Xciting times ahead for for Seymour Bloodstock despite sad Sydney tale
Melbourne stakes winner for Newhaven’s Xtravagant and cup hopefuls unearthed at Valley
It was hard for Mark Pilkington and Darren Thomas to ponder the spring ahead, but the maiden stakes win by young stallion Xtravagant (Pentire) and the emergence of two potential cups contenders at Moonee Valley should have them excited what is to come for their Seymour Bloodstock operation.
The McKenzie Stakes (Listed, 1200m) win by lightly raced homebred three-year-old He’s Xceptional (Xtravagant) and the quinella in the Tony Gulliver Handicap (1600m) with Floating Artist (Nathaniel) and Coolth (Dundeel) in Melbourne was sadly overshadowed by the shock death of Brandenburg (Burgundy) in Sydney.
The John Sargent-trained Brandenburg, a $1.25 million earner who adorned the Seymour Bloodstock colours, came to grief in the Winx Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m) at Randwick which soured Pilkington and Thomas’ day.
Reflecting yesterday, Pilkington said “the extremes are severe, that’s for sure”.
“It was only during the day that I was sitting on the couch feeling sorry for all the connections of Xtremetime, the horse of Joe O’Neill’s (who died in the Silver Shadow Stakes), then it happened to us,” Pilkington told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“The saving grace is that the jockeys are OK. I know Sarge, all of his staff and Rachel (King, jockey) were gutted. She had a good affiliation with him. She won the Hobartville on him and she thought he was going to run right into the race, but none of that really matters.”
Brandenburg already had a paddock reserved for him at Thomas’ property in the Adelaide Hills of South Australia when the five-year-old’s racing career was over before tragedy struck.
“We retired He’s Our Rokkii who won the Toorak for us … and he’s got a great retirement up there and that’s the sadness, that Brandenburg won’t be able to go up there and join him,” he said.
“That is the brutal side of racing. It is just sad.”
Xtravagant has X-factor
While downcast about the loss of Brandenburg, Pilkington was more upbeat about the Listed win of the Trent Busuttin and Natalie Young-trained He’s Xceptional, a gelding bred by Seymour Bloodstock who is by the Newhaven Park sire Xtravagant, a stallion Thomas and Pilkington have a share in.
“He wasn’t an expensive horse but he had something about him. We were chuffed that they allowed us to stay in him for a piece. He races in the colours of Trevor Luke, who has had a lot of success with Trent and Natalie.
“We didn’t quite celebrate the win as hard as others as it was an empty win for us, but there were so many people excited about him.”
He’s Xceptional, the third foal out of She’s A Danica (Sebring), was bought by agent Jim Clarke for $40,000 from the Newhaven Park draft at last year’s Inglis Classic Yearling Sale, is the result of Seymour Bloodstock stepping up its breeding interests in 2017.
“We are only really just getting into the breeding side. In our first crop we had Performer, who won the Breeders’ Plate, so then we got a little bit bigger, and the three-year-old crop that He’s Xceptional’s from, we’ve also had that horse Red Hawk, the Deep Field that won his debut by six last week for the McEvoys, so it is very encouraging that we are going about it the right way.
“They are running and winning, which is pleasing, and we’ve got a share in a Kiwi stallion Xtravagant, the sire of He’s Xtravagant, so we are thrilled for the Newhaven guys.
“That is where we keep all of our horses in NSW and that is where Brandenburg used to spell. They grew him out from the time he was a foal, so it was sad for them, too.”
What is next for He’s Xceptional has not yet been decided but Pilkington believes a 1400-metre race could determine the gelding’s longer-term future.
“We will see how he comes through the run, but his next start will probably be over 1400 metres somewhere and that will dictate where he will go to from there,” he said.
“Whether he is freshened up as a nice high-pressure six–furlong horse or whether he stretches out to a mile, I’m not sure.
“He’s an exciting type for them and it looks like they’ve got a nice bracket of young horses, including another one we bred called Semper Fortis. He is by Tavistock – he’s a very promising horse as well.”
Although He’s Xceptional started at $31 in the McKenzie Stakes, the win was not a total surprise to connections after he showed talent at two, winning at Cranbourne in March which preceded consecutive Melbourne placings before a narrow fifth in the Breeders’ Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m) in Adelaide in April at his final start as a juvenile.
Pilkington believes the Listed win of He’s Xceptional augurs well for Xtravagant’s future as a stallion.
“We also bought into another Xtravagant called Lavish Girl (who won at Pakenham on August 3). Ciaron Maher bought her off the Kellys at Newhaven,” he said.
