Enriched
Hobby breeder Terry Board had a retired three-year-old filly in his paddock in 2014 when he received a phone call from a friend, Melbourne trainer Clinton McDonald. The grapevine had been whispering.
“Have you still got that Encosta De Lago filly?” McDonald said.
“Yeah, why?” said Board.
“Don’t do anything with her.”
“OK”.
“If anybody calls you wanting to buy her, whatever you do, don’t sell her.”
“OK”.
“Chris Waller’s got the half–sister, and he reckons she goes alright.”
Board’s filly was named Miss Atom Bomb (Redoute’s Choice). She was bought at Karaka 2012 by trainer Tim Martin for $150,000, with Board and brother Peter joining in.
Martin had a high opinion of her, calling her his Golden Slipper (Gr 1, 1200m) horse, but she broke down in her first barrier trial and never raced. Peter Board – a hotelier who played AFL for Fitzroy in the late 1980s – and his brother bought out Martin’s share of Miss Atom Bomb, aiming to breed with her.
Nothing much happened until McDonald’s phone call. Then a lot happened.
Miss Atom Bomb was the first foal of a dual Listed winner called Vegas Showgirl (Al Akbar). The second foal, the one Waller was keen on, was called Winx (Street Cry).
The Boards duly kept hold of Miss Atom Bomb, and started to breed with her. They also kept a close eye on Winx.
Those stats you used to see during Winx mania? The ones about, “If you’d had a dollar on Winx for every start of her career” et cetera? The Boards were in that boat.
Terry was aboard for Winx’s first three winning starts, at $5, $1.45 and $6.50. He stuck with her through her “troubled times” – the next seven starts when she won just once – but was on again for her momentous Sunshine Coast Guineas (Gr 3, 1600m) victory, at the $2.60.
These brothers who owned Winx’s half-sister were elated.
“I had another mate call me after the Guineas though,” Terry tells It’s In The Blood. “He said, ‘Don’t get too carried away. It was a pretty weak Group 3’.”
It may have been. But it was of course the first of 33 successive wins over the next four years that took the nation on a wild ride – as well as the owners of her half-sister.
Terry Board simply had to stick with Winx, even though her ever-shortening odds meant she became to him a multi anchor only. On the breeding side, the brothers couldn’t believe their luck. They would have the only female relative to Winx of breeding age throughout the great mare’s career, although Vegas Showgirl finally threw some more fillies – five in a row in fact – from 2016-21.
In truth, while the Boards may have had breeding gold fall into their lap, and while they would be duly rewarded through Miss Atom Bomb’s progeny in the sales ring, her breeding record would transpire as something of a tale of ill fortune.
But finally at Randwick last Saturday, Miss Atom Bomb’s fifth live foal, three-year-old colt Enriched (I Am Invincible), became a black type winner, taking out the Fireball Stakes (Listed, 1100m).
Her breeders Terry and Peter Board – based in Adelaide and Geelong respectively – had stayed in for half when the colt was bought at Easter 2023 by trainer Michael Freedman, Gandharvi and Mick Wallace, for $450,000. Last weekend, the brothers didn’t miss the occasion.
“We flew up to Sydney on Friday night and had a few too many drinks,” says Terry, 56. “We had a fair old hangover when we got to the track, so a nice stakes win in race two was just the tonic we needed.
“It was well worth the wait. To have him become a stakes winner makes it all worthwhile.”
Board confirmed he and his brother had well-earned hangovers on Sunday morning as well. With Enriched the best horse they’ve bred, it had been a long and arduous road to becoming stakes-winning breeders.
They had dabbled with horses for years. Their previous decent one came early this century with Squillani (Shagny), one of the first few Phillip Stokes prepared on his return to Australia to set up as a trainer after a sojourn in Japan. Squillani won 12 races, five in Listed class and one in Group 3, while running second and third in the Goodwood (Gr 1, 1200m) three years apart.
As the Winx story began to unfold, the Boards soon realised they had something rather valuable in Miss Atom Bomb.
For a first play with her, just after Winx had run second in the Flight Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) at her fifth start, the Boards put her to Sepoy (Elusive Quality). The result was filly Nuclear Blitz, who was bought at the Gold Coast in 2017 by Dermot Farrington for $300,000 – relatively cheap considering Winx fervour was alive and well by then.
Nuclear Blitz ran fourth in the Talindert Stakes (Listed, 1100m) on debut but, after an injury, retired a maiden winner from five starts for Team Hawkes.
James Harron paid a more Winx-worthy $600,000 for her as a broodmare in 2019, but after slipping to Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice), she had a 2021 colt by I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit) which is still unnamed, then died trying to give birth to a Capitalist (Written Tycoon) foal, who was also lost.
Miss Atom Bomb missed to Exceed And Excel (Danehill) in 2016 and 2017, but a second try in the latter spring – with Medaglia D’Oro (El Prado) yielded another filly in Trinity One. She was bought by Godolphin at Easter in 2019 for $750,000, but died just three months later in a track accident.
