Salty Pearl
A day at Sha Tin in 2013 and strong memories of a grey Tasmanian mare are the plotlines behind breeder David Brideoake’s creation of Salty Pearl (Tagaloa), who claimed another major victory in Saturday’s $500,000 VOBIS Platinum Guineas (1600m) at Caulfield.
Ciaron Maher’s three-year-old filly was already one of the large handful of stakes winners bred by Brideoake – the retired trainer who now concentrates on his breeding hobby – having taken the Moonee Valley Fillies Classic (Gr 2, 1600m) last Cox Plate day. More black type victories look likely in her future.
The latest of eight straight greys dating back to 1941 in her female line, Salty Pearl is from the first crop of young Yulong stallion Tagaloa (Lord Kanaloa), and counts as his top performer just ahead of another 2022 filly in Spicy Lu, the sire’s other stakes winner among 72 runners.
Brideoake is a fan of the Blue Diamond Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) as a proving ground for stallions, hence his respect for Tagaloa, who won Caulfield’s two-year-old feature in 2020.
But behind that lies his admiration for Tagaloa’s Japanese sire Lord Kanaloa (King Kamehameha).
Already with a healthy respect for the Japanese breed, Brideoake was trackside at Hong Kong’s international day in 2013 when Lord Kanaloa – who the year before had become the first Japanese horse to win the Hong Kong Sprint (Gr 1, 1200m) – defended his title in emphatic style, with a five–length win.
“I’ve had some good clients in Hong Kong over the years, and I go up regularly for the international meeting,” Brideoake tells It’s In The Blood.
“I was there to see Lord Kanaloa win his second Hong Kong Sprint, and it was just one of the most awesome wins I’ve ever seen. He just blew them away. To be honest, it made me a little envious of how fast horses can be.”
Brideoake did a lot of breeding alongside his several decades of training.
He bred and trained Griante (Good Journey), who won the 2016 running of The Galaxy (Gr 1, 1100m) at Rosehill to become one of her sire’s only eight Australian stakes winners from 18 crops here. She was also one of three elite-level winners for her trainer, along with another runner by Good Journey in Grand Journey, winner of the West Australian Derby (Gr 1, 2400m) in 2008, and Australasian Oaks (Gr 1, 2000m) queen Princess Jenni (High Chaparral).
Brideoake also bred and trained Self Sense (Street Sense), who won almost $1.5 million in prize-money from 15 career wins – three at stakes level – and Melbourne Group 3-winning mare Thames Court (Commands).
The now 70-year-old eased out of training in the middle of last year, with his operations in that field being absorbed by his daughter Kate and son-in-law Matt Laurie, and is “having fun” dabbling with the three broodmares he keeps at son Tom’s property near Euroa.
In 2019, Brideoake was looking to add to his breeding stock and sniffed out the mare Leaven Of Malice (Sebring), picking her up from the draft of HP Thoroughbreds at the Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale.
A $170,000 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale buy for trainer Paul Perry, she showed great promise in winning by 0.2 lengths on debut at Muswellbrook. But that was all she wrote in 15 starts.
Brideoake acquired her for $14,000 – something of a bargain, especially considering she was in-foal to Japanese shuttler Real Impact (Deep Impact) at the time. Leaven Of Malice ended up slipping that pregnancy, but the lost foal and the moderate track record mattered little to Brideoake.
“She didn’t have the bells and whistles of the typical mares who go through the Gold Coast sale,” Brideoake says. “In no way was she a commercial sort of mare, and that’s been reflected in the prices her yearlings have made. But she was a mare that I liked.
“There’s lots of theories but you’ve just got to go with what you think.
“She had a bit of 1000–metre form and she was by Sebring, and I liked him as a broodmare sire. It’s one of those stories where you take a punt on what I thought was a physically nice specimen. I’d also been a fan of her dam.”
That mare, Tempest Tost (Statue Of Liberty), was by a sire who left only 13 stakes winners from a dozen seasons of shuttling to Australia, although one of them was the desperately unlucky Hay List, who managed three Group 1 wins on the days Black Caviar (Bel Esprit) wasn’t around, to become Statue Of Liberty’s sole elite-level victor.
Tempest Tost kicked off with a second and a win in Hobart, good enough for the rest of her 13 starts to be conducted outside of Tasmania. They included victories at Flemington and Caulfield and, most importantly, in the rich Magic Millions 3YO Trophy (RL, 1400m) of 2009. She also ran fourth in Eagle Farm’s Winter Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m), now the Tatts Tiara.
“I’d been quite a fan of Tempest Tost. She was a really decent racehorse,” Brideoake says. “I saw her race in person quite a few times, including that win at the Gold Coast, and she was a Tassie mare who came across and made the grade pretty well.”
