At Australian yearling sales a priority for buyers is to look for horses that will get up early and run, a precocious type with presence and purpose.
The next move is to look to the Newhaven Park draft, as they undoubtedly will at the 2018 Inglis Easter Yearling Sale.
Newhaven Park and the Kelly family are synonymous with breeding and selling, sound fast horses that get going early. it is due neither to coincidence, nor fad, nor chance.
It is something that four generations of the same family have been doing with regularity and distinction for almost a century, at the same time forging a remarkable link with the world’s richest race for two-year-olds, the Group 1 Golden Slipper Stakes.
For 60 years the Golden Slipper has shaped the Australian thoroughbred breeding industry.
For almost as long, Newhaven Park has been shaping the Slipper.
Newhaven has had a connection with 21 Slipper winners or placegetters, beginning in 1960 with Wenona Girl who was second to Sky High, and that connection continues to the present day.
Wenona Girl was a daughter of Wilkes, who John Kelly Snr imported from France in 1954 in a move that laid the foundations of an association between a breeder and a race that is like no other in the thoroughbred world.
Wilkes went onto sire the Golden Slipper winners, Vain, Vivarchi and John’s Hope, while Newhaven Park also bred the Slipper winners Prowl (1998) and Burst (1992) and owned the 1987 winner Marauding.
The farm duly stood Marauding, the sire of Burst and Prowl, along with the 1977 winner Luskin Star and 1991 winner Tierce.
“We’re very proud of the role the farm has played in the Golden Slipper and the association we have with so many of the great horses who have won or placed in the Australia’s prestigious juvenile race,” says Newhaven’s John Kelly jnr.
Newhaven Park have been selling yearlings at the Inglis Easter Yearlings Sales since the mid-1940’s and in 2018, the tradition continues with a draft of 11 high class yearlings.
“Our 2018 draft is made up of some fantastic horses and is one of our best drafts in recent years. They are by the hottest sires in Australia such as I Am Invincible, Zoustar and Written Tycoon, and they are out of some of the best broodmares on the farm, including Court, dam of G1 winner English, G1 producing mare Kidman, Dancing Heather, dam of G2 winner Heatherly and Puzzle, a half-sister to English. We couldn’t be happier with the horses, both physically and on pedigree.”
They follow recent Newhaven Park graduates such as:
• Performer (Exceed and Excel x Gavroche) Winner of the 2017 Breeders Plate winner, G3 Canonbury Stakes and Golden Slipper contender
• Zac Spirit (Flying Spur x Kidman) – Champion Sprinter in Singapore 2014 & 2016 Singapore Lion City Cup-Gr.1 winner finished his eleven-start career with total earnings of $1,449.294.
• Zac Kasa (Reset x Unabated) – A $200,000 yearling at the 2016 Inglis Easter Sale and recent winner for Cliff Brown in Singapore
• Goodfella (Snitzel x Movie). The winner of three races, one of them at Listed level and fourth in the 2017 Magic Millions 2YO Classic with current prize money of $762,700
• Unencumbered (Testa Rossa x Blizzardly). A $70,000 purchase for Bjorn Baker whose five wins yielded $1.9 million and included the 2014 Magic Millions 2YO Classic
The latest Newhaven draft includes yearlings of exceptional quality, among them:
• Lot 77 Filly by Snitzel from Court, the dam of three to race, headlined by Group 1 winner English, the Champion 2YO and 3YO of her age group. The current 2YO, Al Naifa (Redoute’s Choice), was a $1.8million purchase at the Inglis Easter Sale in 2017 for Sheikh Mohammed Bin Khalifa and races in the Tony McEvoy stable, recording one win and a second from two starts
• Lot 84 Colt by Written Tycoon out of Dancing Heather, dam of Group 2 winner Heatherly. This exciting young sire has produced 5 Group 1 winners including Group One winning 2YO and Golden Slipper contender Written By, as well as being the sire of Music Magnate who is currently in Dubai targeting the Group 1 Al Quoz Sprint for trainer Bjorn Baker
• Lot 306 Filly by Exceed and Excel from Puzzle, a half-sister to the G1 All Aged Stakes winner and Golden Slipper runner up English – a four-time stakes winner bred and raced by Newhaven Park.
• Lot 450 Filly by Zoustar out of Zirna (NZ), another exciting young sire whose first crop produced the Magic Millions 2YO Classic winner, Group 2 Silver Slipper winner and Golden Slipper favourite, Sunlight. Zirna was the Singapore Horse of the Year and Champion 4YO Female in Singapore and Malaysia, a Group 1 winner in New Zealand as well as winner of the Singapore Gold Cup
Nothing is certain in breeding or racing but the chances of selecting a winner from the Newhaven Park draft, is as close as you can get to a “good thing”.