There is excitement in Colm Santry’s voice as he talks about Coolmore Stud’s 2020 addition to the roster, Everest hero and Champion 3Y0 Yes Yes Yes.
A high class sprinter, an eye-catching type, a speed pedigree of considerable depth; Yes Yes Yes is a horse that ticks all the boxes and it seems that breeders across the country agree, the son of Rubick in his first season at stud serving an impressive harem of 205 mares.
And he has 22 in foal who are either stakes winners or the dams of stakes winners, including one of Australia’s best producers Pretty Penny whose seven foals (including the Group winners Sertorius, Clifton Red, Dollar For Dollar and Pretty Brazen) have all earned black-type.
A quality book indeed but also of great interest is just how many of the mares he served have pedigrees who align so well with his own and whilst he is an easy stallion to match up, there is one line that has Santry particularly excited.
Redoute’s Choice.
One of Australia’s premier sire of sires, importantly Redoute’s Choice is a son of the wonderful mare Shantha’s Choice, grandam of Yes Yes Yes’ sire Rubick.
It is still early days for Shantha’s Choice as a line-breeding subject but the early signs are encouraging with stakes wins for Summer Sham (by Not A Single Doubt out of a granddaughter of Shantha’s Choice), Jamaican Rain and Manhattan Street (by Rubick’s 3/4 brother Manhattan Rain out of a Redoute’s Choice mare) and Meuse (by Snitzel out of a granddaughter of Shantha’s Choice).
Forty, or 19.5%, of the first group of mares sent to Yes Yes Yes have Redoute’s Choice in their bloodlines; eleven of his daughters, eight by Snitzel, three by Not A Single Doubt, three by Stratum, two by Sizzling, one each by Squamosa, Master Of Design and Drumbeats whilst another ten are out of Redoute’s Choice mares.
“It can be said that Redoute’s Choice is key to the success of Yes Yes Yes,” Santry said, well aware that line-breeding to this prolific Best In Show family has proven a success around the globe.
And he hopes that will prove to be the case for Yes Yes Yes whose book also included 23 mares with other Best In Show family strains including Try My Best, Al Maher, Hurricane Sky, Spinning World, Gielgud, Xaar and El Gran Senor and well as several direct descendants.
Part of the Santry’s passion for Yes Yes Yes is the fact that he is very much a Coolmore product. He is by Coolmore’s still young and emerging stallion Rubick, in turn son of one of the international stud’s most successful locally bred horses Encosta de Lago whose sire Fairy King Santry brought to Australian in 1992.
And of course he is a very talented member of this emerging branch of the Northern Dancer sire line.
“Timeform awarded him a very high spring rating of 125 as a three-year-old,” Santry said, noting that the young horse achieved this despite not racing in the autumn.
“Three others of his age were given that same rating but all had the advantage of racing on through the rest of their three-year-old season, and all have gone on to highly successful stud careers; Dundeel, So You Think and Snitzel.”
Also crowned Australian Champion 3Y0 Colt, Yes Yes Yes is the equal third highest Timeform rated three-year-old spring sprinting colt this century, sharing that honour with Exceed And Excel and Bel Esprit; ahead of Fastnet Rock and Choisir on 124.
Being by Rubick out of a Fantastic Light mare, it can be assumed that Yes Yes Yes would have been an improver should he have raced on but an injury (tendon lesion) incurred during a trial sadly brought a premature end to his racing career. And so we only had him for eight starts, but it was enough to see that he was rather special.
Kicking off his career for the Darren Weir stable in early December 2018, Yes Yes Yes was an encouraging second in a two-year-old contest at Moonee Valley, easily winning his next two at Flemington and Moonee Valley, all within that same month.
A solid achievement for a horse still in the first half of his two-year-old season. And that form was strong enough to see Yes Yes Yes, who had since headed to Chris Waller, start one of the favourites in the Todman Stakes-Gr.2, 1200m, a race in which he recorded a dominant victory after swinging widest into the straight.
In doing so he broke the race record, clocking 1.8.40 seconds in a race that has been won by the likes of Vancouver, Criterion, Pierro, Written Tycoon, Exceed And Excel, General Nediym, Octagonal, Tierce, Marauding and Luskin Star.
“It was then that he really captured Coolmore’s attention,” Santry recalled and within a couple of weeks of the Todman it was announced that the stud had taken an interest in the handsome bay in time for his crack at the Golden Slipper Stakes-Gr.1, 1200m.
