Dorrington Farm’s Crabtree on Point with colt who has striking similarities to Ole Kirk
This week Robert Crabtree couldn’t help but notice the distinct similarities between a colt by Darley’s champion sprinter Blue Point (Shamardal) and a son of Written Tycoon (Iglesia) born on a nearby Nagambie farm almost four years earlier.
On Tuesday, the renowned Victorian breeder, who runs a private property in the state’s heartland named Dorrington Park, marvelled at the markings on his newly born colt out of the Melbourne-winning, Group-performed mare Sistonic (Bel Esprit).
The colt, of course, is from the same family of champions Black Caviar (Bel Esprit) and All Too Hard (Casino Prince) and, more recently, dual Group 1-winning colt Ole Kirk (Written Tycoon).
The trio were bred by Rick Jamieson of Gilgai Farm, another Nagambie-based thoroughbred operation, but they all hail from the family of Crabtree’s grand producer Scandinavia (Snippets).
The latest addition to the Scandinavia branch is the Blue Point colt, the fourth foal out of Sistonic, a granddaughter of the Group 2-winning and Group 1-placed mare.
“He is an absolute beauty. He is incredibly similar to Ole Kirk,” Crabtree said yesterday.
“It’s not (a complete surprise), but it was still staggering as the facial markings are extraordinary on the pair of them.
“She is a Danehill-line mare and that is a terrific cross. In addition to that, physically it is a superb mating and the foal is testament, for once, that I was right.”
Ole Kirk, who will begin his first season alongside All Too Hard at Vinery Stud on September 1, is out of Jamieson’s mare Naturale (Bel Esprit), an unraced half-sister to Sistontic’s dam Danavia (Danehill) and three-quarter sister to the unbeaten Black Caviar.
Crabtree’s support of Blue Point, a four-time Group 1-winning sprinter of which three came at Royal Ascot, comes at a time when Newgate Farm’s Henry Field strongly argued that breeders could mitigate significant risk by supporting Australian-bred and performed stallions.
Of course, Field currently holds the aces by standing leading first season sires Extreme Choice (Not A Single Doubt), Capitalist (Written Tycoon) and Flying Artie (Artie Schiller) and eight other Australasian-bred horses on the Newgate roster.
Crabtree, who is also sending mares to Capitalist and Extreme Choice this year, believes shuttle stallions of the calibre of Blue Point play an important role in the Australian breeding landscape.
Last year, Blue Point covered 37 stakes-winning and 21 stakes-producing mares including the dam of Alizee (Sepoy) and Astern (Medaglia d’Oro) in Essaouira (Exceed And Excel), the dam of fellow Group 1 winner Savatiano (Street Cry) in Retsina (Redoute’s Choice), Anamoe’s (Street Boss) dam Anamato (Redoute’s Choice), Le Romain’s (Hard Spun) dam Mignard (Strategic) and Humma Mumma (Bel Esprit), the dam of high-class sprinter Humma Humma (Denman).
“Particularly with Danehill-line mares it makes a lot of sense to me to look outside our square,” he said.
“We have become incredibly Danehill centric and it has been a wonderful bloodline, but it is very nice to move outside of that if you can.
“Blue Point is an absolutely proven racehorse at the top level. His performances in the King’s Stand were quite extraordinary. The horse he beat (Battaash) came out and won it the following year after he retired.
“It really is a fantastic performance line for Australian breeding.”
Crabtree has developed a high-class broodmare band over many years and that investment was recognised by the market this year when he sold two seven-figure yearlings.
A Written Tycoon (Iglesia) colt out of Gimcrack Stakes (Listed, 1000m) winner Gybe (Fastnet Rock) topped the Inglis Melbourne Premier Yearling Sale when bought by James Harron for $1.1 million and the I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit) daughter of Crabtree’s Blue Diamond Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) winner Catchy (Fastnet Rock) made the same amount at the Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale.
Crabtree also sold the most expensive Siyouni (Pivotal) yearling bred to southern hemisphere time this year at the Easter sale when the colt out of Totally Mystic (Invincible Spirit) made $550,000.
The Anthony Cummings-trained Group 2 winner Mizzy (Zoustar), who Crabtree bred and co-owned, was also one of the highest-priced broodmare prospects put to market in the southern hemisphere this year, fetching $2.2 million at the Magic Millions National Sale in May.
“We moved into Nagambie about four years ago and the horses that are now coming through are off that farm and I have really high hopes for the integrity of the land and the country to produce an even better product,” he said.
“It is superb and we don’t have outside horses, so it is lightly grazed and we under utilise, but it gives horses all the room and nourishment they need.”
Crabtree calls for Sandown’s retention
A forthright Crabtree, never afraid to speak his mind on racing issues, in a long conversation with ANZ Bloodstock News yesterday echoed a number of high-profile industry figures calling on the Melbourne Racing Club to abandon plans to sell off Sandown Racecourse.
Located in Melbourne’s South Eastern suburbs, Sandown is predominantly used for midweek metropolitan race meetings and the MRC’s vision is to build a second course at Caulfield and conduct night meetings at the course with the proceeds of a sale of the expansive land at its second track.
“The MRC contemplating selling Sandown would be a tragedy for racing. You will never be able to replace it,” the Melbourne businessman said.
“As Epsom (which was also sold off) showed us, Sandown is absolutely irreplaceable. If there is any message that comes out of our discussion it is that one.”
Crabtree criticised the club’s board of directors for a lack of consultation over the proposal.
“I have been a member there for God knows how long, but the reality is, they don’t talk to members,” he said.
“It has become a fiefdom, which is a real problem for racing. The Caulfield committee need to understand they are either racing people or they are developers.
“You ask any player, any reasonably intelligent invested player in this industry, and they will tell you the same thing.”
Previously, the MRC has said it props up Sandown to the tune of $5 million a year with income generated from non-racing assets but Crabtree suggests the purported costs of conducting meetings at the spacious circuit is no excuse for offloading it to developers.
It had been speculated that Sandown could be worth up to $500 million.
“At the end of the day, if you are an airline you need airports to land your aircraft and that’s what we need. We need racetracks to sustain our industry,” he said.
“Sandown is a magnificent racetrack and the only reason it’s not as popular as it should be is simply because they themselves haven’t supported it and promoted it.
“It is a beautiful racetrack. Racing needs it, Racing Victoria needs it, racing in Australia needs it. Ask Gai Waterhouse, ask Peter Moody, ask the people who count.”
If there has been one small positive to come out of the pandemic, Crabtree says, it is the spotlight which has been placed on racing.
“It has sustained itself right through the pandemic and it has grown incredibly by that exposure and Sandown has played a part in that,” he said.
“You need these tracks. You can’t afford no representation in that part of the world. It is terribly important and, once it’s gone, it’s gone forever.
“The next committee can’t come in and realise the folly of their ways and develop a new one. It’s too expensive. The reality is, we need Sandown.”