LOOKING AHEAD - Imports Set For A Big Year

Imports, some new but others who have already established their Australian credentials, are set to play a big hand in the Melbourne and Sydney carnivals this autumn.

Chris Scholtz looks at a big list of overseas gallopers now in Australia preparing for 2017 campaigns.

CHRIS WALLER

If one man could be credited with the imported revolution that has consumed Australian racing it must be Sydney’s premier trainer.

Waller has been buying and importing overseas horses, principally stayers, in bulk for some eight years and his results speak for themselves.

At latest count Waller has trained 21 individual Group winners in Australia that were sourced from the northern hemisphere. Among them are the G1 winners Reliable Man, My Kingdom Of Fife, Foreteller, Grand Marshal, He's Your Man, Beaten Up, Moriarty, Stand To Gain and Opinion.

Waller buys or receives as many as 20 northern hemisphere thoroughbreds each year, the majority with exposed form that identifies them as likely prospects for Australia.

His major sale source has been the Tattersall’s Autumn Horses In Training Sale held at Newmarket in the UK in late October. Last year he was credited with buying 10 horses from this sale for prices ranging from 13,000 pounds to 180,000 pounds.

His most expensive purchase was Exoteric, a 4YO gelding by Champs Elysees with wins at his last three starts from just six career runs, all in the 2000m range.

Previously trained by Charlie Hills for Khaled Abdullah’s Juddmonte Farms, he will be a horse to watch out for should he be produced by Waller during the autumn.

Champs Elysees is garnering a reputation as a staying sire with the likes of Ascot Gold Cup winner and Melbourne Cup visitor Trip To Paris among his UK stars.

Waller’s other pick-ups from the Autumn Sale in 2016 included Rex Bell, a Dubawi colt who recorded a win and five placings for John Gosden; Kempton winner Mazaz (Galileo); Wave Reviews, a 3YO winner by Fastnet Rock; the two-time winner His Kyllachy; Mutarakem, another son of Dubawi who raced in France in good company where he won once from six starts; Alward, also a winner of one from six starts; and the maiden performer Malmas.

All are similar in experience and performance to many of the imports Waller has brought to Australia unheralded before they became Group winners.

Waller is also training the classy Qatar Bloodstock-owned pair Endless Drama and Arod, with Sheik Fahad present when they performed with credit in a high quality barrier trial won by Music Magnate at Rosehill last week.

Endless Drama was an impressive second with Arod fourth. Splitting them was the champion mare Winx.

The pair were sent to Waller near the end of the European turf season last year. Arod has won at G2 level and is a G1 placegetter while while Endless Drama was runner-up in the G1 Irish 2000 Guineas in 2015 and third in last year's G1 Lockinge Stakes.

Waller has plans to send Arod to Melbourne while Endless Drama will campaign in Sydney.

GAI WATERHOUSE/ADRIAN BOTT

If you can’t beat them, join then – that’s the philosophy Gai Waterhouse has adopted in recent years after noting Chris Waller’s remarkable success with imports.

While her imported numbers don’t rival Waller, her strike rate with her selective northern hemisphere products has been excellent at the top level led by G1 winners Fiorente, The Offer, Glencadam Gold and Pornichet.

Following Waller’s lead, Waterhouse has zeroed in on the Tattersall’s Autumn Sale as a primary source and she and her new training partner Adrian Bott were big players last year when paid the equal top price of 270,000 guineas on the first day for Imperial Aviator, a three-year-old by Paco Boy with a Timeform rating of 108 from two wins in six starts.

Agent Johnny McKeever purchased The Offer and Glencadam Gold at the same sale for Waterhouse and has placed a high rating on the now 4YO, who contested the French Derby as one of the favourites.

McKeever also purchased Goodwood Zodiac, the winner of four races from 12 starts, for Waterhouse and Bott at the 2016 Autumn Sale.

LEE & ANTHONY FREEDMAN

Yet another stable with a big reputation for success with northern hemisphere products – note Makybe Diva, Lucas Cranach, Speed Gifted, Our Ivanhowe, Tom Melbourne et al.

Our Ivanhowe and Tom Melbourne remain in the mix but the Freedmans have two other high class imports already exposed to Australian conditions with the potential to become big players in 2017.

Based on the proven theory that most imports benefit from their first Australian preparations, Exospheric and Sarrasin have a lot to offer this year.

Exospheric won the G2 Jockey Club Stakes at Newmarket when trained in the UK by Sir Michael Stoute and showed his class last spring in his first prep for the Freedmans by finishing third in the Caulfield Cup and eighth in the Melbourne Cup.

He’s in work for the autumn with the Freedman’s naming the G1 Australian Cup as his first target. How deep he goes into the autumn for races such as the BMW and Sydney Cup depends on what they have mapped out for him in the second half of the year.

French import Sarrasin took on the G2 Villiers Stakes at Randwick last month at his first Australian start and turned in a terrific performance to finish fifth.

A Listed winner and Group placed from just five starts in France for Andre Fabre, Sarrasin is by the late Monsun, the champion German sire with a strong success rate in Australia, from a High Chaparral mare – a pedigree that points to him being at his best up to 2400m and further.

