Australia | Horse Racing Free Tips

Two For The Road: ‘Abnormally Large Testicles’ Lead To Sale Of Australian Racehorse

In a unique bit of seller transparency, a former six-figure colt has been sold in Australia's Inglis January Online Sale after the previous owner found his “abnormally large testicles” may have restricted his on-track performance.

Morethannumberone, a 5-year-old Australian-born son of More Than Ready, sold Wednesday for AUS$31,000 (US$23,986), after bringing AUS$375,000 (US$290,003) as a yearling.

In the time between sales, Morethannumberone won one of 14 starts, and made AUS $46,530 (US$35,982). He previously raced for Hong Kong-based owner Barry Lee, and he was trained by Gary and John Moore.

The colt's listing on the Inglis website read as follows:

“Morethannumberone has been a model of consistency this preparation with plenty more to give to his new connections.

“His current owner has elected to go to auction with Morethannumberone as he has not qualified for Hong Kong importation. Having been reluctant to geld Morethannumberone, it is believed that his new connections may reap the rewards from the removal of his abnormally large testicles, that have been deemed to cause restriction.

“Morethannumberone is straight forward to train, clean limbed, and rarely will leave feed. Has performed and trained well, and without any hinderance, with the utilization of a Tongue Tie and Cross-Noseband.”

In an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald, assistant trainer James Moore said the frank assessment of the colt's unique hindrance was part of the stable's “branding” efforts to present its commitment to transparency. Moore was hopeful that new owner Michael Costa Racing might return the horse to their barn.

“He is a lovely horse and if he gets gelded, we think there is a lot of improvement left in him,” he said. “We just wanted people to know that and whether he's with us or someone else I'm sure the next owner will have a lot of fun.”

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‘Like Getting A Horse From Mars’: Breeders’ Cup Winner Bulletin To Make Australian Debut

The 2018 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint winner Bulletin is preparing to make his Australian debut this Saturday at Randwick Racecourse, reports the Sydney Morning Herald. A 4-year-old son of City Zip, the colt is now trained by Gai Waterhouse and will start in the A$125,000 (about US$97,200) Heineken H. over 1200 meters (six furlongs).

Post time will be 12:20 a.m. Eastern on Saturday morning.

Bulletin broke his maiden on debut in the listed Hollywood Beach Stakes at Gulfstream Park, while trained by Todd Pletcher and owned by the partnership of China Horse Club, WinStar Farm, and SF Racing. Following his 2 3/4-length triumph in the Breeders' Cup, Bulletin won the listed Palisades Turf Sprint to kick off his 3-year-old campaign. He has not found the winner's circle since, however, despite switching to the barn of Steve Asmussen for two starts in 2020.

Bulletin hasn't raced since a second-place effort in a Churchill allowance race on June 12, 2020, but did finish second in a pair of barrier trials at Randwick ahead of the Heineken. He is now campaigned by the China Horse Club and Australia's Newgate Stud Farm.

Waterhouse said the colt has finally acclimated to Australian-style racing and weather, and should give a good account of himself on Saturday.

“I once had a very famous trainer say to me 'you don't ask much about the horse', and I said 'well it's like an upside-down cake, what you did in the northern hemisphere doesn't count in Australia,” Waterhouse told the Sydney Morning Herald. “The climate and the conditions of racing and everything about it is so dramatically different. It's like you're getting the horse from Mars.”

Read more at the Sydney Morning Herald.

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Galileo: The Hardest Of Acts To Follow

In a temporarily upside-down world, a comforting air of normality can be found in a perusal of the end-of-year stallion tables. To Benjamin Franklin’s certainties of death and taxes, in this smaller world we can add just about the only sure thing in racing and bloodstock: Galileo (Ire) is champion sire.

Perhaps the greatest compliment that can be paid to the King of Tipperary is the fact that, even at his home at Coolmore, the operation which naturally has free-flowing access to the supersire via some of the best mares on the planet, the hunt is still on for his rightful heir. It may be too much to expect that a son will be able to continue the line with a show of such dominance, as Galileo did for his own sire Sadler’s Wells, and he in turn for Northern Dancer. Galileo certainly has some very good sire sons out there—not least his greatest achievement, Frankel (GB), and the former champion 2-year-old Teofilo (Ire)—but he once again remains way out in front of allcomers after another record-breaking year.

