Improving Big Shots a shot in the arm for Fernie and Doak
Alwyn Park Stud also celebrates unique Magic Millions WA double
Two months ago, as the cameras panned across a packed crowd going berserk for home-state hero Damien Oliver who ended his illustrious career with an unthinkable victory on Munhamek (Dark Angel), Ripcord’s (Written By) connections had mixed emotions.
Ripcord looked all but home in the $1.5 million Gold Rush (Gr 3, 1400m) to everyone but Oliver, who produced a masterclass to steal Perth-based owner Kim Doak’s moment in the sun.
In the lead up to the Gold Rush, Doak and trainer Luke Fernie had knocked back multiple seven-figure offers for three-year-old Ripcord, who had won the Placid Ark Stakes (Listed, 1200m) and finished third in the Winterbottom Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m), prior to his gallant second in mid-December in Oliver’s saddle swansong.
Fast forward to Saturday and it was a different story: jubilation had come the pair’s way with Big Shots (Sizzling) landing the $250,000 Magic Millions WA 2YO Classic (RL, 1200m), causing an upset in a race where the previously unbeaten Golden Vale (Churchill) started an odds-on favourite.
The Simon Miller-trained Golden Vale, wearing Coolmore’s navy silks, was caught three-wide without cover, tiring late to finish tenth, five and three-quarter lengths behind the winner.
“He’s been racing pretty greenly and overracing in his earlier races and it’s taken a few starts and a lot of work from Luke and the team at the stables to get him to settle back underneath himself, which is what he did [on Saturday],” Doak said yesterday.
“Behind the scenes, Luke’s had a pretty good opinion of him but we just haven’t had the success because he hasn’t been doing things right, so it’s taken a few starts.”
Big Shots was a $27,500 purchase at the Perth Winter Sale, being by NSW-based stallion Sizzling (Snitzel), a one-time resident of Newgate Farm, out of a talented bush mare Pintupi (Alert).
While it’s a far cry from Royal Randwick and Flemington, Pintupi did complete a rare Albury-Wagga Cup carnival double in 2014, before West Australian owner-breeder Joslyn Summerhayes transferred the mare to another West Australian, Cranbourne-based trainer and agent John Price.
Price won a further two Victorian country races with Pintupi. If you recognise the trainer’s name, it’s because he’s probably better known as the buyer of Grand Syndicates’s $6,000 Group 1-winning sprinter Behemoth (All Too Hard) and he remains a regular on the sales circuit, most recently at last week’s Inglis Classic.
Summerhayes, a long-time client of Riverina farm Kooringal Stud, retired Pintupi in 2016 with the mare producing three east coast born foals before she was sent to Riverdene’s Sizzling on her way back to the West with Big Shot’s now three-year-old stablemate Prized Jewel (Prized Icon) at foot.
“We have the sister which we knew was going to be OK. He was at the winter sale, so it’s not a dynamic sale with respect to everyone involved,” Doak said.
“We came along, we liked the type, so it was a bit of a no-brainer being a reasonably priced buy. It wasn’t one that took a lot of thinking knowing what we do with the sister.”
Fernie had, one race prior to Big Shot’s victory, watched as his $1.60 favourite Stormchaser (Impending) missed a place in the $250,000 Magic Millions WA 3YO (RL, 1200m).
That race instead was won by the David Harrison-trained Bondi Bubbles (Bondi), a gelding who was a maiden after eight starts until Harrison banished him to Esperance, on the Southern Ocean, 720 kilometres south east of Perth.
That was in late November. He went on to win six straight races, prompting Harrison to retrieve his rejuvenated three-year-old a fortnight ago and set his sights on much loftier riches.
The $35,000 Perth purchase has now banked over $284,000, his stellar run of winning form earning him a break in the paddock for the remainder of the summer.
Both Magic Millions’ Pinjarra winners were sold by Alwyn Park Stud’s John Andrew who was “tickled pink” by Saturday’s graduate glory.
“It was quite an exciting day. I don’t know if anybody else has done that before, to sell both horses,” Andrew told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“Both of them were raised at the farm but I owned one of them, Bondi Bubbles. I bred him and a client bred the other one.”
Preparing for his 50th consecutive Perth yearling sale, Andrew admits that Big Shots’s modest price tag – less than half the Book 1 and 2 average of $73,054 – was understandable at the time.
He said: “I can probably say, he was probably a little bit immature, but as time went on he progressed quite well and he’s obviously matured extensively since he left our place because he’s done a good job since then.”
Harrison, meanwhile, puts the turnaround in Bondi Bubbles’s form simply down to the horse gaining confidence on the Esperance circuit.
“He was only a young horse and he had to learn somewhere and he’s learnt by winning in weaker company and he’s gained confidence by doing that and he’s flying now,” Harrison said yesterday.
“After the favourite, I thought it was a very even field, so I thought he had a decent chance going into it, for sure.
“He’s thriving and never left an oat.”
Andrew was more effusive in his praise of a low-key Harrison, the man who also led to Lynward Park Stud stallion Bondi (Snitzel) siring his first stakes winner on the eve of the Perth sale.
“I have got a huge opinion of David Harrison. It’s a very, very astute trainer,” Andrew said.
“I have seen him do it before. The horse showed a little bit up here, but not a lot, and then he sent him to Esperance and got his confidence and the horse hasn’t looked back.
“It was a massive step up, even though winning six races at Esperance is a pretty good feat, but it is Esperance, it’s not Flemington.
“Any horse who can win six in a row has to have some ability.”
Alwyn Park will offer 13 yearlings across the two days of this week’s Perth sale with Andrew dealt a blow in the lead-up to this week’s auction, losing one of his prized yearlings – a filly by champion WA stallion Playing God (Blackfriars) – who died recently in a freak paddock accident.
The King’s Troop (Redoute’s Choice) half-brother to Big Shots has been withdrawn from the sale, while Bondi Bubbles’s half-sister by Awesome Rock (Fastnet Rock) didn’t make the cut, prompting Andrew to consider selling the filly privately.
She’s at home in a paddock at Andrews’ Serpentine farm and Harrison is in the box seat to buy her if he wishes.
As for Ripcord, he is about to re-enter Fernie’s Ascot stables with the $5 million The Quokka (1200m) firmly in connections’ sights.
“Our nightmare was [Oliver’s] fairytale and all jokes aside, it sucks to get beaten in a big race when you get that close, but we understood the historical aspect of it all,” said Doak referring to the Gold Rush.
“It was awesome for Ollie, Perth Racing and for the bigger picture. It was a much bigger story. I see all these photos of Ollie’s last ride and you can just see our bloke’s head in the photo.”