news

A Sebring Quinella in the $1 Million Ferrari Magic Millions Trophy

Mark Smith – Breednet – Saturday January 11

Widden Stud’s late, great Sebring went 1-2 in Saturday’s $1 Million Ferrari Magic Millions Trophy but there was a dominant winner in the John Thompson-trained Primitivo.
With Glenn Boss having his first ride on the honest 5yo gelding, Primitivo came clear in the closing stages to defeat the Chris Waller-trained Black On Gold by one and three-quarter lengths with the Tony Gollan-trained A Man To Match a short-neck back in third.

“He had a lovely run it chopped and changed a little in the middle but we were always in a strong position he was in a great rhythm breathing beautifully very relaxed,” Boss said.

“At the half mile once I got out off the fence I knew the race was his.

“The Candy Man is a hell of a horse but I knew he had 61 where we had 54 so we got going early and he was way too good.”

Winning trainer John Thompson said Boss had made the difference.

“All credit to the horse he’s incredibly clean winded and tends to go well on the fresh side, so the step up in distance wasn’t a real worry.”

“Eleven out of ten ride from Bossy. If you watch the replay you can just see him thinking the whole way it made a big difference.”

“It’s been a good week, I bought a couple including another Sebring like this guy.”

– Primitivo as a yearling

A $105,000 purchase by DGR Thoroughbred Services out of the Turangga Farm draft at the 2016 MM Gold Coast Yearling Sale, Primitivo advances his record to 4 wins, 6 seconds and 3 thirds from 21 starts with earnings of $830,810.

A half-brother to four winners including the stakes-placed Quest For Peace (Hard Spun), Primitivo is out of the imported Coronado’s Quest mare Classic Quest (USA) a half-sister to the dam of the Group III winner and Group 1-placed Lemon Pretty (Scat Daddy).

Classic Quest (USA) has a yearling colt by Your Song in the Turangga Farm draft headed to the Inglis Classic Yearling Sale.

Absolute peach ride from @boss_glen on Primitivo to win $1M Trophy Quality Hcp.@mmsnippets

Grown Up & Carif

11th November 2019

With the major spring carnival over our spring contenders have grown in stature as a result. Yearling purchases like Battenburg became a new name running third in the Gr1 Spring Champion Stakes at only his fourth career start. Fellow 3yo Craftmanship won the Listed Hill Smith Stakes in Adelaide on the same day, that was his fourth career start also. Battenburg met at their next start on Cox Plate day in the Gr3 Vase running fifth and sixth. Also on Cox Plate day, Ballistic Boy ventured down from his Eagle Farm base to run a great Fourth in the new Million Dollar Bondi Stakes at Randwick. The previous day Stick ‘Em up was forced to venture to the nation’s Capital Canberra to race after several of her scheduled engagements where abandoned meetings. She handled her first attempt at 2000m with aplomb beating older horses well in the process. All of these were 3yo’s however earlier the same week 4yo Into The Abyss ventured back into Stakes company in Victoria after her demolition win in Sydney. She ran a creditable third at Listed level at Geelong.

Craftmanship & Stick ‘Em represented us in the feature spring classics for the boys & girls in the Gr1 VRC Derby & Oaks at Flemington. Both came up a bit short both running 8th with some handy prizemoney and both off limited prior racing. Autumn should be a good space for them. On Derby day at the provincials La Grisa took a big step to a promising career with a commanding win in her third career start and first attempt at in the middle distance range. Other to run places off limited career starts in this period included Instant Attraction & She’ So Savvy.

Homebreds ran well too. Brunetta providing an authoritative much deserved win in provincial Sydney after a string of placings on Melbourne Cup Day. Cup Day in metropolitan Sydney saw a solid second at Randwick by To Your Health. But of all “homebreds” very special mention must go to the lightly raced stayer Carif. Throughout this window he pressed and furthered his claim towards the 2020 Melbourne Cup with a provincial win, 5th at weight for age in the Gr2 Hill Stakes, 2nd in the $500,000 ATC St Leger then to Flemington for 2nd Gr3 Hotham Hcp and backing up and rounding out his spring campaign with a further 2nd in the Gr3 Queen Elizabeth Stakes. In all three of those staying handicaps it took three different Northern Hemisphere bred and raced rivals to beat him. To call Carif simply a Homebred is slightly belittling. He was indeed bred by his owners, the Late Dato’ Tan Chin Nam & spritely octogenarian Tunku Ahmad Yahaya, but he is the product two former yearling purchases who won 12 group 1 races between them and claimed divisional Horse Of The Year Titles themselves in the mighty So You Think and Champion 3yo filly Norzita. Watch this space as Carif will mount a defence of the Cups’ against the foreign horses in the same vein as 2019 Melbourne Cup winner Vow And Declare.

Battenburg was spelled after his run at Moonee Valley as have now many of those mentioned above.

Spring Growth

10th September 2019
With Spring comes new growth and as we ease into Spring 2019 some new horses are emerging for DGR and associates. Three Year Old Profit by Dundeel from Opportunity is unbeaten in his two career starts thus far. While he is yet to become a “Profit” in prizemoney terms and it is far from a Done Deal that he will, but he certainly has the opportunity to do so.
Ref: Breednet https://www.breednet.com.au/news/8050/derby-dreamer-for-dundeel

Fellow Dundeel 3yo Mystery Trick also won on debut in August weeks and while he found the Group 3 Ming Dynasty a bridge to far at his subsequent start, he too will have an opportunity to so in the Autumn having been put away by his trainer Bjorn Baker for now.