Coincidentally, Tempest Tost went through that same Gold Coast broodmare sale as Leaven Of Malice, for $42,500. The judgment of her buyer – WPN Bloodstock – and of Brideoake was swiftly and strongly validated in the following ten months by her daughter Mildred (Hinchinbrook). Graham Begg’s filly won Flemington’s Maribyrnong Trial Stakes (Listed, 1000m) and Caulfield’s Chairman’s Stakes (Gr 3, 1000m). Mildred then ran third in Randwick’s Reisling Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) before an unplaced run in the Golden Slipper (Gr 1, 1200m).
There was strong blood in the family besides. Tempest Tost was a half-sister to two stakes winners headed by Notoire (Export Price), a five–time black type victor including of the VRC Salinger Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m).
Tempest Tost is also a half-sister to two stakes-producing mares.
Happy with his new mare’s page, and her physical presentation, Brideoake sent Leaven Of Malice to Ilovethiscity (Magic Albert) in 2019, but the mare missed. After returning to him the following year she threw Stormy Malice, who was no success story.
But Brideoake’s next try, with first-season sire Tagaloa, has succeeded in fine style in the shape of Salty Pearl, even if she didn’t make a million as a yearling. A $75,000 Inglis Classic purchase for Maher and Starblue Consultancy, she’s now won three of 12, with seven minor placings, for $886,000 in prize-money earnings.
“Tagaloa was a nice big strapping strong horse, and I thought it would put a bit of size and substance into this Sebring mare, and it worked out pretty well,” Brideoake says.
Tagaloa – who came to Australia in utero via his Japanese dam Vasilissa (Heart’s Cry) – now has ten stakes horses from 72 runners. Two of his runners have come fourth at the top level: Salty Pearl, in Caulfield’s Thousand Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m), and Tambeloa, in the ATC Spring Champion Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m).
Brideoake was impressed by the stallion’s grinding 0.2–length Blue Diamond win after racing on the pace in the Japanese style. He followed with a meritorious fourth in the Golden Slipper, won by Farnan (Not A Single Doubt), and was able to train on for another win at three in Flemington’s CS Hayes Stakes (Gr 3, 1400m).
“A few of these Tagaloas are popping up. I think he’s not a bad horse really,” he says.
“I’m a fan of the Japanese horses. They’ve been a pretty damn good influence on the breed here in Australia, I reckon.
“They’re tough. It’s on-speed racing in Japan, and it’s on pretty firm ground, a bit similar to ours.
“I’ve had a bit of luck with Japanese stallions over the years, and in this case I liked the speed of Lord Kanaloa, and Tagaloa was a good horse to win the Blue Diamond.
“I do read a bit into the Blue Diamond form. It takes a decent horse to win that race. In Melbourne, we’re used to getting them ready on fairly firm ground over the summer before that race. Horses who get through there are extremely sound and are good up and comers, and good early goers.”
Meanwhile, Sebring, who died aged 13 in 2019, is making strides as a broodmare sire. He’s risen to a personal high of 18th on that table in Australia this season – but equal ninth by stakes winners (five) – with Salty Pearl his best performer.
Putting his daughter Leaven Of Malice to Tagaloa threw up two pieces of interesting inbreeding in a largely foreign pedigree heavy on American influence, and of course with strong Japanese notes.
Storm Cat (Storm Bird) – sire of Giant’s Causeway, Hennessy, Black Minnaloushe etc – is there gender balanced at 4f x 4m in handy places, as Lord Kanaloa’s damsire and the father of Statue Of Liberty.
Another US-bred stallion – Halo (Hail To Reason) – is present at 5m x 5m, as Heart’s Cry’s second sire and Sebring’s third.
And an even more influential American – Mr. Prospector (Raise A Native) – is at 5m x 6m, 6f. He’s Tagaloa’s fourth sire, and comes into both sides of Sebring’s pedigree.
Two great American dams have had an influence, with Somethingroyal (Princequillo) there twice in the top half and three times in the bottom from columns seven to nine, through three different offspring, and Flower Bowl (Alibhai) making three appearances at 9m, 7m x 8m, through two sons.
The ever-present Natalma (Native Dancer) is the most repeated mare in the pedigree with 12 mentions, while Nearco (Pharos) holds the male title with 18 spots, two more than Native Dancer (Polynesian).
Brideoake bred a third grey filly out of Leaven Of Malice in She’s Iconnic (Nicconi), a $54,000 Magic Millions Adelaide yearling whose only run so far has been a seventh in Morphettville’s Cinderella Stakes (Listed, 1050m) in February for Jessica Eaton.
That’s the end of Leaven Of Malice’s line, with the mare sadly dying around the birth of her subsequent foal in 2024.
Brideoake will be hoping for more success as a breeder on day two of this year’s Adelaide sale on Friday. Through the draft of Sullivan Bloodstock, he’s offering Lot 387, a colt by Tassort (Brazen Beau) out of Ominous Quality (Elusive Quality), and Lot 395, a colt by Blue Point (Shamardal) out of the stakes-winning Pantenny (Canny Lad).