The only time he finished out of the first two during his stellar career, Yes Yes Yes drew the outside gate (16) with the heavy going dampening his turn of foot.
“He was lengths last and just hated the going but he still managed to finish off for a brave seventh.”
Back bigger and stronger in the spring with a first up Run To The Rose-Gr.2, 1200m second splitting future Group One sprinters Bivouac (who had been fourth in the Todman) and Exceedance.
“Bivouac had the fitness advantage being third up,” Santry noted, “and it was a terrific effort by Yes Yes Yes, and an even better one next time out stepping up to 1400m at only his second run back.”
The Golden Rose-Gr.1, 1400m was the race, Yes Yes Yes again gallant behind Bivouac, only just beaten with Exceedance another half length behind. This was shaping to be the best sprinting three-year-old form but could it be taken to another level against the strongest and fastest of the older horses?
It was in The Everest that this question would be answered in convincing style by Yes Yes Yes who, from barrier nine settled back in running, charging home over the top of his rivals. Another record in a feature race, his 1.07.3 second the fastest 1200m even run at Randwick.
In doing so he provided some career highlights for a trainer and jockey combination who already knew what it was like to be on top of the racing world.
“He will always been the first colt to win The Everest,” Chris Waller proudly stated whilst Glen Boss was his usual effervescent self, ready with enthusiastic praise for the colt he rode in just one race.
“A beautiful colt, quality. I galloped him last week and he gave me goosebumps, today he has given me electric shocks. I couldn’t believe the turn of speed he showed. I was wary of these great sprinters, you can’t give them too much of a start… but he flew.”
And 17 months on Boss remains impressed, happy to compare Yes Yes Yes favourably to the best he has ridden.
“He was a proper horse that’s for sure! When you saw him in the enclosure he looked like a panther and he gave me an amazing feel. I have ridden some of the best colts of recent years, the likes of Snitzel, So You Think, Fastnet Rock and Choisir and he was right up there with them. They were all outstanding athletes who have been able to pass that athleticism to their progeny and I am sure Yes Yes will do the same.”
Such a fan that he continues to visit Yes Yes Yes at Coolmore, and so confident in his stud prospects that he has sent his own mare to him, Boss is still following the form around him. “When I rode him he was still 12 months off being fully furnished and it is mind boggling how fast he was then! I look at what Bivouac is doing now and I think of what might’ve been.”
“His sectional figures in The Everest were unbelievable, showing the incredible sustained speed to break 11 seconds for four consecutive 200m sectionals and running his final 600m in 32.61. He was arguably the world’s best sprinter at the time.” he said.
“They were the best sprinters in Australia,” Waller noted in the wake of the Everest and there is no doubting the quality of the race, with ten of the other 11 runners being Group One winners; between them Santa Ana Lane (the runner-up with jockey Mark Zahra reporting that “the winner surprised me a bit with how quickly he went”), Trekking, Nature Strip, Pierata, Alizee, Redzel, In Her Time, Sunlight, Arcadia Queen and Ten Sovereigns racking up 28 victories at the elite level.
And interesting about the running of that race was that all Everest winners took part; Redzel winning the first two and Classique Legend successful in 2020.
It was a great shame for involved that it would be Yes Yes Yes’ final start, Chris Waller telling Bluebloods that “he was a very exciting horse just getting to his peak. If we’d had him for a bit longer he could’ve achieved some amazing things.”
Royal Ascot had been mentioned for Yes Yes Yes and there is no doubt that he would’ve proven an excellent representative of the Australian breed at that world renowned carnival.
Yes Yes Yes headed to stud as the winner of over $7.1 million, a tidy return on his $200,000 yearling sale price tag. It was at the 2018 Gold Coast Magic Millions that he caught the eye of John Foote where he was the sixth highest priced Rubick of that sale.
One of three winners for the three times winning Fantastic Light mare Sin Sin Sin (debut winner of the Wellington Boot), Yes Yes Yes is a half-brother to the stakes placed multiple city winner Dee Nine Elle.
Sin Sin Sin is one of 13 winners (from as many to race) for the unraced Salieri mare Steam Heat, also dam of the Group Three sprinters Hot As Hell and Craig’s Dragon and the Listed winner Flaming Hot; and grandam of the dual Group One winner speedster In Her Time who contested Yes Yes Yes’ Everest.
