Hard Kick
Image: Hard Kick (Credit: Racing Photos)
A mare who just wouldn’t go away has rewarded Macquarie Stud’s David Baxter in handsome style, with her son Hard Kick (All Too Hard) winning his second black type race in last Saturday’s prestigious Vain Stakes (Gr 3, 1100m).
The Caulfield three-year-old dash won in recent years by the likes of Sepoy (Elusive Quality), Bivouac (Exceed And Excel) and Giga Kick (Scissor Kick) went the way of the Hayes brothers’ gelding in fighting style, two runs after his debut victory in Flemington’s Talindert Stakes (Listed, 1100m).
And, as with several previous Vain winners, it has served notice of a strong career ahead, especially if his trainers are any guide.
From a modest family, Hard Kick was sold at the Magic Millions Adelaide Yearling Sale on behalf of Macquarie for $30,000, bought by Avesta Bloodstock. He was then onsold as a two-year-old at the Inglis Ready To Race sale for $140,000 to the Hayes boys.
“He was always a very good type, and we decided to send him to Adelaide because we thought he might stand out a bit there,” Baxter tells It’s In The Blood. “We put $30,000 on him, and that’s what he fetched.
“He went to the Ready To Race sale and apparently he trialled very well. From memory he ran the fastest breeze-up before the sale and that’s when the Hayes boys stepped in and bought him.”
Lindsay Park remained his sole owner. Baxter was no longer directly involved but still had a deep interest, which he followed up out of concern the colt might be packed off to the brothers’ father David in Hong Kong, like a certain other Hayes family transfer named Ka Ying Rising (Shamexpress).
“I asked them along the way what the plans were, because we were getting second hand stories he’d be off to Hong Kong,” Baxter said. “One of the boys – and I’m not sure which one I was talking to – said, ‘We own him and we train him and that’s the great advantage which means we can do what we like, and we’ll win the Coolmore with him.
“I said, ‘That sounds very good to me’.”
It’s odds-on the “little smiley bloke” to whom Baxter refers was JD Hayes, the chirpiest of the younger twins. What’s known for sure is Hard Kick is on the third line of betting for the Coolmore Stud Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m), and a win there would cap a remarkable turnaround in fortunes for his dam, Friendly Donna (Exceed And Excel).
Baxter took Friendly Donna to Inglis Easter 2013 for a client, but liked her so much he bought her, having also been closely acquainted with Exceed And Excel (Danehill) through his career.
“I thought she was worth about $100,000, and that’s what I paid for her. I wasn’t going any higher,” Baxter says.
Turf lore is littered with stories of such bold purchases that bring great rewards for a person’s insight and judgment. This isn’t one of them.
“I had a lot to do with Exceed And Excel,” Baxter says. “Clients of mine bought him as a yearling, and I followed him on the track and at stud.
“This filly had the right backside for an Exceed And Excel, so I bought her on type, having had so much experience with him and his progeny.
“But, saying all that, she couldn’t gallop.”
Despite being out of a Sydney city winning mare in Donna Intelligente (Dehere), Friendly Donna had five starts in the bush and couldn’t conjure a placing. She was retired after her personal bests of fourths at Bathurst and Mudgee, with $1,450 in the bank – just $98,550 shy of Baxter’s outlay.
“She didn’t have it,” Baxter says. “She was given the opportunity but was pretty slow, but being such a good type, and having the right pedigree, it was worth giving her a shot at breeding.”
And then, from this humble beginning – still not much happened.
Friendly Donna’s filly first foal Tir (Shooting To Win) had one start for Baxter, running 14th at Dubbo. That was still more than her second foal could boast, since he didn’t make it to the track at all.
Then Baxter ventured to Vinery Stud’s ultra-consistent producer All Too Hard (Casino Prince). Friendly Donna threw Harderthantherest, a filly who at least won four bush races from 24 starts.
In 2020, Baxter had had enough. He tried to sell Friendly Donna – not once but twice – in-foal to Darley newcomer Harry Angel (Dark Angel), but he failed. The mare was passed in both times.
She had that Harry Angel foal – O’Donna – who fetched $85,000 as a yearling but also didn’t have it, being packed off after four unplaced runs.
