Angels Fury

You can say what you like about men being stubborn, but you won’t change our minds.

And sometimes it comes in handy, as with the creation story of exciting two-year-old Angels Fury (Harry Angel), who showed an earlier mishap was well and truly behind her with a second straight win at start three on Saturday at Caulfield.

The Ciaron Maher-trained filly was put together by a gang of five including breeding industry byword Duncan Grimley and his old mates John Johnstone and Alan Orr.

That trio had bred her dam, Ashra Jahre (Headwater), which came about because they’d followed the family from her third dam, Procrastinate (Jade Hunter), the obvious star of this female line.

Foaled in 1990, Procrastinate was a daughter of Mr. Prospector (Raise A Native) stallion Jade Hunter, who sired four American Grade 1 winners but did little in three shuttle seasons here.

Procrastinate, who carried the “tuxedo” colours of another of Grimley and Co’s friends, David Fitzgerald of India Pacific Bloodstock, was Jade Hunter’s best southern progeny. That was only by virtue of her one black type success in Caulfield’s Tristarc Stakes (Gr 3, 1400m) in 1994, for a young Adelaide trainer in David Hall.

But at stud she was colossal. She threw five stakes winners, and 12 winners, from 15 runners, most of whom have kicked on at stud themselves.

Filly first foal Laisserfaire (Danehill) went to South Africa and won three Grade 1s, becoming the country’s Champion Older Female Sprinter for two years running.

Her full-brother Foreplay won a Melbourne Listed and was Group 1-placed to earn a stud deal, though he left only four stakes winners.

Personify (Galileo) won an Adelaide Listed and put the genes into 2020 VRC Oaks (Gr 1, 2500m) queen Personal (Fastnet Rock), among four stakes horses.

Time Thief (Redoute’s Choice) also won a Melbourne Listed and was twice placed at the top level – including a second in the Caulfield Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) – before also going to stud and siring elite victor In Her Time among eight stakes winners.

And Procrastinate’s stakes quintet rounds out with A Time For Julia (Redoute’s Choice), a dual stakes winner who’s carried things on by leaving Adelaide Listed victor As Time Goes By (Deep Impact), as well as a $1.9 million 2022 yearling colt who died before he could race.

It was because of following Procrastinate through good friend Fitzgerald that had Johnstone keen to make a splash under the old oak tree at Inglis Easter in 2009.

A Hunter Valley winemaker and bon vivant – the two usually do go together – Johnstone delved into horses and teamed up with Grimley in the 1980s.

Amongst this particular posse of mates, Grimley no doubt holds sway when it comes to pedigree matters – he’s a breeder of Fastnet Rock (Danehill) and Gytrash (Lope De Vega) after all. But on this occasion, Johnstone spurned Grimley’s advice as he sought to buy a granddaughter of Procrastinate.

She was Lot 318, co-bred by Indian Pacific and offered by Edinglassie Stud. A roomy filly, she was by the keenly sought Encosta De Lago (Fairy King) and out of one of Procrastinate’s lesser lights, a mare rather fittingly named Whatever (Danzero), since she did nothing memorable and had only one, ordinary, start.

Johnstone at least liked what he saw. No one else did.

“She was such a large filly, and she had big open knees,” Johnstone tells It’s In The Blood. “But, in my mind at least, she walked with great balance. She was a very quiet walker, didn’t clunk along, and I loved the way she carried herself over the ground.

“Every sale, I’d go looking at progeny out of Procrastinate’s family. We’d tried to buy Procrastinate many moons ago earlier, when she’d had one or two winners, but we didn’t.

“But this filly was one who caught my eye, and I was determined to get something out of the family. I thought if she runs, she runs, if she doesn’t I’ve got a filly from the family. And this would be the only way I could afford to get into the family.”

Grimley wondered if they were looking at the same filly.

“John fell in love with her at the yearling sales, and he was one of one,” he says with a laugh. “She didn’t have an athletic bone in her body, I wouldn’t have thought, but John was determined. We had some fun while he was bidding on her, I know that much.”

That’s Grimley now. On sale day 17 years ago, he was less diplomatic.

“Duncan said, ‘You can’t buy that – it’s a boat!’” Johnstone says. “I said ‘She’s a beautiful horse!’

“So every time I bid, Duncan was there next to me – ‘Arooga! Arooga!’ – making noises like a tugboat horn. It was pretty funny, but I got her in the end.”

Johnstone, unsurprisingly, didn’t have to stretch too far, securing the filly for $100,000.

Once he did, probably fearing one of those improbable stories, his mates came along and bought in.

“So everyone was making fun of me, and I said, ‘Ok – I’ll keep her myself’,” Johnstone says. “That’s when they all came in.”

The filly went to Anthony Cummings, was named Jahre, and providing Johnstone with a large dose of the “I told you so’s”, she indeed became a winner. Of a Wyong maiden. Over 2000 metres. On a Heavy 9.

And that’s it.

“Her claim to fame was running the Queensland Oaks,” Johnstone says of a wild 100-1 throw at the black type stumps, which resulted in a 14th of 17.

He also laughs on recalling that Wyong Heavy 9, saying: “She had such huge feet!”