Galileo officially turns 23 on New Year’s Day and he has now been champion sire in Britain and Ireland for more than half of his life. After the most unsettling year in living memory, when the Guineas, Oaks and Derby were all delayed, Galileo once again left his increasingly imposing mark on the season’s Classics.

His daughter Love (Ire) won the 1000 Guineas before posting arguably the most impressive performance by a 3-year-old all season when going on to land the Oaks. Between those two races, her stablemate Peaceful (Ire) had pushed Galileo into new record-breaking territory when becoming his 85th individual Group 1 winner in the Irish 1000 Guineas, thereby wresting the title from Danehill, the stallion with whom he has shown such an affinity.

Further records were to follow. The Derby of 2020 was a memorable one, perhaps not for the right reason, but the tearaway winner Serpentine (Ire) meant Galileo went clear as the most successful Derby sire of all time, his five winners putting him ahead of Sir Peter Teazle, Waxy, Cyllene, Blandford, and his erstwhile stud-mate Montjeu (Ire).

With over £5 million in progeny earnings for 2020-more than double the tally of his nearest pursuer Dubawi (Ire)—Galileo duly claimed his 12th sires’ championship in Britain and Ireland, and he is the European champion, with almost £6.4 million in earnings, £777,199 of which was accrued by his top earner, the mighty mare Magical (Ire). It is worth noting that this tally is significantly lower than last year’s haul of just over £16 million owing to drastic prize-money cuts during a Covid-affected racing season. Galileo was also a long way clear by number of black-type winners: 27 in Britain and Ireland, and 32 in total across Europe, which was almost 11% of his runners.

Dubawi Provides World Beater
Darley’s admirable Dubawi (Ire) is used to playing understudy to Galileo but he is a fantastically successful stallion in his own right, and clearly the best in Britain. With an increasing array of promising young sire sons, he is also responsible for the top-rated horse in in the world in 2020: Ghaiyyath (Ire). In his 5-year-old season Ghaiyyath had Enable (GB) and Magical (Ire) behind him respectively when winning the G1 Coral-Eclipse and G1 Juddmonte International, following his front-running romp in the relocated G1 Hurworth Bloodstock Coronation Cup. And Ghaiyyath is of course out of Galileo’s first Classic winner, Nightime (Ire) and thus bred on the same cross as his Kildangan Stud mate Night Of Thunder (Ire), who has made an eye-catching start to his own stallion career.

Dubawi posted 13 stakes winners in Britain and Ireland in 2020 to take second in the table, and with 23 stakes winners overall in Europe, he was third in the European championship behind Siyouni (Fr), who was responsible for Arc winner Sottsass (Fr) and is the champion sire in France. We’ll be looking at the French and German tables in greater depth in Sunday’s edition of TDN.

Dark Angel (Ire) and Kodiac (GB), representing different branches of Ireland’s O’Callaghan family at Yeomanstown Stud and Tally-Ho Stud respectively, are both hugely reliable sources of winners and they were the only two stallions to notch in excess of 150 winners, with Kodiac on 155 and Dark Angel on 152.

The latter finished ahead overall in the table, with his 11 stakes winners headed by the top-class sprinter Battaash (Ire), who was faultless in his three starts in 2020, landing the G1 Coolmore Nunthorpe S. for the second year in a row having started out with victory in the G1 King’s Stand S. He also won Goodwood’s G2 King George S. for the fourth time, beating subsequent Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint heroine Glass Slippers (GB).

Kodiac enjoyed a memorable Royal Ascot in the juvenile division as the sire of Campanelle (Ire) and Nando Parrado (GB), but leading the charge for him in Berkshire was the G1 Diamond Jubilee S. winner Hello Youmzain (Fr), who has now become the first son of Kodiac to retire to stud in France.

A Champions Day To Savour
The redoubtable veteran of the British stallion ranks is Cheveley Park Stud’s Pivotal (GB), whose range is such that he was runner-up to Galileo in the broodmare sires’ table and provided the French champion sire, his son Siyouni. In his own right he was responsible for a British Champions Day Group 1 double via Glen Shiel (GB) and Addeybb (Ire), the latter having also won two Group 1 races in Australia back in the spring while European racing was on lockdown.

