‘She might be a good story’ - Kiwi stakes winner She’s A Con sold to Australia
Kiwi filly She’s A Con (NZ) (Contributer {Ire}) has been bought by fledgling Australian syndicator Ace Bloodstock. TDN Aus NZ caught up with some of the key players in this latest chapter for a filly who could prove a staying star of the future.
Grahame Begg will this month take possession of the talented Kiwi stakes winner She’s A Con (NZ) after a purchase of the filly was negotiated by agent Phill Cataldo for the Victorian-based Ace Bloodstock.
In New Zealand, 3-year-old She’s A Con was raced by Allan and Marie Tyler, who have remained in the filly for her new career in Australia. Up to this point, she was trained by Kelvin Tyler and his daughter Aimee at their Riverton base on the South Island, about as far south in New Zealand as is possible to go.
The filly is currently making the long journey north before she flies to Melbourne, finally arriving at Begg’s Cranbourne yard in mid-June
“She left the bottom of the South Island only yesterday (Thursday),” Begg said, speaking to TDN AusNZ. “She’s got quite a long haul ahead of her, so we’re breaking the trip up by giving her time to get over each leg. She’ll then fly to Australia on June 14.”
She’s A Con will arrive in Begg’s care as an unexposed rising 4-year-old. She commenced racing as recently as New Year’s Day, and since then has run through seven starts on the South Island with some good results.
Her consistency has been such that she has posted two wins, two seconds and a third, running unplaced only twice, and last time out she was a winner of the Listed Warstep S. at Riccarton over 2000 metres.
The win was her second on the bounce, and it was toughed out in a gritty finish with northern raider Luella Cristina, a Snitzel daughter of no less than Lucia Valentina (NZ) (Savabeel).
“She looks a very promising filly,” Begg said. “It took her first couple of runs for her to put it all together, but she looks an exciting staying proposition. Despite her winning that Listed race at her last start, she is still lowly rated. We believe she’ll be around the mid-70s, so there’s a lot of wriggle room to move.”
Begg is reluctant to say what ultimate target he has in mind for She’s A Con, but he does admit she’s a filly with a similar profile to his dual Group-winner Lunar Flare (Fiorente {Ire}).
Begg coaxed Lunar Flare through her grades the last few years until the 2021 spring, when she won a Listed race at Morphettville into a victory in the G2 Moonee Valley Cup.
Last spring, she won the G3 Bart Cummings and was a scratching from Gold Trip’s (Fr) (Outstrip {GB}) Melbourne Cup, and on May 13 she lowered the colours of Tulloch Lodge’s undefeated White Marlin (Ire) (Mastercraftsman {Ire}) when winning the Listed Andrew Ramsden S.
As such, Begg has an idea of which way to go with She’s A Con. When he got Lunar Flare, she went into BM64 events, and it’s likely that the Kiwi filly will tread the same road.
“It’s not all about this year,” Begg said. “It will be more about her next preparation, going into next year. We’ll let her find her feet first. Obviously, we’ll be dreaming of one of the big handicaps, no doubt about that, but this time around we’ll give her three or four runs and then another break, and then possibly look at the autumn in Sydney.”
As such, Begg has an idea of which way to go with She’s A Con. When he got Lunar Flare, she went into BM64 events, and it’s likely that the Kiwi filly will tread the same road.
“It’s not all about this year,” Begg said. “It will be more about her next preparation, going into next year. We’ll let her find her feet first. Obviously, we’ll be dreaming of one of the big handicaps, no doubt about that, but this time around we’ll give her three or four runs and then another break, and then possibly look at the autumn in Sydney.”
'She might be a good story'
Down at Invercargill, at the bottom of New Zealand, owner Allan Tyler is pleased that his filly is going to Begg. He said the Cranbourne trainer is very hands-on.
“He seems like he’s there in the morning doing the feeds and watching them gallop, and that’s something that might not happen if you have a horse in one of the satellite stables,” Tyler said.
Speaking to TDN AusNZ about the sale of She’s A Con to Ace Bloodstock, Tyler said it was an exciting new chapter but also a tough decision. Tyler and his wife Marie have stayed in for 20 per cent of their filly, but in the back of his head was her broodmare value.
