OTI seek juvenile success with Blue Diamond contenders

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Elderberry and colt out of South African mare line-up at Sandown today, as Henderson targets mares from African country

The familiar white, navy and yellow-hooped silks of OTI Racing may be better known on racing cup contenders and older horses that boast an element of stamina, but in each of today’s Blue Diamond Preview races for the two-year-old colts and geldings (Listed, 1000m) and fillies (Gr 3, 1000m) at Sandown, the prominent syndicators have strong contenders; precocious juveniles, with each horse sourced from polar opposite ends of the buying spectrum.

In Altruist (Snitzel), who takes his place in the colts and geldings’ version of the Preview, OTI looked to the glitz and glamour of the Inglis Easter sale to make a rare foray into the yearling market and purchase the Arrowfield-consigned $400,000 colt, the most expensive of only a handful of yearlings that the operation has ever signed for at public auction.

In Elderberry (Bolt D’Oro), the hope is the filly will replicate where OTI have found bargain success before – the paddocks of what was formerly Spendthrift Farm.

US-based operation Spendthrift has now disappeared from Australian shores altogether, and, while not yet lost entirely to Australian breeders, the Mick Price and Mick Kent Jnr-trained Altruist is from a waning influence of South African bloodstock, being out of five-time South African Grade 1 winner Carry On Alice (Captain Al).

“We were stimulated to look at [the colt] initially by some friends in South Africa, being out of a brilliant South African mare,” OTI Racing’s Terry Henderson told ANZ Bloodstock News.

“The long and short of it is that after Mick Price had a look at it, the [clients] in South Africa were quite keen on it, and I had a couple of guys here who were interested in a nice colt. So, we bought it and we thought it was pretty well priced at the time.

“It was slightly on the smaller side, quite a short little Sherman tank kind of thing. But he’s actually grown into quite a nice horse.”

Debutant Altruist is a $15 chance for today’s Preview, having jumped out impressively at Sandown a fortnight ago, tracking the leader to the line under a strong hold from Blake Shinn.

The colt’s deep-rooted, black-type South African pedigree is a feature of what Henderson and OTI Racing are seeking out in a bid to find value in what has become a ferociously strong domestic market, targeting well-credentialed fillies and mares to send north to be covered to southern hemisphere time.

OTI landed their first winner in South Africa only earlier this month, as Grade 1 winner Under Your Spell (Capetown Noir) landed a 1400-metre race at Kenilworth – a victory she may not have been afforded if Henderson had his way.

Under Your Spell was due to be taken north to a date with superstar sire Frankel (Galileo), but quarantine and export issues saw her grounded in the southern hemisphere.

For Henderson, the South African breed is one that is severely undervalued by the Australian and global bloodstock market, a factor that led him to securing both Under Your Spell and his promising two-year-old Altriust.

Over the last decade, just 11 horses have been imported to Australia from South Africa, and issues surrounding an outbreak of African Horse Sickness in 2011, compounded by the recent Covid-19 pandemic, have made exporting horses to Europe near impossible in the decade since.

The breed has found success in Australia through horses such as Group 1 winner  In The Congo (Snitzel), who is out of South African Grade 1 winner Via Africa (Var).

“Some people are set against them, but that seems surprising to me because they’re usually quite tough horses,” Henderson said.

“There’s very much value in horses with South African pedigrees in the southern hemisphere.

“I spoke to Mike de Kock about this, and he’s of the same view. He’s really looking forward to the day that he can get horses out of South Africa and get them to Australia, in far easier fashion than what we can get them there at the moment.

“They’re in the same hemisphere and we don’t have the same acclimatisation issues, and they’re pretty tough horses. The way they train them is tough, and they race on pretty good tracks so they’re firm track horses. There are a lot of aspects about buying horses out of South Africa that are positive.

“There’s no doubt the quality, more generally, is better in Australia or France and the UK and Ireland, but the good ones out of South Africa are good horses, and we’re very open to buying more of the better credentialed mares over there.

“If we think a mare has the physical characteristics and a good race record to look like that it’s going to make a nice mare, and with a nice page too, we’ll certainly look at it seriously.”

Elderberry, meanwhile, is the $6 second favourite for the fillies equivalent of the Blue Diamond Preview, having won each of her two jump-outs under the care of Anthony and Sam Freedman.

She is by one-season Spendthrift shuttle sire Bolt D’Oro (Medaglia D’Oro), and the OTI team are hoping to replicate the success of Lady Laguna (Overshare), a two-time juvenile winner and placegetter in the Sweet Embrace Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) and Percy Sykes Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m, who was picked out of the paddock at Spendthrift a year prior to Elderberry.

“The filly has a completely different origin [to Altruist]. Spendthrift were looking to reduce their stock holdings, and they invited us out there to have a look at the horses in the paddock,” Henderson recalled.

“We’ve turned up with three or four of those horses that are going to be city class.

“I’m sorry that they’ve sold, and that opportunity has now gone by, but they were very much opportunistic buys. We bought several fillies, all with reasonable pages, and that’s how we ended up with Elderberry. We all went up there and basically bought them as if we were in a supermarket.”

The filly will be ridden by Ben Melham, the pair jumping from barrier five in the 13-runner race.

“She’s worked very well. Anthony said she was a nutcase when she first arrived down with them, but she’s got a lot of talent. She’s quite hard to assess, but she’s one of the faster two-year-olds we’ve got.

“She had a jump-out down at Mornington where she came from behind and rounded them up.”

However, while both Altruist and Elderberry will be afforded the chance to undergo a Blue Diamond Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) campaign, Henderson feels the pair may be surpassed by another two-year-old in the OTI stable.

Named Nescaffier, the Matthew Dunn-trained son of Lope De Vega (Shamardal) won a trial with ease at the Beaudesert on January 16, and will be kept under wraps for a potential JJ Atkins Plate (Gr 1, 1600m) campaign. He was passed in as a yearling with a reserve of $300,000.

“It looks a very impressive horse. He had his first trial last week and won easily. He’ll have another jump-out next week and then it’ll be off to the races

“He’s bred a little more stoutly, but looks like a horse, as many of these good middle distance horses do, that would sprint very well.

“We’ve avoided the glamorous sprinting two-year-old races because he’ll only get better as we approach the end of the season.”

The first foal out of the unraced Baileya (Cacique), herself a half-sister to Melbourne Cup (Gr 1, 3200m) winner Fiorente (Monsun), there is a half-sister to Nescaffier by Pierro (Lonhro) that will sell under the Twin Hills Farm draft at this year’s Inglis Easter yearling sale. The star-studded catalogue also features a full sister to Altruist within the Arrowfield draft.