Australian debut for Bleakleys and Highden Park at Easter
New Zealand farm takes select draft to Riverside having boasted graduates which include Beauty Generation, Werther, Toffee Tongue and Ping Hai Star
The first week in April in recent years has seen New Zealand nursery Highden Park cheering home their notable graduates across the globe, whether it be Werther (Tavistock) or Beauty Generation (Road To Rock) in the Chairman’s Trophy (Gr 2, 1600m) at Sha Tin, Group 1-winning filly Toffee Tongue (Tavistock) in the Adrian Knox Stakes (Gr 3, 2000m) and the Tancred Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m) or other notable alumni such as Sky Darci (Darci Brahma), Ping Hai Star (Nom Du Jeu), Kinane (Reliable Man) and Harlow Gold (Tavistock).
This year will be different in that it is a rare year in which the emerging Palmerston North farm will not be represented at any of the biggest meetings on the planet this weekend. However, the operation is instead gearing up for what is arguably the most significant week in their 11-year history as they are set to offer their first Australian draft at next week’s Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale.
It is a belated entry to Australia’s most prestigious sale for Highden Park principals Libby and Sam Bleakley. They were due to offer two yearlings at Riverside in 2020 – a brother to Werther and Toffee Tongue, who fittingly made his debut this week, and an Iffraaj (Zafonic) colt now named Family Tale who remains unraced – but that was quashed when trans-Tasman flights were halted amidst the initial outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“At that time, Covid was still such a scary thing and a real unknown,” Libby Bleakley recalled to ANZ Bloodstock News yesterday. “Because everything went haywire within a fortnight of the sale, it just suddenly became all too hard. Tommy Heptinstall decided to keep his Tavistock colt and there wasn’t any point pushing on with just one, especially in what was an uncertain market.”
The two-year wait has allowed the couple to produce a prized draft for their Sydney debut with colts by Tavistock (Montjeu), Star Turn (Star Witness) and Hellbent (I Am Invincible) set to light up the ring next week.
“Every year, we nominate all our horses for all of the sales,” Sam Bleakley said. “We go through Magic Millions, Inglis and Karaka and just see where they get placed. And for many years, they’ve made it to the lower Inglis sales or they haven’t qualified for Magic Millions so we’ve thought, right, we’ll just keep taking them to Karaka.
“This year, though, it’s the first time where we’ve known we had the quality to take them to Easter. The Tavistock colt was the one that really got us across the line; the Star Turn is a good little sprinting type who is always popular at sales like this and they told us at the start they would wait to see what Hellbent did and he’s done enough for the colt to qualify for Easter, plus he’s a good type, too.
“But for us, we’re dipping our toe into the Australian sales. Actually, it’s more like we’re going right into the deep end.”
Added Libby Bleakley: “Presenting a draft at Easter was our next step in trying to raise our own bar and improve our own quality. These really are the three nicest horses that Highden Park has ever offered to market; we think that and obviously Inglis thought that to put them in this sale.
“We didn’t want our first draft to just be a draft of horses that made up the numbers, that saw us go through the motions and that could have been at any other sale. It’s really exciting that our first Australian draft is at Easter because it has been worth waiting for, it’s been worth us learning and watching and educating ourselves and seeing what you need to do to get to Easter. Dreams are free and I think we’ve proven that Easter can happen for anybody.
“We’ve only had five yearlings to offer this year, we’ve pinhooked all five for ourselves. For three of them to end up at Easter, that’s like a Group 1 win already for us. It’s validation of what we saw in these horses and it means the world, particularly for little players like us – we don’t have the wallets or the broodmare band, but it shows that if you pay attention and work hard, anything can happen in this industry.”
This year’s Inglis Easter is noteworthy for being the last time that late Cambridge Stud stallion Tavistock will be represented at a major yearling sale.
Highden Park will not offer the last Tavistock yearling at Easter – that honour goes to Fernrigg Farm, who offers a half-brother to three-time Group 1 winner Danzdanzdance (Mastercraftsman) as Lot 320 – but it is only fitting that their first Australian offering should be a Tavistock colt, Lot 170, given the success the couple has had with the stallion.
