Corumbene to the fore once more courtesy of Snitzel colt
Empire Of Japan’s Breeders’ Plate success has Altomonte excited about the future
George Altomonte, the esteemed Corumbene Stud founder, is no stranger to breeding a top-class colt and Saturday’s emphatic Breeders’ Plate (Gr 3, 1000m) winner Empire Of Japan (Snitzel) was a timely reminder of the octogenarian’s thoroughbred prowess.
Big things have been expected of Empire Of Japan’s immediate family for some time, but on Saturday the Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice) colt was the one to finally deliver, with the promise of more to come, in the opening NSW two-year-old race of the season.
Altomonte yesterday declared Ichihara (General Nediym), the dam of Empire Of Japan, as one of Corumbene’s best mares but up until Saturday’s victory her progeny’s success had been few and far between due to extenuating circumstances.
“She is one of my best mares, as you know, she’s a lovely mare, and she, of course, produced that colt that we got $2.8 million for, but he went in the throat and the operation wasn’t successful. He was a nice colt,” Altomonte told ANZ Bloodstock News.
The $2.8 million colt Altomonte referred to is Mount Fuji, the three years older brother to Empire Of Japan, who topped the 2019 Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale after a stunning bidding duel between James Harron and Damion Flower, the now infamous convicted drug trafficker.
While Mount Fuji didn’t reach the heights expected of him (he was twice placed in Sydney and has won a maiden in Queensland), the outlook is much brighter for Empire Of Japan, a colt purchased for $680,000 at this year’s Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale by the China Horse Club-Newgate Farm partnership.
“Empire Of Japan did well on Saturday, but he was always a nice colt. In fact, Henry [Field] went over to Corumbene to have a look at him before the sale and he was pretty impressed with him. He was just a nice horse from the day he was born and, of course, Henry bought him and he’ll do very well with him,” the long-time breeder said.
“I just like the way he came home at the end. If you watch that race, the minute he [James McDonald] gave him a clip over the tail, he just took off. He came from nearly last.”
Empire Of Japan, one of the few two-year-olds to make up ground at the official two-year-old barrier trials last month at Randwick, is trained by Peter and Paul Snowden, who also initially prepared Mount Fuji and the Corumbene homebred sibling Yatsumi, a mare who ran fourth to subsequent stakes winner Mr Mozart (Snitzel) as a two-year-old before being retired with the same affliction as her older brother.
“It’s the [third] horse we’ve had out of this [dam, Ichihara] and it was pretty evident [the first horse] lacked a little bit of ability, but this bloke makes up for that and he’s heading in the right direction,” Paul Snowden said after the Breeders’ Plate.
Altomonte, who bred 2008 Golden Slipper (Gr 1, 1200m) winner Sebring (More Than Ready) and 2013 winner Overreach (Exceed And Excel), is happy to have retained Yatsumi to add to the Corumbene broodmare band. She will soon be covered by Coolmore shuttler Churchill (Galileo) in her maiden season at stud.
Ichihara, who slipped to The Autumn Sun (Redoute’s Choice) last year, has a yearling colt by Exceed And Excel (Danehill) who will be offered at either the Magic Millions or Ingis Easter sales next year. Altomonte is yet to decide which auction house will have the honour “but they’ll take him anywhere I want to go”.
“He’s a very nice type of colt,” he said.
While the Corumbene brand will be on show via Empire Of Japan – the Golden Slipper appeared to be front and centre after the Breeders’ Plate – and Ichihara will carry the Dunedoo farm’s baton for some time to come, Altomonte invested heavily at this year’s broodmare sales in order to reinvigorate the stud’s band of mares with some fresh blood.
In all, Altomonte outlaid a touch over $2 million on four mares across the broodmare sales in 2022, adding Group 2 winner Vanna Girl (Husson) for $525,000 from the Chairman’s Sale and New Zealand Group 1 winner Santa Monica (Per Incanto) ($500,000), as well as three-time Group 2 scorer Showoroses (Showcasing) ($525,000) and Gstaad (Sebring) ($500,000) at the Magic Millions in late May.
Gstaad is a half-sister to Group 1 winner Loving Gaby (I Am Invincible) and three-year-old filly Greece (I Am Invincible), a dominant maiden winner at Geelong last week which led her jockey Jamie Kah to suggest the Ciaron Maher and David Eustace-trained filly was a stakes winner in waiting.
Altomonte is confident about Corumbene’s future, with the addition of the new mares, and with the assistance of his grandson Tommy Altomonte.
“I will let others make those judgments, but we do pretty well, as you know, but we’ve spent a lot of time doing it,” he said.
“It doesn’t come easily and I spend a lot of time trying to get it right.”