Sheza Alibi
Talk about hitting your bullseyes.
Four years ago, long-time Queensland hobby breeders Fred and Desley Monsour were looking for a stallion to cover their mare Sheza Gypsy, by the relatively obscure stallion Shaft and out of a fairly plain female family.
Their trusted associate Verna Metcalfe went out on something of a tangent, and told them to try Japanese-bred shuttle stallion Saxon Warrior (Deep Impact), then standing his third season at Coolmore Stud, for just $13,750 (inc GST).
He would only have one more spring here, as Australian breeders didn’t exactly beat a path to his door. It seems they’ve been largely vindicated.
Saxon Warrior has had 95 starters in Australia, with four crops running, for just one black-type winner. That’s a humble 1.05 per cent stakes winners to runners ratio, which compares to his slightly better world mark of 4.09 per cent (19 from 464).
And speaking of vindication, that one Australian black-type winner happens to be the foal created by the Monsours on Metcalfe’s recommendation – Sheza Alibi.
“I liked Saxon Warrior’s breeding, and I liked his race record, and I thought he was nicely priced,” Metcalfe, now of Alma Vale Thoroughbreds, told It’s In The Blood.
Saxon Warrior had some things going for him, for a horse who’d raced in Europe standing in Australia. He had a two-year-old Group 1 to his name, in Doncaster’s Racing Post Trophy (Gr 1, 1m), and added a second at three, also over, in the 2,000 Guineas (Gr 1, 1m) at Newmarket.
But still, like many a European shuttler – despite their strong credentials – he was a hard sell in the Australian market. His average Australian yearling price kicked off well enough, at $98,000 in 2022, but a lack of results pushed it to $30,000 in the past two years.
“It’s different when people breed to race though,” Metcalfe said. “You’re not looking for something that’s going to do well in the sales ring.
“I thought we’d get a good physical; I thought we’d get a racehorse. I’d had a lot to do with that family, and I thought Sheza Gypsy should go to a stallion with a bit of muscle and scope, because she was a bit narrow herself.”
The Monsours, who retired from Brisbane to the Gold Coast, had been breeding since the 1970s, mostly to race and in a small way with only a few mares at a time.
They “had a lot of fun”, Desley says, with the gelding they bred and named for Fred – Freddie Fox Trot (Foxwedge). He won 12 races, eight of them at the Gold Coast, where his name and penchant for winning gave him something of a cult following.
He had a dozen goes at black type, running Listed thirds in the Gold Coast Goldmarket (Listed, 1200m) and Grafton’s Ramornie Handicap (Listed, 1200m) in 2019.
“We had a few good horses early on. They won and they were keeping us involved, and Freddie was probably the best of them,” Desley said.
“We’d have two in every Saturday, and we always ended up in the winners’ circle at some point, mostly at the Gold Coast.”
After decades of trying, the Monsours appear to have bred a very good one, as Sheza Alibi has shown in her past two starts, winning The Vanity (Gr 3, 1400m) at Flemington on Derby day, and last Saturday’s Sandown Guineas (Gr 2, 1600m).
The great pity for the Monsours – who also bred her second and third dams – was that a move to scale back in their older age meant they put up Sheza Alibi for sale as a weanling on Inglis Digital in June, 2023.
She was bought by another Fred – central Queensland grazier Fred Noffke – for just $10,000. She’s now won $511,000 for him from just seven starts, with seemingly plenty more wins to come.
Noffke was also advised by Metcalfe, having been steered her way to ask about the filly she’d helped create and raise, while then at Middlebrook Valley Lodge.
“Fred Noffke rang me a couple of times actually,” Metcalfe said. “I said, ‘Look, you should buy her. She’ll be a cheap filly, because she’s not a sales horse, because she’s not big and burly. But she’s a racehorse – she’s an athlete’.
“You could tell that looking at her as a yearling. She wasn’t the boss of the herd in the paddock, but when they broke into a gallop, she’d be first up the hill.”
Noffke sent the filly to trainer Kris Hansen in Rockhampton, where she ran second on debut and won by 2.63 lengths at start number two. Metcalfe received another phone call.
“Fred rang again and said, ‘I think I’ve got a serious horse here’,” she recalled.
Sheza Alibi went to Townsville, winning the prestigious $100,000 QTIS 2YO Classic (1200m) – as a $4.80 chance knocking off a $1.65 favourite – and then it was off to the big smoke.
At Eagle Farm in late June, she lined up as an unwanted $18 chance in the Tatts Stakes (Listed, 1400m), but ran a strong 1.93-length second. The horse who beat her was from the Chris Waller stable and had recently won his debut at Canterbury. He’d achieve quite some more fame four months later when winning the Caulfield Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m).
