News

Plan Your Champion

23rd Apr 2015

Success in thoroughbred breeding requires planning for the future, and producing that envisaged champion was executed perfectly by the breeders of Black Caviar and So You Think who had purchased their respective dams at an Inglis Broodmare Sale.

613 fillies and mares are catalogued to be sold at the 2015 Inglis Australian Broodmare and Weanling Sale next month at Inglis’ Newmarket sales complex, the same sale ring where Helsinge and Triassic were purchased before the matings that produced two champions.

Needing little introduction, Helsinge was purchased as Lot 599 for just $115,000 by Peter Ford on behalf of Rick Jamieson. An unraced three-year-old filly out of Group 2 winner Scandinavia, Helsinge carried the blood of Vain through her grandam Song Of Norway and it was this blood that Rick Jamieson decided to replicate through mating her with Bel Esprit, a son of Vain mare Bespoken.

“At the time I thought she was a difficult mare to mate and that can happen. And I spent, you know, a lot of time trying to make effective matings. We came up with Bel Esprit as the best mating for her,” recalled Jamieson on Australian Story in 2013.

Helsinge visited Bel Esprit early in the breeding season then the next year at 5:20am on 18 August 2006 she gave birth to a good sized first foal. The filly was raised at Gilgai Farm and was sold as Lot 520 at the 2008 Inglis Premier Yearling Sale from the draft at Swettenham Stud for $210,000 to Peter Moody.

The now legendary Black Caviar would go on to an undefeated record 25 wins, including 15 at Group 1 level. Black Caviar earned $7,953,936 in prize money during an illustrious career.

Helsinge’s influence both on the Australian breeding and racing industry and on the fortune of her owners and those involved with her progeny is immeasurable, as is the case with champion colt So You Think.

The planning of So You Think began at the same Inglis Broodmare Sale, this time with an older mare. 15 year-old broodmare Triassic had won at Group 2 level herself and had already produced city winners from her first three foals to race.

Alex and Cecile Smith of New Zealand’s Piper Farm purchased Triassic for $16,000 and planned to breed from her in partnership with Michael Moran. Running just four mares on eight acres, Cecile Smith was intent on finding the correct mating for her mare.

“My neighbours are wonderful, knowledgeable horse people who look out for me. I am the first to admit that I know practically nothing about horses except that I have loved them since childhood,” said Smith.

“One neighbour in particular who was invaluable in helping us choose stallions for the mares was Triassic’s old trainer Brian Jenkins, who felt that High Chaparral would give her foal adequate refinement,” Smith said.

The resultant foal was an attractive brown colt that caught the eye of, and was purchased as a yearling by bloodstock agent Duncan Ramage on behalf of Malaysian billionaire Dato Tan Chin Nam and Tunku Ahmad Yahaya.

The colt was sent to Bart Cummings and was named So You Think, which went on to earn over $10,000,000 during his racing career, from 14 wins and 5 placings from 23 starts, highlighted by wins of two consecutive Cox Plates. So You Think is now becoming a sought after sire in his own right, stamping his progeny which sold up to $500,000 at the 2015 Inglis Easter Yearling Sale.

Start planning your success now at the 2015 Inglis Australian Broodmare and Weanling Sale. A bumper catalogue of 884 Lots will be offered for sale from 10.30am on the 3, 4, 5 and 6 May.

The complete catalogue is available online at inglis.com.au and on the Inglis Sales iPad App. Hard-copy catalogues are available at Inglis’ Newmarket sale complex and can be requested from the office on +61 2 9399 7999 or email catalogue@inglis.com.au