Written by Jessica Owers for TDN Aus NZ
Will Forrester’s WBF Thoroughbreds has a draft of eight 2-year-olds in next week’s Inglis Ready2Race Sale, among them an attractive pair of pinhook colts and an Astern colt specifically targeted at this Sale.
On Friday at Warwick Farm, the final breeze-up session will occur before Inglis’ Ready2Race Sale on Tuesday. It will be the final effort for many of the Sale-bound 2-year-olds, and among them is the majority of the draft from Will Forrester’s WBF Thoroughbreds. Based in the Southern Highlands, a little way along the road from Bong Bong Racecourse, WBF Thoroughbreds has a draft of eight horses headed to Riverside this week, down from its original catalogue of 13.
They’re by eight individual sires, including a number by select stallions in Astern, Flying Artie and Star Witness.
View: WBF Thoroughbreds Inglis Ready2Race draft “There were a few of mine that I thought would do better breezing late, and even now, with the Sale back a few weeks, they’ve done even better again having more time to mature and grow,” Forrester said.
“I’d hope they’ll perform pretty well on Friday because they’ve had the extra time to mature, as opposed to exposing them in September when they might have been a bit strung out just getting there.”
“I’d hope they’ll perform pretty well on Friday because they’ve had the extra time to mature." - Will Forrester
One of the WBF horses, a Flying Artie colt (Lot 14), already breezed in the Hawkesbury session last month. He clocked a tidy 11.17s on the synthetic, and the remaining seven horses will go around on Friday.
The pinhooks
One of the standout options for Forrester among his draft is Lot 113, a Star Witness colt from the American-bred mare A Brilliant Idea (USA) (Afleet Alex {USA}).
The colt is being sold on behalf of Glen Latham’s Rathden Bloodstock Services, and it’s a deeply American family.
A Brilliant Idea was purchased by Highgrove Stud at the 2012 Keeneland November Breeding Sale, bought for US$170,000 (AU$230,000) and imported into Australia the following May. She was a stakes winner in the United States, and a half-sister to the stakes winner Silent Bird (USA) (Summer Bird {USA}).
Lot 113 is a half-brother to the 3-year-old filly Vaccine (Not A Single Doubt), who is with Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott at Randwick.
The co-trainers paid $220,000 for that filly at the 2020 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale, buying her from the draft of Highgrove Stud. The mare’s earlier foal, a 2016 colt by Exceed And Excel, made $220,000 at the same Sale in 2018.
“This colt will breeze on Friday, and he’s basically ready for a jump-out,” Forrester said. “He could be sold on Tuesday and be trialling within a fortnight, which is a great angle to him.”
“He (Lot 113) could be sold on Tuesday and be trialling within a fortnight, which is a great angle to him.” - Will Forrester
Lot 113 was purchased by Rathden Bloodstock earlier this year at the Inglis Classic Sale. He was bought from Highgrove Stud for $30,000 as a specific pinhook option.
“This horse was bought specifically for this Sale,” Forrester said. “He may end up being the sharpest of my breeze-ups because he’s really ready to go. He’s a very sharp colt.”
Pinhook playbook
Joining the Star Witness colt as a pinhook candidate, Lot 123 by Palentino is a colt that belongs to Forrester personally.
He’s a strongly set chestnut horse from the Not A Single Doubt mare Balloons, whose page peaks with the third dam Debra’s Joy (Danehill {USA}), a half-sister to the dam of the late Champion sire Thorn Park.
“Dave Mee of Pinhook Bloodstock sourced this one for me at Melbourne Premier and purchased him for $40,000,” Forrester said. “He’s come up really well, and he’ll breeze on Friday too. He’s a very nice, big, leggy colt, similar to our Astern colt, but he looks like he’ll be more burly and sharp, which is interesting.”
Forrester said Palentino wasn’t proving as fashionable as some of the other sires featured in his draft, but he has faith in the stallion.
