Family bloodlines run deep for the Beggs
Hall of Fame trainer turned breeder Neville Begg OAM is hopeful a family that is particularly close to his heart can continue its extraordinary run of success on Saturday when Royal Insignia (Written Tycoon) shoots for a fourth straight win the CS Hayes Stakes (Gr 3, 1400m).
The $3,000 Begg paid at the 2007 Inglis Scone Yearling Sale for Royal Insignia’s dam Yau Chin (Tobougg), who sadly died earlier this year, heralded the start of a remarkable story which could be further enrichened at Flemington where Royal Insignia bids for back-to-back stakes victories for Begg’s son Grahame.
The valuable colt, set to be ridden by Craig Williams due to regular rider Jamie Mott’s suspension, is the brother to Written By (Written Tycoon), the 2018 Blue Diamond Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) hero who was bred and raced by Team Begg and has made a promising start to his career as a stallion with Widden Stud.
Yau Chin was recently buried at Widden, however her rich legacy looks set to continue with her filly by Capitalist (Written Tycoon), acquired by China Horse Club at last year’s Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale, and her final foal – a sister to Begg’s stakes–winning mare C’est Magique (Zoustar) – born at Widden last spring.
Begg snr, who recently celebrated his 94th birthday, admits Yau Chin’s ascension to the great paddock in the sky left him feeling understandably bereft. But just days later, Royal Insignia provided a very timely tonic when he made a winning return to action in the Manfred Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m) at Sandown.
That sealed a hat-trick for the flashy chestnut, who will now attempt to extend his picket fence when he steps up to 1400 metres for the first time on Saturday. Should he pass his most significant test to date with flying colours, a pair of elite-level contests over the Flemington mile – the Australian Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) and the All-Star Mile (Gr 1, 1600m) – loom on the horizon.
More immediately, however, Royal Insignia will strive to justify favouritism in a race named in honour of one of Begg’s old adversaries from his training days, one Colin Sidney Hayes.
“He’s a lovely colt with a sharp turn of foot, so he’s definitely going in the right direction but it’s a strong field on Saturday so this is definitely his hardest test to date,” said Begg, who has been fully immersed in the racing industry since the tender age of 14.
“He’s never raced over anything further than 1200 metres and he’s never been to Flemington before either, so they are two pretty big unknowns but I do think he’ll be suited by both the track and the trip.
“Jamie [Mott] rode him in work on Tuesday morning, and he was very pleased with how he went. I’m also quite pleased with barrier nine, because I would worry about him getting cluttered up on the fence if he’d drawn a low gate.
“So we’re feeling reasonably confident, but he’ll have to prove himself on Saturday for us to entertain serious thoughts of going to the Australian Guineas. He’s not necessarily bred to get over a mile, but if he’s hitting the line strongly on Saturday then the Guineas would obviously come into our thoughts.”
Begg freely admits that, not wishing to be an overly officious owner, he is more than happy to leave any race programming in the very capable hands of his son, who boasts a notable recent strike–rate of 14 wins and 16 minor placings from his last 50 runners.
That exemplary record could well be embellished on Saturday when his progressive mare Miraval Rose (Grunt) lines up in the Frances Tressady Stakes (Gr 3, 1400m), and his exciting filly Cilacap (Written Tycoon) aims for an emotional win in the Desirable Stakes (Listed, 1400m) following the recent death of her co-owner, Quiksilver founder Alan Green.
The fact that Begg jnr sits inside the top five of the Victorian Metropolitan Trainers’ Premiership – above the likes of Mick Price and Michael Kent jnr, Trent Busuttin and Natalie Young, Peter Moody and Katherine Coleman and Danny O’Brien – is testament to his talent and his ability to get the very best out of the equine artillery at his disposal.
While he still has some way to go to match the training feats of his famous father, who registered 139 stakes wins, there is no disguising the pride in Begg snr’s voice when asked to assess his son’s recent achievements.
“Grahame is going along quite nicely at the minute,” he said with typical understatement.
“He’s got a lovely stable of horses, he’s placing them very well and getting some great results. I can’t take much of the credit for that, he’s his own man and does things his way, but I’d like to think he had a pretty good grounding with us.
“He travelled everywhere with our star mare Emancipation when she won a string of Group 1s in the early 1980s, he did a great job with her and I’m sure that would have sparked his ambition to become a trainer himself one day.”
Begg snr officially hung up his binoculars in 1996, following a six-year stint in Hong Kong, and although he was happy to forsake the early starts he does still miss the daily contact with finely tuned equine athletes.
These days, he devotes much of his time to pedigree matching, and although nothing quite beats the excitement of training a Group 1 winner – something he managed on no fewer than 39 occasions – he still derives enormous satisfaction from the breeding game.
“Even though I’m not as mobile as I used to be, I still try to get out to the sales when I can,” he told ANZ Bloodstock Media.
“I got out to the Inglis sales for one day, I had a small nibble but didn’t come home with anything which my family were probably happy with, because they think I’ve got too many horses as it is.
“But it keeps me young, and I love looking at pedigrees and trying to come up with the right formula for breeding our next good horse. We’ve been fortunate enough to breed some Group 1 winners, starting with Hit It Benny who won the Doomben 10,000 the year after Manikato won the race, and he also won The Galaxy.
“Then we had Bonanova, who won a number of big races when she was trained by Grahame, including the old Mackinnon Stakes in the late 1990s. Of course more recently we bred Written By, and now hopefully Royal Insignia can follow in his footsteps.”
Royal Insignia was conceived when Written Tycoon was standing at Arrowfield Stud, before the elder statesmen made his return to Victoria in his twilight years to become Yulong’s banner stallion.
While Yau Chin’s demise means the mating cannot be repeated and so signalled the end of that particular era, it would be quite some achievement if Royal Insignia – or indeed any of her progeny – were to join Written By in the Group 1 club.
“The mare was such a magnificent producer for our family, all her foals have won a race so from fairly humble beginnings as a $3,000 purchase, she has certainly exceeded all expectations,” said Begg.
“Her daughter Take A Selfie has also made a promising start as a broodmare, her mating with Toronado produced Perfect Picture who is likely to be heading towards the Angus Armanasco Stakes at Caulfield on Saturday week. And we have the full-sister to take to the Inglis Easter Sale, so if Perfect Picture could add a stakes win or placing to her CV, it would give us a very timely pedigree update.
“It was obviously very sad when we lost Yau Chin, but the staff at Widden did an amazing job with her towards the end. The bones in her feet were causing her a lot of pain and in the end she couldn’t comfortably bear her weight, so we had no choice other than to put her down. But she was cared for so well right up until the end, which gave us a lot of comfort. She had an amazing record as a broodmare, and hopefully there’s still a few more chapters to be written yet.”