus on 0411 600 530 or sheamus@smillsbloodstock.com for more information. 

SMB launches new website

With far too long since my lost blog post and with plenty to report on we used the Christmas and New Year period to rebuild our website and reflect some of the success experienced over the last 12 months.

Full details can be found at www.smillsbloodstock.com/success.html but in summary we have now purchased 37 stakes performed horses for clients with 14 of these coming in the last 12 months.

Some of the personal highlights for me have been;

• Excellent sales figures on the first crop yearlings by Planet Five (Storm Cat) and great reports on the first foals by Bullbars (Elusive Quality) and Shrapnel (Charge Forward).
• Long term client Robert Harding breeding the Perth Magic Millions 3YO winner Testamezzo (Testa Rossa) from the stakes placed Encosta De Lago mare he raced Tremezzo. Now the winner of 5 from 7 starts. 
• Sale ring success with yearlings bred by clients and those pinhooked as weanlings as well as fillies from the track. 
• 14 stakes performed fillies and mares purchased for clients. 

If you have any suggestions on how the new site could be improved or any general comments please get in touch and let me know.

Sales Talk

Nicconi x World Exclusive (Zabeel) filly

With the sales season in full swing I thought it interesting to note some thoughts so far.

Magic Millions kicked off the year on a great note for SMB clients with 2 pinhooked fillies realising very healthy results.

Both on account of Rosemont Stud as agent, the first was a filly by Moyboycharlie out of the Peintre Celebre mare Repenting.

A fantastic walking filly with great strength behind the saddle, she thankfully had many admirers in the lead up to the first days selling.

Eventually knocked down to Duncan Ramage for $160,000 the filly is the highest priced yearling sold by her promising young Vinery based stallion so far this year.

Following on from that success was the Testa Rossa filly out of the Encosta De Lago mare Involve who was one of the last lots to be sold in sessions 1 - 4. Despite being concerned all the money might have dried up, there was plenty of competition for the filly who was secured by Star Thoroughbreds for $185,000.

On the purchase front SMB have had a successful year so far purchasing for clients. The Inglis Melbourne Premier in particular was a happy hunting ground with 4 youngsters signed for.

A filly by the first season Widden stallion Nicconi was one who particularly caught my eye and was purchased for $75,000. Reminding me a lot of the SMB purchased 2YO filly Kona Breeze who was Listed placed and ran in the Blue Diamond this year, I suspect this filly might show something early and train on to 1400m or 1600m as a 3YO.

After the success of the SMB purchased stakes winning 3YO filly You're So Good, her connections were keen to look at all yearlings by her sire Savabeel this year and the colt from Floscula was the one we settled on.

A lovely, strong classic type colt with a fluent walk and plenty of quality, the colt has a pedigree compatible to compete in Derby's. I particularly like the mating of Savabeel to a Theatrical mare given his outstanding record overseas in producing top class turf stayers.

Testa Rossa x Petite Oiseau

Another colt we were excited to secure was the Testa Rossa colt from the stakes winning mare Petite Oiseau.

Bought in conjunction with Troy Corstens of Malua racing this cracking big colt will head to Flemington and John Sadler after being purchased from Cathy Haines' Burnewang North for $90,000.

Not surprisingly his breeders were keen to retain an interest in the colt and join SMB clients in the ownership.


Up next is the Inglis Sydney Easter yearling sale after which SMB will also attend all mare and weanling sales in New Zealand, Melbourne, Sydney and the Gold Coast.