Aim
You can take aim and do your best, but breeding can be fickle and cruel.
In 2008, Ricky Surace, who’d built a successful Sydney business in the more predictable world of building and construction, took a shot at racing. The first horse he bought into was a Starcraft colt from the Lion Hunter mare Leone Chiara. He was called Star Witness, and he took the Surace family on a dizzying ride, claiming two Group 1s in the Blue Diamond Stakes and Coolmore Stud Stakes of 2010.
Racing? Piece of cake.
Surace kept his shares in Star Witness for what eventually became a successful stud career, the now 13-year-old having regularly ranked in the Australian top 20 in recent years, with star progeny such as Global Glamour, Graff and Star Turn.
Springboarding off Star Witness’ exploits, Surace’s hobby grew more serious. Other racehorses ensued, then broodmares brought an entry into the world of not making buildings, but thoroughbreds.
In 2014, what had become B2B Thoroughbreds moved to buy a few mares from the Keeneland sales in the US. They were particularly keen on one with an Australian connection – Vintage Strike – daughter of former outstanding Australian racemare Bollinger.
Trained by Gai Waterhouse, Bollinger was by Dehere out of the superb 1993 Golden Slipper winner Bint Marscay, who threw only five named foals before being exported in 2002 to the US, where medical issues decreed she had no more. Bint Marscay also left Group 3 winners Mannington and Sheraton, but by far the best was Bollinger, who won five from eight, including the Coolmore Classic (Gr 1, 1500m) of 2003, before she too was exported to America.
Bollinger enjoyed success at stud there, throwing Friesan Fire, a Group 2 winner who contested two legs of the US Triple Crown in the Kentucky Derby (Gr 1, 10f) and Preakness Stakes (Gr 1, 9.5f), even starting favourite in the Run For The Roses when down the track behind Mine That Bird. Vintage Strike, by Canadian Hall of Famer Smart Strike, was Bollinger’s fourth named foal in the US before she was brought back to Australia.
Further enticing Surace to also bring Bollinger’s daughter back “home”, Vintage Strike was in foal to US sire Pioneerof The Nile, second in that Mine That Bird Kentucky Derby. So while Vintage Strike had only raced nine times for one win, Surace – through an agent – went to USD$600,000 to secure her.
“What really attracted us to her was definitely being out of Bollinger, but also having those North American bloodlines through Smart Strike,” says Ricky Surace Jnr, B2B’s racing manager. “She was an expensive broodmare purchase, but she was also in foal to Pioneerof The Nile.”
All of that excitement, however, was quickly dashed against the rocks by the racing gods.
First, Vintage Strike miscarried. Then to twist the knife, a few months later a son of Pioneerof The Nile named American Pharoah only went out and won the US Triple Crown.
Fortunately, it’s often the way that class is permanent, misfortune fleeting.
Once back in Australia, Vintage Strike was sent to Snitzel, a chart-topper whose service fee at the time – $110,000 – seemed befitting of such an expensive mare. The resulting handsome filly netted the Suraces $400,000 at the Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale in 2018. Named Shoulders, she would be retired after just two starts for a pair of Queensland placings. Reflecting the quality of her female line, however, she sold for $300,000 at last year’s Magic Millions Gold Coast National Broodmare Sale.
For a second mating, the Suraces sent Vintage Strike back to an old friend. At just a fifth of Snitzel’s service fee, Star Witness looked far more a no-frills match. But the result – who sold for $200,000 at the Gold Coast in 2019 to the China Horse Club/Newgate team – is bringing rewards for playing it straight: Aim.
The Snowden-trained colt landed with a boom in winning his first two starts in Sydney, the second by four lengths in December 2019. While he lost his way a little after that – an eighth as favourite in the Magic Millions 2YO Classic (RL, 1200m) started a run of nine starts for one placing – he was back to his best in the Magic Millions 3YO Guineas (RL, 1400m) last Saturday. At his second start after being gelded, the forgotten horse of the field took out the $2 million contest by a length and three quarters, reviving expectations of a glittering sprinting career ahead. (Star Witness in fact claimed the quinella, with his colt Amish Boy running second).
For B2B, which after several years of operating with Newhaven Park set up its own farm near Mittagong in the NSW Southern Highlands two years ago, the win by Aim (who was sold through a Newhaven draft) was a timely reward after some cruel turns in the past.
“It all started with Star Witness, who we took a share in with Danny O’Brien mostly because we were intrigued by the pedigree,” Ricky Jnr tells ANZ Bloodstock. “And here we are, 13 years later, we not only still part-own Star Witness but we’ve bred Aim by him, and we own Star Witness’ mother, in Leone Chiara, who we bought about six years after Star Witness.
“Vintage Strike didn’t race a lot, but she was a winner, but we weren’t too worried about her race record so much. Her family is just absolutely remarkable.
“We always wanted to get into that family, with the Bollinger and Bint Marscay line. It’s an unusual pedigree for Australia – getting Danehill-free is so hard nowadays, whether it’s a stallion or a mare – and we thought it would become a very sought-after family.”
B2B, which has now grown to a substantial concern involving 36 broodmares, stuck with the formula in breeding a full brother to Aim, who O’Brien bought for $200,000 at the Gold Coast last year.
“We’re very big believers that if you mate your horses correctly, you’ll get the results,” Ricky says. “Whether it’s sending a $600,000 mare to a $22,000 stallion in Star Witness, or vice-versa, it doesn’t matter as long as it mates correctly. And we thought this was probably a ten out of ten mating, and the result came.
“Star Witness has been very consistent at stud. We were a bit scared there for the first couple of years. He stood for $33,000 and it took him six months to get his first winner, but now he’s flying.”
The line has enjoyed other success. After returning to Australia, Bollinger, now deceased, threw as her last named foal the All Too Hard colt Villermont, a dual stakes winner, taking the Sandown Guineas (Gr 2, 1600m) before finishing fourth in the Australian Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) of 2018.
Vintage Strike, meanwhile, has a Written Tycoon colt headed for the yearling sales this year, and is in foal to Toronado.
In the meantime, the new-look Aim looks on target to do his dam’s bidding some more at the Sydney carnival this autumn.