Connections are over the moon with their girl
SA Sires Produce Stakes (Gr 3, 1400m) heroine Ethereum Girl (Maurice) not only extended Lindsay Park’s sizzling juvenile strike-rate this season, the filly also enhanced the burgeoning reputation of her dam Moonchild (Charge Forward) whose first three foals to race have now produced a pair of stakes winners.
Shortly after her stablemate Shining Smile (Spirit Of Boom) had extended his picket fence to five with a first-up success at Flemington last Saturday, the daughter of Arrowfield Stud’s shuttle stallion Maurice (Screen Hero) saluted in the final South Australian stakes contest of the season.
Ethereum Girl’s tough effort to justify favouritism under Jason ‘Stubby’ Holder sealed an interstate juvenile double for Team Hayes, who have now saddled up a grand total of 30 two-year-old winners across the campaign.
That impressive haul will see the third generation of Hayes family trainers take out the two-year-old training title for the first time, which is a real feather in the brothers’ collective caps and also testament to the lessons they absorbed from their famous father, whose mastery of preparing juveniles was illustrated by three successive Blue Diamond Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) wins from 2006 to 2008.
Needless to say, not all precocious juveniles can handle the transition to their three-year-old seasons so some judgements may need to be reserved but Shining Smile, who was bred by 2001 Melbourne Cup (Gr 1, 3200m)–winning jockey Scott Seamer, would certainly appear to be bombproof.
His superior race smarts enabled Shining Smile to outmuscle runner-up Oyster Lane (Blue Point) at Flemington and the colt, who races in the maroon colours of Hong Kong businessman Viktor Lee, will now be aimed at the Vain Stakes (Gr 3, 1100m) at Caulfield in just under a month’s time.
In contrast, Ethereum Girl is likely to be sent for a freshen-up with a view to targeting some of the fillies races during the latter part of spring. The Thoroughbred Club Stakes (Gr. 3, 1200m), which recently had its prize pool turbo-charged to $1 million, is almost certain to come under consideration with the stable confident that Ethereum Girl’s scope for improvement bodes well for her future prospects.
“What I probably loved most about the filly’s performance on Saturday is that she still managed to win even though she’s doing a fair bit wrong in her races,” said co-trainer Will Hayes.
“We applied the nose roll and Jason did a good job to get her into an early rhythm, but she still over-raced a touch. So for her to be strong at the end of the 1400-metre trip shows that she’s got plenty of upside, and it was a great result for the owners to get some black type with the filly so early in her career.
“We’ll probably make an assessment when she arrives back from Adelaide, but I’d say she’ll most likely head for a freshen-up now. She’s had two interstate trips which have been great for her education, but the travel can take its toll on young horses so we’ve just got to be mindful of that.
“If we did give her a break it would probably only be a short one, so that we could try to pick off a nice race or two in later spring. She’s definitely an exciting prospect and hopefully she can come back a more mature filly.”
Those sentiments will be echoed by Kerry Stephens and her partner Denis Griffin, who run Glenbeigh Farm in the famed Hunter Valley town of Scone. The British and Irish ex-pats, who met at Arrowfield Stud before branching out on their own, have certainly hit the ground running since taking ownership of the old Sefton Park property three years ago.
Their early success has been underpinned in part by the astute acquisition of Ethereum Girl’s mother Moonchild, whom they purchased online for a tick over $18,000 from Arrowfield’s dispersal sale when she was in foal to Japanese multiple stakes winner Real Steel (Deep Impact).
The resulting filly, aptly-named I’m A Steel after she was purchased for just $15,000, has won three races for the Canberra training partnership of Barbara Joseph and Paul and Matt Jones. If those racetrack results represented a reasonable start to Moonchild’s residency at Glenbeigh, subsequent matings with All Too Hard (Casino Prince) and Maurice have surely exceeded her owners’ expectations.
The All Too Hard filly caught the eye of one of the buying bench’s shrewdest judges in David Ellis who, having paid $160,000 for Lot 146 at the 2023 Magic Millions Yearling Sale, took her back across the Tasman Sea to race her in the Te Akau tangerine. Dream Of The Moon has already recouped Ellis’ initial investment from her 12 career starts, thanks chiefly to multiple stakes placings and victory in this year’s NZB Airfreight Stakes (Listed) over the Riccarton mile.
Not to be outdone, her sibling Ethereum Girl also showed great determination at Morphettville last Saturday to embolden their dam’s pedigree page and with a full sibling on the way, Stephens is understandably delighted with Moonchild’s prolific progress so early in her career.
“She’s by Charge Forward out of a Redoute’s Choice mare, both are very good broodmare sires so she’s got a great family behind her,” Stephens told ANZ News.
“Denis and I were at Arrowfield when she was born and she was always one of our favourite yearlings, so when she came up for sale we jumped at the chance. We obviously got her for a great price, Real Steel’s service fee at the time was $16,500 so we only paid $2,000 more than that to buy her.
“She’s been doing a brilliant job and Ethereum Girl was a lovely filly from the day she was born, so we had high hopes for her but obviously with horses things don’t always go to plan. We were very fortunate to get an early stakes win on the board with Dream Of The Moon, then for Ethereum Girl to come along a few months later and pick up another one is a big result for the farm.
“Dream Of The Moon raced over 2000 metres at her next start, so there’s every chance that Ethereum Girl will also get over further ground in time. Moonchild is back in foal to Maurice so if Ethereum Girl can continue to progress over the next year or so, we’d like to think the full sibling would be popular at the yearling sales.”
With around 45 broodmares in residence on their boutique property, Stephens and Cork native Griffin currently have their hands full but they have been able to expand their stock and build their reputation in a relatively short space of time thanks in part to some exceptional results at the sales.
Three of the six lots in Glenbeigh’s Book 1 draft at last year’s Magic Millions Sale have now tasted success as two-year-olds, with Team Hakes’ highly rated Gallo Nero (Wootton Bassett) and Bjorn Baker’s Wyong winner Tiberius (Ole Kirk) joining Ethereum Girl in the juvenile winners’ club.
“We’re obviously a very new farm but I’d like to think we’ve already come a fair way,” Stephens said.
“We’ve grown our broodmare band quite quickly and we’re happy with where we’re at, but we’re always looking to add more quality to our stock if the right mare comes along. We’re coming into our fourth breeding season and we’ve got some lovely foals on the farm to prepare for next year’s sales, which is very exciting.
“We’ve already had some great results at the sales, to have three two-year-old winners from the six yearlings in our Magic Millions Book One draft is very pleasing. So we’re pretty proud of our progress and breeding good horses like Ethereum Girl is the best advert you can have for any farm.”