Pivotal had only 79 individual runners in Britain and Ireland in 2020 – less than half of most of the sires around him in the top ten list, but he can still more than hold his own and was fifth overall.

Ballylinch Stud’s Lope De Vega (Ire) is a stallion whose popularity stretches across continents and, while his GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf winner Aunt Pearl (Ire) doesn’t count towards his local earnings, he had a Group 1 winner on Irish turf in Keeneland Phoenix S. winner Lucky Vega (Ire). That runner’s stable-mate Cadillac (Ire), winner of the G2 KPMG Champions Juvenile S. for Jessica Harrington, looks another exciting prospect for the 2021 season.

One of the stand-out older fillies of 2020 was Sheikh Hamdan’s Nazeef (GB), winner of the G1 Falmouth S. and G1 Sun Chariot S. on each of Newmarket’s tracks. She was also the headline act for her sire, the Irish National Stud’s Invincible Spirit (Ire), now 24 and joining his half-brother Kodiac on the leaderboard at number seven. He too was represented by a Grade I winner in America when 4-year-old Digital Age (Ire) landed the Old Forester Bourbon Turf Classic at Churchill Downs for Chad Brown.

Zoffany (Ire) may struggle for attention against some of his stud-mates at Coolmore but he nevertheless can be relied upon to provide his fair share of smart juveniles. Albigna (Ire) was his Group 1 star in that regard in 2019, and the following season that honour went to the Aidan and Annemarie O’Brien-bred Thunder Moon (Ire), winner of the G1 Goffs Vincent O’Brien National S. for Chantal Regalado-Gonzalez and who helped to boost his sire to the top 10.

King In The Making
The youngest of this group is Juddmonte’s Kingman (GB), whose first crop were four in 2020 and included his first Classic winner, Persian King (Ire). The classiest of his most recent Classic generation was the champion 3-year-old colt Palace Pier (GB), winner of five of his six starts, including the G1 St James’s Palace S. and G1 Prix Jacques le Marois. Kingman posted nine stakes winners in Britain and Ireland, and he was sixth overall in the European table, with 16 black-type winners to his name, including another two Group 1 wins for Persian King in the Moulin and the Ispahan.

Completing the top ten in Britain and Ireland was Gilltown Stud’s Sea The Stars (Ire), sire of the massively popular champion stayer Stradivarius (Ire) among his 18 black-type winners, eight of which came in Britain and Ireland. Fanny Logan (Ire) got the better of the colts in the G2 Hardwicke S., while another of his Royal Ascot winners, Hukum (Ire), could well be a stayer to follow this year.

Galileo’s first two sons in the table appear just outside the top ten. The profile of Australia (GB) was lifted in 2020 by his first Classic winner, Galileo Chrome (Ire), in the St Leger, while farther afield Order Of Australia (Ire) emulated the Breeders’ Cup success of his elder half-sister Iridessa (Ire) (Ruler Of The World {Ire}).

By his own lofty standards, Frankel (GB) had a quieter year in Britain and Ireland, but he was responsible for 11 stakes winners and on the international stage he was represented by G1 Metropolitan H. winner Mirage Dancer (GB) in Australia and GI Asahi Hai Futurity winner Grenadier Guards (Jpn) in Japan.

Global Success
The Irish-based duo of Dandy Man (Ire) and Camelot (GB) were also represented by international Grade/Group 1 winners, with River Boyne (Ire), a son of the former, landing the Frank E. Kilroe Mile in America, and Russian Camelot (Ire) breaking new ground by becoming the first northern hemisphere-bred 3-year-old to win a Classic in Australia with his victory in the South Australia Derby. Camelot’s Australian reputation was further enhanced by the G1 Cox Plate victory of Sir Dragonet (Ire).

Closer to home, Even So (Ire) gave Camelot a domestic Classic victory in the G1 Irish Oaks, and Dandy Man’s daughters Dandalla (Ire) and Happy Romance (Ire) shone brightly. The former landed Group-race wins at Royal Ascot and Newmarket’s July meeting, while Happy Romance beat subsequent G1 Cheveley Park S. Winner Alcohol Free (Ire) when landing the G3 Dick Poole Fillies S.

