Neil Shaw and Brent Grayling have over 75 years of thoroughbred industry experience between them. Grayling was the founding manager of Eliza Park (now known as Sun Stud) before he left to form Supreme Thoroughbreds with his wife Adrienne Grayling and Neil & Sue Shaw. Over the last four decades, he has been involved with every aspect of breeding, raising & selling thoroughbreds.
Co-owner Neil Shaw completes the circle, bringing his extensive knowledge for pedigrees and pedigree research as well as his passion for discovering the perfect mating. Shaw has been involved in the thoroughbred industry for over 35 years as a breeder and racehorse owner.
The Impact chats with the co-owners of Supreme Thoroughbreds about their Melbourne Yearling Sale draft and much more:
Q: What can people expect from your 2019 Melbourne Sale draft?
A: Our draft in the 2019 Melbourne Gold Yearling Sale has some high quality. Generally, the yearlings are well-bred and/or physically good types that could have been offered through Melbourne Premier but needed a bit more time to develop and mature. Overall think this sale offers a pretty good standard of a yearling at value-for-money pricing.
Q: Which horses comprise your highlight lots?
A: The Brazen Beau colt out of Encosta de Lago mare, Refit, is a very nice colt (Lot 249). He just wasn’t ready for Melbourne Premier which was disappointing for us but he’s come on so well and he’s a good moving, big strong colt. Brazen Beau’s are selling well and we hope he will be well received at this sale.
The filly by Toronado out of the very good mare Classic Jewel is a really nice filly (Lot 213). Classic Jewel is the dam of 5 winners including the 3-time winner and Group 2 placed, Get The Picture. This filly by Toronado has a lot of class about her – she’s strong with a lot of leg and scope and she’s done everything we’ve asked of her.
I also quite like the Helmet colt out of Sweet Miss Ruby. He’s a natural, physically strong colt.
Q: Which horses have so far been your biggest sales this year?
A: We target the Melbourne Premier Yearling Sale and although we will consider selling at other sales if we have the right horse, this year we focussed on putting a large draft of 40 yearlings through the Melbourne Premier Sale. We sold a Love Ends x I Am Invincible colt for A$370,000 – he ticked all the boxes as he had a great pedigree, a great sire and he was a great type. He was a big sale for us this year but the sale was about more than just the price he achieved through the ring. We also sold a lovely Fastnet Rock filly out of USA mare Wickedness for A$300,000 – she was a straight-forward filly with a lot of quality about her.
Q: Which horses have you found to be the most upcoming in the young sires' list from Australia? Would you be considering them in your matings plan for 2019?
A: Our top young sires are Dundeel, Pierro, Brazen Beau, Deep Field, Rubick and Dissident. We will definitely be using all of these stallions this year in our 2019 matings. Of the very new stallions standing in Australia with progeny yet to be offered for sale, we like Shalaa, Paklentino, Impending and Holler - we have used them previously and will be using them again this coming breeding season.
Q: Which horse has given you the most pleasant surprise with his or her sale price, in recent years?
A: One of the more recent sales which gave us a lot of
satisfaction was the Love Ends x I Am Invincible yearling
the colt that, as I mentioned earlier, we sold at this year’s
Melbourne Premier to Frontier Bloodstock (NZ) for A$370,000.
We loved him from the start when he was foaled on our farm, but he had a few small issues that tested our skill and patience during the prep. But we persisted and it was very gratifying to get such a good result for our partners in this colt.
Q: When you plan matings, which do you prefer, proven sires or young sires and why?
A: Proven sires definitely because the proof is right in front of you. You can look at their best off-spring and try to duplicate nicks and in-breeding that appears in their best racehorses. Once a stallion is proven you are able to use the physical evidence of their progeny to inform your matings. By inspecting their weanlings and yearlings at the sales, and following their progeny’s performance on the race track, you are best placed to assess the impact of the mare’s side of the mating.
Published In The Impact 10 Issue, 2 Vol
Click To view the complete The Impact Library - http://theimpact.secretariatsworld.com/