“He was a very good racehorse, and the dam side of this colt is a pretty prolific Not A Single Doubt line, right down the page,” Forrester said. “For me, this colt was ideally priced at $40,000, which is about the most I’d pay for a pinhook, $40,000 to $50,000.”
Forrester said the Palentino colt was a textbook example of his pinhook playbook, and he hoped for a logical return next week.
“For me, this colt (Lot 123) was ideally priced at $40,000, which is about the most I’d pay for a pinhook.” - Will Forrester
“For me, I can lower my costs with pinhooks because I’m on the farm, but if I had to put a figure on it, I’d add about $25,000 from buying him as a yearling and then selling him at the breeze-up sale once all your x-rays are paid for, commission and so on,” he said.
“If you get that, you break even. For this colt, between $60,000 and $70,000 would see him cover his costs, and you might end up with a little on top, but that’s a safe figure.”
The Astern
Among the others, Forrester is looking forward to a result with Lot 158, a colt by Astern from the High Chaparral (Ire) broodmare Doncella (Ire).
Doncella had one start in France early in her career, when she was second at Saint-Cloud over a mile, before her importation to Australia in 2014.
She was raced by Waratah Thoroughbreds, which purchased her as a yearling for 230,000 gns (AU$460,000) at the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale (Book 1) and, after 14 starts in Australia for two wins and three places, she was retired to stud for the spring of 2017.
Lot 158 is Doncella’s second foal. Her first, by Starspangledbanner, sold for $90,000 to O’Gorman Racing at the 2020 Inglis Classic Sale from the draft of Lime Country. Named Fresh Prince, he’s now in Queensland with trainer Kacy Fogden.
This page has an interesting feature with Doncella being a half-sister to Fidelite (Ire) (In The Wings {GB}), who won the G1 Prix Saint Elery in 2003. Fidelite, in turn, is the dam of French stakes winner Extremis (Ire) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}).
“This colt was bred by a client of mine down here, Richard Lavender,” Forrester said. “We were talking about where to go with this colt, and earlier this year the Astern's weren’t as hot property as some of the bigger stallions like Capitalist and Flying Artie. But as we’ve seen in the last couple of months, the Astern first crop is really coming along, and that’s why we decided to target this Sale.”
"As we’ve seen in the last couple of months, the Astern first crop is really coming along, and that’s why we decided to target this Sale.” - Will Forrester
Forrester has spent the past 12 months breaking in a number of Astern horses, and he said Lot 158 was one of the more interesting of the stallion’s youngsters he had seen.
“This one is probably one of the more athletic, refined and leggy ones I’ve had,” Forrester said. “He reminds me a bit of Arnaqueur. I really love this colt, and he looks like the sort of horse that will get to a mile-and-a-half. He’s got easy, flowing action and he’s just really come on.”
Girl among the boys
WBF Thoroughbreds has a single filly in its draft, Lot 92 by Supido from the Tale Of The Cat (USA) mare Tale Of Fun.
This is the family of G1 Golden Slipper winner Mossfun (Mossman) as well as Aramco (Magic Albert), who was Champion Sprinter in Singapore in 2019.
Lot 92 was a late November foal, and there’s been plenty of attention on late foals lately with the success of G1 Caulfield Guineas winner Anamoe (Street Boss {USA}), who was born on November 16. This filly was later again, foaled on November 21, 2019.
“She’s a leggy filly and she’s got scope, but she doesn’t look like a late filly,” Forrester said. “She’s got good substance and she’s quite a sharp, forward filly. She’s got a professional tenacity about her work too, and it seems to me that she might appreciate being a late autumn 2-year-old type.”
"She’s (Lot 92) got a professional tenacity about her work too, and it seems to me that she might appreciate being a late autumn 2-year-old type.” - Will Forrester Forrester said the filly has been very forthright in all her work, wanting to go forward and do things herself.
“She’s already got this professionalism about her, and a little bit of zip too,” he said. “As a horse that might be targeted to the domestic race market, this filly ticks all the boxes.”
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