Running second to Autumn Boy (The Autumn Sun) prompted another phone call from Noffke to Metcalfe.
“He asked me which big city trainer he should send her to,” Metcalfe says. “I said, ‘Well there’s Chris Waller, Ciaron Maher, or Peter Moody is very good with fillies, and he’d look after her’, because she’s not a very big, strong filly.”
Noffke duly sent the filly to his fellow Queenslander Moody, and after three starts for two wins and a third, he and co-trainer Katherine Coleman are making plans for the autumn, which are set to include the Australian Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) – which might bring another meeting with Autumn Boy.
“I’m really happy for Fred,” Metcalfe said. “He listened to me, and then he rang me and thanked me for talking him into buying her. It means a lot when people do that, and you love to see people like that get a win.
“He’s got a very very valuable broodmare prospect on his hands now.”
Sheza Alibi may turn out prolific, which would be fitting since she comes from a line of prolific mares, foals-wise. Second dam Gypsy Mai (Our Maizcay), third dam Gypsy Ahlee (Alquoz) and fourth dam War Gypsy (Rascolink) – who Fred Monsour bought privately to kick all this off – each had 12 named foals.
Despite all that progeny, there’s precious little black type amongst it – another reason that the Monsours very much hit the jackpot when they sent Sheza Gypsy to Saxon Warrior.
Gypsy Ahlee threw Beethog (Shovhog), who won at Group 3 and Listed class at the Gold Coast and went on to throw Glistening (Zoustar), who won the Reisling Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) of 2021 for Richard and Michael Freedman, and a Melbourne Listed.
In addition, Gypsy Ahlee left the aforementioned Gypsy Mai, who ran third in Sydney Listed class, in 2001.
Gypsy Mai in turn had a low-runs black-type winner in Rom Baro (Time Thief), who won the Canberra Guineas (Listed, 1400m) before going to Hong Kong as Kingsfield, winning four races up until 2019. Gypsy Mai also begat Tamieka (Viscount), dam of Freddie Fox Trot.
One foal before Rom Baro, Gypsy Mai threw Sheza Gypsy, who had two foals before Sheza Alibi. Gypsy Fox (Foxwedge) was unplaced in 13 starts, and Super Gypsy (Super One) couldn’t fill a hole in six. And then, by Saxon Warrior out of nowhere, along came Sheza Alibi.
She’s been followed only by a yet-to-race two-year-old colt by King’s Legacy, who was bought by trainer John Thompson and Boomer Bloodstock for $160,000 at Inglis Classic this year – which looks an astute purchase now, particularly since Sheza Alibi hadn’t raced at the time.
As the Monsours have wound down, Sheza Gypsy hasn’t been served in the past two seasons. She was also put up for sale on Inglis Online last July and bought by Mayfield Pastoral for all of $1,250 – astounding buying considering Sheza Alibi had had those first four starts by then, including her Eagle Farm Listed second.
Here’s the one source of regret in the saga for Metcalfe.
“I wanted to buy Sheza Gypsy but I got busy, as you do on a stud farm, and I forgot to bid on her,” she says. “I’ll be forever kicking myself, particularly since she went so cheap.”
The only piece of inbreeding brought by the mating of Saxon Warrior over Sheza Gypsy is a doubling of Danehill at 4f x 4m, coming in strong as the stallion’s second damsire and the dam’s third sire.
And Sheza Alibi looks to be franking the stats that show if you’re going to duplicate Danehill, gender-balanced is the way to go.
Unsurprisingly, there’s few nicking stats for putting Saxon Warrior or his sire Deep Impact over a very Australian female family with the very unsuccessful Shaft (Flying Spur) figuring as the damsire.
Further in, Sheza Alibi may take some strength from a 4m x 6f of Halo (Hail To Reason), who’s Saxon Warrior’s third sire and comes into Flying Spur’s female family.
Plus there’s a 6m x 5f of the great Mr. Prospector (Raise A Native). He’s the sire of the damsire of Galileo (Sadler’s Wells), who’s Saxon Warrior’s damsire, and is Flying Spur’s damsire.
Some key mares are repeated, with Natalma (Native Dancer) making ten appearances and her dam Almahmoud (Mahmoud) 12, both evenly split on either side of the pedigree.
Plucky Leige (Spearmint) is at 9m, 9m, 9m x 8m, 9m – a long way back but through a good spread of three of her four famous sons in Admiral Drake, Sir Gallahad and Bois Roussell – the last being duplicated up close in fourth dam War Gypsy’s family.
And Lalun (Djeddah) bobs up at 7m x 9m.
Nearco and Hyperion share top billing as stallions, with 14 spots each in the first nine generations, one more than Native Dancer.