Impulsive mating paying dividends

Image: Ninja, (Credit Bradley Photos)

John Camilleri has done it again in breeding Ninja (Farnan), the gelding with a power-packed pedigree who scored his third black type win in Saturday’s Missile Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) at Randwick.

He may not quite rise to the level of Camilleri’s piece de resistance as a breeder – that mare named Winx (Street Cry) – but the Michael Freedman-trained galloper indicated he could be a burgeoning stand-out performer now he’s back as a spring four-year-old.

Sold for $380,000 at Magic Millions Gold Coast with Camilleri retaining a share through his famed Fairway Thoroughbreds banner, Ninja shapes as a worthy flagbearer for the MyRacehorse team, along with another Freedman-trained four-year-old, the G1-winning mare Apocalyptic (Extreme Choice).

His pedigree says he should be.

He’s from an esteemed female family, Colonial Family 7 no less, and it’s one that involves an important chapter of the Australian turf. His seventh dam is none other than Rainbird (The Buzzard), who won the “Victory Melbourne Cup, so named because is was the first held after World War II, in 1945.

She was a quality performer, known mostly for the Cup triumph of course, but also for winning five other black type events including what’s now the Group 2 Wakeful Stakes (2000m). She also sparked something of a cloudburst, in a strain of names that stayed mainly in the rain. Or reign.

Rainbird performed at stud by leaving Raindear (Orgoglio), who also won a Wakeful and two other stakes races, including the 1963 South Australian Oaks (2000m), which was a G1 when such gradings arrived in 1979, though it clings on as a G3 nowadays.

Raindear in turn threw two stakes winners, full siblings by Latin Lover in Rainburst (Latin Lover), who took what’s now the G2 Edward Manifold Stakes (1600m) of 1974, and Latin Reign, who went coast-to-coast across Port Philip Bay by winning the Mornington and Werribee cups.

Funnily enough, in the handful of preceding years the Melbourne Cup was won twice by another showery-sounding offspring of Latin Lover in Rain Lover who, despite being from a mare named Rain Spot, was no maternal relation.

Rainbird also threw Rain Mist (Helios), whose main feat was passing on the genes to Rain Shadow (Todman), Ninja’s fifth dam.

This would typically be where the interest starts for Camilleri, who says he’ll usually “go back about five generations” in planning his matings. But in this case the real excitement starts with one of Rain Shadow’s daughters.

The mare bore two stakes winning full sisters – 10 years apart, but both by the same sire in the mighty Vain (Wilkes). The first one was Rainbeam, Ninja’s fourth dam.

Rainbeam won what are now the G2 Silver Slipper Stakes (1100m) and G3 Widden Stakes (1100m), back when both were held in October, while winning four in a row as Sydney’s boom two-year-old filly. She placed in two autumn Golden Slipper lead-ups but didn’t make it to the main event.

Those four juvenile wins would remain her only successes from 18 starts, but at stud, Rainbeam made a major mark.

Her second foal was Centaine (Century), who won three stakes races and was twice G1-placed, and of course became a highly successful sire. Standing in New Zealand, he left 61 stakes winners, 11 at the top level including the superb mare Slight Chance, who won six G1s, and three-timer Kinjite. 

Rainbeam also left Centaine’s full-sister Reigntaine, who was unraced but threw three more stakes winners into this potent family.

First foal Kampaign (Kampala) won a New Zealand Listed, and 10th foal Galapagos Girl (Dehere) won two G3s and was placed in the Coolmore Classic (Gr 1, 1500m) of 2003 (behind last week’s column star Bollinger).

In between those came third foal Procrastinate (Jade Hunter), who’s Ninja’s second dam and a rare bird indeed. She also bobbed up in this column last month, as the fourth dam of Caulfield two-year-old winning filly Angel’s Fury (Harry Angel).

American stallion Jade Hunter (Mr. Prospector) stood three seasons in Australia in the mid-1990s, and one one in New Zealand in 1989 – which produced the crop that included Procrastinate.

Jade Hunter was successful in the US, where he sired 40 black type victors, five at the top level including 2002 Horse of the Year, the Hall of Fame mare Azeri. But down here, he was an abject failure.

From 251 live foals born from those four antipodean seasons, he only had one Australian stakes winner – Procrastinate – as well as just one born in New Zealand (from the same crop).

Procrastinate won Caulfield’s Tristarc Stakes (Gr 3, 1400m) in 1994 among six wins, and was stakes placed four times. But it was in the breeding barn that her rare quality really shone out.

Her first foal Laisserfaire (Danehill) went to South Africa and won three G1s, becoming the country’s Champion Older Female Sprinter for two years running.

Laisserfaire’s full-brother Foreplay scored in Listed class in Melbourne and was G1-placed to earn a stud deal, though he left only four stakes winners.

Procrastinate’s seventh foal Personify (Galileo), born in 2003, won an Adelaide Listed and would go on to put the genes into 2020 VRC Oaks (Gr 1, 2500m) queen Personal (Fastnet Rock), among four stakes horses.

