Terrific photo of The Wasp winning on Saturday

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1 PRIME DISPATCH Edition /02/2017 Compiled by Joe o Neill Terrific photo of The Wasp winning on Saturday I was thrilled with the great win by The Wasp at Port Macquarie on Saturday. She has displayed good ability from day one but needed time to mature both mentally and physically. I m certain the owners who travelled to Port Macquarie would have been very happy with what they saw. She is a lovely filly and as a ¾ sister to Group 1 winner Lone Rock could become a valuable broodmare in time should she win the right races. Over the next couple of months all four of the Smart Missile fillies we have of racing age should get back to the races and I expect them all to be winners. As well as The Wasp we have Chastity Strikes, Kaera Jaani and Strike For Victory. I purchased another smart Missile at the Gold Coast Magic Millions and she is being well received by the market with her ¾ brother set to run at Ascot next Wednesday. His

2 name is Debellatio and was placed at Ascot at his only start. He is being aimed at the Karrakatta Plate, WA s top two year old race. As you all know racing can create its fair share of frustrations and I had been annoyed with a couple of recent average rides on Ankara Lass. She had displayed good ability in her first preparation which culminated in a strong maiden win. With natural improvement I was expecting good things from her this preparation but she was given no chance at her first two runs back. Jeff Penza did a great job on her at Goulburn on Friday and she would probably have won in one more stride. Unfortunately, Savoureux had a slight temperature spike and had to be scratched from the Randwick meeting. INGLIS CLASSIC SALE I m certain everyone at William Inglis and Son would be over the moon with the results of the Classic Sale. Over the years this sale had produced some outstanding gallopers and it has been an important source of good horses for Prime Thoroughbreds. In fact this is was the 20 th year I have attended the Classic Sale with the best horses I have purchased from the sale being Maha Chakri, Savoureux and Under Command. A few years ago the sale seemed to lose its way a bit but it is now well and truly back and given the overall quality of yearlings on offer I expect there will be plenty of good winners to come out of the sale. I was thrilled with the yearlings I secured from the sale and I am in the process of getting the paperwork approved. I should be in a position to forward out information packs early next week. This year we have seen two very strong sales conducted in Australia with our industry appearing to be in great shape. Both the sales companies deserve a lot of credit for the high quality of catalogues they have put together. We really are lucky in Australia to have two outstanding companies in William Inglis and Magic Millions. We need them to remain strong and with Inglis opening up their new sales complex at Warwick Farm next year the future looks bright for the company. While both companies deserve a lot of the credit for the strength of the Gold Coast and Classic Sale there are a number with of reasons for the upsurge. I do a lot of travel

3 around Australia late in the year and in the first three months preparing for and attending yearling sales. I can t ever remember seeing our cities being so buoyant, full of international visitors with hotels and restaurants very busy and in many cases booked out. There also appears to be a lot of construction work going ahead in all the cities I visited. It suggests to me that in the main our economy is in pretty good shape. It will be interesting to see how the sales in the other states shape up. It is fair to say that a majority of the yearlings offered have been either NSW bred or by NSW sires so they are eligible for the BOBS Scheme, the NSW bonus scheme. Make no mistake racing in NSW is booming and going from strength to strength. A number of initiatives put in place in recent years have made significant improvements to racing in the Premier State. The introduction of the Country and Provincial Championships have been a huge boost for racing out of Sydney and created massive interest for racing people living outside of the capital. Also, substantial increases in stakes money have made NSW the envy of the other states. There is still quite a lot more money to be distributed as increased stakes money which is positive. One area where the leaders of the industry in NSW have got it right is with their coverage of racing in the written media, particularly the Daily Telegraph. There is no doubt the younger people are more likely to use digital media to access their form but for many of the older generation the form guide in the daily newspaper is vitally important. Racing is a major part of their life and provides entertainment to so many of them in their retirement. The Daily Telegraph coverage of racing is by far the best in Australia and I m certain is a major reason that wagering turnover has continued to rise and it needs to. Racing NSW has close ties with Tabcorp and their partnership has been great for the racing industry. It is a pleasant change to arrive in Sydney and get the Telegraph and read the positive news on the industry. COST OF YEARLINGS I m certain you have seen that we have outlaid more to purchase our yearlings this year than in the past. We haven t changed our selection methods but the yearling market has been steadily rising in recent years. For example the average cost of purchasing a yearling

4 this year at Magic Millions was $205,142 compared with $105,827 in Essentially the horses like Savoureux ($65,000), Hijack Hussy ($62,500) and Husson Eagle ($42,500) would have cost at least twice what we paid for them in All we have done is meet the market. The biggest change for me has been that fewer horses that we have on our list that passed all our checks are falling through the cracks and coming in well under our valuations. For example in Sydney I had seven yearlings on my list after first and second inspections, x-ray checks and vet inspections. I was hoping to purchase one of these for $60,000 to $80,000. This wasn t the case with the seven grossing $1,120,000 for an average of $160,000 with the cheapest coming in at $125,000. I won t be dropping my standards to buy inferior horses just to fill our requirements. I still am hoping to purchase a further five yearlings with two going to Tony Gollan, one for John Thompson, one for Darren Weir and one for Stuart Gandy in Tasmania. I head to Launceston tomorrow to start inspections for the Tasmanian Magic Millions and then on to Perth later in the week for the Perth Magic Millions Sales. ON THE TRACK Great Southern is set to run at Sandown tomorrow in a race he looks well placed in. He is a cracking three year old by Husson out of the good race mare Bel Mer and trained by Darren Weir. We will have three runners in Tasmania this week with Bella Venus, Husson s Kiss and Tough Vic set to go around. There is an important riding change with Husson s Kiss and Tough Vic to be ridden by Craig Newitt. On Saturday Naranja is set to run at Eagle Farm and Lomazzo is likely to run in Newcastle on Thursday. Congratulations to Kris Lees winning three Group 3 races at Randwick yesterday. Kris is having another great season currently placed 7 th on the National Trainer s Premiership with an excellent strike rate. He has been doing a great job for us since 2005 and there is no better judge of where his horses are at than Kris. The placement of his horses is exceptional. Le Romain looks a great hope in the upcoming Doncaster Handicap which I regard as Sydney s best race. He was really good yesterday.

