Bruggeman’s global breeding stock tour striking success
Partner of Paul Moroney embarks on final leg of three-month expedition in search of international mares
For the success of any partnership, a key ingredient comes down to trust. And for Melbourne-based bloodstock agents Catheryne Bruggeman and Paul Moroney, it’s a trust that transcends business and into life.
In this Covid-19-induced society the world has now become accustomed to, that trust and partnership has never before delivered greater dividends when it comes to selecting racehorses.
Amidst the uncertainty of global travel, in September Bruggeman set sail on a solo expedition to identify breeding stock jewels across her native US, Tattersalls in the UK and ending with this week’s Arqana Sale in France, with the hope of gaining an edge over many bloodstock operations that could not undertake such international travel.
“It’s a lot more stressful,” Bruggeman said to ANZ Bloodstock News yesterday, just as she boarded a plane to Paris with the conclusion of yesterday’s Tattersalls sale. “We’re very much used to being on the road … but it’s the uncertainty and everyone is in the same boat.
“To get out of Australia I had to get an exemption on business grounds and now it’s the uncertainty of getting back, for instance.
“You just wish you knew, that even if you get bad news, you can navigate it. It’s when there’s so many changes, that’s the most challenging point. At the moment, I say ‘OK, well I’m doing Arqana, and that’s great, but is the Australian border situation going to change in light of the new variant?’”
Moroney and Bruggeman have built a world-renowned reputation for sourcing quality primarily based on type. Indeed, Paul Moroney Bloodstock has sourced in excess of 140 individual stakes winners and, in any normal year, their inspections of horses would encompass the poring over of around 16,000 yearlings to achieve such lofty success.
Covid and its accompanying restrictions, one would expect, would put a severe dent in the business model of such a conformation-focused, global operation.
While the dedication of Catheryne’s eye on the ground has alleviated such barriers, Paul’s extraordinary mind for the retention of information has been put to the arduous task of examining catalogues and form books.
All great plans, however, do not go exactly as first designed.
“My intention was to do Fasig-Tipton and Keeneland but unfortunately I got Covid the week before (the sale), which was really bad timing,” Bruggeman said. “But I was still able to work the sale remotely and Paul had done extensive work on the catalogue.
“Typically we split the catalogue and that lightens the load,” she added. “When we look at horses together, we don’t really tell each other what we’ve put down as a second look. Not that it’s a secret, it’s just that we don’t.
“But what we find when we go and do those second looks, typically we find that 95 per cent of the time we’ve landed on the same horses, which is good, our eyes are very similar.
“Paul has an incredible memory when it comes to pedigrees and form, so it’s actually worked out really well, as he’s been able to concentrate on all of that work. He’s done hours and hours of form and pedigree work. But we do very much buy on type, so you have to match it up, and it’s actually worked really well.”
It’s an adaptation to a refined model, of which elements could be here to stay.
“With some of this international work, we may do more of it like this moving forward,” Bruggeman said.
“I’m planning to do this yearly rotation of yearling sales in Australia and New Zealand and then do breeding stock sales of the US, Tatts, Arqana and back again.
“It is easier, time wise, to get through the horses with two people. I’m running on coffee and adrenaline right now. Come the end of it I’ll be collapsing, but so far, so good!”
Bruggeman has, thus far, come away with eight purchases for clients; three in the US and five at the Tattersalls December sale, with just Arqana remaining.
Her spending spree began with the US$330,000 buy of three-time winner Always Inthe Munny (Munnings), a daughter of Danehill (Danzig) mare Always A Star and a half-sister to stakes race winners Star Of The North (The Hunk) and two-year-old Marie Mackay (Noble Mission), at the Fasig-Tipton November Sale on November 9. Bruggeman outlayed a further US$350,000 on two buys at Keeneland, including juvenile stakes winner Ippodamia’s Girl (Stormy Atlantic).
“As far as looking at the horses and the way we’ve worked it, I’m super confident with that. Anything that we buy, I’m confident in what the person we bought for will receive. I know we have that part right,” Bruggeman said.
“We bought three stakes fillies to go back to Australia (from the US) and we were really happy with what we got.”
They were added to at Tattersalls, headed by the purchase of Frankel (Galileo) filly Attendant on day three of the sale for 60,000gns. The unraced daughter of stakes winner Zuhoor Baynoona (Elnadim) is a half-sister to Group 1 winner Hello Youmzain (Kodiac) and Group 2 winner Royal Youmzain (Youmzain) and will be headed for Little Avondale Stud in New Zealand and a date with Time Test (Dubawi).
“We were delighted to land her for New Zealand clients and friends Catriona and Sam Williams of Little Avondale Stud,” Bruggeman said.
“She is particularly well bred as a close relative of another exciting young shuttle stallion Hello Youmzain which stands southern time at Cambridge Stud. Little Avondale owns a share in Hello Youmzain, too, so they have all bases covered if both young sires succeed as expected.”
In yesterday’s final session, Bruggeman signed for Golden Horn (Cape Cross) filly Oscillates, a half-sister to Group 2 winner Selkirk Star (Selkirk) and the stakes-placed Oakley Girl (Sir Percy), for 27,000gns, with the three-year-old headed to New Zealand’s Windsor Park Stud, while for the same price she secured Dawn Approach (New Approach) filly Dawndiva, who is out of the Group 1-performed mare Ego (Green Desert), a half-sister to Rosehill stakes winner Single (High Chaparral), in conjunction with Melbourne businessman Perry Sambor.
The sale conundrums, however, do not end with Bruggeman landing safely back in Melbourne. Attention now turns to next year’s Australasian yearling sales, beginning with January’s auction on the Gold Coast, and also navigating the timing of the delayed NZB Karaka Yearling Sale, moved from its traditional position at the end of January to March 7-12, just a week after the conclusion of the Inglis Melbourne Premier Sale. This time, it could be Paul on the road.
“It’s a case of land, have a couple of days, get to the Hunter and then have a couple of weeks in the Hunter before getting up to Magics to conduct inspections from January 3. And then it doesn’t really stop until April,” Bruggeman said.
“We’ve discussed the concept of me doing Melbourne and Paul going to New Zealand and doing the quarantine for a week and doing Karaka on his own, but he’d have to fly over quite some time before, because you have to do a lot on the farms.”
All that comes not before a well-earned, if not momentary, rest.
“I might have a few days of recreation and do a little of Paris to recharge the batteries before I get on another flight back home,” Bruggeman said.