“We might be a tad biased, but we’re hopeful that when we are breeding horses that they can race on until they are five and six.
“We don’t want their careers to finish at the end of the three-year-old season. They are the sort of horses we try to breed, buy and race and get some sustained racing for their owners.”
She’s A Danica has an unnamed two-year-old sister to He’s Xceptional who is in training with Tony and Calvin McEvoy while the mare will be covered by Leneva Park’s first season sire Fierce Impact (Deep Impact) this year.
“Tony McEvoy and Damon Gabbedy of Belmont Bloodstock bought her for $150,000 at the Melbourne Premier Yearling Sale this year. They say she’s broken in really well and they’re thrilled with her,” he said.
“The mare’s due to foal to Xtravagant again and this year she’s going to the horse we raced and retained shares in, Fierce Impact.
“It’s nice if you can make a few pages, so winning a Listed race was well done by Trent and Natalie.”
Stayers on path to cups
A snapshot of Seymour Bloodstock’s Caulfield Cup (Gr 1, 2400m) and Melbourne Cup (Gr 1, 3200m) chances was witnessed earlier on the Moonee Valley card when the Ciaron Maher and David Eustace-trained Floating Artist held off Coolth in a Benchmark 78 Handicap (1600m).
Floating Artist, who was having his second start in Australia after winning twice from ten starts in the UK, is out of a half-sister to the dam of 2018 Melbourne Cup winner Cross Counter (Teofilo).
It is that connection which led to Seymour Bloodstock buying into the gelding who was bought by Blandford Bloodstock and Ciaron Maher Racing for 95,000gns at the 2020 Tattersalls Autumn In Training Sale.
“At that time of the day, things couldn’t get much better, and we were very excited,” Pilkington said.
“He is actually a close relation to Close Counter who won the Cup. A couple of years ago we bought a mare, a half-sister to Cross Counter (called Bali Beach), so I was always following Floating Artist.
“I thought he was a beauty. I tried to buy him for a lot of money privately, then he ended up in the (Tattersalls) Horses in Training Sale and (Maher’s bloodstock manager) Will Bourne identified him with their overseas agents and they bought him, so we jumped into him straight away. I think he will just get better over ground.”
Pilkington hopes the patience displayed by connections with Coolth, a $180,000 Melbourne Premier graduate, can also pay off with the recently turned five-year-old who burst onto the scene with back-to-back wins in South Australia as a late three-year-old.
“We offered a lot of money for him after his first couple of exciting wins and we thought he had a bit of x-factor about him. He was still very green and raw, so we took a long-term view,” Pilkington said.
“Even when we put him out last prep he was still quite lowly rated. He’s out of a half-sister to Viewed who won the cup and he’s by Dundeel, so he’s bred to get (a cup distance).
“He’s a big lump of a thing, so we thought we will just try and run him through his classes and if he’s going well enough he’ll invite us to cups. If not, then next year we’ll get him out to his trips where he can race sustainably at mile and a half and beyond. It was exciting to see him hit the line yesterday.”
While Seymour Bloodstock’s portfolio has a number of racing stock and broodmares such as Luvaluva (Mastercraftsman), her mother Wansesingyee (Galileo) and Dancing Heather (Danzero), the dam of Group 2 winner Heatherly (Lonhro), under the guidance of Pilkington the pair have also bought into stallions Xtravagant, Fierce Impact and fellow Levena Park stallion Royal Meeting (Invincible Spirit).
“We realise it is bloody hard to get it right and we really admire the big studs for having to go out and pay a lot of money for the big highly credentialed horses, but they can come from anywhere,” he said.
“The thing with those three, Royal Meeting, Fierce Impact and Xtravagant, is that they are all Group 1 winners, they are no flukes.
“They have got good pages and we put a bit of thought into our matings, so we’d like to think they have a chance.”
The modus operandi of Seymour Bloodstock allows it to take an, at times, less commercial approach in the search of breeding or buying quality racehorses.
“As a racing and breeding operation, we’re not confined to the latest market trends and whims. We put some into the market, and we sold some really well, which is terrific … but we primarily look through the prism of a racer-breeder,” Pilkington said.
“So, we aim to breed horses who race on. The sad tale of Brandenburg is that we’ve been patient with him. We’d been tempted to run him in Derbies and the like as a young horse, but we didn’t because we wanted to see him racing as an older horse without too many miles on the clock.
“It’s a quirk of fate, a tragic racing accident, that it hasn’t come to fruition but that’s the way it rolls.”