By 2007, Camilleri had seen enough. Procrastinate was offered at that year’s Inglis Broodmare Sale – six days after her latest yearling colt had sold for $2 million as the fifth-top lot at Easter – and Camilleri bought her for $650,000.

Sweetening the deal, she was in-foal to Galileo (Sadler’s Wells). At the same time, she was three months off turning 17.

“It flew against my general philosophy of not buying older mares, but she was a unicorn,” Camilleri tells It’s In The Blood.

“She was a beautiful mare, with as good a pedigree as you would’ve have got at that time. They’re hard to buy into, these families.”

That was shown again when Personify sold weeks later at the Gold Coast for $1.025m, to Coolmore. She was sold again the next year for $2m.

Camilleri’s move was also franked when that $2m colt went on to become Time Thief (Redoute’s Choice). He won a Melbourne Listed and was twice placed at the top tier – 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.

Meanwhile, Camilleri’s first foal out of Procrastinate was that Galileo offspring – a filly named Dreams And Wishes, who won at Eagle Farm.

A first try at replicating the Time Thief mating through a visit to Redoute’s Choice then produced an unraced filly, but the next attempt a year later yielded A Time For Julia.

Carrying Fairway’s colours, the Peter Moody-trained filly won two G3s and was four-times stakes placed, before throwing Adelaide Listed winner As Time Goes By (Deep Impact), among six named foals so far.

Camilleri sold five yearlings out of Procrastinate for a combined $2.06m, putting him well ahead on the deal. He bred three more city winners from her, including her last foal Impulsive (So You Think), who’s showing signs of being another breeding barn star for her family, as the dam of Ninja.

For Impulsive’s first three foals Camilleri went to proven stallions – once to Zoustar (Northern Meteor) and twice to Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice), for modest results so far.

For her fourth mating he chose freshman sire Farnan (Not A Single Doubt), once the physicals checked out.

“I’ll go back about five generations typically in planning matings, but before we even do that, the stallion’s got to suit the mare physically, or I don’t even get to that point,” Camilleri says.

“This was a reasonably good mating on the physicals. She’s a big strong mare, and very attractive.

“I rolled the dice a little on that one. But Farnan was a stallion who suited the mare, he was a very impressive Golden Slipper winner, and whilst unproven at the time, I thought at the fee ($55,000) he was worth a shot.”

The shot has hit the target so far, with Ninja winning five from nine, placing in three more, and earning almost $1.3m.

Introducing the renowned family of his “unicorn” Procrastinate – also the fourth dam of triple stakes winner Sejardan (Sebring) – to Farnan achieved more than a little pedigree spice.

The stand-out feature is that Ninja has Vain at 6f x 5f – and not just anywhere, since both sire and dam hail from Vain-sparked damlines. He’s the sire of Farnan’s fourth dam Salamore and Impulsive’s third dam Rainbeam, as discussed.

Sound familiar? None other than Black Caviar (Bel Esprit) also had two Vain maternal lines, though a lot closer in at 3f x 4f.

Camilleri says the double-up of Vain “certainly had appeal” given it had paid off repeatedly in the past and that he was in such strong positions.

Ninja’s only five-gen inbreeding is a 5m x 4m of the influential Mr. Prospector (Raise A Native) in handy spots, as the third sire of Farnan’s dam, and as Procrastinate’s grandsire.

The great Nijinsky (Northern Dancer) also comes in at 6f x 5m, albeit somewhat buried. His renowned daughter Dancing Show is the second dam of Redoute’s Choice, Farnan’s grandsire, while his son Tights is the damsire of So You Think, Impulsive’s father.

This helps effect an interesting triplication of Nijinsky’s dam Flaming Page (Bull Page) at 7m, 8f x 6m. The middle spot belongs to Fleur, who feeds into the sireline of Farnan’s third dam through her famed English and Irish derbies winner The Minstrel.

Flaming Page, a Canadian Champion 3YO Filly, was a Double Copy Mare (possessing two large heart X chromosomes) and became a Reine de Course mare.

She only had three foals but one was Nijinsky, England’s first Triple Crown winner in 35 years and its 1970 Horse of the Year, another was Minsky (Northern Dancer), Ireland’s Champion 2YO Colt of the same year, and the other was Fleur, who gave us The Minstrel.

Nearco (Pharos) takes the gong as the most present sire in Ninja’s first nine generations with a sizeable 20 mentions, while Almahmoud (Mahmoud) has the mares’ honours with 12 spots, one more than her blue hen daughter Natalma (Native Dancer).

Meanwhile, Impulsive’s colt by Siyouni (Pivotal) was bought for $400,000 by Busuttin and Young at Easter this year, while she now has an Anamoe (Street Boss) yearling filly. She missed to Harry Angel (Dark Angel) last year, but is set for bigger things this spring.

“She will got to Extreme Choice this year,” Camilleri said of Newgate Farm’s sub-fertile sensation, who commands the nation’s highest service fee at $385,000.

“If Ninja can keep flying the flag then she deserves a shot at Extreme Choice. Many mares don’t, given his service fee, but with her pedigree and having produced Ninja, I think she’s entitled to it.”