“We don’t often get emotional over yearlings but, me personally, I think I’ll shed a tear when he goes through,” Libby Bleakley said. “I just look at what Tavistock has given to us and he’s never stopped. Even just a couple of weeks ago, he had three Group 3 winners and a Listed winner, from two-year-old sprinters to middle distance types; even now, he’s just been such a gift to us.”
It is a sentiment also felt by Sam Bleakley, who is hoping for one more special moment from the stallion, with this colt out of mile winner Fistfulofdollars (Savabeel).
“The day before Tavistock was put to rest, I was at Cambridge Stud and I saw him,” he recalled. “He popped his head over the door and I got to give him a final pat. I wasn’t there to see him but I just happened to get that final chance to thank him, it was very fitting and it meant a lot. He’s definitely looking down on us and looking after us, just as we looked after him too.”
Bred by Tavistock’s managing owner Tommy Heptinstall, the colt comes from a top New Zealand family that includes champion fillies Ruud Awakening (Bernardini) – dam of recent Pago Pago Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m) winner Rise Of The Masses (Russian Revolution) – and Ruud Van Slaats (Van Nistelrooy).
“Tommy has produced six Group horses by Tavistock, including Group 1 winners Werther and Toffee Tongue – there’s no better breeder of a Tavistock than the breeder of this colt,” Libby Bleakley said. “We raised him at home and then when we saw how he was born, how he developed and how much the sales companies liked him, we knew we had to try and acquire him.
“Tommy has been such a great client and such a great supporter of ours. We approached Tommy to see if we could buy him and we did. We think this horse has so many credentials that make him attractive – he’s out of a Savabeel mare, bred by Tommy – this is the horse to win you a Derby and a Cup. We believe he can continue our good classic record and take it to another level – hopefully, we might be able to put an Australian Derby on the radar for our graduates.”
While the Tavistock colt was purchased privately, Highden Park’s other two yearlings are both pinhooks from last year’s Inglis Australian Weanling Sale.
Lot 290 is a colt by Star Turn out of the Danzero (Danehill) mare Miss Danzka. It is the family of speedy types Haut Brion Her (Zoustar) and Karacatis (Hussonet) and the bay appears a precocious sprinter to follow in their footsteps.
“That was a really cool moment,” Libby Bleakley recalled of the purchase last year, when she bought him for $95,000 from Vinery Stud’s draft. “He was owned by one of the staff on the farm who does all the weaning. I was outside when I was bidding on him and I didn’t realise that she was standing in front of me.
“Afterwards, I found out she wanted about $20,000 and she was so emotional as the bidding kept going. She was crying her eyes out, she was crumpling at the knees, she was hanging onto the rail for support and everyone was swarming her and hugging her. To see the impact that we had on someone’s life who we didn’t even know by paying that much for her colt – that’s normally us as vendors, celebrating a big result! So to be on the other side and to experience that moment, especially while I was bidding, was really something.
“She came and found me afterwards and told me, ‘his name’s Sheldon’ and we’ve kept that name, he’s still Sheldon. Unfortunately, she’s not here because she’s prepping their next lot of Sydney weanlings but the Vinery team has been around and taken photos and videos for her. She’s very much a part of the journey.”
For the team, it has been a new experience preparing a sprinting type for sale given the farm’s propensity for classic-style horses.
“Preparing him has been really interesting for me personally,” Sam Bleakley said. “Over the years, I’ve prepared stayers, I’ve prepared middle distance horses and I’ve had horses that can really stride out and do a good walk. To prepare a sprinter this season has been a challenge and a real learning curve. They are busier and it is a different walk – a stayer will have a nice, big, long, smooth action, but a sprinter is short, choppy, they put their foot down hard.
“It’s taken a bit for me to adapt but over the past few months we’ve really created a bond. I’ve been well-educated by him and the lessons I have learned will really help me.”
