Archive for month: July, 2018

Euroa’s Ealing Park has changed hands recently with new owners Rebecca and Simon Lurati seeking to repeat the renowned farm’s success.

Ealing Park was established by Geoff and Mary Johnson in 1983 with their son Tim (a former President of Thoroughbred Breeders Victoria) and wife Lisa taking over in 2000 and has been a breeding ground for many a good horse.

“We value the reputation that Ealing Park has within the thoroughbred community, so we wanted to keep the name and write another chapter in its proud history,” Rebecca Lurati said.

The Luratis has have over 25 years of breeding and showing experience with horses including foaling down hundreds of mares. They previously owned a 500-acre property at nearby Tamleugh that was the home of Dallu Welsh Mountain Pony Stud.

At the new Ealing Park the Luratis will be partnering with specialist equine vet Stacey McGregor of Seven Creeks Equine and well-known breeding farrier Shaun Gray helping give resident horses the best of care.

Historically, Ealing Park can count many a Group 1 star among its ranks. This autumn’s Coolmore Classic winner Daysee Doom grew up at Ealing Park as did Titanic Jack and Grand Journey while Cox Plate heroine Pinker Pinker and Faint Perfume were both foaled down at the farm.

Ealing Park raised Daysee Doom wins the Group 1 Coolmore Classic (pic-Steve Hart)

Melbourne Cup winner Kingston Rule stood at stud at Ealing Park and is now buried in the front yard alongside 1966 English Derby winner Charlottown (who stood at the farm in the 1970s when it was known as Summerhill Stud).

Rebecca Lurati said this history was a key lure for her and her husband in buying the farm.

“I remember driving past Ealing Park twelve years ago and completely fell in love with it. Being only around the corner from where my mum was buried, it was always a dream to buy it, and it’s even been a running joke in the family that any extra money goes towards the Ealing Park ‘fund’.

“We wish to continue to run this property as a thoroughbred broodmare farm with plans to extend to spelling and yearling preparation in the near future and, once the weather warms up, we look forward to welcoming prospective clients to visit.”

Having been a major player in Victoria breeding, the Johnsons wound back the operation in recent years and the Luratis are aware that there is a lot of work ahead of them.

“The property has been professionally set up, but we will be busy putting back some polish on the stunning property,” Rebecca said.

With pasture maintenance already underway, they are looking forward to their first thoroughbred mares arriving at the property for the season ahead.

“We will only look to foal around twenty mares this year, giving them the best of care while we continue to concentrate on improving and renovating the 200-acre property.”

Interestingly, Rebecca’s welsh ponies have already played a vital role in the thoroughbred industry.

“My welsh pony stud has a strong connection to the industry having supplied teasers to a number of leading Victorian thoroughbred studs including Blue Gum Farm, and they will be the most brilliant nannies for the thoroughbred weanlings,” she said.

In the future, they will also look to provide safe spelling for racehorses while Rebecca will draw on her extensive showing background of preparing horses for the show ring, to prepare yearlings for the sales ring.

“I would love to get into yearling preparation, as it complements the immaculate attention to detail that I learnt showing, and every little bit helps to attract the right buyers attention.”

The Luratis are offering introductory rates for their debut season. Contact Rebecca on 0427 736 662 or visit www.ealingpark.com.au for more information.

You know the breeding season is just around the corner when the big boys fly in!

IRT this week proudly and safely flew in the first wave of Victoria’s shuttle stallions into Melbourne’s Tullamarine Airport. Once the final wave arrives next week, a total of nine sires will have been flown in for Victorian stud farms.

The new arrivals undertake a compulsory period of two weeks quarantine at the Australian Government’s Mickleham quarantine facility, before heading out to their respective studs for the season.

Amongst the precious equine cargo destined arriving over the past weekend was Swettenham Stud sires Americain (from the USA) and Toronado (from France) Woodside Park Stud bound Cable Bay (from the UK) and Spendthrift Australia’s Jimmy Creed and Warriors Reward (from the USA)

This weekend, new Swettenham shuttle sire Highland Reel will be flown in by Coolmore directly out of Shannon Airport in Ireland.

Following that, Darley Northwood based stallions, Frosted and Street Boss from America and Brazen Beau from the UK, will fly in via ‘Godolphin-air’.

A loyal sponsor of TBV, IRT Managing Director Chris Burke is proud of the role IRT plays in strengthening Victoria’s breeding industry.

“We are a vital element to the success of the leading studs in Victoria as we give them the ability to shuttle stallions for breeding between the two hemispheres safely and efficiently,” Burke said.

