Tufilli looking for Placid Ark success with homebred filly
Daughter of Deep Field bids to upset the boys as feature races turn to Perth
Black–type racing in Perth begins to heat up today, with a showpiece three-year-old event in the Placid Ark Stakes (Listed, 1200m) shaping as a story of Deep Field (Northern Meteor), two fillies and Nino Tufilli.
Newgate Farm’s surging stallion Deep Field has two key runners in a hot field for the 1200-metres sprint – surprisingly only a Listed race despite its $500,000 purse eclipsing the day’s trio of Group 3s: the $300,000 WA Champion Fillies Stakes for three-year-olds (1600m); and the open–class Colonel Reeves (1100m) and Bob Peters Stakes (1500m), both worth $150,000.
Deep Field sits equal third among Australian sires by stakes winners this season, level with champion sire I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit), on six, behind only Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice) who is on eight, and the late Sebring (More Than Ready) (seven).
With five crops racing, the son of Northern Meteor has finished 16th and 13th on the past two general sires tables by earnings, is currently 13th for the current term, while sharing fourth spot by winners with 54 (from 179 runners), behind leader I Am Invincible’s 73.
And the 12-year-old could add more black type at Ascot today with his runners in the Placid Ark Stakes, with My Bella Mae last night nudging favouritism at around $4.40 and Rumour Says at $6.
The two fillies are rated strong chances of upstaging the boys in the event, particularly the one bred by Two Fillies Stud, the entity of a hobby breeder with a sense of humour, Tufilli.
A minerals analysis executive and son of 1950s Italian immigrants, Tufilli has been breeding horses for a decade, since his wife and co-breeder Tina took him to a friend’s stud farm in 2009 and “I ended up buying three yearlings”. Ownership soon led to a breeding interest, which now numbers five mares, split between east and west coasts.
“It was only ever going to be called Two Fillies Stud. It had to be, with a name like mine,” Tufilli tells ANZ.
He’s bred Echo Effect (Reset), twice stakes-placed in Sydney and Melbourne in 2017, Snitzson (Snitzel), who was third in both the Australian Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) and the Epsom Handicap (Gr 1, 1600m) in 2017, and – in partnership with close associate Dave Metcalfe of the Hunter Valley’s Middlebrook Park Stud – Big Parade (Deep Field), who was last season’s ATC Sydney Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m) winner, and a close second in The Galaxy (Gr 1, 1100m).
“Breeding’s a hobby, though it will probably be my business when I retire,” Tufilli says. “Unfortunately, I tend to keep more horses than I sell.”
That was the case with the Dion Luciani-trained My Bella Mae, though with two wins from two starts, it’s not looking that unfortunate.
Tufilli was on the hunt for a broodmare in-foal to Deep Field, when Metcalfe spotted Mae West (Sir Percy) from Newgate’s consignment at the 2019 Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale. She’d won five times and been placed at Group 3 and Listed level in New Zealand, and was a half-sister to triple stakes-winner Who Dares Wins (Iffraaj). Tufilli secured her for $60,000.
“I liked Mae Wests’s New Zealand pedigree, but it was more about Deep Field than the mare,” Tufilli says. “I’m a big fan of his. I’d had a bit to do with him through Big Parade, and when I actually saw Deep Field I was just blown away by how impressive–looking he was. He’s a monster of a horse, and he seems to be doing the job at the moment, with a couple of nice ones over here too.”
Tufilli had entered the resultant filly for the Inglis Class sale, but after she drew the Highway session he ordered a cross-country voyage, partly also due to the relative scarcity of Deep Fields in the west.
“But when she got here, I just thought, ‘Wow’. She had a great walk, looked very nice, and I just thought I’d up the reserve, and if she didn’t sell, then this would be another one we’d hang onto,” he says. “And then she got a hoof abscess at the sales and couldn’t walk properly anyway, so there wasn’t much interest anyway.”