5 OUR YEARLINGS Our yearling purchases from Magic Millions have been very well received with the All To Hard and I Am Invincible fillies fully subscribed. Over 50% of the remaining three fillies have been taken up which isn t surprising as they were five outstanding fillies. Sebring / Queen Hazel filly Kris Lees 10% shares $31,500 5% shares $15,750 25% remaining This filly rated very highly as a type and this is backed up with a terrific pedigree. She is closely related to Criterion and comes from a great two year old family. I couldn t have been happier when I secured her. She has a wonderful hindquarter, deep girth and is a lovely walker. She is an attractive looking filly which is positive. The progeny of Sebring can be a bit common looking but that isn t the case with this filly. I love buying out of families where Oaks fillies appear on the page and in this case we have a Canadian Oaks winner and Champion Three Year Old in Canada as the third dam. Queen Hazel

6 (USA) was a two year old winner in the USA and also Group 3 placed. She has had one foal to race with it winning twice I 2016 and being metropolitan placed. Queen Hazel is a ½ sister to the stakes performer Flying Jazz the winner of six races. The dam line here is good with the first three dams having 19 to race for 16 individual winners with a number of black type performers on the page. She has been well bred with an unraced two year old filly by Smart Missile and a foal by Sebring following this filly. In 2016 on the strength of this foal she went back to Sebring and is believed to be in foal. This reads very well. There are not too many better sires in Australia than Sebring. He is very versatile and gets high class two year olds as well as very good staying horses. This season he is sitting 8 th on the National Sire s List, 4 th on the Two Year Old List and 6 th on the Three Year Old List. I m really looking forward to this filly getting to the races. She is nominated for the rich Magic Millions race series and will be paid up for the lucrative BOBS Scheme. Kris Lees who is sitting 6th on the National Trainer s Title is the right man to train the filly. It certainly would be nice to have her at the Gold Coast in January 2018 but given the strength of her pedigree and type of filly she is I wouldn t be surprised to see her really step up as the three year old. Exciting scenes after Flying Jess s big win!!!

7 Smart Missile / Devoirs filly Darren Weir 10% shares $14,900 5% shares $7,450 50% remaining If there was one yearling I was always going to purchase at this sale it was this one. I know the family very well and have two fillies closely related to this impressive Smart Missile filly. The first is Strike For Victory who like this filly is by Smart Missile Australia s Champion First Season Sire of 2015/16 season. Strike For Victory is probably the fastest two year old I have ever had. She has amazing talent but her attitude has let her down although this is improving. The second filly I have from the family is Honolulu Lass out of Devoirs dam Velasco. Patrick Payne trains her and has a big opinion of her. She should race in the next six weeks. A Smart Missile colt out of Velasco named Debellatio was an impressive Trial winner at Lark Hill in WA recently and makes his debut at Ascot on Saturday and looks to have plenty of talent. Devoirs was a good racehorse and Stakes winner. I was offered her first foal Edge Away as a weanling but felt she was too small. She is a Sydney Metropolitan winner.

8 This filly was reared at Yarraman Park whose reputation for rearing tough horses with good bone and a strong constitution has soared in recent years. I ve written many times that it is more important where a foal is raised than who its parents are. This is certainly the case with Yarraman Park. Progeny reared at Yarraman Park did a remarkable job during the recent Magic Millions Gold Coast Carnival where the highlight was the win by the Yarraman reared Houtzen. Other horses from the farm to perform well on the day were I Am Zelady which was 2 nd in the $1 million Mares Race and Madeenaty 3 rd in the Two Year Old race as well. I have been a strong supporter of Smart Missile since I first inspected his yearlings and have three very nice three year old fillies by him that have raced with The Wasp and Strike For Victory being very impressive winners and Chastity Strikes being placed before needing a spell after contracting a virus. He was Champion first Season Sire in his year in Australia and s leading Second Season Sire as I write this. I am thrilled to have this filly in our team and should thrive under Darren Weir s training. The filly will be paid up for the rich Magic Millions Series and looks a real runner to me. Lomazzo as a yearling, check out the brand!!! Aimed towards the $500,000 Provincial Final at Randwick!!!

9 2015 Epaulette / Pozitave filly $170,000 Inglis Classic purchase - ¾ sister to Flying Jess 2015 Hinchinbrook / Amber s Arion colt $160,000 Inglis Classic purchase ½ brother to Isthmian