When Joe Murray arrived in Australia to take up the role as Makybe stud manager in 2011, the well-related With Fervour (USA) (Dayjur {USA}), then 14 years of age, was carrying to Exceed and Excel, having recently produced a colt by Wanted (Aus).
Like Tugela (USA) (Woodman), the dam of Santic’s legendary Makybe Diva (GB) (Desert King {Ire}), With Fervour was sourced at the Tattersalls December mares sale, where she was purchased for 65,000 guineas while pregnant to Diktat (GB).
“It has been a very happy hunting ground over there,” Murray said of Makybe’s exploits in Newmarket.
With Fervour foaled a colt in February 2004, was bred Southern Hemisphere time to Oasis Dream (GB) and dropped her first foal on Australian soil in September 2005. Though her subsequent produce had some commercial appeal, none made a significant impact on the track. Would her Exceed and Excel colt, born Oct. 17, 2012, at Yallambee north of Melbourne, prove the one to move the needle?
“He’s a nice colt, lacks size, a little bit light-boned,” Murray scribbled down anecdotally eight days later. “He’s a little bit close behind [a lot of the Exceed and Excels can be that way]. He should strengthen up with time. Well put-together.”
The Exceed And Excel x With Fervour colt
Makybe downsize
Earlier that year, the Santics announced that they were downsizing their operation, including the relocation of their stallion Purrealist (Aus), and the sale of a good chunk of their property. With Fervour and her Exceed and Excel colt were both to be offered at public auction.
With Fervour was covered by Purrealist in mid-November 2012, but by the time she stepped into the ring at the Easter Broodmare Sale, she’d lost her foal. Now not in foal, she was sold to Victorian breeder L. J. Oldcastle for just $6,000.
"Little did we know what was in the pipeline." - Joe Murray
“She was an old-enough mare and she was empty, so the market dictated her value. But little did we know what was in the pipeline,” Murray said.
With Fervour produced a Mossman filly for Oldcastle named With Faith Sept. 25, 2014, and passed away nine days after foaling.
The Exceed and Excel was ticketed for the Great Southern Weanling Sale for a variety of reasons.
“Looking at his page, he should either going to Magics (Gold Coast) or Easter,” Murray said. “He wasn’t mature enough to go to Magics and the Easter people would have been too critical of him. And because the mare had a fair few foals before that hadn’t amounted to much, the call was made.
"He wasn’t going to be mature enough if we were looking at bringing him to the yearling sales early." -Joe Murray
"The Australian market wants horses that are going earlier and they want the big, muscular horses in the sales rings. He wasn’t going to be mature enough if we were looking at bringing him to the yearling sales early. So with the downsizing, we could keep the costs down by moving him as a weanling and help ourselves.”
Always a lovely type
Murray always felt the colt would appeal as a physical specimen.
“He was a lovely colt, he was probably a little light-boned, but apart from that there was very little wrong with him,” Murray continued.
Exceed And Excel x With Fervour as a weanling
“He was a straight-forward horse. His legs were good, no surgeries and his temperament was always outstanding. He put his head down during the weaning process and handled everything that was thrown at him. He handled the sales experience very much in his stride. He was good natured, very well behaved and did everything right.”
He handled the sales experience very much in his stride. He was good natured, very well behaved and did everything right.”- Joe Murray
Reserved by Santic at $90,000, Mr Stunning fetched $110,000 from Mark and Shelley Treweek’s Lyndhurst Farm, who resold the colt to Willie Leung’s Magus Equine for NZ$250,000 at the NZB Premier Yearling Sale.
Turned over to trainer John Size, Mr Stunning turned heads from day one, including a debut befitting his name over the minimum trip at Happy Valley.
Named that season’s champion griffin, he ascended to the heights with a popular success in the 2017 G1 Longines Hong Kong Sprint and last month joined the likes of the legendary Silent Witness (Aus), Sacred Kingdom (Aus), Aerovelocity (NZ) and Lord Kanaloa (Jpn) as two-time winners of that race.
“It’s huge,” Murray says proudly. “Australia is a sprinting nation that prides itself on breeding sprinters, so to have a horse that can do that, it gives you goosebumps. It’s what everyone here is trying to do - breed a sprinter at the top level.
“Australia is a sprinting nation that prides itself on breeding sprinters, so to have a horse that can do that, it gives you goosebumps. It’s what everyone here is trying to do - breed a sprinter at the top level." - Joe Murray
"To do it twice and beating some serious horses, those are elite horses in their own right, and for Mr Stunning to do it twice, for us it’s just unbelievable."
You win some, lose some
Murray admits that following Mr Stunning’s progress from a hemisphere away is gut-wrenching at times.
“Bittersweet is not the word. Banging your head off a wall is probably more like it, but it’s the nature of the business,” Murray said with a good-natured chuckle.
“Bittersweet is not the word. Banging your head off a wall is probably more like it, but it’s the nature of the business." - Joe Murray
“You’d love to keep them all. Tony generally keeps a few to race every year, generally what is passed in or if there’s an issue before they go to the sales. He’d like to keep them all and, sure, $110,000 now is like the deal of the century, but if something goes wrong and he never makes it to the track, we walk away as winners.
Mr Stunning
He continues, “It’s a flip of the coin. Look at Makybe Diva, for example. She was offered as a foal and the market wasn’t strong enough. We keep her and she wins three Melbourne Cups. You have to take the rough with the smooth.”
It’s been smoother than rough of late in Hong Kong for Makybe, who bred recent G3 Bauhinia Sprint Trophy H. winner Jolly Banner (Lonhro) from Makybe Diva’s half-sister Valkyrie Diva (Jade Robbery {USA}). No, neither Murray nor his boss had a penny on at Jolly Banner’s $90 starting price.
“The farm always has one eye on Hong Kong these days,” Murray commented. “Hopefully there’s plenty more to come from them.”
The first answer to that query comes Sunday afternoon at Sha Tin.
