*Article by Keely Mckitterick for TTR Aus NZ
Vinery Stud mainstay Kate Curran achieved a milestone on Saturday as a breeder when the Curran family-bred galloper Strait Acer (Headwater) won his fourth race from nine starts. The Thoroughbred Report interviewed Curran to learn more about this exciting chapter.
Although there were no Group 1 races on the Randwick card on Saturday, there was a plethora of stakes racing and winners that looked to have plenty of upside.
Among those in the plenty-of-upside category was the Edward Cummings-trained Strait Acer, a son of the Vinery Stud-based Headwater.
The 4-year-old was an impressive 3.30l victor of the opening race on the Randwick program - Midway H.
It was the fourth victory overall from just nine career starts for Strait Acer and the second consecutive success for the gelding, who won in similar conditions at Rosehill last start.
Curran family
It was like winning the lotto for Kate Curran and the Curran family.
“It was a very exciting Saturday. We certainly didn’t think from our little homebred mare that we’d ever see a day like yesterday,” Curran told TTR AusNZ.
“It was a really fantastic result.”
Curran bred Strait Acer and sold him for $20,000 to Rathden Bloodstock Services, WBF Thoroughbreds, at the 2020 Inglis Sydney Weanling Sale. He was sold for $25,000 to R Wade at the 2021 Inglis Ready2Race Sale.
November will mark the 10th year that Curran has worked for Vinery Stud.
“I am the assistant stud manager to David White. I assist him with running the stud, but I oversee all the broodmares and foaling unit and just keep my eye on that for Dave while he’s busy doing the stallions and yearlings.
“It gets quite busy, so we have to divide and conquer.”
Where it began
The story begins with Strait Acer’s grandam Honey Moss, a daughter of Royal Academy (USA) and a three-quarter sister to Piccadilly Circus (Royal Academy {USA}), the dam of Fastnet Rock.
Curran, whose love for the horse is evident from the moment she speaks, begins to get emotional about the mare, Honey Moss, who laid the foundations for Strait Acer.
“When I was a teen, I worked part-time at a stud called Emerald Thoroughbreds, and there was a mare named Honey Moss who lived at the farm, and I fell in love with her from the get-go,” Curran told TTR AusNZ.
“When I was a teen, I worked part-time at a stud called Emerald Thoroughbreds, and there was a mare named Honey Moss who lived at the farm, and I fell in love with her from the get-go.” - Kate Curran
“I ended up leaving Emerald Thoroughbreds and the opportunity arose to purchase Honey Moss; she was entered at an Inglis sale in 2012. “By that stage, Honey Moss was quite old, and she was empty. But we purchased her for $1200, which was fantastic. I was delighted. With her being an old mare, we knew that the chances of her getting in foal and keeping it were slim, but we sent her down to Victoria to be served by Wanted; given she was closely related to Fastnet Rock, we wanted to breed something along those lines. “The result of that union was Money Wanted, the dam of Strait Acer. We figured we would probably get another foal or two from her, so we didn’t retain Money Wanted then. “I started working at Vinery and Honey Moss came with me to live at Vinery. We put her in foal to Pluck in 2016, and quite devastatingly, she had a catastrophic bleed about a month before she was due to foal. It was not something we could save her or the foal from, so we, unfortunately, had to put her down. “It was actually pretty heartbreaking at the time because we hadn’t retained Money Wanted and we had no other foal from Honey Moss. At the time, I thought that was the end of it.” Reunited The stars aligned, though, and it could almost be said it was meant to be. “My dad actually had stayed in contact with the two Irish guys that had Money Wanted, and they were racing her. “Dad called them just to let them know that we’d lost Honey Moss and to see how Money Wanted was going, and it just so happened that a few weeks beforehand, Money Wanted had fractured her knee at trackwork and would be unable to race without a very lengthy rehab. “The guys weren’t sort of prepared to spend that time, and they weren’t interested in breeding from her. So, very lovingly, they said that we could just have Money Wanted, given we had lost Honey Moss. And amazingly, it turned out that Money Wanted was actually only an hour and a half away from us in Maitland. We went and picked her up straight away.