Added Libby Bleakley: “The sprinters are something where we’ve sat back and educated ourselves. Because we knew classic horses so well and that is our preferential type, we didn’t rush out and pinhook sprinters early on. We watched what makes a good sprinter, looked at the winners of good sprinting races, how they were built, how they moved, we did all that education before we ever bought a sprinter.
“We wanted to make sure we knew what we were doing because we wanted to ensure we brought good product to market. He’s actually only the second sprinter we’ve ever bought – the first was a Brazen Beau filly who finished fifth in last year’s Karaka Million. And the early feedback on him is really positive, people seem to really like him.”
Lot 376, a colt by Yarraman Park Stud’s Hellbent out of New Zealand winner Rhiannon (Mastercraftsman), is also a pinhook from the same Inglis Australian Weanling Sale. However, it took a large dose of good fortune for the Bleakleys to secure him in May last year.
“We were at the weanling sale and the Inglis guys came up to us and said, Jacinda (Ardern) has just announced you’ve got five hours to get home and she’s shutting the border at midnight New Zealand time,” Libby Bleakley said. “It was our daughter’s fifth birthday two days later and I was not missing that. That was pure fear and panic. Our farm manager was with us and managed to get everything packed, but I really wanted to wait for this Hellbent colt to go through.
“I was bidding on him in the ring with one foot in the car; I was honestly walking backwards in the auditorium while bidding, I signed the form in the door and we were out of there, knowing that the flight was going to be three hours and we still had to get to the airport. I think we landed back home about 15 minutes before midnight and so we made it home, but Inglis were incredible, they were rushing around trying to book us flights and cars and just making sure we could get home.”
Unlike the first outbreak in 2020, when trans-Tasman flights were on hold, there were few dramas getting the Hellbent colt across to the Palmerston North nursery where he began his preparation for Easter.
“I think he fits nicely between our other two colts, in that he’s a beautiful, late two-year-old, into a lovely three-year-old, miler type,” she said. “I loved all the Green Desert on his page and there were bits of Hong Kong form with horses like Spin Around, Great Guy and Mastery. That’s what we had in mind for him, that he would be that really nice miler to 2000-metre type for Hong Kong.
“He’s got the right attitude – he loves being in the box, he loves his work, so in particular he was one that we thought would really suit the Asian market. He hasn’t put a foot wrong throughout the entire prep, he’s just been an absolute champion. You can just keep asking and he’ll just keep giving, he’s developed beautifully and he’s so straightforward. You’d love to have a draft full of him!”
For the first time, the Bleakleys employed Plusvital speed gene testing on their yearlings, not only to give bidders greater access to information but also to ensure that their youngsters ended up in the right hands to achieve maximum success.
“It’s something we’ve never done before but we wanted to ensure that people who were bidding on our horses had every tool at their disposal,” she said. “We have found that syndicators especially are looking for two-year-olds, so with the Star Turn colt for instance, we’ve got the genetic evidence to say he is a two-year-old – it just backs up what you can already see in front of you.
“Similarly, with the Hellbent colt, it’s easy to assume – with that I Am Invincible line – that you are buying an early two-year-old. I guess, for us, it also shows us that if you are looking for that early two-year-old, that’s not him. But if you are looking for a later two-year-old type, he fits the bill and it hopefully allows him to end up with the right trainer and owner that will give him every opportunity to succeed.”
While the Bleakleys’ immediate focus is on their Easter draft, their next batch of youngsters are already coming through across the Tasman, being mentored by two of Highden Park’s greatest graduates: Hong Kong Derby (Listed, 2000m) winners Werther and Ping Hai Star.
“They are amazing!” she gushed. “They just got put to work the week before they came over here, they have their babies for the next four or five months. I’d be so lost without them now, they are like a pair of silly boys – they’ve gone from being two-year-olds to a pair of grumpy old men in a jiffy.
“We stand in our kitchen, looking out on this beautiful rolling paddock, and you can see the two of them there every day. It’s a reminder of how lucky we are, not just to have had them come off the farm and achieve the success they have, but then to have them back on the farm and living with us. How privileged are we?”