Passed in at Perth Magic Millions at $70,000 on a $80,000 reserve, and something of a late bloomer, My Bella Mae debuted as a three-year-old last month with an imperious 2.3 length win at Ascot over 1100 metres, and followed with a 1.7 length victory over 1200 metres there last Saturday.
“She’s still doing a few things wrong. She’s still pretty young in the brain, and she can be a bit ‘hot’, which is a bit typical of the breed,” Tufilli says. “She’s got a great turn of foot and all the signs are there, but she tends to get to the front, and then looks around and wonders where her mates are.
“So I don’t think she’s switched on yet as to what it’s all about. But she does show a lot of talent, but I’d be happy with a place in this race, to be honest. There’s so many good horses in it.”
Another is Rumour Says, an $80,000 purchase by young up-and-coming Perth trainer Luke Fernie from last year’s Inglis Ready2Race Sale.
The filly is from an unremarkable female family – out of a Snitzel mare, Wind On Tide, who started once for a second-last at Randwick. But Rumour Says has provided substantial validation for Deep Field by winning her first two at Belmont comfortably in June, before two unlucky Ascot runs as a three-year-old this time in: a third after missing the start over 1000 metres, and a close fifth in the Belgravia Stakes (Listed, 1200m), behind the smart winner of four from five Amelia’s Jewel (Siyouni), when blocked on the way home.
“She’d be favourite for this race if she wasn’t held up for the entire straight that day. She would’ve won very easily had she got out. She’s been set for this race for a long time, so I’m hoping it pays off,” said Fernie, a self-confessed big fan of Deep Field.
“He’s a stallion on the rise and he’s very popular at the minute. I’ve got a couple of other two-year-olds by him coming through now too.”
Fernie also has $11 chance Wild Belle (Pride Of Dubai) in the race, who’s won her past two of three, the latest over 1100 metres at Ascot on Melbourne Cup day by two lengths.
“She’s really smart, and could end up the better of my two runners, but this might be a little too soon at the minute. She hasn’t gone up against the good ones yet,” he said of the filly, an $80,000 bargain purchase from Inglis Easter by his major client Kim Doak, from the triple Melbourne stakes-winning mare Hi Belle (Clangalang)
Fernie himself shapes as a hot young prospect on the rise. Two years after branching alone to Perth from his partnership with father Peter in Kalgoorlie, the 27-year-old rose to sixth on the Perth trainers’ premiership in 2021-22.
It was also a season in which he trained the outstanding Sheeza Belter (Gold Standard) to win two of her first three starts – including Pinjarra’s lucrative Magic Millions 2YO Classic (RL, 1200m) – before her switch east to dual Group 1 glory with Team Snowden.
“Things are starting to take off a bit, which is nice. I didn’t expect it to go as quickly as it is at the moment,” said Fernie, who now has some 70 horses on his books and is one of syndicator Racing Club’s stable of trainers, which also includes Gai Waterhouse-Adrian Bott, Peter Moody and Mick Price.
“The first lot of yearlings I bought came through last year, and all the numbers are starting to flow through, and we’re getting more horses to the track.”
My Bella Mae was vying for Placid Ark favouritism last night with locally-bred Baby Paris (Playing God) from the Colin Webster stable, a winner of four from five including the Placid Ark Prelude (1000m) on October 29.
Fernie also saddles Champion Fillies Stakes (Gr 3, 1600m) favourite Laced Up Heels (Toronado), an $100,000 Inglis Premier purchase out of Exceed And Excel (Danehill) mare A City Girl who effected Amelia’s Jewel’s first defeat last start in the Burgess Queen Stakes (Listed, 1400m).
“She’s very smart,” Fernie said. “The only query is stepping up to the mile, but the way she went from 1000 metres to 1400 metres last time suggests it shouldn’t be a problem. She was quite gross as a two-year-old. We couldn’t get the weight off her, and every time we pushed her along a bit, she’d stick her hand up for the paddock.
“But now she seems be handling it a lot better, maybe with some extra maturity and development, so I’m hoping she’ll run well.”