Filly's Remarkable Win Ignites Interest In New Stallion

The Age

Friday February 10, 2006

Andrew Garvey

IT WAS only 10 or so years ago that studs could import a horse with a nice pedigree but lacking somewhat in racecourse performance and have some confidence that, given a reasonable level of marketing support, he would be able to attract a book of 60-plus mares.

But with the advent of the stallion shuttle, there is a continuing stream of group 1 winners entering the stud ranks each year, so for those who didn't make the grade on the racetrack, it has been tough going.

Rangal Park Stud's Eric Buttler was well aware of the trend when searching for a new horse that he could stand at about $10,000 to $12,000, to try to match it with the shuttlers. But he was having little success.

"We had been looking and looking but filing them all in the wastepaper basket," Buttler said.

Then Buttler was offered a horse whose pedigree interested him. Named Ne Coupez Pas, he was a son of champion sire Nureyev and a half-brother to four stakes winners, two of those at group 1 level, and closely related to leading stallion Storm Bird. There was a problem, however. Although from only 12 starts he had won five races from 1200 to 2000 metres, the only stakes performance was a listed placing over 1200 metres at Deauville in France.

Buttler was tempted to put the Ne Coupez Pas file in the wastepaper basket as well because he knew he would not be able to stand him at the fee he had been aiming for - but he could not get the pedigree out of his mind. "I knew we would struggle if we went for him but took him on, anyway. We struggled a bit more than I expected but now it seems to be paying off," he said.

In his first three seasons, Ne Coupez Pas served 46, 50 and 30 mares, respectively, and in the season just gone - his fourth, which is always the hardest year - only 19.

But given the performances of his first runner, Satin Robes, numbers are set to swell next breeding season.

Satin Robes underlined her potential at Flemington on Melbourne Cup day when she finished strongly to run second in listed company but it was her first-up effort at Sandown last week that had punters rubbing their eyes in disbelief.

The filly started pig-rooting after travelling 200 metres of the 1000-metre race and dropped out a long last but when Steven King balanced her up in the straight, she picked up the field quickly, drawing away to win as she liked.

Just under 12 months ago, Satin Robes had been led unsold from the Inglis autumn sale ring after failing to make her $10,000 reserve, but Buttler was not unhappy, having only set the reserve at that lowly mark to try to meet the market.

"I was quite pleased, to be perfectly honest. She was small but nuggety and I liked the idea of giving her to Lee Freedman," he said.

As with most studmasters, Buttler was also looking to her future as a broodmare and as her granddam, Lady Madonna, had won the group 1 Telegraph Handicap in New Zealand, she has good residual value as a broodmare.

Satin Robes' dam, Spine Tingler, is by another Rangal Park sire, Keltrice, and was sold by the stud as a yearling to Kilmore trainer John Gaffney.

At the conclusion of her racing career, Buttler offered Gaffney a foal share to his new stallion, with Buttler keeping the first foal and Gaffney the second. Buttler ended up with the nuggety filly and Gaffney has a leggy colt. "It's the luck of the draw," says Buttler - and although he looks to have been the lucky one, who knows how the colt will perform next season?

Having been involved in the industry for many years, Buttler is not getting carried away, preferring to wait until tomorrow's Blue Diamond Prelude to get a guide to the filly's ability.

Rangal Park has produced several quality fillies in recent years, including Northeast Sheila, Lady Elsie and Dashing Granada, but Buttler would not be drawn into comparisons with Satin Robes just yet.

But he did say that while Northeast Sheila, a brilliant two-year-old, was a "pure speed filly, Satin Robes is very strong at the end of her races and I don't think 1200 metres will be any problem for her".

Given the light usage of Ne Coupez Pas, there are only a limited number of yearlings by him this year, with Rangal Park having 17. So they have most of those available for sale and are taking of six of them to the Adelaide Magic Millions sale in mid-March.

© 2006 The Age

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