Building black type at Emirates Park

Cover image courtesy of Ashlea Brennan

The Murrurundi district, north of Scone, is a long way from Royal Randwick, but on Saturday, a few of its locals at Emirates Park will tune in to Day 2 of The Championships. The breeding operation has a brilliant prospect in the G2 Percy Sykes S., and she is the undefeated juvenile filly Najmaty.

With a debut as recent as early March, in a maiden handicap at Kensington, Najmaty is a last-start winner of the Listed Redoute’s Choice at Caulfield. Trained at Randwick by Peter and Paul Snowden, the filly has been faultless.

She’s won two of three trials, placing second in the other, and her two race-starts have netted close to $124,000 in prizemoney. Caller Matt Hill said “she’s a grade above, this little girl,” when she towelled the field at Caulfield a fortnight ago, and she’s an obvious favourite on Saturday.

What might have been

Two-year-old Najmaty is from the Emirates Park broodmare Najoom (Northern Meteor), and it’s a strong, generational family on the farm. Chestnut Najoom is only 9-years-old, and was purchased by Trevor Lobb and Emirates Park General Manager Bryan Carlson at the Magic Millions Sale on the Gold Coast in 2013. They paid $225,000.

She was the only yearling Emirates Park picked up at that Sale, Lot 466 on account of Willow Park Stud. Najoom was bred by Graham Watson from the Arena mare Charlety Star, and she’s been a generous buy.

“Trevor and I were at that Sale looking at yearlings, and she was the only one we bought,” Carlson said. “We don’t normally buy many at all, usually only one or two yearlings a year. Najoom was by Northern Meteor, who was in either his first or second crop, and the female side was really strong. We were looking to inject fresh blood onto the farm, and this was a filly with residual value.”

Najoom showed a lot of promise early in her career. Trained by Gai Waterhouse, at the time of her retirement she had the remarkable record of seven lifetime starts for five wins and a pair of seconds. Her wins included the Listed Hawkesbury Guineas in 2015 and, two weeks later, the G3 Fred Best Classic at Doomben.

“You can’t say she was a top-liner,” Carlson said, “but she beat Group 1 horses, and just on her record she should have been a Group 1 horse. She was favourite for the last Group 1 of the year, the Tattersall’s Tiara, but unfortunately she was the first emergency and didn’t get a start.”

Shortly after, injury cut everything short, and Najoom went home to Murrurundi.

A family on the rise

The mare’s first season found her in-foal to I Am Invincible, but the resultant colt died after birth. In her second season, Najoom foaled Najmah (Snitzel), a current 3-year-old and winner of two races in five starts.

Najmah is with the Hawkes team at Rosehill, a handy filly who was retained by Emirates Park for her obvious family value. She was last-start unplaced in the G3 PJ Bell S., jumping quickly and wasting too much too early to be competitive. As a result, she was withdrawn from Saturday’s G2 Arrowfield 3YO Sprint.

Najmaty arrived in Najoom’s third season, a darker filly born in mid-October 2018. She has clattered through a promising juvenile career to date, with eventual sights on the breeding barn.

“When we bought Najoom, it was mainly for the female side,” Carlson said. “It’s a very strong family, and it’s only gone from strength to strength since then. When we’re buying, we always try to have those strong female families. All the fillies need to have residual value somewhere, and then if they don’t race, or something goes amiss, we’ve got something to breed from.”

There’s plenty of something on Najoom’s page.

The mare is a half-sister to stakes winners Bhutane Dane (Danehill Dancer {Ire}) and Gaze On (Intergaze). Further down, third dam Gainesville (Can) (Afleet {USA}) produced the dam of Criterion (NZ), Varenna Miss (Redoute’s Choice) and Silently (Anabaa {USA}).

It’s also the family of producer Rose Of Cimmaron (Bite The Bullet {USA}), dam of Siege Of Quebec (Fastnet Rock) and Kingstar stallion Bull Point.

“At the time, the pedigree was fresh for us,” Carlson said. “We had a lot of daughters of daughters on the farm, so we needed fresh blood. Over the years, I’ve learned that the best way to do things is to make pedigrees, instead of buying them. It’s easy enough to go and buy a stakes broodmare, but this way, with fillies like Najoom was, you can make them.”