Sarrasin should be well acclimatised for the autumn as he had been in Australia for 12 months before starting in the Villiers. Lee Freedman says Sarrasin reminds him of Lucas Cranach, the German import they trained to finish third in the 2011 Melbourne Cup.

DARREN WEIR

Imports are fast becoming a key component in the workings of the record-breaking Weir stable with a growing success rate with overseas horses that have been fed to the team in the last 12 months.

His initial success with the high class French grey Puissance De Lune sparked a positive reaction from owners and he is now training a number of imports for syndicates who deal almost exclusively in the northern hemisphere market, such as Australian Bloodstock and OTI Racing.

OTI have placed Kellstorm, a 4YO son of Galileo previously trained in Ireland by Aidan O’Brien, with Weir and Australian Bloodstock now have more than six imports in the stable after starting with one just 12 months ago.

Kellstorm is a brother to the dual G1 winner Order Of St George and arrived in Australia with four other OTI imports.

Kellstorm won his maiden at Tipperary last April over 2400m and is regarded as a classy staying prospect.

Later in the year Weir will take on White Chin, a recent purchase by Australian Bloodstock now in training with Andreas Wohler in Germany.

He went to Wohler after two impressive wins in the UK and will have a campaign aimed at Royal Ascot in June before he sent to Australia to join the Weir team for the spring.

GODOLPHIN/JOHN O’SHEA

Godolphin has found the right formula selecting horses from their northern hemisphere stables to join their big Australian operation under John O’Shea.

Their appetite for racing classy imports in Australia was whetted by the likes of Contributer and It’s Somewhat and took off last year with the success of their top import Hartnell.

In their wake a shipment of eight progressive stayers from Europe joined the Australian stable in November.

The imports include the Listed winner Big Blue (Galileo), the Medaglia D’Oro trio Spectroscope, Floodlight and Interlocuter, the two-time winner Ancient History (Shamardal), New Caledonia (Cape Cross), Ode To Evening (Poet’s Voice) and Beijing (Dubawi).

Mark Johnston trained New Caledonia and Ode To Evening in the UK while the other six come from the Andre Fabre stable in France.

Big Blue, with three wins and nine placings in 15 starts, was G1 placed in the Criterium de Saint-Cloud and will be trained for the Melbourne Cup.

Spectroscope boasts two wins and G2 and G3 placings from his first seven starts and is expected to become a noted Group performer in Australia .

US-bred Floodlight has won three from eight including a Listed win over 2000m while Ancient History has two wins in France from five starts.

Interlocuter has raced just twice and won on debut at Deauville while New Caledonia and Ode To Evening were both two-time winners for the Johnston yard.

LINDSAY PARK – David Hayes, Tom Dabernig, Ben Hayes

The Lindsay Park stable has been boosted by the overseas additions of Ventura Storm, Foundation and Harlem.

The most exciting prospect on disclosed form is the classic placegetter and G1 winner Ventura Storm, a Zoffany gelding from the Richard Hannon stable with six wins and two placings from 12 starts.

After two wins as a juvenile, both over 1600m, he won his first 3YO start last year in the Listed Feilden Stakes (1800m) at Newmarket and went on to contest the French Derby.

He came back to win his next three starts including the G3 Prix de Reux in France before finishing second to Harbour Law in the G1 St Leger (2900m) at Doncaster.

He was purchased by Lindsay Park before ending his time with Hannon by winning the G1 Gran Premio del Jockey Club (2400m) in Milan in Italy.

Foundation boasts a record of three wins and four placings from 10 starts and Harlem has won two of his eight outings with two placings.

Harlem was purchased from the Tattersalls Autumn Horses in Training Sale for £520,000, the fifth-highest price in the history of the sale, and will race for the same ownership as Spillway, another Hayes-trained import who won the Australian Cup in 2015.

Foundation, owned by Highclere Racing, is a G2 winner and started favourite in last year’s French Derby.

SAM PRITCHARD-GORDON

The young Victorian trainer made headlines at the Tattersall’s Autumn Sale by spending 185,000 guineas for a young Dansili stayer that was trained by Sir Michael Stoute.

Yangtze, a name well known in Australian racing by those with a recall for the popular top class stayer of the 1960s, is a three-year-old gelding with two wins from 10 starts and a Timeform rating of 103.

At the time of the sale Pritchard-Gordon said: "There is such a lot of interest in owning imported horses in Australia - everyone wants to be part of a syndicate. The dream is to have a Melbourne Cup horse.”

Pritchard-Gordon should have filled his syndicate quickly as Yangtze is a half-brother to the imported Sale Cup winner Evangelist, trained by Tony McEvoy.

ROBBIE LAING

This successful Victorian stable is in the import game with Darabad, a Listed winner over 2400m formerly owned by the Aga Khan.

Other trainers picking up imports include Matt Cumani with the OTI-owned Shakopee (High Chaparral) from his father Luca Cumani’s stable in the UK and Archie Alexander with two-time UK winner Fandango, by Lord Of England.