By Trevor Marshallsea
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Freyer returns to the scene of where he purchased Switzerland’s dam on the hunt for more gold in Kentucky
Two days after seeing the horse he created become a Group 1 winner, Arrowfield’s Jon Freyer will be back where it all began at the Kentucky breeding stock sales this week trying to replicate the magic that led to Switzerland (Snitzel).
Saturday’s stallion-confirming triumph in Flemington’s Coolmore Stud Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) for the expensive Chris Waller-trained colt culminated five years of preparation and build-up for Freyer, Arrowfield, and their co-breeders of the star three-year-old, Matt and Jo Cloros.
It was at the Fasig-Tipton November Sale of 2019 that Freyer took the sizeable calculated gamble of going to US$600,000 to buy Ms Bad Behavior (Blame), a sprinting winner at Grade 3 and Listed level, with the idea of putting her to Arrowfield’s super sire Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice).
In the unpredictable world of breeding, the move has gone to plan as well as any that has ever happened, bar one hiccup which, thankfully for connections, can now largely be forgotten.
The resultant colt was a stunner who turned heads at the sales, with Coolmore’s Tom Magnier going to $1.5 million to secure him at Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale in 2023.
And while a hitch arose when a bone chip discovered after the race helped scupper his hopes in one stallion-maker – the Golden Slipper (Gr 1, 1200m) – he’s now earned the success in another one that secures his future in the Coolmore stallion team.
It came in imperious style, too, with James McDonald guiding Switzerland to a 2.75–length victory, which sets the scene for perhaps more Flemington straight-track glory when he races on in the autumn, most likely over the same distance in the Newmarket Handicap (Gr 1, 1200m).
Back in Kentucky, the sales action starts again in Lexington on Monday, with the Fasig-Tipton November one-day sale. A total of 318 lots have been catalogued comprising 156 mares – either broodmares or racing prospects – and 162 weanlings.
It’s amazing how many high class racemares you see in one or two days. You can see about 80 Group winners. It’s extraordinary
On Tuesday, the marathon Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale begins, running for nine days through November 13. A grand total of 3,373 lots were entered, including 1,470 weanlings and nearly 1,800 broodmares and broodmare prospects.
The catalogue includes the first mares in foal to 2023 US Horse of the Year Cody’s Wish (Curlin) and the first weanlings by 2022 Horse Of The Year Flightline (Tapit).
“It’s a great place. It’s amazing how many high class racemares you see in one or two days. You can see about 80 Group winners. It’s extraordinary,” Freyer told ANZ Bloodstock News down the phone from Lexington.
“If nothing else, it’s a good opportunity to look and learn, though hopefully we’ll be doing more than that.”
Freyer is hopeful of picking up “a couple” of mares at the sales, while acknowledging that’s always difficult, especially for Australians trading in US dollars. The exchange rate is currently around US 65 cents to the Australian dollar – a touch weaker than the rate of around 69 cents when Freyer bought Ms Bad Behavior.
“We had a good look around on Saturday. There’s a lot of very nice mares and I think it’ll be a good sale,” he said.
“There’s a very good catalogue here and a lot of very good physicals. We’ll be in there battling to hopefully get something like Ms Bad Behavior, although they’re hard to come by and hard to buy.
Ms Bad Behavior was just a beautiful mare – a magnificent physical, and she was just a really high class, classic, fast mare
“These are very well promoted sales around the world, with buyers here from every corner of the globe. It won’t be easy, but there’s horses there that are very desirable.”
Freyer said it was difficult to predict how hot the market would be. But with the Keeneland September Yearling Sale breaking records, it’s likely there will be a knock-on effect in broodmare auctions. September’s average of US$150,548 was a record for that yearling sale, while the median was an equal-record US$70,000.
“It’s hard to know how it will go,” Freyer said. “There’s no great price guideline. The top mares make the sort of money you’d expect them to make. Plus, it’s in US dollars. That makes it harder for Australians to buy, but the reward is there if you get it right.
