Sandhu staying out of any Lofty stallion negotiations for his unbeaten Snitzel colt
Cranbourne trainer focused on Blue Diamond, leaves ‘financial landscape’ to Lofitis
Studmasters are circling unbeaten juvenile Lofty Strike (Snitzel), a colt with a rich two-year-old pedigree, but if a stallion deal is reached before next week’s Blue Diamond Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) the man overseeing the horse’s preparation, Julius Sandhu, is unlikely to know about it.
The Cranbourne trainer confirmed he and his client Paul Lofitis, the owner of Saturday’s Blue Diamond Prelude (Gr 3, 1100m) winner Lofty Strike, had received a series of phone calls from interested parties in the past 48 hours about selling a stake in the son of Golden Slipper-winning filly Overreach (Exceed And Excel).
However, Sandhu was keen yesterday to avoid becoming distracted by any lucrative offers being made for the son of Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice) and he was instead focusing solely on ensuring his stable star was in the best shape possible for Saturday week’s $1.5 million Blue Diamond.
The colt is currently a $6 chance in all-in Blue Diamond markets behind Jacquinot (Rubick), a horse Lofty Strike defeated in the Saturday’s Group 3 contest.
“There’s a few people who have put their hands up and made a few phone calls and left a few messages and the rest, but neither Mr Lofitis or myself have got into any conversations about it just at the minute,” Sandhu told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“We are really focused on preparing him and getting him ready the way we need to to get him to that race (Blue Diamond). That’s the priority at the moment and the peripheral stuff, we will deal with it in time.”
Lofty Strike emerged as a Diamond contender with a win at Flemington over 1100 metres on January 15, which prompted Sandhu to target the Group 1 with his exciting colt.
He backed it up with a one and a quarter length Prelude victory on Saturday, defeating Inglis Banner (RL, 1000m) winner Semillion (Shalaa) into second, while Blue Diamond Preview (C&G) (Listed, 1000m) winner Daumier (Epaulette) finished third.
“I understand the interest and I understand the desire to try and get in and all the rest of it (from studs) but as I said to Mr Lofitis, ‘if you want to engage and figure out bits and pieces, by all means … but I don’t want to get involved in it because I don’t want to be distracted with anything else other than being with the horse’,” Sandhu said.
“My focus is now on him and him only and I need to make sure that when we take him to a race like that, he is 100 per cent spot on. The financial landscape, the discussions and the ‘what ifs’ are all, in my view, distractions from the journey that we are on.
“It’s really never going to be about me because I won’t get involved in that space for now.”
With the value of stallion prospects continuing to skyrocket, stud farms are increasingly making a play for potential sires at a perceived discount prior to them winning a “major” and adding significant financial kickers to a deal if the colts do go on to win a Group 1, such as a Blue Diamond, a Golden Slipper (Gr 1, 1200m), a Golden Rose (Gr 1, 1400m) or Coolmore Stud Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m).
Newgate Farm purchased last year’s Blue Diamond winner Artorius (Flying Artie) after he won Victoria’s premier two-year-old race for a figure believed to be in the vicinity of $12.5 million.
Artorius could retire to the Hunter Valley nursery as soon as this year, while 2020 Blue Diamond winner Tagaloa (Lord Kanaloa) stood his first season at Yulong Stud last year and the first yearlings by 2018 winner Written By (Written Tycoon) have sold up to $410,000 so far this sales season.
Hanseatic (Street Boss), who won the Blue Diamond Preview (C&G) (Listed, 1000m) and the Prelude before finishing runner-up in the Diamond to Tagaloa, also retired to stud last year, standing for a fee of $17,600 (inc GST) at Rosemont in Victoria, where he covered 195 mares.
“(Lofty Strike) is a really big, strong horse. He’s lovely to look at, well put together with beautiful bone structure and he carries himself really, really well and he’s got improvement to come,” Sandhu said.
“I think he’s going to be a better three-year-old than he is a two-year-old and it is scary to think about what he’s doing right now and potentially what lies ahead for him.”
The Corumbene Stud-bred Lofty Strike, who is 3×3 Danehill and 3×3 Snippets, was overlooked by the major colts syndicates and was passed in at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale in 2021.
It was then that Lofitis sensed an opportunity, buying the Corumbene Stud-bred and consigned colt for the asking price of $280,000 and sent him to Hawkesbury breaker Matt Vella.
“We hadn’t paid a lot of attention to him, only because of the fact that on his pedigree and where he was as a type, our feeling was that he was going to make $800,000, $900,000, $1 million, $1.1 or $1.2 million, somewhere in that vicinity,” the trainer said.
“When he was passed-in at $280,000, it was a bit of a shock to myself and Paul. In his view, as he put it, his pedigree was too good and he was too good a type not to pass up.
“There was a bit of an assumption on my part that his (below expectation) price was because he was a declared windsucker at the time.
“But that never bothered me as he never looked like a horse who wasn’t eating. He looked like a horse who would do pretty well in the stable, so I wasn’t too worried about that, and he hasn’t proved me wrong.
“He has a bit of a windsuck, but he puts his head in the feedbin and if I put my arm in there, he’d eat that too.”
Given the manner of Lofty Strike’s last-start win, and his Flemington debut, Sandhu is confident that the colt will appreciate the step up to 1200 metres in the Blue Diamond.
“In hindsight, I shouldn’t have been apprehensive about how he’d go down the straight (at Flemington) because he is one of those big, strong, bulky horses, he really lets down and gives you what he’s got when he straightens up,” he said.
“At Caulfield, he got pushed around the bend and he had to go wide and at that point in time, so you’d be justified in being a bit worried, but the moment he straightens up and balances up, he’s got an enormous turn of foot and he has got plenty to offer.”
As is Sandhu’s meticulous nature, he doesn’t want to get too far ahead of himself but it is so far, so good with Lofty Strike in the days since his Prelude win.
“I just gave him a trot and canter (yesterday) morning and he seems happy enough. He seems bright and sound and he’s eaten well over the weekend,” he said.
“He is a bit up and about, there’s nothing untoward at this point in time, so he looks like he’s come through it well.”