Paradox and planning in the story of star fillies
by Dennis Ryan
Written 4th April 2019
In thoroughbred racing and breeding it’s never hard to find examples of the paradox that makes both pursuits so intriguing and unpredictable.
The latest telling example came in the Gr. 1 Vinery Stud Stakes at Rosehill last week when NZ-bred Verry Elleegant led home Frankly Awesome, a filly conceived in the United Kingdom and born in Australia. The origins of both are not the only stark contrast; the other is that Verry Elleegant was sired by Zed, a stallion who at the time stood at a fee of just $500, whereas Frankely Awesome resulted from a service fee at the other end of the global scale – £125,000 for the privilege of a mating with champion galloper Frankel.
On Saturday the talented pair will again go head-to-head in pursuit of the premier prize for staying fillies in this part of the world, the A$1 million Australian Oaks. In the same field will be another filly, Imelda Mary, who exemplifies the bargain basement theory.
That Ferlax filly cost trainer Wayne Hillis and fellow owners just $3,500 as yearling in the 2017 Karaka Festival Sale catalogue. Her domestic season ended by sharing the New Zealand Bloodstock Filly of the Year title with Queen Of Diamonds, a daughter of champion stallion Savabeel who changed hands when the China Horse Club’s Michael Wallace bid $640,000 for her at the same National Yearling Sale that produced Imelda Mary.
The back story to Verry Elleegant is one of putting faith in your own judgement and backing it all the way to the ultimate result. The key player is Auckland octogenarian Don Goodwin, who bred Verry Elleegant, formed a syndicate that placed her with South Auckland trainer Nick Bishara and has since seen her scale the heights to Group One glory.
Anyone privileged to reach 80 years of age has more than one or two interesting aspects to their lives, and Goodwin is no exception. He was born in the South Waikato farming district of Okoroire but grew up in west Auckland, in a state housing area of Waterview and on the same street as the Carter family.
“John Carter senior and I have been mates since we were kids – we were in the same Suburbs midgets’ rugby team in 1948,” Carter reflected in the days after Verry Elleegant’s Vinery Stud Stakes win. “As we grew up we were both keen on racing and John and I had the odd horse together, so it’s all gone from there.”
The name Carter was to become a household name in New Zealand rugby, via John Carter’s sons Mark and John junior. Both represented Auckland at senior level and Mark gained fame as a hard-hitting All Black open-side flanker in the 1990s.
Later that decade the Carter brothers joined forces with their sister Rachael to form Jomara Bloodstock and made a life-changing investment when they bought the well-bred young racemare Emerald Dream. By Danehill from the Cotehele House branch of the famous Eight Carat line, Emerald Dream hit the jackpot for her new owners by winning the Gr. 1 Whakanui Stud International Stakes at Te Rapa in 2002.
The trio subsequently invested heavily in Emerald Dream at stud, producing Zed and Zabene to her initial matings with Zabeel. Zabene went on to win at stakes level as well as finishing second in the New Zealand Cup, while even greater heights beckoned for Zed when he showed real promise at three.
Unfortunately an injury suffered in a transporter undermined those plans and he retired at four years with a single win from just four starts. Thankfully Zed was still a colt and the story of his unlikely start at stud has been well documented – a fee of just $500 at Little Avondale Stud until, after five years when his books began at 130 mores and dipped to 30, he was “exiled” to cover Clydesdale mares in the South Island.
That lasted only a year, as back on the racetrack Zed’s progeny were really standing up, resulting in a return north to Wanganui’s Grangewilliam Stud in 2013, when he covered no less than 168 mares at a fee of $4,000.
Don Goodwin was part of the Zed story from the start, taking an interest in the racehorse that was unable to realise his ability on the track before making it at stud.
“I went through the whole thing with the Carters and when he retired to Little Avondale I first sent an old Vice Regal mare I had, then I went looking for a younger mare with the bloodlines to match Zed’s.
“That’s why I bought Opulence – mating her with Zed would be double-up to Danehill as well as to Eight Carat through her daughter Cotehele House.”
Opulence, by Danehill’s son Danroad and tracing directly to Hall of Fame broodmare Eight Carat, cost Goodwin $14,000 when South Auckland trainer Nicholas Bishara offered her at the 2011 Karaka Autumn Mixed Sale. The winner of two races, she was carrying a service to Little Avondale stallion Towkay and returned to the Wairarapa stud for her date with Zed.
Her first foal by Zed was premature and died, and it wasn’t until 2014 that she produced a viable foal, the colt that became known as Verry Flash. That’s where Bishara re-entered the picture, having trained the Towkay filly from Opulence that Goodwin sold as a weanling and, as Black Lace, has to date won three times.
“When Nick ended up with the first foal from the mare I had bought off him, I figured he was still keen on the breed,” Goodwin explained. “This guy seemed interested so it made sense to me to give him Verry Flash to train, and then as it turned out the filly that followed.”
With Verry Flash already in work under the ownership of Goodwin and Bishara, Goodwin attempted to lease the younger sister but came up blank and ended up retaining a 50 per cent interest, with the balance taken up by a group that included Bishara and Black Lace’s part-owner Matt Duffy.
While Verry Flash was putting together a decent enough record, the filly known as Verry Elleegant proved an almost instant hit. As a late two-year-old she finished second on debut to the talented Cyber Attack and won her two spring starts – both NZB Insurance Pearl Series races – before the intensity of interest resulted in a change to her ownership group.
“Offers were coming from everywhere but we couldn’t quite crack it,” says Goodwin. “Then Mark Carter came up with a proposal that meant we could stay in her. Half an hour after her second win at Matamata in September – I was in the Winner’s Circle accepting the bottle of wine – and the phone went.