The family received a further spike last week, with Najoom’s half-brother, a colt by Merchant Navy, selling from Charlety Star at the Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale for $120,000. He went to Hong Kong buyer Bon Ho from the draft of Segenhoe Stud.

Tactics

Carlson is excited about Najoom’s start at stud. Both Najmah and half-sister Najmaty are performed, black-type horses, and they were good foals.

“For Najoom to get that out of the way already is quite exciting,” Carlson said.

The Emirates Park manager said that they shoot for black-type results with the girls every season.

“Our aim is to produce three or four black-type fillies on the track each year from either homebreds or fillies we buy,” he said. “We’ve already got three 2-year-old stakes-winning fillies this year, and to do that is pretty exciting.”

Carlson added that Nasser and Hussain Lootah’s direction, as the owners of Emirates Park, is to see their colours carried on the top shelf of the sport and, if history is anything to go by, they’re doing okay.

Emirates Park has twice won the G1 Golden Slipper, with Mossfun (Mossman) in 2014 and Estijaab (Snitzel) in 2018. The farm’s graduates include no less than Encosta De Lago, Theseo (Danewin), Dash For Cash, County Tyrone (Danewin) and Al Maher.

“We want to be known for producing good horses,” Carlson said, “and what we’re doing seems to be working. We retain some fillies to produce nice horses down the line and, if we can keep that high standard up, it’s only going to show in the sales ring at the same time.”

Knocking it out of the Park

It’s been a vintage season for Emirates Park.

This year alone, the Murrurundi operation can boast the smart juveniles Lightsaber (Zoustar), winner of three from five for Peter Moody, Enthaar (Written Tycoon), sensational winner of the G3 Gimcrack S. and G3 Chairman’s S., and Hilal (Fastnet Rock), runner-up in both the G2 Skyline S. and G1 ATC Sires’ Produce S.

Emirates Park has an eye on Hilal being a stallion addition to the farm in the near future and, in addition to these juveniles, there’s Liwa (Mulaazem) in Western Australia, winner of the Listed Supremacy S. and second in the G2 Karrakatta Plate this month.

If that weren’t enough, Emirates Park sold two million-dollar yearlings on the Gold Coast in January.

Lot 612 by Not A Single Doubt from One More Honey (Onemorenomore) went to Tony Fung and Phoenix Thoroughbreds for $1.8 million, while Lot 869, a Written Tycoon colt from Taqaseem (Medaglio D’Oro {USA}) sold to Spendthrift for $1.2 million.

“Selling those colts in January was very exciting,” Carlson said. “In particular, the One More Honey was good because we raced her ourselves. Her first foal selling for $1.8 million was pretty outstanding.”

Najoom has a full sister to Najmaty on the ground at Emirates Park, but Carlson said that foal is likely to be kept.

“Being out of Najoom, being a filly, and she’s a quality filly too, there’s a good chance she’ll be retained,” he said. “The mare missed to I Am Invincible two seasons ago, but she’s in-foal to Tassort right now.”

Fillies, fillies everywhere

Saturday’s Percy Sykes S. is a clash of the titans.

There are three fillies in the field for Godolphin, a daughter of More Joyous (More Than Ready {USA}) in Joyous Legend (Snitzel), an Arrowfield beauty in Yearning (Snitzel), and fillies bred by Phoenix Thoroughbreds, Cressfield Stud and Noorilim Park.

Ten horses will take their place for the 1200 metre sprint, and Najmaty is the market fancy ahead of Crystal Bound (Not A Single Doubt).

“This filly, if she’d been up on time, would have gone to the Golden Slipper,” Carlson said. “But the Snowdens are very good trainers, and they know not to push them if they’re not ready. She won the Redoute’s Choice and that takes the pressure off with the black type behind her, and now we can just sit back and enjoy her racing, and see where it takes us.”

Carlson will also watch Adelong (Medaglio D’Oro {USA}) in the G2 Sapphire S. at Randwick, a mare that Emirates Park bred in 2015 from Snowgums (Redoute’s Choice), while in Perth, Liwa takes her place in the G3 WA Sires’ Produce S.

“It would be terrific if they get a result,” Carlson said. “My gut feeling is that Najmaty will go very well in the Percy Sykes. It’s a strong field, and you’ve always got to be wary of trainers like the Hawkes' and Ciaron Maher, but she’s there and she should run a good race.”