Also making the top 15 was Showcasing (GB), whose list of sons at stud now stretches to five, the most recent recruit being his top performer of 2020, the G1 Sussex S. winner Mohaather (GB). In fact, Showcasing’s top two runners of the year were both trained in his ‘home’ stable of Whitsbury by Marcus Tregoning for Sheikh Hamdan, with Alkumait (GB) displaying his talent with victory in the G2 Mill Reef S.

It takes a mighty effort to make it into the top 20 stallions in Britain and Ireland with just one crop of runners, but the prolific Mehmas (Ire) achieved just that, finishing in 17th position overall with 46 winners, and 56 across Europe from his 101 runners. His tally smashed Iffraaj’s record of 39 first-crop winners and included G1 Middle Park S. hero Supremacy (Ire) and G2 Gimcrack S winner Minzaal (Ire). There will be more about his explosive season in Saturday’s edition when we review the leading first- and second-crop sires in Europe.

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‘It’d Be Pretty Special’: Chad Schofield Seeks To Emulate His Father In Hong Kong Sprint

Chad Schofield has the chance of producing a significant piece of history this Sunday at Sha Tin when he partners Rattan with the hope of joining his father Glyn on the G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Sprint honor roll, which would be a Hong Kong first.

Dad won the race in 2005 aboard Natural Blitz at 27-1 by 1 3/4 lengths, the only win of the horse's career, and this weekend son Chad will look to emulate his father's heroics in the HK$22 million (US$2.84 million) sprint contest when he pairs with Rattan.

“I do remember the day, I was here somewhere jumping for joy – it'd be pretty special and I'll be doing my best on Sunday,” Schofield said.

Chad spent four years of his youth here while his father Glyn was contracted to ride in Hong Kong from 2002 to 2006, before returning in 2014 with a contract of his own after forging an impressive career in Australia, notching four G1s including a major, the 2013 W.S Cox Plate aboard Shamus Award.

But Schofield and Rattan go back nearly four years to their first pairing in January, 2017, and since then the 26-year-old has been in the plate a further 18 times, including his 2019 G2 Sprint Cup success, as well as his half-length defeat to Beat The Clock in last year's G1 Chairman's Sprint Prize.

“If there ever a horse I was to be able to win the race on I would love it to be Rattan for Richard (Gibson) and his owner.

“They've been great to me for a number of seasons now and in particular this horse, we started in Class 4 together as a PPG (Privately Purchased Griffin) so it'd be very special to win this big race aboard him,” Schofield said.

The talented and appealing jockey is well entrenched among the upper echelon of Hong Kong's best, last season finishing fifth in the jockeys' championship table with a personal best 43 wins, five more than his previous high.

“I worked him (Rattan) this morning and he felt terrific, Richard (Gibson) has got him I think right where he wants him and, hopefully, we can get a good gate, get him out of the barriers cleanly and I think he's going to run a really big race,” Schofield said.

Having his fifth run back this term, the New Zealand-bred has posted two solid third-placed efforts in his most recent two runs, the G2 Premier Bowl Handicap and G2 Jockey Club Sprint.

“His last run was very good, he closed of really well – he's an older horse now and he's lost a bit of his early speed which he once had but he's certainly running well from the back – he's closing off his races really strongly,” Schofield said.

But while closing off nicely, the Richard Gibson-trainee has shown a tardiness from the barriers, twice bouncing awkwardly to the rear of the field in both runs.

“I'm surprised his gate jumping has deteriorated so badly but he's been hitting the line very strongly – his sectional times have been good,” Gibson said.

They have been good – he clocked the second fastest final 400m split in the Premier Bowl (22.32s) behind only Wishful Thinker, the winner of the race, before logging the fastest final 400m split last time out, a slick 22.34s.

“We're delighted with his physical condition, he's peaking really nicely for this time of the year – he's such a consistent and straightforward horse to train, it's nice to see him in good shape,” Gibson said.

Now a 7-year-old, he has HK$18.7 million (US$2.41 million) to his name from 33 starts, and still appears near the top of his game although nearing the twilight of his career.

“With age he's certainly gotten slower in the first quarter of the race but it's nice that he still has the willingness to finish strong,” Gibson said.

As for Schofield, he and father Glyn became the first father-son duo to ride against each other in the same race in Hong Kong, but this Sunday Chad will aim to join dad with another Hong Kong first, as winners of the same G1.

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