“It wasn’t really an easy decision (to sell) because she’s fairly well-credentialled for the broodmare barn,” Tyler said. “Long term was going to be my goal with her, but her best opportunity to be better in the barn is to go to Australia, I believe. She’s just improving so much all of the time. We almost tried to get her to the Queensland carnival but the travel was going to be too much.”
She’s A Con has already provided Tyler so much good story.
On June 8, 2020, on a dark Monday night in wintry Invercargill, Marie purchased the filly as a Gavelhouse weanling online. She was Lot 13 on account of Raffles Racing, a daughter of the Fastnet Rock mare Rocks For Me, and the Tylers paid just NZ$800.
“After Marie had bought her, I thought there must surely be something the matter with the filly,” Tyler said. So I rang up Bruce Sherwin the next day, who ran Raffles Farm, and he assured me there was nothing wrong with her. He said she was just part of a complete dispersal where they were getting rid of everything, so it was quite incredible.
Tyler sent She’s A Con to the Waikato for her formative schooling, all with an eye on the 2021 New Zealand Bloodstock Ready to Run Sale. However, the day before her breeze-up, she locked up in one of her stifles and the call was made to pull her from the catalogue.
“The vet assured us it was just an immaturity thing,” Tyler said. “They could have treated her, but I said that if it was an immaturity thing, we’d take that on the chin and bring her home. And that’s what we did. The wife and I had a bit of a laugh about it, and I thought at the time that it could end up being a good story.”
So it has proven to be, because Tyler started getting calls about She’s A Con after she ran in the Listed Southland Guineas in March. She didn’t win that race, but she’d been useful up to then.
After the Guineas, she was second at Otago into her back-to-back last-start wins, and bloodstock agent Phill Cataldo was all over it by then
“I think she’ll find her way nicely in Australia,” Tyler said. “I’m big on starting them at their own rating, not being too greedy too soon or putting stars in your eyes. She’ll have a bit of a quiet time and settle into Grahame’s ways, and then go from there.”
Flag-bearer for Ace Bloodstock
In Victoria, new majority owner Ace Bloodstock is operated by Darcy and Tim Mangan, who act as directors alongside Chris Fraraccio and Robert Colaneri.
Ace Bloodstock is a relatively new outfit, but the Mangan family went right to the top of racing in recent years with its involvement in I’m Thunderstruck (NZ) (Shocking), who died in March after a glittering, Golden Eagle-winning career.
Almost all of the Ace Bloodstock portfolio is younger horses, emerging types that it picked up at the New Zealand Bloodstock Ready to Run Sale and as yearlings at respective sales. According to Darcy Mangan, who spoke to us about She’s A Con, they have big plans for the filly.
“She’ll be our flag-bearer for the next year or so,” he said. “She’s going to put us on the map, we hope. We’ve got 10 other horses right now who are all with Price-Kent, so we thought we’d branch out and get other trainers on board.
“Grahame is certainly in good form and we’d been speaking to him for a while about racing a horse. He is very good with the fillies and mares and we think he’s a perfect fit for this horse.”
Mangan admitted that, as a new syndicator, it was important to have a flagship horse. She’s A Con is the first delve into the tried-horse market for Ace Bloodstock, but what was it about her that made Mangan go calling to the southern tip of New Zealand.
“I mentioned her to Phill (Cataldo) a few weeks before the Warstep, and I’d messaged Kelvin Tyler (the filly’s trainer) prior to the run, asking if he’d sell her,” Mangan said. “He said he wasn’t really interested at that point, but he said he’d ask his brother, and Allan and I made contact the night of the Warstep.
“At that point, they hadn’t decided if they’d sell her down, and then Phill got in touch the following week. So we’d had her on our radar prior to the Warstep.
It was She’s A Con’s win ahead of the Warstep S. on April 10 that had initially caught Mangan’s eye. The manner of the victory saw her overhaul the field from a long way back.
“To be able to sustain a good turn of foot like that, it’s pretty rare in a stayer,” he said. “That’s what really jumped out at us.
The filly may not race again as a 3-year-old, with only two months of the season still to go. However, like Begg, Mangan believes it’s all about the autumn of 2024.
“The Sydney Cup might be on the cards if she gets out to 3200 metres,” he said. “But Grahame will handle that. She’s definitely going to be a nice stayer of the future.”
Article courtesy of TDN Aus NZ, written by Jessica Owers.