“We pride ourselves that every stallion arrives in fine health and condition after a long journey ready for a successful breeding season.

“The shuttle stallions have given Australia wonderful bloodlines, pedigrees and gene pools that would otherwise be geographically unavailable, and in turn that makes us a destination for international buyers to purchase yearlings and mares,” Burke said.

Some of those thoroughbreds destined for international shores, are the export this weekend of 20 yearlings to South Africa.

“Farms can produce top-class thoroughbreds that are in demand with the world-wide buying bench, be it Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, Europe, the US or in this case South Africa,” Burke said.

“We are the perfect market for South Africa, as their racing calendar and breeding season is the same time as Australia. They can buy beautifully bred yearlings to race competitively locally, as they are all southern hemisphere time bred to leading international stallions.

“Therefore we assist our local breeders by giving overseas purchasers the confidence that they can buy a yearling at an Australian sale and through a professional company, fly their horse back to their final destination in good hands.”

The success of Victorian bred horses over the jumps continued at Bendigo’s feature Mosstrooper Day on Sunday with Mannertone (Manner Hill) scoring for his trainer and breeder Anne McGrath.

Based at the family home of Orford (between Warrnambool and Hamilton), Anne McGrath and her much-loved jumper Mannertone epitomise the toughness of Western District breeding and racing.

She saddled up her home-bred nine-year-old jumper to win the Benchmark 120 Steeplechase over 3600m at Bendigo, his eighth win over the sticks and ninth in total. His prizemoney has leapt to $316,000 following Sunday’s win.

Having been foaled, raised and trained all his life at McGrath’s Orford farm, Mannertone has become a family pet of sorts.

He won his maiden on the flat at Mount Gambier in May 2013. Almost two years later, he would get his second win which was over the hurdles at Bendigo. Since then he has become a mainstay of western Victoria jumps racing affectionately known as ‘Jaffa’ by connections (and racecaller Rick McIntosh).

Amazingly, his 89 start career includes 20 fourth places!

“He has been a cunning old horse, dumping a jockey, shying at the barriers – he has a decent bag of tricks up his sleeve. In the early days I even had to shoe him myself, by putting him in the round yard and tying up a leg,” McGrath said.

“But despite all that, he is a handy jumper, a tough bugger, and a favourite around the place. He has mellowed with maturity. I have been very proud of how he has been going, and although he is not a champion, he is wiser with age and always there to annoy them.”

Mannertone is a son of Manner Hill from the Scenic mare Hampton, Manner Hill was the foundation stallion at Lancefield’s former Cherokee Rose Stud and is a Group winning son of champion mare Mannerism.

“I stuck my neck out to buy his mother for $15,000, and she showed enough promise that I had her entered for the Oaks, but disappointingly she did a sesamoid in training and went to stud early,” McGrath said.

“After foaling a couple of slow ones after Mannertone, we went back to Manner Hill with Hampton, and his (four-year-old) brother Hammer‘n’Tone is shaping up very nicely. In his last prep he had real style. He may have a better natural jump than Mannertone, so fingers crossed.”

As a breeder and owner, McGrath tasted success at the highest level when Tears I Cry won the 2007 Emirates Stakes at the odds of 100-1.

Emirates Stakes winner Tears I Cry with owner-breeder Anne McGrath and trainer Ciaron Maher

“I had lost my mare that was due to go to Lacryma Cristi, so dad lent me a mare to use – and as luck would have it, we foaled Tears I Cry,” McGrath said.

“As a young horse, his legs were everywhere, so initially I thought he may not make it as a racehorse, better off showjumping, but when he first came into work he started to show ability very early.”

After scoring success with trainer Ciaron Maher (his first Group 1 win), he would return to McGrath’s stables before retirement which included life as a clerk of the course horse at Warrnambool.

Sadly, ‘Skeeta’ as he was known around the stables, passed away earlier this year.

“We only lost him three months ago and he is sorely missed,” McGrath said.

Being diagnosed with breast cancer in September 2012, McGrath underwent chemotherapy and operations, crediting her positive attitude to her family and her horses.

“I found the horses kept my feet on the ground and so did my family after I was diagnosed. I used to get out there and ride both Mannertone and Tears I Cry through the bush after treatment as a release.”

“They both helped me through it, horses have a way of doing that.”

Mannertone’s jumps win comes off the back of other Victorian bred jumpers scoring this season including Self Sense (breeder David Brideoake), Kothu Rotti (Earl Eddings) and Don’t Be Shy (North Star Park) among others.

