Lindsay Park’s Little Brose up for grabs, but when?
Hayes’ plan Group 1 spring for Blue Diamond-winning Per Incanto colt
JD Hayes has laid down the welcome mat to stud farms, urging them to express their interest if they are wanting to buy into Lindsay Park’s Blue Diamond Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) winner Little Brose (Per Incanto), one of four juvenile colts to win at the highest level this season.
With Golden Slipper Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) winner Shinzo (Snitzel) and dual Group 1 winner Milatrize (Dundeel) firmly in the hands of Hunter Valley studs Coolmore and Newgate Farm respectively, it leaves rival stallion investors with just JJ Atkins Plate (Gr 1, 1600m) scorer King Colorado (Kingman) and Little Brose on the open market.
The Hong Kong-owned soon-to-be three-year-old Little Brose, who was bred by New Zealander David Wallace and sold at 2022 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale, will step up his preparation ahead of a spring campaign in a jump–out at Flemington tomorrow.
Studs made enquiries about Little Brose in the wake of his Blue Diamond success at Sandown in late February, and before his season-ending midfield performance in the Slipper three weeks later, but as yet no deal has been done with the colt’s owner, Peter Wai Po Young.
Hayes, who trains in partnership with his brother Ben, understands the stud appeal of the Blue Diamond winner, whose own sire, Little Avondale’s Per Incanto (Street Cry), could be sidelined for the entirety of the 2023 breeding season after a recent paddock injury in New Zealand.
“Hopefully Little Brose can further that appeal by having success in the spring,” Hayes told ANZ Bloodstock News yesterday.
“There’s been no [stallion] deal done, but he’s very much on the market, so if studs want to come and negotiate, they’re more than welcome.
“Mr Young, who owns the horse one-out, is a very good man and he is looking forward to racing him in the spring but he’s also open to any deals.”
Lindsay Park and its bloodstock adviser Dean Hawthorne selected the colt from the Sledmere Stud draft on the Gold Coast 18 months ago, paying $200,000 for the colt out of US Listed winner Mohegan Sky (Straight Man), and in his five starts at two he’s earned more than seven times that figure in his five starts since.
Hayes said: “Mr Young took Little Brose at the Gold Coast Yearling Sale with thoughts of bringing him to Hong Kong, but when he won the Group 1 Blue Diamond, we thought we’d try our hand at the spring.”
Little Brose has “strengthened and developed” since he was last seen in public and Lindsay Park has pencilled in the Vain Stakes (Gr 3, 1100m) at Caulfield on August 19 as the colt’s first-up run.
“He has had a look down the straight in his two-year-old campaign [finishing runner-up in the Maribyrnong Plate], so the Coolmore’s on the radar, but so too is the Caulfield Guineas. I think he’s going to be a pretty good miler as well,” Hayes said.
“He’ll be third up into the Caulfield Guineas Prelude and then we’ll see which way we are leaning after that.
“We’d freshen him up [for the Coolmore if the Caulfield Guineas was off the cards].”
Six of the past eight Blue Diamond Stakes winners, prior to Little Brose, are at stud – headed by 2016 scorer Extreme Choice (Not A Single Doubt) – with 2022 winner Daumier (Epaulette) (Twin Hills Stud) and 2021 winner Artorius (Flying Artie) (Newgate Farm) both just six weeks away from starting their maiden seasons in the serving barn.
The 2020 winner Tagaloa (Lord Kanaloa) is at Yulong in Victoria while Widden Stud’s 2018 winner Written By (Written Tycoon) has already sired two stakes winners in his first crop.
Meanwhile, Little Brose’s stablemate, Inglis Banner (RL, 1000m) winner Arkansaw Kid (Harry Angel), who ran third in the Blue Diamond, is also back in training at Lindsay Park’s Euroa facility.
Hayes plans a low–key kick off for the promising colt, identifying a 1000-metre three-year-old race in three weeks’ time.
“He has really done well in his time off, so he’s probably going to look to kick off at the Valley on August 12 and then we’ll start building a plan in the spring with him, but he’s definitely improved from his two-year-old year,” the trainer said.
“He does strike us as more as a 1200-metre to 1400-metre horse, but [what races are] to be determined.”
Fellow rising three-year-old Croatian Belle (Brazen Beau), who won her first two starts at Moonee Valley in December before a tilt at the Magic Millions 2YO Classic (RL, 1200m), is two to three weeks away from jumping out.
“She’s a little bit behind the two boys because she went up [to the Gold Coast] and … we tried to freshen her for the Showdown race worth $1 million, but unfortunately she needed the paddock, so she went out a bit later and she is a few weeks behind them, but she’s coming up really nicely.
“She’ll still be amongst them in the spring.”