“It was easy in the end, the deal was done and look where we are now!”
The Jomara Bloodstock trio had the earlier experience of reconfiguring the ownership around their talented galloper Humidor, transferring him to then champion Victorian trainer Darren Weir and still being able to enjoy highs such as victory in the Gr. 1 Australian Cup and a tantalisingly close second to Winx in the third of the great mare’s four Cox Plates.
Verry Elleegant followed a similar route to Weir’s Ballarat stable, finishing third in her first start before winning the Gr. 3 Ethereal Stakes at Caulfield. When Weir was disqualified Verry Elleegant was transferred to Chris Waller and in three starts from those quarters she has won twice and finished second in the other.
Every step taken by the big brown has been positive, not only in actual form but also in the ringcraft she has acquired, culminating in a Vinery Stud Stakes win that stamped her credentials for Saturday’s Australian Oaks.
“The Vinery Stakes was great and now to be lining up as favourite in the Australian Oaks on the same day as Winx’s final race – we couldn’t have timed it better,” says Goodwin.
“We were at Rosehill with bells on and it will be the same again. If she wins that would be fantastic and all credit to everyone involved, but most of all Chris Waller.
“The way he’s pulled it all together just shows what a genius the guy is.”
Verry Elleegant inbred 4 x 4 to former Ra Ora mare Cotehele House
by Brian de Lore
Written 4th April 2019
The pedigree of last Saturday’s Gr.1 Vinery Stud Stakes winner Verry Elleegant is fascinating for several reasons.
Firstly, she is inbred 4 x 4 on the tail-female line of both her sire and dam to the former Ra Ora Stud mare Cotehele House which was one of several mares purchased for the stud when Ra Ora became the first stud farm in the world to list on a stock exchange. Other studs afterwards listed in quick succession.
Inaugural General Manager of Ra Ora Stud Ltd Glyn Jenkins attended a sale in Adelaide and bought Eight Carat’s daughter Cotehele House relatively cheaply following Ra Ora’s public listing in 1983. The mare was by My Swanee, a son of the Eclipse Stakes and Champion Stakes winner Pieces of Eight who, in turn, was by Relic.
Cotehele House was bred to the well-performed home-based stallion Imposing in 1984 and produced a bay filly in 1985 which was subsequently named Chalet Girl. In those days Imposing stood at Ra Ora for a fee of $20,000, restricted to a book of just 65 mares, and was highly commercial and fully booked. But he didn’t always throw the best-legged horses.
He was a big chestnut, true to his name, very wide at the sternum but brushed his front feet at the walk and he threw that V-shaped front leg head-on appearance type regularly in his progeny. As a consequence, some of his progeny developed knee issues and had their fair share of bone chips.
For whatever reason, Chalet Girl did not get to the races but as the young broodmare was bred in Australia to the Sadlers Wells stallion King’s Theatre at Glenlogan Park Stud. The resultant progeny was Mulan Magic foaled in 1999. She won only one of her 17 starts but in 2005 produced Opulence from a mating with Danroad.
Meanwhile, back in New Zealand Cotehele House was obliviously procreating the reputation of the Eight Carat family. Two years after producing Chalet Girl she foaled a filly in 1987 by Sackford named Theme Song which would eventually become the grandam of the one-win Zabeel left-field sire phenomenon, Zed.
Theme Song without creating attention won two races in Sydney up to 1600 metres before embarking on her broodmare career. Mated to the incomparable Danehill, she produced the high-class mare Emerald Green in 1996 – the winner of seven races on this side of the Tasman including the Gr.1 Waikato RC International Stakes, the Gr.3 BOP Thames Valley Stakes and at Ellerslie the Listed Great Northern Challenge Stakes.
Theme Song has bred on strongly, not just as the dam of the stakes performed Special Bond and Mancini, but also as the dam of the unraced Military Plume mare Announce, grandam of the two highly acclaimed Northern Meteor sire prospects in Shooting To Win and Deep Field.
Here is the Eight Carat family in all its glory – and ironically now showing on the tail-female lines of both the sire and dam of our newest Australian Group One conquerer in Verry Elleegant. The strength of the family continues to shine through at periodic intervals
Consider Eight Carat’s success. Diamond Lover, Kaapstad, Octagonal, Mouawad, Marquise, and Cotehele House which produced five times Group One winner Danewin as well as leading sire Commands.
In addition to exceptional ability, the family invariably throws strongly coloured horses – in Eight Carat’s case most are black or dark browns. According to The Informant’s foremost breeding authority, John Richardson, this dominance is a trait inherited from that great sire of the past in Relic which is passed down through Eight Carat’s sire, Pieces of Eight.
Cotehele House was a dark brown or black with white socks and stripe down her face and was typical of the family. But her residence at Ra Ora lasted only until 1990 when Arrowfield Stud decided to dissolve its 20 percent stake in the public company by departing with the stud’s 33 best mares which also included Rolls – she had the mother of Encosta de Lago at foot and subsequently foaled Golden Slipper winner Flying Spur at Arrowfield.
Ra Ora had been performing in the top three stud farms in New Zealand for many years, but the loss of all the good mares effectively brought to an end its position as a commercial thoroughbred breeding operation. Nine years later it was dispersed and the land sold.
The Eight Carat family is now legendary but undergoing yet another revival through Verry Elleegant. So many great horses have come from it such as the multiple Group One winner Habibti.
Blood tells in the end – six dams back from Eight Carat along the tail-female line appears the name of Mumtaz Mahal, the Aga Khan III’s flying filly which became his foundation mare for a dynasty of great horses and one of the prepotent influences in thoroughbred breeding history.