The much-loved Group 1 winning sprinter and successful Victorian sire Strategic has succumbed to the infirmities of old age at Godolphin’s Woodlands Stud, where he was born almost 26 years ago.

“He was a wonderful old boy, he had a great nature, and was a real gentleman in the breeding shed,” Darley’s Victorian General Manager Andy Makiv said.

A homebred product of the Ingham family’s Woodlands Stud, the John Hawkes trained Strategic was one of the best racehorses of his generation.

Bursting onto the racing scene in the cerise silks with five consecutive wins as a two-year-old, among them the Group 2 Pago Pago Stakes and the Group 3 Skyline Stakes. He would go on to also win the Group 1 Australia Stakes at Moonee Valley.

The son of Zeditave began stud duties in the spring of 1996. In 2008, Darley purchased Woodlands including Strategic and his stallion barn mates. In 2009, Strategic was relocated to Darley’s Northwood Park near Seymour.

Throughout his eighteen years at stud, he covered on average more than 100 mares per season, an extraordinary recognition of his popularity with breeders.

He was the sire of more than 640 individual winners, including 29 stakes winners, three Australian Group 1 winners Platelet, Meurice and Mistegic while Strategic News was victorious at the top level in South Africa.

Strategic’s most recent stakes winners are Coronation Shallon and Tudor who were both sired out of Victoria’s Northwood. His final Victorian crop are now two-year-olds.

Strategic has also made a name for himself as a broodmare sire with his daughters producing high-class gallopers such as Holler, Le Romain and Griante.

“He had tremendous speed, precocity, and being a tough colonial bred sprinter he brings that Australian speed influence through his daughters,” Makiv said.

“We are thrilled to stand Holler at Northwood, who is out of a Strategic mare, to continue his great influence in both Victorian, Australian and international breeding,” Makiv said.

After retiring from stud duties in 2014, Strategic enjoyed his retirement at his birthplace – Woodlands in the Hunter Valley – alongside his old racetrack rival and stable mate Octagonal.

Strategic and Octagonal at Woodlands in October 2015

“He has had a wonderful life, and that’s what it is all about, for these Group 1 winning horses to go to stud and produce Group 1 winning horses, and then for them to live out their retirement on a beautiful farm,” Makiv said.

Could this be the new lethal combination?

Breeder Gilgai Farm, trainer Ciaron Maher and a filly on offer at the Inglis Premier Yearling sale?

It worked at the 2014 version of the sale with the Caulfield based trainer buying Jameka off Gilgai. She has gone on to win three Group 1 races and $4.8 million (so far).

Gilgai Farm bred Jameka wins the Caulfield Cup (Racing Photos)

Now Maher has another filly bred at the famed Nagambie farm that also appears to have immense talent and may, like Jameka, be given a shot at the VRC Oaks in November.

Gilgai bred The Closer (Dundeel) was ultra-impressive in winning on debut in a two-year-old fillies race over 1350 metres at Geelong last week.

With Maher in hospital with a broken leg following a fall off Jameka last week, Assistant Trainer David Eustace was at Geelong to watch the filly and commented post-race that “she was a filly that Ciaron really liked.”

“He has been very patient with her. She was going really well last prep but it was decided to give her a break and it’s all coming to fruition now,” Eustace said.

“She’s got a big action and she’s very athletic, but she still has plenty of furnishing to do so we are hopeful she will get over a bit of ground and up in class.”

Following in the footsteps of Jameka, The Closer was purchased by Maher and stable client Wes Ballantine for $70,000 out of the Gilgai Farm draft at the 2017 Premier Yearling Sale.

Ballantine and his family own and operate the new breeding operation Thompson’s Creek farm near Modewarre, just past Geelong.

Maher’s Client Relations and Bloodstock Manager Brian McGuire remembers taking the time during pre-sale inspections at Gilgai to get to know the filly.

“She took our eye when we visited the farm early in her preparation, and we were impressed with how she continued to develop and grow,” McGuire said.

The Closer is the second living foal of the Sandown winning Elusive Quality (USA) mare Miss Evasive, a daughter of the brilliant Group 1 VRC Oaks and Group 1 VATC Thousand Guineas winner Magical Miss (Danehill).

“We loved her female family and it’s a good rule of thumb, that daughters of very good race mares are good producers. She represented enormous value at that price, especially as she was a clean as a whistle and Gilgai are renowned breeders of successful racehorses,” McGuire said.

