Each year much thought goes into deciding what stallion to send your mare to, but when that mare is the dam of a Cox Plate winner and is in her twilight years then the decision becomes all the more important. Warringal Bloodstock were faced with such a task with their prized mare Miss Marion this year.
Rising 19, Miss Marion
is one of the few remaining daughters of the great broodmare sire Success
Express that are still active at stud, and she also happens to be the dam of
Group One Cox Plate winner Pinker Pinker.
Raced by Warringal Bloodstock's co-founders Bill Giovas and Craig Gordon Miss Marion won four of her 13 starts, with earnings exceeding $115,000. A daughter of the Stakes-performer Golden Deed (Jevington), Miss Marion showed talent from the outset and won on debut as a 3YO over 1000m at Flemington for trainer Steve McKinnon.
At stud, Miss Marion became the foundation mare for Warringal Bloodstock and was the catalyst for it switching from a hobby breeding operation to a successful boutique breeding enterprise when she produced the 2011 Cox Plate winner Pinker Pinker, by Reset, from just her second mating.
Miss Marion has not had the best of luck in the breeding barn since then however, producing just four live foals in the intervening ten years – Miss Rendina, a '08 filly by Elvstroem was a winner over 1100m from just 3 starts, then came along an unnamed '11 colt by Denman, and the unraced Wendover ('13f by High Chaparral) who did show a lot of ability but never made it to the track. Wendover is in-foal to Choisir and set to visit Merchant Navy this spring. Miss Marion produced a colt by More Than Ready last spring but subsequently missed to All Too Hard.
While Pinker Pinker unfortunately died in 2012 before she could get a chance to prove herself at stud, Warringal Bloodstock have retained two other daughters of Miss Marion to breed from - Miss Marion's first foal Kapala (Danehill Dancer) raced just once but has produced two winners from three runners to-date – the multiple winner and Stakes-placed Kapset, by Reset, and the city winner Vantaggio, also by Reset.
Kapset was sold at the 2013 Inglis Easter Yearling Sale for $260,000 and it was in 2013 that Warringal Bloodstock started focusing more on breeding for the commercial market with Bob Crowley getting on board, before Geoff Frankish came in as a fourth partner in 2014.
Warringal Bloodstock currently have 9 broodmares and also
have a few fillies in training that will join the broodmare band if they live
up to their potential on the track. Their mares are spread between the Hunter
Valley in NSW where most reside at Riversdale Farm, and a few are also kept in
Nagambie, Victoria. Committed supporters of Ciaron Maher, the majority of their
racehorses are with him.
Warringal Bloodstock also have a couple of their home-bred geldings from the Marion family racing – the 2YO Above and Beyond, by Sebring out of Miss Marion's daughter Miss Rendina is with Gary Portelli and is showing plenty of promise, while Kapajack, an unraced 2YO by Lonhro out of Miss Marion's daughter Kapala, is with team Hawkes. Tony McEvoy has the Kapala yearling colt by Deep Field in his South Australian stable and he has reported that he is a nice moving, running type of horse. Miss Rendina is booked to visit Thorn Park's Group One performer Spieth this season.
While the name Miss Marion looks set to appear in pedigrees of good horses for generations to come, Bill, Craig, Bob and Geoff are all too aware that this spring may well be the last opportunity they get to breed from their prized mare, and so wanted to choose a stallion who not only fits their new, commercial business model, but also a stallion that will give the mare the chance to produce another Group One winner of the calibre of the late Pinker Pinker.
With all this in mind Bob Crowley and his business partners at Warringal Bloodstock have decided to send Miss Marion to Aquis Farm's Champion 2YO Invader; ''when we breed we want to be responsive to the market and our main focus is on type and commerciality.''
''We are really upbeat about the prospect of the Invader mating for Miss Marion as we love the horse – he has the race record and on type he compares favourably physically to the successful stallions of years gone by, and of course with Invader being bred on a Snitzel/Encosta de Lago cross, he nicks beautifully with the Success Express and Star Kingdom bloodlines of Miss Marion. It is also a great match on type and at the end of the day producing the right physical type that will have every chance to fulfill their potential on the racetrack is foremost in our mind" – Bob Crowley, Warringal Bloodstock.