Still, the team started breeding from her, and here’s where Johnstone can really claim the last laugh.

Her first three foals were city winners, the second of them the speedy Miss Amajardan (Hinchinbrook). Though sold rather humbly herself – for $6,500 at the old Inglis Scone sale – she bolted home with the season’s first two-year-old race, at Armidale, and won at Randwick one start later.

Injury curtailed her career, but she became the dam of Sejardan (Sebring), a dual Group winner of more than $1.2 million for Gary Portelli, and an unlucky third-favourite in the 2022 Golden Slipper (Gr 1, 1200m), before a stud deal and – sadly – a premature demise.

Jahre’s fourth foal was Blazing Miss (Sizzling), another city victor who was four times stakes-placed, while her sixth was Tristate (Headwater), also black type placed.

Two more city winners came from Jahre including Motoscafo (Castelvecchio), who’ll seek a second city win this Saturday at Rosehill for John Thompson, with his breeders Johnstone, Grimley and Orr in the ownership.

And between Blazing Miss and Tristate came the latter’s full-sister Ashra Jahre who, after winning three NSW country sprints, looks to have continued the class of this family in exciting style, as Angels Fury’s dam.

Sold for $80,000 to Darby Racing at Inglis Classic, Ashra Jahre was bought back off the track by her three breeders, along with Yvonne and Mark Clerke – who care for the mare and Jahre at their Glastonbury Farms property. Jodi Woodbury, who’d co-owned Ashra Jahre through her racing days, kept her share and is thus another co-breeder of Angels Fury.

Ashra Jahre first had a Spirit Of Boom (Sequalo) filly who died after birth, then went to Darley’s impressive shuttler Harry Angel (Dark Angel) to produce Angels Fury, who was bought by Astute Bloodstock for $270,000 at Magic Millions Gold Coast from Bell River Thoroughbreds’ draft. A colt by Spirit Of Boom was bought by Angels Fury’s trainer Maher at the same sale last January, for $200,000.

Such was the buzz around the young Angels Fury, the breeding team are now keenly awaiting another foal by Ashra Jahre out of Harry Angel.

The British dual Group 1-winning sprinter continues to make great strides in Australia, earning a fee bump from $66,000 to $88,000 (inc GST) this year, with Darley reporting continued strong demand.

The 12-year-old currently sits 13th on the Australian general sires’ table – after finishing seventh last term in only his third season of runners – but is equal-eighth by stakes winners, with seven.

“I’ve always liked Harry Angel,” Grimley says of the compact, 15.3-hand stallion. “I’ve sent three or four mares to him ever since he’s been at stud.

“He was a genuine champion sprinter. He had a few quirks, but he would’ve been able to hold his own against any of our sprinters. He was a bargain price at the time ($16,500), so I thought – why not? We sent a few mares to him, and Ashra Jahre was one of them.

“She’s a big strong mare, so I thought they’d suit each other physically. That was the main thing.”

There’s no in-breeding and not a lot happening in the pedigree in terms of nicks and clicks, but there is an 8f x 7f of the great blue hen Best In Show (Traffic Judge). Her daughter Sex Appeal (Buckpasser) is the dam of Harry Angel’s fifth sire Try My Best (Northern Dancer), while Show Lady (Sir Ivor) is the second dam of Hurricane Sky (Star Watch), the damsire of Ashra Jahre’s sire Headwater (Exceed And Excel).

There’s also an interesting 6m x 8f of Reine-de-Course Canadian mare Ciboulette (Chop Chop). She’s the dam of Night Shift (Northern Dancer), Dark Angel’s second damsire, and comes into the bottom half via her phenomenal daughter Fanfreluche (Northern Dancer), the fourth dam of Encosta De Lago, the sire of Jahre.

Such appearances so deep in a pedigree don’t tick many boxes in the Book of Grimley, who’s more into modern than ancient history.

“What colour eyes did your great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather have?” he asks with a laugh, though he does respect the famously influential mares.

“I love Fanfreluche, there’s no doubt about that,” he says. “She basically doesn’t miss. She’s a bit like Denise’s Joy or Best In Show or Urban Sea. If you get on that tree somewhere, you’ve got a great chance of getting a black type horse. Genuine blue hen mares.”

The most common sires in the pedigree are Native Dancer (Polynesian) and Hyperion (Gainsborough), with 15 spots each, while Natalma (Native Dancer) and her dam Almahmoud (Mahmoud) have 12 apiece.

Meanwhile, that brave buy of Johnstone’s – Jahre – is still breeding at 19, carrying a Wild Ruler (Snitzel) foal and with a State Of Rest (Starspangledbanner) weanling filly at foot. Angels Fury is her first granddaughter to race, and carries on the speed factor that’s in most horses in the family, except Jahre herself.

“Jahre’s had nine foals to race and they’ve all won, and now it’s just so good to see her daughters producing horses. And she’s proved to be the most beautiful mare in the paddock and really looks after her foals. Yvonne [Clerke] says she’s her favourite,” says Johnstone, who credits two factors in what’s been “quite an amazing story”.

“I think it was luck,” he says. “Luck and stubbornness.”