“Ciaron will be patient and reap the rewards, as being from an Oaks winning family, she will also head down the Oaks trial.”

Gilgai Farm manager Kelly Skillecorn was thrilled that his self-proclaimed “bargain” of the sale has ended up in the right hands.

“She did all the right things during her prep, and she caught the eye of the best trainer possible. At least if she didn’t make the money we had hoped, she landed in the best possible stable to fulfil her potential on the track,” Skillecorn said.

“We did expect to get more than that for her, coming from such a beautifully preformed female family.

“Interestingly we also offered (at the 2017 Premier Sale) her close relation, now called Yulong Meteor, who incredibly only made $50,000 in the ring She was by Medaglia d’Oro, out of the stakes placed mare Joie, and Maher is now training her as well.

“Both look to be stakes winning quality fillies, possibly worth an few hundred each, and he has them in the stable for $120,000 combined. We just gave them away.”

“At least when they get knocked down to him (Maher), you know they are not going to get a better chance anywhere. He made Jameka, he made (the dam) Mine Game, and he will make these two sisters, and our mares will still get the pedigree updates that that deserve.”

With ten winners in the past seven days, Woodside Park’s Written Tycoon has his foot to the floor as we race towards the end of the season which will see him sire more winners than he ever has before.

A repeat win of the Victorian Champion Sire title was all but confirmed months ago.

Written Tycoon enjoyed a breakout 12 months in 2015/2016 when his star two year-old Capitalist won the Magic Millions 2YO Classic and Golden Slipper to give the son of Iglesia progeny earnings of $10.1 million and third place on the Australian General Sires List behind Street Cry (IRE) and Not a Single Doubt.

This season, Written Tycoon has another star colt running for him in Group 1 Blue Diamond winner Written By and, while his collective $9.7 million in earnings may not quite surpass his previous best, his 150 winners so far has been a personal best.

The Australian Champion First Season Sire of 2010/2011, Written Tycoon spent his first eight seasons at stud never standing for a fee greater than $13,750 and all of his success to date has been achieved from this modest base.

His first yearlings conceived at a higher fee of $19,800 (in 2015) are rising two year-olds and his two subsequent crops (weanlings and foals due this spring) have been bred at fees of $49,500 and $88,000.

Some of the best mares in the country have visited Written Tycoon in Victoria in the past two years so it will be very interesting to see what effect they have on his burgeoning results.

Just browsing through the mares to have visited the Tylden stallion barn in 2017 you can’t help but be impressed.

Group 1 winning mares and Group 1 producing mares included Bel Mer, Gold Anthem, Headway, Pasadena Girl, Makybe Diva and Scandinavia. Add to that the likes of Group winners Heatherly, Oasis Bloom, Gregers, Karuta Queen, Kulgrinda, Vergara and Miss Promiscuity. And that’s just a start.

More illuminating however is the quality of NSW-based breeders that sent mares to Written Tycoon in 2017.

Renowned breeders such as Newhaven Park, Emirates Park, Edinburgh Park, Strawberry Hill, China Horse Club, Aquis Farm and Gooree Park among many others have sent at least one if not multiple mares south of the Murray.

Such a long list of top quality commercial breeders list has never been seen before in Victoria.

That level of clientele combined with ongoing racetrack and sales ring success of his progeny certainly makes the strong case for Written Tycoon’s fee to rise to $110,000 this spring.

Excerpts from Breednet.

There might have been 6000 kilometres between them but it was another successful weekend for the progeny of Turffontein, with Mandela Effect winning at Caulfield and classy two-year-old Bold Thruster annihilating them in Singapore.

Bred by Tasmanian Mandy Gunn and trained by Scott Brunton, Mandela Effect had been one of the Tasmania’s most progressive horses over the past year, winning three times and running four seconds from eight starts before heading to Melbourne.

Local odds assessors gave the three-year-old, which had drawn the outside gate little hope and he started at odds of $21.

Jockey Dean Holland elected to drop him back to the tail of the field and with 600 metres to travel those odds looked conservative.

However, once Holland asked him to go forward approaching the turn, Mandela Effect showed sharp acceleration to loop the field and despite racing a little greenly in the straight, drew away to win comfortably.

Mandela Effect, which was sold at the 2016 Tasmanian yearling sale for $18,000, is from a winning West Quest half-sister to former smart Tasmanian sprinter Royal Work and is from the family of AJC Sires’ Produce Stakes winner Mighty Manitou.