“Ms Bad Behavior cost US$600,000, but in Aussie dollars it was about $900,000 by the time we got her.”
With Switzerland’s Group 1 status secured, Freyer could reflect over a Saturday night dinner with Fasig-Tipton personnel about securing his dam.
A four-year-old at the time, Ms Bad Behavior was out of dual Listed winner Cumulonimble (Stormy Atlantic), who threw two other Listed winners including One Bad Boy (Twirling Candy), who won his black type at Santa Anita and Woodbine, in Canada’s Queens Plate Stakes (Listed, 10f). While the latter (now the King’s Plate) is only Listed, it’s widely held up as not only Canada’s oldest race, but also its most prestigious.
“Ms Bad Behavior was just a beautiful mare – a magnificent physical, and she was just a really high class, classic, fast mare,” Freyer said.
“I was very keen on the broodmare sire Blame as a prospect, and I liked the fact she’s out of a very good producer in Cumulonimble. I know it’s often mentioned that she’d thrown another couple of Listed winners, but one of those Listed winners had won the Queen’s Plate – one of the best races in Canada. So I really liked that.”
Freyer was excited about Blame’s fourth and third dams – Thong (Nantallah) and Special (Forli). He was also heartened that Ms Bad Behavior carried a 6f x 6f duplication of Thong’s dam Rough Shod (Gold Bridge), and was inbred 3m x 4f to Kris S (Roberto).
“I loved her bloodlines, the fact that she’s inbred to Kris S,” he said. “Also the fact that her sire Blame is out of the same family as her damsire Stormy Atlantic, bringing a double of that Thong, or number five family, which I love.
“So there were a few factors that were appealing. Those things and the fact she was a beautiful, high class racemare.
“I did think she’d be a good match for Snitzel, but really she’s the type of mare who could go to anything, and Snitzel’s such a high class sire you could put him over just about anything.
“We had to stretch a bit to go to $600,000 to buy her, which was more than we expected, but I’m delighted that we did.”
So pleased were Arrowfield with their first Snitzel colt out of Ms Bad Behavior, they’ve repeated the mating four times now. The 2022 colt was bought by TFI for $550,000 at Easter this year. Freyer said the colt born on October 1 last year “might just be the best of the three”, while full brother number four arrived on September 30 this year, before the fifth cover between the two happened in late October.
To see the mating have its rich reward through Switzerland’s triumph at Flemington on Saturday has left all at the Hunter Valley heavyweight farms of Arrowfield and Coolmore enraptured.
“It’s terrific, great for the team, and everybody’s very excited,” Freyer said. “He was a beautiful yearling, he’s obviously a top class horse now, and a Group 1 winner.
“We’ll be seeing plenty of him for the next ten or 15 years.”
Coolmore’s racing and bloodstock manager John Kennedy said, pending discussions with Waller, it was likely Switzerland would now be spelled ahead of further targets in the autumn.
Saturday’s win was heartily welcomed by Coolmore as validation over initial assessments of the colt.
After winning his first three races, Switzerland started second favourite when eighth in the Golden Slipper. While an excuse was soon discovered and surgically treated, his resuming last of nine in Rosehill’s Run To The Rose (Gr 2, 1200m) left many juries out.
A slashing next-start victory in the Roman Consul Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) partly answered those doubts, and they were emphatically laid to rest in the Coolmore on Saturday.
“He’s a horse Chris has had a high opinion of for a long time now,” Kennedy said. “Since before he even ran in the Golden Slipper, Chris was saying to us this colt was the one, and he cemented that with his performance on Saturday.
“We were just very, very proud of what it means. The fact we sponsor the race makes it even better.
“It’s very exciting for the guys who look after him in the stable, to the ownership group, to the team who are behind the scenes at the farm. The whole thing full circle is just a great result.”