Then things took a turn towards the better, albeit slowly.
Terry Board had gone halves with his advisor, bloodstock agent Sheamus Mills, in a lifetime breeding right to the great I Am Invincible. He used his turn with Miss Atom Bomb in 2017 and the result was a colt. He failed to meet his $1 million reserve at the first Easter sale of that Covid-marred year of 2020. At the second, he fell to Gerald Ryan and David Raphael for $700,000.
Named Bionic, a Hawkesbury maiden win was his only finish better than seventh from his first six starts, and after fetching $5,500 on Inglis Online he was last seen struggling about on the red dirt of western Queensland, before being retired last year.
Miss Atom Bomb’s foals began to sell slightly cheaper.
While Mills had his turn with the I Am Invincible breeding right in 2018, the boards stumped up for the stallion’s service fee with Miss Atom Bomb and the result was another colt, bought by Team Snowden and Primavera Pastoral for $600,000 at Easter, 2021.
Named Acquaro, he had ability but also a large and heavy body which sparked a history of breakdowns, including after his debut eighth in a Gosford maiden in March, 2022. That remains his only start, and he’s now listed as “spelling” for second trainer Fabio Martino.
Finally, after this $2.35 million trail of Winx’s unfulfilled nieces and nephews, the Boards used their breeding right with I Am Invincible again in 2020, and the result is Enriched.
At Easter, 2023, he failed to meet his $500,000 reserve, but then continued his dam’s sale price progression when bought backstage by Freedman and Gandharvi for $450,000.
Enriched debuted amidst some expectation – firming from $11 to $7.50 – in last year’s Pierro Plate (1100m), but ran an inglorious last of seven in a race won by a much vaunted colt having his second start, Switzerland (Snitzel).
Then, Enriched returned from a spell to win a Warwick Farm maiden, and two starts later a third in Flemington’s Danehill Stakes (Gr 2, 1100m) raised hopes of spring riches. However, he then came 13th in the Coolmore Stud Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m), where the winner again was Switzerland.
Another spell may have been just what was needed, however, since Enriched has returned with a close-up third in a Benchmark 78 (1100m) at Rosehill, before his impressive, rails-hugging 0.76–length victory in the Fireball.
Now, the Boards are hoping more autumn carnival laurels await to continue their story with their unraced mare who unexpectedly became so well related.
Since Enriched, Miss Atom Bomb has thrown a So You Think (High Chaparral) colt who was a late scratching from last year’s Melbourne Premier sale due to a minor injury. The Boards have retained him, put him with Freedman, and named him Bundy, the nickname of Terry’s late friend and former Fitzroy teammate Matt Rendell, who died from a heart attack in 2023.
Miss Atom Bomb now has a Snitzel colt at foot, but missed on a return to I Am Invincible in December. The Boards – who have around eight mares between them – are thankful at least that Enriched’s long-awaited breakthrough as a stakes winner can help ensure they can secure any cover from the stallion of their choosing.
Terry Board can now reflect on “a great ride” with the 14-year-old Miss Atom Bomb.
“It was pretty good to have her there during the Winx years,” he says. “It’s not a bad feeling to have a half-sister to one of the greatest mares in history.
“And while there’s been a little bad luck, she’s done pretty well really. Her first foal ran fourth in a stakes race in five starts. The second died before she could race. Acquaro was said to be Saturday class but had injuries, and now there’s Enriched.
“He’s a big pass mark for the mare, and hopefully the bad luck is out of the way now.”
Aside from that breeding right, and Vinnie being Vinnie, there was some attraction pedigree-wise in sending Miss Atom Bomb to Yarraman’s super sire.
Of all I Am Invincible’s winning crosses, Encosta De Lago (Fairy King) ranks No.1, with ten stakes winners from 49 runners at a powerhouse 20 per cent – three more than second-best Fastnet Rock (Danehill).
Furthermore, Enriched is completely Danehill-free, a boon for anyone looking to breed in Australia.
A couple of bits of trickery are readily apparent in the mating.
Northern Dancer (Nearctic), at 5m x 4m, 5m, is the only name repeated in the first five generations. While he’s ubiquitous, this time could be noteworthy, since it’s through three different sons: Danzig along the sireline; Fairy King in the dam’s sireline; and Voodoo Rhythm, who goes in strongly as Enriched’s third dam’s sire.
The influential 1950s American mare Lalun (Djeddah) is doubled at 7m x 6m through two sons, Never Bend (Nasrullah) in the female half of I Am Invincible’s grandsire Green Desert (Danzig), and Bold Reason (Hail To Reason), the damsire of Encosta De Lago’s sire Fairy King (Northern Dancer).
Further back, the great British mare Selene (Chaucer) appears 16 times in columns eight and nine, thrice in the eighth column at 8m x 8m, 8f – via Hyperion (Gainsborough) in Vinnie’s female half and Encosta De Lago’s paternal top quarter, and the mare New Moon (Solfo) in Encosta’s female half.