Yet another Dundeel for our connections, the cutely named 3yo filly Stick ‘Em Up, out of Shoot Fer Love a half sister to Grupo 1 her Shoot Out, has started to show some staying potential with a nice third placing last start over 1500m. The further the better for this filly into spring.

Not every horse we race is by super stallion Dundeel. Another 3yo filly who will appreciate more distance is last start placed daughter of Nicconi called Wurnic, doing so this last Sunday hailing from the growing association with Anderson Heathcote stable.

Some interesting unraced or lightly raced three olds around our team by stallions such as Reliable Man, Redoutes Choice, Smart Missile & Iffraaj are warming up via barrier trials for various trainers while yet another fellow 3yo called Craftmanship, by Savabeel this time, in the care of the Price Kent Jnr stable won when resuming in Melbourne on the first day of Spring. He too will have his opportunity going forward from his two career starts to date.

Not restricted to just our three year olds, we are looking forward with some optimism with our group performing four years olds like Purple Sector and Carif this spring.

A Champion Result

Friday 4th May’s Chairman’s Sale at Inglis Riverside saw the sale of “NORZITA” to John Messara’s Arrowfield Stud for $1.7m. A poignant moment for DGR she was offered as one of the last core breeding assets of the estate of the Late Dato’ Tan Chin Nam. Sold in foal to Snitzel, Norzita was purchased by DGR for her racing owners Dato’ Tan Chin Nam’s Think Big Stud and Tunku Ahmad’s Westcode Pty Ltd for NZ$200,000 at the 2010 New Zealand Karaka Premier Yearling Sales.

Norzita raced twelve times winning 4 of those occasions including the Group 1 ATC Flight Stakes in the spring of 2012 and the Group 1 ATC Storm Queen Stakes Gr1. She was never unplaced at stakes level, she was first past the post in the Group 2 Tea Rose Stakes only to lose it in the stewards room and she closed out her three year old career running third in the Group1 ATC Doncaster Stakes to males Sacred Falls & Pierro, who are both now at stud as stallions themselves. This consistent dominant performance saw her crowned 2012/13 Australasian Champion 3yo Filly.

By our records Norzita became at least the fourth Champion 3yo Filly procured by DGR after Danendri, Dashing Eagle & First Seal. Faint Perfume achieved the same accolade, but she was bred in partnership by Dato’ from daughter of the aforementioned Danendri, but will still feel we have our fingerprint on that filly also.

Norzita has started her own breeding career off soundly with her 3yo son Carif winning his maiden in track record time, posting a fourth at Group 2 level in April 2019 at his sixth start with aspirations of better things to come from him. Carif is by our ten time Group 1 winning Champion So You Think who also came from the same sale ring as Norzita, but for NZ$110,000 in 2008.

Norzita’s 2yo called Confidant is at the time of writing unbeaten in two Flemington Jump Out Trials so we at DGR have much to look forward to watching Norzita and be proud about.

Legacy Updates Continue

The legacy of Dato’ Tans support updates yet again. We commented during 2018 and again in a post in January 2019 about winning combinations and successful progeny bred from racehorses initially purchased by DGR as yearlings such as Krone (Eurozone/Soft Landing), Tivaci (ex Breccia),Emperors Way (Roman Emperor/Laylia) but 2018 ended with our pinnacle success for breeding with SKY BOY winning five in a row and the Villiers Group 2 on 15th December putting him on top of the individual metropolitan wins table (source Racenet) for the season. The unbeaten MYSTERY LOVE adds the recent Bendigo Guineas Listed to the tally.

She is another stakes winner for her sire Eurozone purchased by DGR as a yearling to race for the late Dato’ Tan & Partners. Her dam Free Thinking was bred by Dato’ being by his beloved Pendragon, purchased as a yearling by DGR out of an off the track broodmare purchased for Dato’ as we set his then new Think Big Stud property in the southern highlands. That mare leash is now also the grandam of the $2m earner HOUTZEN.

January Yearling Sales Activity 2019

With over 1500 yearlings cataloged in the premium sessions of the Magic Millions & New Zealand Karaka Yearling Sales in January, DGR has kept up traction in the frantic competitive pace of the sales circuit purchasing 5 yearlings at both sales in total, some in combination with our new “stable” of trainers including Chris Anderson, Anthony Cummings, Mick Price & John Sargent so far.

These new additions we hope will be the topic of treasured memories in the years to come like many of our previous acquisitions. Positions in some of these yearlings currently remain available. Info via the individual links –

• Magic Millions Lot 303 bay filly Not A Single Doubt – Zarakiysha $210,000
• Magic Millions Lot 341 bay filly Smart Missile – Aloona $360,000
• Magic Millions Lot 793 bay colt Vancouver – Messenger $140,000
• NZ Karaka Lot 146 bay colt Tavistock – Lady Kipling NZ$230,000
• NZ Karaka Lot 560 bay colt Tavistock – Alluring Belle $150,000