Antique's legacy reaches new heights

6 min read
Arcadia Queen's dominant win in the Kingston Town Classic has put the Group 1 stamp on a legacy which is still being created by her grand-dam Antique.

While owner Bob Peters celebrated his fifth victory in the G1 Kingston Town Classic on Saturday with Arcadia Queen's (Pierro) emphatic 4.5l success, on the other side of the country, there was also a cheer emanating from Two Bays Farm in Victoria.

The broodmare Antique (Metal Storm {Fr}) has been responsible for one of the stronger Western Australian racing families of this century and as Arcadia Queen's granddam, she now has a deserved Group 1 on the pedigree page.

Peters bought Antique as a yearling back in 2001, paying $130,000 for the full-sister to Kalatiara, who had won the previous year's G2 WA Guineas.

Peters only raced her eight times, with her final start coming when third in the 2002 G1 VRC Oaks for trainer George Hanlon.

Antique

Her greatest mark has been made as a broodmare, where she produced eight consecutive fillies, two of which, Broadway Belle (Redoute's Choice) and Antique Belle (Redoute's Choice), were stakes winners, while Antique Dream (Redoute's Choice) was stakes-placed.

While Broadway Belle has produced the G2 WA Derby winner Action (Pierro), it has been her first foal, Arcadia (Redoute's Choice), who has done the most for the pedigree page.

A winner of three of 11 races, she was talented enough as a filly to contest a G1 Thousand Guineas, before Peters sent her to the breeding barn.

Her first foal, Arcadia Rose (Kheleyf {USA}) won a Listed Belgravia S. at her third start, while the third foal, Arcadia Dream (Domesday) won a G2 WA Derby as well as two other stakes races.

And now there is Arcadia Queen, who has won five of her six starts, including her stunning performance last Saturday which finally added that Group 1 stamp to an already fabulous family.

A new home

With so much black-type in the family and with Antique having produced so many fillies, it wasn't totally surprising that Peters opted to offload her at the 2015 Inglis Broodmare and Weanling Sale

Keen to strengthen their broodmare band and access a family which had produced an array of stakes-winning fillies, Two Bays Farm, based at Flinders on the Mornington Peninsula, paid $45,000 for Antique, who hadn't been served the previous year.

The idea was to keep the fillies coming and continue to build on what Peters' had started.

"I think she's up to 10 or 11 foals, and we really want her for the fillies and we’ve struck out to a certain extent by having two very nice colts." - Two Bays manager, Rob Carlile

Unsurprisingly, Two Bays sent her back to Redoute's Choice in her first year with them, but they lost the resultant filly, and since then she has produced two colts,

Two Bays manager, Rob Carlile (right)

"I think she's up to 10 or 11 foals, and we really want her for the fillies and we’ve struck out to a certain extent by having two very nice colts," Two Bays manager Rob Carlile said.

An Antique sale

The first, by Pride of Dubai, is catalogued as Lot 56 at the Inglis Classic Sale in February while the other by Manhattan Rain, was foaled in October.

Carlile has high hopes for the Pride of Dubai colt, who will be just the second out of the mare to be offered at an Australian yearling sale.

"He's a really nice big strong athletic colt." - Rob Carlile

"He's a really nice big strong athletic colt. Obviously he'll take a bit of time, but that's the family, she (Antique) was third in an Oaks," he said.

Carlile described the Manhattan Rain foal as 'even better again', while Antique has gone to Swettenham's Toronado (Ire) this season.

The Manhattan Rain x Antique colt

"She was due to go to So You Think (NZ), but we kept her home, because she is a bit older and Toronado seems to be getting the runs on the board overseas. If you speak to enough people out here, they are happy with the progeny that they’ve got," he said.

"We've got a strong enough female line behind it, even if we were to get another colt, we've still got something to sell."

Antique is one of 18 of Two Bays' own mares as well as 10 or so client mares based on the 200-acre property. She is 19, but Carlile said she is still relishing life as a broodmare.

"She's 19 and she looks like she's 10 years old. She dappled up," he said.

Antique visited Swettenham stallion, Toronado this season

Busy times for Two Bays

It’s been a slightly less busy foaling season for Two Bays, who have taken a strategy to simplify things over the past 12 months.

"We had 15 foals all up and halved it from last year when we had 34. That was probably a bit too much, and we didn’t want to overstock," Carlile said.

Arcadia Queen's success on Saturday adds a bit of timely G1 to the Pride of Dubai colt's catalogue page at Classic, where Two Bays will offer nine yearlings.

Two Bays has halved their foaling number from last year

They have also got 18 in the catalogue for the Inglis Melbourne Premier Sale in early March. As their reputation grows, they have got very strong support from local breeders as well as Makybe Breeding and Racing.

"We’re fortunate enough to be able to sell Makybe's horses in Melbourne as well as having a couple of really good local clients." - Rob Carlile

"We've got a lot of clients on board. We’re fortunate enough to be able to sell Makybe's horses in Melbourne as well as having a couple of really good local clients," he said.

"Gary Hutchison, who is around the corner, has supported us and we are selling a few for Flinders Park at the Classic Sale and Premier."

He confirmed that Two Bays will also utilise Valiant Stud to sell three of their yearlings at the Gold Coast Magic Millions Sale next month.

"There's a Brazen Beau filly (Lot 587) out of a half-sister to Eagle Way, a Street Boss (USA) filly out of Galileo (Ire) mare Medician Star (Lot 788), who is the dam of the G3 winner Galaxy Pegasus and a Snitzel filly out of a Group 1 placed filly in Sasa (Encosta De Lago) (Lot 94), who is owned by the Kwok family, who own Beauty Generation," Carlile said.