Swettenham Stud

Court of Jewels (Danehill x Nine Carat) the three-quarter brother to Commands and Danewin has his oldest progeny as 5YO’s. He now has 85 named foals and 51 runners to-date for 27 winners and he is starting to do what even Commands has struggled at so far, by producing more top grade fillies than colts (eg Grp 2 winner Adaline and rising star Alittlebitofmonica). 

Interestingly, last week a winner at Geelong went un-noticed by many of the racing scribes. In fact the mare that won at Geelong was the very first runner ever for Court of Jewels. You Little Pearler lined up in October 2007 in a 900m 2YO race at Bendigo that really had form pundits talking. After disputing the lead for 500m and then relentlessly chasing Reann (later Blue Diamond winner); You Little Pearler knocked up in the last 20m and was cut out of third by Portillo (the dual Group 2 winner who ran 3rd in the Golden Slipper) to be beaten less than 3 lengths. 

Trained by Terry O’Sullivan she would break her maiden at Colac before taking out a Showcase Class 1 in good style at Ballarat. Unfortunately, a cracked pelvis after a promising 4th to Tonic at Sandown would put her off the scene for many months.

Manager David Lyons and his dedicated crew of owners then took a brave decision in this tough economic climate. They decided to let the mare mend herself and then put her back into work. 

They chose the farrier where she had been convalescing and Antony Alder at Geelong became the mare’s new trainer. It was felt that the mare was much better left in a paddock than a box after her injury and she has returned to racing with two good 4th placings at the Geelong synthetic track before last Tuesday’s gutsy win in the fillies and mares 1100m. This took her earning beyond $50,000. This was Antony’s first race track winner and after nursing this mare back to health and getting her fit for the win it won’t be his last. 

The dam of You Little Pearler is the Bletchencore mare Blemish who won three races from 1115-1600m. Her dam Silkirim was a good city class racemare who won 3 races also including the VRC Talindert H. In another interesting stat, You Little Pearler like over 90% of the Court Of Jewels stock has already out performed her dam on the track.

A 2008 colt full brother to You Little Pearler is in the wings and Blemish is in foal to Hold That Tiger - the Group 1 winning son of Storm Cat who recently sired his first Group 1 winner. David has been a very strong supporter of Swettenham Stud stallions and we look forward to his group having even more success in the future. The mare is booked to Dash For Cash in 2010.

$1.25m worth of fillies set out to strut their stuff in a Geelong Super VOBIS Maiden worth $15,000 at Geelong today over 1200m. They found there way there via the following yearling sales in 2009; 3 Easter Select yearlings, 4 Melbourne Premier yearlings, 1 Magic Millions Gold Coast Select yearling, 1 New Zealand Premier yearling, 1 retained filly and the two cheapest lots that never made it into a main sale, but were snapped up at the Melbourne Premier 2 sale.

However, for the two cheapies it was a tale of contrasting results with one running first and the other running last. In essence the scratching of the $400k Starcraft filly dramatically altered the exposure of the race to breeders in total. However, many must be asking themselves why they continually turn their back on a nice strong yearling by Bianconi. 

Not so the winner, Barbie’s Bombshell’s trainer Ms Louise Bonella. She went to pick the eyes out of the 2009 Premier 2 sale. However, as the trainer of So Barbie Says the filly was always going to be looked at closely. Whilst, Louise had not bought any previous foals she like what she saw with the Bianconi filly Lot 636. Louise described her as a lovely athletic filly with a good walking action and impressive stride. She really liked her and at $28k she fitted neatly into her budget at the sales.

Today’s win was not a total surprise for Louise as she said the filly has been galloping well and trialed well although she did not appreciate the really wet tracks. Getting onto the dry Geelong surface has really helped the filly and it was very pleasing to see her toughing it out at the end as Louise imagined she should.

Last season Bianconi produced 104 individual winners in Australia. He also had a Group 1 winner of the VRC Lightning Stakes (this prestigious race was the second Group 1 win for the talented Nicconi). The season has started well again for him with the recent Group 3 winning filly Rhythm in Paris who ran very quick sectionals. Today's winner is his 10th individual winner in the first 18 days of the new season.

The breeder Ed McKeon has a fine team in the breeding of the mare including John Connellan. They have both been long time friends of the Sangsters and in turn great supporters of Swettenham Stud. I am sure they enjoyed the success immensely and look forward to the exaggerated banter at the next Thoroughbred Club luncheon. Fortunately for Ed, he bought a leg back in the Bianconi filly, so he enjoys every aspect of the victory achieved today at Geelong, in such a strong field of fillies.

There may be further great news to come for this crew as they have bred a now 2YO filly half-sister to Barbie's Bombshell by Keep The Faith. Keep The Faith is the recently crowned Champion First Year Sire in Victoria 2009-10 and his oldest have just turned 3YO. He is also standing at Swettenham Stud. (IR)