Baxter tried to offload his mare again in 2021, in-foal again to All Too Hard, at Inglis’s Sydney Broodmare Sale, but again she came back home with him.
“Jeez, I must have been rich in those days,” the breeder says with a laugh. “We were taking mares to sales, but I clearly couldn’t get what I wanted for her. It’s funny how it works out. She kinda stuck to me.”
Friendly Donna had that All Too Hard foal – deceased – and Baxter scratched his head, wondering what to do with his mare.
She wasn’t covered in 2021, but the following year he tried All Too Hard again. Finally, 13 years after he bought her, Friendly Donna has delivered some good news in the form of Hard Kick.
The mare subsequently slipped a foal by Cosmic Force (Deep Field), and with her record still very modest, Baxter didn’t get around to putting her to a stallion last year.
Now that Hard Kick has appeared, she won’t be having the coming spring off, however. Not only is Baxter these days content to hang onto her, he’s now keen on a mating from Newgate Farm up-and-comer Stay Inside (Extreme Choice).
In the meantime, he’ll be following Hard Kick closely.
“He was a good looking yearling,” he said. “He was possibly a bit plain about the head. He was a typical All Too Hard, with a bit of a Roman nose, a bit of that coming through Casino Prince.
“But he was a very well made horse and a good moving horse, and he looks nice and tough now.
“All Too Hard is a good, solid stallion, and if you can get the right looking one you can get a dollar for his yearlings.”
There are dashes of black type deeper into Hard Kick’s family.
Second dam Donna Intelligente was a half-sister to two black type winners including Burning Sands (Marju), who won a Sweet Embrace Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m).
And third dam Encarta (Our Westminster) was a winning half-sister to Skoozi (Prince Of Praise), who won in New Zealand, Australia and the UAE, claiming two Melbourne Group 2s in the Liston Stakes (1400m) and Carlyon Cup (1600m) and a Group 3 sprint in Dubai. He also placed in four Group 1s.
Encarta was the last of eight straight New Zealand mares on the tail female line including Hard Kick’s sixth dam, the outstanding Jandell (Shifnal). In the mid-70s, Jandell won six modern Group races from 2000m to 2400m including Randwick’s Queen Elizabeth Stakes, back when it was a mile and a half.
Baxter says there was “no great science” about putting Friendly Donna to All Too Hard, though the physicals matched well.
But the mating does represent one of All Too Hard’s finest nicks. The 17-year-old – standing this year at an unchanged $27,500 – has had two stakes winners from 12 runners out of Exceed And Excel mares, at 16 per cent. That’s his best nick of more than 11 runners, though Hussonet (Mr Prospector) sits just below him on the list with two black type victors from 11 runners at 18 per cent.
Hard Kick’s pedigree thumbs the nose again at double Danehill doubters. He owns both sirelines in a 4m x 3m duplication, despite two sons being statistically slightly the worst of the three double Danehill combinations.
His son Flying Spur is All Too Hard’s grandsire, while down below Danehill is Exceed And Excel’s father.
Danehill’s sire Danzig (Northern Dancer) is repeated at 5m, 5m x 5m, the middle one being Green Desert, grandsire of All Too Hard’s (and Black Caviar’s) dam Helsinge (Desert Sun).
And Danzig’s sire Northern Dancer (Nearctic) comes in strong with eight appearances including six in the first six generations – 6m, 6m, 6m x 5m, 5m, 6m via four different sons, the non-Danzigs being Try My Best, Lomond and Vice Regent.
Danehill is the top blood contributor with 18.75 per cent, from Northern Dancer (14.06 per cent) and Danzig (12.5 per cent).
Blue hen Natalma (Native Dancer) is next, heading up the females with 9.38 per cent thanks to ten appearances, while 1920s Italian mare Nogara (Havresac) also has ten spots deeper in.
Those two great breed-shapers Nearco (Pharos) and Hyperion (Gainsborough) share the most common stallion honours, with 16 appearances each.
She couldn’t pick her feet up on the track, and she should probably have ended up somewhere else by now, but Friendly Donna has, as her name suggests, ultimately proven a good mare for Baxter to have by his side.