It was ever so nearly a running double for Turffontein, with the Patrick Payne trained Widgee Turf failing by just a nose to claim another victory over the same track and trip that he won the Group 3 Victoria Hcp earlier in the year.

A win would have made Widgee Turf the most successful horse in Victoria for the season, but he now looks set to finish equal top on six wins. His career earnings are now almost $740,000.

On Sunday in Singapore, trainer Payne enjoyed success as the breeder of the Shane Baertschiger trained Turffontein two-year-old Bold Thruster, which gave his rivals a galloping lesson at just his second race start.

Payne bred Bold Thruster from winning Elusive City mare Aelia Capitolina, which was sold at the recent Great Southern Sale for just $1,200.

Bold Thruster’s second and third dams Snaabelle and Inchedony, were both smart race mares winning to Listed level.

After running fifth at his debut on the Polytrack, Bold Thruster relished getting onto the grass surface at Kranji.

He went straight to the front, never gave his rivals a look in, before drawing right away to win most impressively by 6 1/4 lengths over 1200 metres.

You can watch Bold Thruster’s big Singapore win at turfclub.com.sg.

While trainer Baertschiger enjoyed the win, it was a case of what might have been.

The exciting two-year-old by Turffontein had made his debut in the second leg of the Singapore Golden Horseshoe series in early June, but did not enjoy the kickback on the Polytrack surface.

The fifth placed result wasn’t sufficient to get him into the Aushorse Golden Horseshoe on turf, a Singapore Group 2 race Baertschiger felt the 2YO could have been highly competitive in.

Turffontein will stand the 2018 season at Blue Gum Farm for a fee of $8,800

With the 2018 yearling sales season in the rear vision mirror, the attention of breeders and sales company Inglis has turned to next year’s sales.

And breeders and buyers alike will see a number of changes and incentives put in place for 2019’s Oaklands Junction yearling sales.

These include a $500,000 Premier Sale bonus associated with the Blue Diamond, major sales complex renovations and a refresh of the April yearling sale.

As part of the Melbourne Premier Sale, Inglis will offer a $500,000 bonus, split equally between the catalogued vendor and supplier, to a graduate that is victorious in the 2020 Blue Diamond Stakes at Caulfield.

Written By, winner of this year’s Blue Diamond, is a graduate of the Premier Sale, having been offered through Basinghall Farm’s draft in 2017.

On the infrastructure front, Inglis has accelerated major renovation works at Oaklands Junction.

Visitors to the complex during the Great Southern Sale will have experienced the fresh new look of the reception, the first stage of works completed.

Prior to next year’s Premier Yearling Sale, being held from 3-6 March, extensive works will be completed in and around the auction ring as well as throughout the restaurant and other hospitality facilities.

For the Gold Yearling Sale in April (previously VOBIS Gold), Inglis will now open entries for horses not nominated to Super VOBIS while also extending the sale to two days.

This sale will be held on 28-29 April 2019 and will follow the $2.52 million VOBIS Owners and Breeders Day incorporating the inaugural running of the $1 million Showdown for VOBIS Sires eligible 2YOs.

Inglis’ General Manager of Bloodstock Jonathan Darcy said a great deal of work was also focused on encouraging buyers from interstate and overseas to come to Melbourne.

“We are continually working on our relationships with buyers in Australia and abroad to ensure they attend the 2019 Inglis Yearling Sales and target our clients’ valuable bloodstock at Oaklands,” said Darcy.

Entries are now open for the full 2019 Inglis Select Yearling Sales Series and close on Friday August 3.

Entries of 2017 born foals can be made at inglis.com.au/onlineentries.

Age hasn’t condemned the Barbara Marshman homebred Magic Consol: matter of fact, it appears to be working in his favour.

On Saturday at Flemington, rising 9YO Magic Consul finally added a stakes victory to his resume by capturing the $150,000 Listed VRC-CRV Winter Championship Final over 1600m.

It was a mighty win…Magic Consol had to jump from the widest gate, but jockey Craig Williams had the chestnut well poised by the home straight and surged to the lead over the closing stages to win with nearly two lengths to spare.

Magic Consol’s connections might have been waiting a while for that black type (Magic Consol did run second – beaten a head – in last year’s Listed Murray Bridge Cup), but patience has been the key according to trainer, Paul Preusker.

“Full credit to the owners (Peter McFarlane and Barbara Marshman),” Preusker points out.

“When the horse had niggles and problems we left him alone and he didn’t really begin racing until a late spring 3YO.”

In fact, November 2012 was the first time the punting public saw him.

