The re-emergence in 2021 of Emirates Park as a vendor under its own banner coincided perfectly with an exciting year on the track. Outstanding results on the Gold Coast in January were followed by a string of successes from the likes of Hilal, Najmaty, Enthaar, Marboosha and Group 1 glory with Vega One. Emirates Park’s General Manager Bryan Carlson discussed the year past and the exciting times ahead for the Murrurundi farm.
To say 2021 has been a good year for Emirates Park grossly plays down the farm’s accomplishments.
But then, that is in line with how the business operates, quietly achieving and letting results market the product. It was at last January’s Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale that Emirates Park returned as a vendor in their own right, and a quality draft saw the farm leave Bundall as the leading vendor by average, eight lots selling at $470,000 apiece. Giving credence to the policy of selling quality over quantity, from that octet came two, seven figure yearlings out of a total of just twelve for the whole sale.
Thereafter followed a string of successes on the track across the length and breadth of the country. In Melbourne, the brilliant Enthaar won the G3 Chairmans’ Stakes at Caulfield and Najmaty the listed Redoute’s Choice at the same track. In Sydney Hilal would finish runner up in both the ATC Sires’ Produce and Champagne Stakes’ at G1 level, then return in the Spring to win the G2 Stan Fox Stakes and score a bloodless victory in the rich Bondi Stakes. Across in Perth the Mulaazem filly Liwa won the listed Supremacy Stakes at Ascot and was narrowly beaten in the G2 Karrakatta Plate while Marboosha went to Queensland and found G3 success in the Gold Coast Guineas. Then, just weeks later, the Emirates bred and part-owned Vega One flew late for G1 glory in the Kingsford-Smith Cup at Eagle Farm. The sprinkles on the icing on the metaphoric cake came when the Emirates owned Al Maher sired a fifth G1 winner with Private Eye saluting in the Epsom Handicap at Randwick.
But it was the return to the Gold Coast as vendors that was the most fulfilling for Bryan and the team. “To finish as the leading vendor by average at our first year back under our own banner was a great result, and it was a first for Emirates. To get one seven figure yearling was good but to get two was excellent,” he said. The two lots were a Not A Single Doubt colt out of One More Honey that sold to the Fung family for $1.8 million and a Written Tycoon colt out of Taqaseem that went to Spendthrift Australia for $1.2 million.
Again this year the Emirates draft will focus on quality, as Bryan explains “We will be concentrating on taking ten to fifteen horses to the major sales as it’s structurally a good number to work with.
On both type and pedigree we feel we are taking a very strong draft to the Gold Coast.”
Bound to be popular amongst the Emirates offerings is Najmaty’s full sister, by I Am Invincible out of Najoom, a stakes winning daughter of Northern Meteor. To sell as lot 306, this lass will be a gilt edged investment given she hails from one of the strongest families in the Stud Book with the G3 winner Mica’s Pride and her G1 winning sons Criterion and Comin’ Through, along with the young stallion Bull Point, featuring on the page. For those looking for a colt from that family lot 662 is a good- bodied son of Deep Field out of the G2 winning sprinter Varenna Miss, a daughter of Mica’s Pride.
The progeny of Snitzel have come out firing this season as he looks to secure a fifth Champion Sire title and lot 428, his colt out of Red Lodge, has tremendous appeal. “Red Lodge is a stakes winning mare we bought in America by the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner Midshipman who is starting to make a name for himself as a broodmare sire. We’ve confidence in the mare having kept a Kittens’ Joy colt of hers in the UK and off the back of Snitzel having such a good year I think this colt should sell well.”
Red Lodge’s dam is out of the multiple Grade 1 winner Memories Of Silver who is also the dam of another dual Grade 1 winner in Winter Memories.
For those in the market for a potential stallion lot 452 should be high on inspection lists. A son of I Am Invincible, his Irish bred dam Roudha is a daughter of Galileo and carries the blood of Redoute’s Choice through her Australian bred second dam, the dual G1 winning sprinter Melito. Bryan believes potential buyers will be impressed with the physical presented before them, “He’s a very forward, ready to go horse and we expect he will be one of the leading colts in the sale.
We have retained his full sister Tajneed who is doing all the right things with Peter and Paul Snowden.”
One stallion that has had a bumper Spring is Spirit Of Boom and Emirates Park have two yearlings of his that are worthy of inspection. The very first offering from the farm for the sale, lot 100 is his filly out of Harbour Fun who is a half-sister to the dam of the Golden Slipper winner Mossfun and the Singapore Champion Aramco. “She is a very strong filly, forward enough to run as an early two-year-old and a possible for the Magic Millions Classic. She will sell well,” Bryan commented.
The other Spirit Of Boom is lot 606, a colt from a family known for precocity. Out of the four time city winning Choisir mare Tell Me, Bryan believes the good judges will like what they see. “He’s a strong, athletic type, an exceptionally good mover and not typical of a first foal. He will sell well as he’s a nicely put together colt.”
Bryan acknowledges the quality of Book Two yearlings on the Gold Coast has improved dramatically in the past few years and is confident the farm’s six entries will prove popular. The farm’s Book Two consignment will be led off by lot 1086, one of the few Starspangledbanner’s on offer for the week.
State Of Rest’s W S Cox Plate reminded the market what the sire is capable of, and this colt is out of a half-sister to Liwa.
There is also a quiet excitement around the farm looking forward to the Gold Coast in January 2023. That will be when the first foals by Brazen Beau’s son Tassort, owned in partnership by Emirates Park and Newgate Farm, will debut as yearlings. His first crop hit the ground this Spring and are making quite an impression. Presenting them for sale will be the next step in the resurgence of Emirates Park as a player at the top end of the market.
