Exception to the rule Roots could race on next season
Mills’ private purchase Press Statement mare chasing breakthrough Tiara win
Roots (Press Statement) will seek an elusive Group 1 win in the Tattersall’s Tiara (Gr 1, 1400m) at Eagle Farm on Saturday but her appearance in the last elite–level race of the Australian season shouldn’t necessarily be considered her career swansong.
The rising six-year-old dual Group 2-winning mare, who is owned by the commercial breeding and racing syndicate of Sheamus Mills, Heath Newton and Anthony Roberts’ Chesapeake Thoroughbreds, was runner-up in last year’s running of the race and will be looking to go one better this time round.
Bloodstock agent Mills said connections will weigh up racing Roots on for another season after the Tiara, with a decision heavily influenced by her trainer Chris Waller’s insight into the relatively lightly raced mare and the merits of delaying her career at stud.
“You would think another year might be unlikely, but I don’t know, we will just play it by ear a little bit,” Mills told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“We’ve got a few nice fillies and mares going to stud this year and a pretty good broodmare band in place. I wouldn’t go another year just for the sake of having a runner, but certainly if she ran really well, and she has always been a beautifully sound horse, there’d be some chance that we’d go another year.
“I guess I’d be guided by Chris a little bit, too. In most cases, he’d say, ‘this is their time, etc’, but she’s been so sound and it’s something we’d consider with her as an exception to the rule potentially.”
Bought privately by Mills and his partners earlier in her career, Roots has fallen short of Group 1 level on five occasions, her best achievement being last year’s Tatt’s Tiara second.
She has also travelled the width and breadth of the country, heading to Perth last November for the Railway Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) and to Adealide in April for the Robert Sangster Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m).
Roots has not raced since her Adelaide assignment and she subsequently returned to Waller’s Rosehill stables and finished unplaced in a 1050-metre Randwick trial on May 31 before being sent north to the premier trainer’s Gold Coast base.
“She clearly races best when fresh and, one thing we’ve found is, she’s not a great traveller,” Mills revealed.
“She excels once she’d had a bit of time, but she puts up the white flag again with regards to eating straight off the truck.
“When we took her to Perth and when we took her to Adelaide, she didn’t eat for the first 48 hours or so, so she just takes a little bit of time to settle in.
“She ran really well in Queensland last year, but the difference there is, Chris has a stable up there and she heads up there two to three weeks before the race.
“In both Adelaide and in the Railway, she basically raced off the truck. That was the difference.”
The Mills-led cohort of race fillies and mares, the majority of who are trained by Mick Price and Michael Kent Jnr, has him excited about next season – whether Roots forms part of that group or not.
Australasian Oaks (Gr 1, 2000m) winner Vibrant Sun (The Autumn Sun) and fellow rising four-year-old Charm Stone (I Am Invincible), the latter a Group winner at both two and three, lead the pack.
Vibrant Sun is likely to tackle the $10 million Golden Eagle (1500m) third-up.
“We’ll aim to keep her as a high-cruising speed miler, so I think we’ll try to sneak her through a couple of mares’ races into a Golden Eagle,” Mills said.
“They’re only four once and that prize-money is insane and we just feel that she’s a horse who is going to maintain a gallop really well.
“I would hope that we’ll be able to stretch her out in future, but she showed third-up at 2000 metres that she doesn’t need a huge amount of galloping. If she came back really, really well we might entertain a Toorak into the Golden Eagle, but I think the Toorak can be a little bit of a mares’ graveyard.”
Percy Sykes Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) winner Kristilli (Hellbent), a $925,000 purchase by Mills at last month’s Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale, will also be given her chance to shine during the spring, joining her new stablemates Charm Stone and Vibrant Sun at Price and Kent Jnr’s Cranbourne stable.
Meticulous planner Mills, however, hasn’t locked in any set programme for Kristilli, a rising four-year-old who was previously trained by Annabel Neasham.
She was placed in the Light Fingers Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) in February before finishing ninth in the Surround Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m). She then hit back-to-back heavy tracks at Randwick at Group 3 level when unplaced prior to her sale on the Gold Coast.
“Kristilli, we have to find out a bit more about her and where she’ll fit in as a four-year-old mare,” Mills said.
“That’s been a constant over the years, hasn’t it? It gets harder coming back as a four-year-old.
“Three-year-old old company can be a little protected, so you need to reestablish yourself as a four-year-old.”
As for Charm Stone, who had a bone chip removed from a knee after the Golden Rose, Mills said: “It feels a little unfair on Charm Stone not being a Group 1 winner yet, but it’s an exciting sort of time [with her heading into the spring].”