Riverstone hopeful of some Home Affairs magic in Adelaide
With their Magic Millions Adelaide draft featuring the only Home Affairs (I Am Invincible) progeny on offer at this week’s yearling sale and their pinhook success Shiki (Too Darn Hot) going round in Saturday’s $5 million Golden Slipper Stakes (Gr. 1, 1200m), there is plenty for the team at Riverstone Lodge to look forward to over the coming days.
Given how highly sought-after Home Affairs’ first crop have been so far this season, and the fact that the colt’s half-brother has already shown plenty of promise in his embryonic career, there is every expectation that Lot 115 will be front of mind for the buying bench when the two-day sale gets underway at the Morphettville complex on Thursday morning.
As the Coolmore sensation’s sole representative up for auction this week, the colt already stands apart and his exclusivity has been enhanced by the feats of his elder half-brother Blandford Baron (Extreme Warrior), who is trained by Travis Doudle and races in the Riverstone colours.
The colt was the first foal out of Yangarra Rose (Zoustar), whose half-sister Vibrant Sun (The Autumn Sun) won the 2024 Australasian Oaks (Gr 1, 2000m) for Mick Price and Michael Kent Jnr. The dam’s premium pedigree persuaded Riverstone to pinhook her first-born for $80,000 at the 2024 Magic Millions Gold Coast National Weanling Sale, before selling him to Doudle and Suman Hedge Bloodstock for $100,000 at the following year’s Inglis Classic Easter Sale.
The team at Riverstone, headed by general manager Nick Taylor and his assistant Billy Brooks, elected to stay in the colt and that decision has borne fruit with Blandford Baron breaking his maiden at Morphettville in impressive fashion last spring, before being unsuited by the attritional conditions at Flemington in the Inglis Banner (RL, 1000m).
While his half-brother still has some maturing to do, both physically and mentally, Brooks believes that the strides the colt has taken in recent weeks should stand him in good stead as the prized asset prepares for his ring entrance.
“He’s probably still on the smaller side for a Home Affairs colt, but he’s made a lot of progress in the last few weeks,” Brooks told ANZ News.
“The mare is also on the smaller side so his size is to be expected, the half-brother was much the same but it hasn’t stopped him from running well so I’m sure the buyers will look past that this week. There’s no doubt he’s got some more maturing to do, but he’s still a very nice type and has handled everything well so far.
“I’m sure Travis [Doudle] will be interested in him and as the only Home Affairs at the sale, he should create plenty of interest. It’s only the first day of inspections so we haven’t been overly busy so far, but I’d like to think that things will pick up on day two and he’ll be well received.”
Aside from the Home Affairs colt, Brooks has high hopes for the sole filly in their five-strong draft, sired by Yulong’s upwardly mobile stallion Tagaloa (Lord Kanaloa).
With Salty Pearl having embellished Tagaloa’s sterling success with the fairer sex when she raced away with the VOBIS Platinum Guineas (1600m) at Caulfield last weekend, following three stakes placings to open her autumn campaign, the timing is opportunistic to put one of his fillies through the ring.
“This filly would have to be my favourite from our draft,” Brook told ANZ News.
“She looks good, she moves well, and she just wants to please you. Tagaloa is doing a very good job with his fillies and she really looks the part. Hopefully we can get a good result with her because she deserves to sell well with such a good attitude.”
Riverstone’s three other lots are all colts, sired by Darley’s experienced campaigner Tassort (Brazen Beau) and two freshmen in Artorius (Flying Artie) and Portland Sky (Deep Field). The latter’s colt (Lot 425) is an athletic type out of the stakes-placed mare Northern Glory (Northern Meteor), whose second foal Evening Glory (Smart Missile) won four times and placed on a further 11 occasions in his 34-start career.
Similarly, stakes-placed mare Miss Moana (Uncle Mo) – the dam of the Artorius colt (Lot 362) – has already shown she can produce a fast one with the team at Tricolours Racing holding a high opinion of her first foal, John Sargent’s unraced filly Beyond The Reef (Flying Artie).
While wary of making any outlandish predictions, Brooks is therefore hopeful that the trio of colts will all find good homes.
“They’ve all settled in nicely,” he told ANZ News.
“The market has been pretty selective recently, so it’s difficult to know what will sell well and what will struggle to fetch a good price. But all our horses have handled the travel well and settled in nicely, so the signs so far have been good.
“We’ll get a better guide of how things are placed over the next 24 hours, once we get through the initial inspections and we get a few more people through the barns. Hopefully we can get some good results for our clients.”
Once the two days of trading are over, Brooks and the rest of the team will dust off their raceday suits and board a flight north to Sydney to see if Shiki can extend Gai Waterhouse’s extraordinary Golden Slipper record in Saturday’s $5 million showpiece.
The first lady of Australian racing, who now trains in partnership with Adrian Bott, has saddled up the winner of the world’s richest juvenile race on no fewer than eight occasions. And although Shiki is considered a rank outsider at $101, Brooks has not given up hope of springing a surprise with a filly they sold to her co-trainers and Kurrinda Bloodstock for $420,000 on the Gold Coast last January – thereby returning a very healthy profit on their $150,000 investment at the 2024 Inglis National Weanling Sale.
“I definitely think she’s in with a chance of winning,” said Brooks.
“She’ll jump from barrier seven if the two emergencies don’t get a run, and she should be able to put herself right in the race from that gate. She’ll be up on the speed, like all Gai Waterhouse runners, and I think she’ll take some catching.
“We had her on the farm and we still own 20 per cent of her, so it’s very exciting to have a runner in the Slipper. We sold the half-sister by Ole Kirk for a good price [$380,000] to Gai and Adrian at the Magic Millions earlier this year, that was probably the highlight of the sales season for us so the dam [Just Excel] has been very good for the farm.”