“... they (owners of Money Wanted) weren’t interested in breeding from her. So, very lovingly, they said that we could just have Money Wanted...” - Kate Curran
“I’ve had Money Wanted ever since. It was just like the stars aligned, and it was meant to be. We gave her some time just to become sound, and now she’s perfectly paddock sound, and we’ve had her since, and she will always have a home with us.” After becoming paddock sound, Curran sent Money Wanted to another Vinery Stud mainstay in Casino Prince. The resulting colt is now named Hasham and was gelded. The second foal by Vinery’s Headwater was the progressive Strait Acer. Money Wanted was then served by Charge Forward, resulting in a colt who has also been gelded and named Fourandahalf, while she has a full brother to Strait Acer and is in foal to Zousain, Curran shared that Headwater would again serve Money Wanted. “Since she was a maiden, we put her to Casino Prince, and we all agreed that regardless of whether it was a colt or filly, we were always going to keep her first foal because she’s a very sentimental part of our family. “The foal was a colt, and his name is Hasham. He’s a late-maturing and blooming type of horse. He had a pretty successful first couple of preps and finished fourth at Tamworth, but he had a few niggling issues, so he’s on an extended spell, and we’ll bring him back in the new year. I think he’ll probably be at his best at about six years old,” Curran laughed.
“... he (Hasham) had a few niggling issues, so he’s on an extended spell, and we’ll bring him back in the new year. I think he’ll probably be at his best at about six years old.” - Kate Curran
“Paul Willetts purchased the Charge Forward gelding as a weanling, and he retained him to race. The full brother to Strait Acer sold as a weanling to New Zealand and made NZ$72,500 at the New Zealand Bloodstock Karaka Yearling Sale and was sold to Singapore clients, but sadly, since racing is easing up over there, they’re going to send him through the New Zealand Bloodstock Ready to Run Sale. “So he’s a handy little horse for them to have with Strait Acer’s recent wins. She’s now in foal to Zousain and is sitting in a Vinery Stud paddock now a week overdue, so we’re eagerly awaiting her next foal.
“She’ll (Money Wanted) go back to Headwater. I’ve always loved him. He has fantastic looks and temperament, and his foals are just unbelievable... If you want to breed a racehorse, he’s really the one you should be sending a mare to.” - Kate Curran
“The two foals Money Wanted has had by him have both been spectacular, and it’s really no-brainer to send her back to him. “It’s just really lovely because Honey Moss meant so much to us, and to lose her in such a tragic sort of way, and then for the owners of Money Wanted to just give her to us; just incredible.” For the love of the horse Stories like Curran’s and Strait Acer highlight the love and bonds people share with the horses they work with. For Curran, it was never about making money and becoming ‘rich’. It was for the love and continuation of a horse she fell in love with as a teenager. “I can’t understand the people that say we just race horses for sport and money. They just have no idea about the story behind the horses. “We’ve always said that even if Money Wanted turned out to be a dud sort of broodmare and never really produced anything, we would never get rid of her. She would always be in the family, and we’d keep her as a nanny mare. She would always have a home with us.
“I can’t understand the people that say we just race horses for sport and money. They just have no idea about the story behind the horses.” - Kate Curran
“I actually sent a message to Ed Cummings with a collection of Strait Acer’s foal photos and a video of him taking his first steps; Ed will pass them on to the owners that race him. “I’ve got pictures of him from the minute he was born and until we sold him at the weanling sales. “All of Money Wanted’s foals have a sort of baby album on my phone. All her foals are such big sort of gangly babies. No matter the stallion we send her to, the type of foal is always so tall with long legs, and they sort of look like horses that will take 10 years to grow into themselves, but they all have such fantastic personalities. “Strait Acer was no different. He took everything in his stride. It was the COVID-19 year of selling, so we had to do a lot of on-farm photos and videos, and he was just fantastic. Every step of the prep was never a struggle; he was just a very sensible boy. “It really is unbelievable that he’s a city winner. That’s just fantastic in itself. But the fact that he has the potential to get a black-type result in the future is just magical. “Who would have thought our little homebred Money Wanted would breed a Randwick winner? “We’ve just been fortunate.”