Freshen-up has Splash Back primed to chase spring riches
While male horses may have dominated the scoreboard at Flemington on Saturday with geldings winning the first seven races, it was the girls who undoubtedly left a lasting impression as Grahame Begg’s mare Splash Back (Le Havre) and Ciaron Maher’s filly She’s An Artist (Trapeze Artist) notched notable victories in the last two contests on the program.
Splash Back in particular illuminated the midwinter meeting with a turn of foot that only the very good horses possess, peeling off some sizzling sectionals to put herself firmly in the conversation for spring features such as the Let’s Elope Stakes (Gr 2, 1400m) and the Empire Rose Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m).
Bred in France to southern hemisphere time, Splash Back was acquired at the 2021 Arqana October Sale by electrical goods entrepreneur and racing fanatic Sandy McGregor. He first rose to prominence as the majority owner of the 2015 Melbourne Cup (Gr 1, 3200m) victor Prince Of Penzance (Pentire), whose jockey Michelle Payne shared the headlines at Flemington on Saturday when she trained a career-best four winners in partnership with her brother Patrick.
Prince of Penzance was sourced at Arqana by renowned bloodstock agent John Foote, who is annually tasked by McGregor with scouring the catalogue for competitively-priced yearlings capable of getting over a staying trip.
Given that Splash Back’s now-deceased sire Le Havre (Noverre) had won the Prix du Jockey Club (Gr 1, 2100m) as a three-year-old shortly before injury brought his promising career to an untimely halt, and her dam Tamazirte (Danehill Dancer) finished second in the Prix de Diane (Gr 1, 2100m) over the same distance, her pedigree page screamed stamina.
With the world in the grip of the COVID-19 pandemic four years ago, Foote was unable to travel to Deauville for the Arqana Sale and so he entrusted his fellow agent Arthur Hoyeau to run the rule over his potential purchases. Near the top of their combined list was Lot 142, a small but perfectly-formed Le Havre filly which they ultimately secured for €100,000 – coincidentally the same fee that her sire had commanded as a yearling at Arqana in 2007.
“We’ve had a fair bit of success at Arqana in the past, with Prince Of Penzance being the most obvious example, so it’s a sale I target every year,” Foote told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“The brief from Sandy is pretty much the same every year, he likes buying yearlings capable of getting over a staying trip. We had a bit of early success with Signoff, who won a couple of stakes races and ran fourth in a Melbourne Cup, and it’s gone from there.
“As I couldn’t get over there in 2021 I asked Arthur to take a look at some yearlings for us, and he did a great job in drawing up a list which we whittled down. This filly had been born in May so she was a very late foal and was only lightly-framed, but she has a beautiful pedigree which more than made up for it.
“She also had a lovely presence about her and she moved very well. It’s often hard to tell purely by looking at videos but Arthur confirmed our impressions of her. We ended coming away with a couple of yearlings that year, and it’s safe to say that this filly has proven to be the pick of the bunch.”
The more notable of Le Havre’s progeny brought out to Australia have traditionally got over ground, with the likes of Normandy Bridge – part-owned by Gerry Ryan – and Port Guillaume enjoying notable success over the jumps while Eliyass has claimed a trio of 2000-metre stakes races for his co-trainers Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott.
But according to Begg, who confirmed that Splash Book would be heading to the spelling paddock rather than contesting the Leilani Series Final (1400m) at Flemington in two weeks’ time, the mile might see this mare out.
Renowned for his measured approach, Begg wouldn’t be drawn on which features the lightly-raced five-year-old might target over the spring months, but there was no doubting the excitement in his voice when assessing her performance in Saturday’s Brian Beattie Handicap (1420m).
“You just don’t see horses do that very often,” he told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“She was obviously in a very precarious position in the race, but she managed to extricate from it like all the good horses seem to be able to do. She came through the run really well and we had considered pushing onto the final, but there were no guarantees her rating would get her into the race, so we decided to put her on ice with a view to looking ahead to the spring.
“I’ve already got a few thoughts in the back of my mind, but we’ll just let the dust settle then I’ll go over the program in the next day or two and share my thoughts with Sandy. We’ll see how she comes back from her time off and then take things from there, but if she can continue to progress then I’ve got no doubt she’s got a big race in her.
“We initially thought we might only have a small timeframe with her, because Sandy had been keen to send her to the breeding barn later this year; but the way she’s come back in this preparation might have altered the plans a little. Both her wins this campaign have obviously been outstanding and she’s still only lightly-raced with 12 career starts, so I definitely think she’s got plenty more to give and I’m sure Sandy will be keen to add some valuable black type to her pedigree page.”
Splash Back had originally started her career with trainer Andrew Bobbin, who runs his stables in McGregor’s hometown of Stawell.
She enjoyed some reasonable early success, winning two of her first three races, but she was disappointing at her first attempt at stakes grade in the 2024 Centaurea Stakes (Listed, 2019m) at Morphettville, and was subsequently transferred to Begg’s Cranbourne base.
She has since thrived in the new environment under Begg, who is currently enjoying his best-ever season with 33 metropolitan winners and is renowned as a master trainer of fillies and mares.
After a solid first prep in his care, Splash Back has thrived this campaign with a pair of metropolitan victories which could not, even to the untrained eye, have been any more impressive.
“She’s responded really well to our methods and a different style of training since she arrived at our stables,” said Begg, who is certainly making the most of the first horse he has received from McGregor.
“Being by Le Havre, she was obviously expected to get over middle-distance and staying trips, but once we were asked to train her, we went back through her form and identified that she tended to go really well fresh over shorter distances. So with that in mind, we’ve tended to keep her work at home much shorter and sharper and work her a bit more sparingly, which she seems to appreciate.
“Where she was previously trained they utilise the deep sand, which is great for staying horses but it might just have been taking the edge off her. These European imports can also often take a long time to adapt to Australian conditions and the style of racing over here, which is maybe why we’re only starting to see the best of her now.
“Her performance in the stakes race in Adelaide might have been an end-of-prep run, but in any case it was the worst run of her career so straight away we decided to change things around a bit when she came to us. I don’t think you’ll see her in any races further than a mile, because all the data from her fast work has shown us that she’s pretty explosive. So we’ve always known what a great motor she has, and she certainly showed that on Saturday.”
Her sixth career victory was also the highlight of a red-letter day in the blossoming career of Tom Prebble, whose victory aboard Splash Back was the middle leg of a riding treble with his two other wins coming for his aunt and uncle, Michelle and Patrick Payne.
The son of champion jockey Brett has been in the saddle for both of Splash Back’s runs this preparation, with her victory at Caulfield at the end of May the precursor to Saturday’s success as the mare took the step up in both grade and distance in her ample stride.
Given that she had been backed into odds-on favouritism, Prebble would certainly have been sweating with a wall of horses impeding his passage at the top of the home straight. But the two-kilo claimer is certainly an avid advocate of the virtues of patience, waiting until the 200-metre mark before asking the mare to show a turn of foot which was nothing short of devastating.
“I was almost prepared to throw the towel in at one point in the straight,” revealed Prebble.
“But then she showed what an unbelievable mare she is, and it was certainly the best feel a horse has given me. I’ve done a lot of work on her in the stables of a morning, so I knew she had a turn of foot but I must admit she surprised me with how electric she was. The most exciting thing is that she’s still pretty untapped, so potentially the sky is the limit with her.”