Whilst we have already highlighted the great benefit that is the Best In Show influence, Yes Yes Yes has other pedigree strengths and breeders are taking note of those. His grandsire Encosta de Lago is a son of Fairy King, brother to Sadler’s Wells and 3/4 brother to Nureyev.
42 of the mares served by Yes Yes Yes last spring boast a Nureyev strain within six generations whilst another 37 have Sadler’s Wells; and amongst that tally are several who have both. Meanwhile there were three members of this this famed ‘footwear’ family and several with other strains of it via Thatch, Jade Robbery, Tate Gallery, Geiger Counter, Smart Missile, Lt Stevens, Northern Meteor and Perugino.
Encosta de Lago has crossed nicely with his close relation Flying Spur (the excellent mare Rolls duplicated) who appears in the pedigrees of 15 mares in Yes Yes Yes’ debut book. Meanwhile the Fanfreluche family from which Rolls hails features in the pedigrees of another six of his 2020 mares.
Rubick is out of a mare by Rock Of Gibraltar who hails from the family of Riverman who makes an appearance in 20 of the mares Yes Yes Yes served last spring whilst another 15 have Riverman’s sire Never Bend whose half-brother Bold Reason is the dam sire of Encosta de Lago’s sire Fairy King; the Kentucky Oaks-Gr.1, 9f winner Lalun duplicated.
She is one of the great modern day female line-breeding influences and another Classic winner to make her mark is the Canadian Oaks-Listed, 9f winner Flaming Page, dam of Nijinsky II to whom Yes Yes Yes is line-bred 5fx4f. That great of the turf combines nicely with his 3/4 brother The Minstrel and six of Yes Yes Yes’ mares carry a strain of that Irish & Epsom Derby-Gr.1, 12f star.
As noted Yes Yes Yes won the race named in honour of Todman (in record time) and that legendary speedster’s Blue Diamond Stakes-Gr.1, 1200m winning son Blazing Saddles is Sin Sin Sin’s second dam sire. Todman’s dam Oceana is an excellent line-breeding subject and other strains can be found in eight of Yes Yes Yes’ mates.
Danehill’s third dam Natalma, of course also dam of Northern Dancer, features in several matings, mainly via Machiavellian whilst Fantastic Light’s dam Jood is in two. The multiple Group One winner Glorious Song, dam of Fantastic Light’s sire Rahy, is in a Helmet (out of a mare by Rahy’s half-brother Singspiel) mare whilst other impending foals will boast crosses of the fine mares Square Angel, What A Treat, Lady Angela and Jesmond Lass as well as Yes Yes Yes’ ten times winning third dam Supaburn.
Well supported by not only Coolmore and shareholders, Yes Yes Yes has multiple foals coming for such leading breeders as Daisy Hill Farm, Glenn Burrows, Lindsay Park, the Kelly Family, Prime Thoroughbreds, Clairden Racing, Anthony Cummings, Kate Nivison, Fairhill Farm, the Ingham Family, David Moodie, Robert McClure, Francis Cook, Bowcock Bloodstock, Bowness, Jason Abrahams, Sir Owen Glenn, Torryburn, Tyreel, Rosemont Stud, Sir Patrick Hogan, Cambridge Stud, Pencarrow, John Bromley and Windsor Park.
In addition to the wonderful mare Pretty Penny, mares in foal to Yes Yes Yes include the stakes winners Danehill Smile, Pear Tart, Ygritte, Savacool and Tiyatrolani as well as the dams of the stakes winners Yes Baby Yes, Limestone and Julinsky Prince.
And so Yes Yes Yes is a horse being given every chance to make it as a stallion, an opportunity that Santry says “he well deserves.”
“He was a brilliant three-year-old, a freak of a horse. Standing at 16 hands he has great size, strength and scope and is going to pass on his real Australian speed and precocity.”
Chris Waller is bound to be one of those inspecting the Yes Yes Yes breed at future sales, looking forward to seeing the horse pass on the attributes that made him special.
“I know when I walk around the sales I look for a good mover who is going to be easy train and Yes Yes Yes is just that sort of horse, he has a great temperament. I know all trainers speak well of their best horses but Yes Yes Yes really is an exceptional type, strong and athletic.”