Making his debut over 1100m at Hamilton in Victoria, Magic Consol ran fifth of 11, but despite that inauspicious opening volley, he has gone on to win 12 of his 57 outings, with a further 14 placings and $572,765 in stakes.

Magic Consol’s trainer in the early days was his breeder and part-owner, Barbara Marshman, who had trained out of South Australia’s Naracoorte then Hamilton in south-west Victoria for some 40 years, saddling up over 300 winners including 1976 George Ryder Stakes winner Superior Air.

As it turns out, Magic Consol was Marshman’s last winner, handing the galloper over to Preusker shortly after winning a Horsham maiden in October 2013.

“Paul has done a fantastic job with the horse – never wanted to rush him,” Marshman explains. “Magic Consol was a real handful to begin with. Even after he was gelded you could hardly get a jockey on his back and was always a bit spooky. Incredibly quick though and he’s been worth the effort.”

Magic Consol is by the former Darley stallion, Consolidator – a son of Street Cry who won the USA Breeders’ Futurity Stakes and stood in Australia for just the two seasons, 2006 and 2008, at Darley’s Northwood Park. Although he has sired eight stakes winners in North America and Europe, Magic Consol is his sole black type winner down under.

Magic Consol, meanwhile, is out of the now retired Shalford mare Shally’s Magic – a 6-time winner for McFarlane and Marshman – who hails from the prolific family of Golden Slipper winner Full On Aces, Impending, Drawn and co.

“I always liked Consolidator and also raced a horse by him called It’Sall Aboutharry that won seven and was eventually sold to Rockhampton,” Marshman adds.

“I’ve scaled right back and only race a couple and breed from a couple these days, but Magic Consol is doing a good job of paying for all of them!”

Produced by Aushorse

Widden Valley is more commonly associated with the Hunter Valley when it comes to the Australian thoroughbred breeding industry.

But for at least a short time last week, it was Victoria’s Widden Valley – the sire that is – which was the toast of racing.

Widden Valley’s talented son Chas Marlow broke his maiden emphatically at Wangaratta for Mornington trainer Tony Noonan and scooped up the lion’s share of a $20,000 VOBIS Gold bonus along the way.

However, you would have thought it was a million-dollar-earn based on the excitement generated by Victorian breeder-owner Graeme Ward as well as Widden Valley’s owner Peter Grundy.

“It’s nearly a dream come true,” said Ward after the win which he witnessed on-course.

Noonan was also thrilled to train the winner for his long-term client and making the win even sweeter was that Noonan’s son Jake was onboard. Ward has watched him grow up around the stable throughout his 25-year association with Noonans.

“It was a terrific win and well ridden by Jake, the son of a gun. He’s (Tony) a great bloke and a great trainer, a Group 1 trainer.” Ward said.

Widden Valley was always destined to be a stallion prospect being a son of Anabaa (USA) out of the fantastic Group 1 AJC Australian Oaks-winning mare Rose Archway (Archway). He was bought for $900,000 as a yearling at the Inglis Easter Sale.

Widden Valley (AUS)

Peter Grundy, a forty-year veteran of racing and breeding, who stands Widden Valley at his Little Yarra Lodge in the Yarra Valley, pointed out that Ward was a co-owner of the stallion’s dam.

“Graham had a soft spot for Rosie (Rose Archway), and he always promised he would send a good mare to Widden Valley when he went to stud,” Grundy said.

“Keeping good on that promise, he sent (Snippets mare) Classy Miss and I am so happy to see her son Chas Marlow reap the rewards for him. Hopefully he may send another mare or two in the future.”

Widden Valley had two wins in his racing career over 1350 metres, setting a new class record at Wyong by 1.5 seconds, and breaking a 20-year record. In his last start he ran a gallant third in the $750,00 Inglis 3YO Guineas at Scone in a top quality field.

As his trainer, Chis Waller said he was “a horse with tremendous ability that racegoers never got to see the best of. He had a great attitude but unfortunately couldn’t get over his injury as a youngster.”

“This horse would have won Group races for sure – he had so much natural talent. I had black type races picked out but it just wasn’t to be.” Waller said.

Widden Valley’s progeny statistics are nothing to be sneezed at. He has had 37 named foals for 24 to race resulting in 11 winners that include Uber Ed, He’s Our Woody, Foraoise, Cat’s Alley and Peter Grundy’s homebred Golden Valley.

Contact Peter Grundy at Little Yarra Lodge on 0417 720 468 for more information.