News

Twin Hills Stud segment on Bred To Win 

Sky Racing – Episode aired on August 13, 2019

Katelyn Butler has joined Twin Hills Stud as its Sales and Marketing Manager

An email from one of our readers highlighting the need to look past the traditional sire tables got us thinking.

We all know that the ability to sire winners and in particular stakes-winners is what makes a successful stallion, but from the point of view of a racehorse owner, they want not just a horse that can win a race, but a horse that can front up and compete successfully all season, so we’ve had a closer look at our leading sires for 2018/2019 to find those that deliver toughness and trainability as well as winners.

Twin Hills Stud-based stallion Denman (Lonhro) was provided with his 16th stakes winner yesterday courtesy of Deprive’s (4 g ex Defrock by Canny Lad) victory in the June Stakes (Listed, 1100m) at Randwick. The progressive gelding secured his fourth victory on the bounce with a half-length success over Bon Amis (Bon Hoffa), with the same margin back to Brook Magic (Hinchinbrook) in third. Denman relocated to Twin Hills Stud for the upcoming southern hemisphere breeding season having previously stood at Darley’s Kelvinside base in New South Wales. He will stand for a fee of $8,800 (inc GST).

Story courtesy of ANZ

It’s rare that James Cummings lets his guard down when talking about the future of one of his horses, but the word Deprive achieved a different outcome.

Cummings spoke to Racenet on Wednesday about Saturday’s runners and when it came to Deprive, which runs in the Listed June Stakes at Randwick, his poker face gave way to a cheeky smirk.

Lipari (Redoute’s Choice), the dam of Group 1 winner Levendi (Pierro), was one of two seven-figure lots sold on day three of the Magic Millions Gold Coast National Broodmare Sale with her $1.6 million price tag also confirming the arrival of Olly Tait’s Twin Hills Stud as a major player.

It was Tait’s biggest success since acquiring the Cootamundra-based property in 2017 from Godolphin, not long before he purchased Lipari in foal to More Than Ready (Southern Halo) for $170,000 from Widden Stud at the same Gold Coast auction two years ago. Lipari, whose second foal Levendi won the 2018 Australian Derby (Gr 1, 2400m) and her third foal Marcel Of Madrid (Sepoy) won a Group 3 as a juvenile, was offered in foal to I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit) and was secured by Baramul Stud and Magic Millions owner Gerry Harvey.

Two years ago Olly Tait returned back to Australia to purchase a farm very familiar to him, in the Cootamundra region where he grew up. TDN AusNZ’s Jo McKinnon headed to southern NSW to spend a morning at Twin Hills Stud.

Hurriedly zipping up his jacket to block the Autumn chill, hair windswept and a well-worn pair of mud splattered Blundstone boots on his feet, Olly Tait strides towards the office building to meet us.

Twin Hills Stud has enjoyed a fruitful past 12 months as a new vendor at the major Australian sales and will present a select trio of mares at the 2019 Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale including the dams of Group I ATC Australian Derby winner Levendi and brilliant, but ill-fated Group II winner Smart Melody.

Twin Hills enjoyed a strong clearance rate at the Inglis Australian Broodmare and Weanling Sale and sold eight yearlings for up to $185,000 at the Inglis Classic Yearling Sale, but their real sales highlight of the year came at the Magic Millions in January.

A rush of three new stakes winners in the space of two days for Smart Missile couldn’t have come at a better time for Twin Hills Stud, who are planning the stallion’s second season at its Cootamundra-based farm.

Smart Missile enjoyed a fantastic weekend with front-running 5-year-old Special Missile winning Friday’s Listed Scone Cup before 3-year-old filly Ready To Prophet claimed the Listed Denise’s Joy S. at the same venue 24 hours later. Promising 2-year-old Missile Mantra then made it two wins from as many starts with a barnstorming victory in the Listed Redoute’s Choice S. at Caulfield.

Since relocating to Twin Hills Stud last year the stakes-winners have flowed for Fastnet Rock stallion Smart Missile, who added a double of new stakes-winners to his ever growing tally on Saturday with victories for Ready to Prophet in the Listed Denises’s Joy Stakes at Scone and for Missile Mantra in the Listed MRC Redoute’s Choice Stakes at Caulfield.

Trained by Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott, three year-old filly Ready to Prophet showed serious stakes potential last spring when finishing fourth to Fiesta in the Group II ATC Silver Shadow Stakes, but failed to flatter in two subsequent starts.