Cambridge Stud are getting excited about autumn racing with their star Australian-based fillies Joliestar and Zourion after they returned to work this week.
Joliestar was a phenomenon in spring for trainer Chris Waller, finishing runner-up in three races before her Gr.1 Thousand Guineas (1600m) triumph, including the Listed Desirable Stakes (1400m) and Listed Reginald Allen Quality (1400m).
“It was wonderful to get that (Thousand Guineas victory),” Cambridge Stud chief executive Henry Plumptre said. “She has had a decent spell since and is on the comeback trail. She kicks off in the water walker this week.
“I would say she will have a reasonably quiet autumn and then look to the spring as a four-year-old mare.
“Chris has always been pretty careful with her, notwithstanding that she won a Group One at the end of that campaign.
“He is a master planner and put that race on our radar right back in August and said we would work steadily towards it.
“He was pretty kind to her in the lead-up, he didn’t knock her around, she didn’t go for any big targets before the race, she ran second three times and it is really a question of preserving her because I think he felt there was a lot more for her to give this year.”
Zourian had a light spring preparation for trainer Mark Walker, having just the three runs, including a placing in the Gr.2 Thousand Guineas Prelude (1400m) before finishing eighth in the Thousand Guineas behind her ownership-mate.
“Zourion had the same sort of spell with Mark Walker,” Plumptre said. “She is back in work this week and she will stay over there and try and find an autumn target at the back end of a Melbourne campaign and during Sydney.
“She was probably a little disadvantaged in the Thousand Guineas. She is a very good filly, as she showed in the Guineas Prelude.
“They are both in good order and we are expecting a good autumn but even bigger spring for both of them.”
Meanwhile, the Waikato farm is looking forward to selling eight yearlings at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale, which kicks off on Tuesday, including the first crop of their shuttle stallion Hello Youmzain.
“We have brought a couple of Hello Youmzains (lots 191 and 982) over just to showcase him to the market. Westbury have also got a very nice colt by him (lot 769),” Plumptre said.
“His first yearlings hit the sales this year. We are very hopeful that the Magic Millions buying bench, which traditionally likes to have those more forward precocious type of horses, will embrace them.
“The ones that we have got are exactly that. They are quite forward types, they are strong and have got good scope. The colt at Westbury is a really lovely horse, they have done a great job with him.”
Plumptre is also looking forward to the farm’s other half-dozen offering.
“We have got a beautiful colt by Almanzor (lot 429) out of a Galileo mare called Anchovy,” he said. “She had a very nice Fastnet Rock at Magic Millions last year that made A$575,000 to the bid of Ciaron Maher. She is a mare that can throw a decent type and he is a beautiful colt.
“We have got a Deep Field filly (lot 10). It is his last crop, he is no longer in service, which is a tragedy for breeders. She is a nice filly out of a good mare and I think she will go pretty well.”
While hopeful of a good sale, Plumptre said he is keeping his expectations in check.
“I would say we are hopeful rather than optimistic with a sale like this,” he said. “Our yearling market tends to follow economies and the economy has been pretty soft in New Zealand and Australia for a year and I would expect the market to reflect that.”