Segenhoe Stud’s disappointment that its $420,000 Karaka Yearling purchase Captivating Claire never reached the racetrack has been tempered by the fact that the first four foals of the daughter of O’Reilly have averaged $1,181,250 apiece.
It has not hurt that all four are by Yarraman Park Stud’s super stallion I Am Invincible.
It cannot be said that Segenhoe gave up easily on Captivating Claire reaching the track.
She was sent to the short-lived training partnership of Lee Freedman and Graeme Rogerson before Rogerson took sole control. Peter Moody then had a go as did David Vandyke but the hallowed paddocks of Segenhoe beckoned.
The first foal of Captivating Claire was Valiant, a $1.6 million purchase by James Harron Bloodstock at the 2017 Inglis Easter Yearling Sale.
Sent to Peter and Paul Snowden, Valiant was unplaced on debut at Kembla Grange but bounced back at his second start to break his maiden at Hawkesbury. That was back in November 2018 and he hasn’t raced since.
The second foal of Captivating Clare was the filly Catch Me who was knocked down to Yu Long Investments for $625,000 at Easter 2018.
Also trained by Peter and Paul Snowden, Catch Me made a dream start to her career winning the Group III Gimcrack Stakes at Randwick then added the Group III Blue Diamond Preview at Caulfield.
That’s where the winning stopped with her best performance in eight subsequent starts coming when fourth in the Group III San Domenico Stakes at Randwick won by Exceedance from Bivouac and Anaheed.
A $1.4 million purchase by Coolmore’s Tom Magnier and Hermitage Bloodstock at Easter 2019, Captivare has had his trainers typically thorough education with four barrier trials.
For sure he is no headline-grabbing speedball although he has never really been let off the bit.
I’m taking it as a show of faith that Ton Maginier went back to the 2020 Inglis Easter Yearling sale to purchase Captivare’s sister for $1.1 million.
Captivating Claire had a change-up in 2018 leaving a colt by Widden Stud’s Zoustar before returning to I Am Invincible last spring.
So why has Captivating Claire proved such a money-making machine? Well besides leaving attractive foals by one of the most commercial stallions in the land she descends from the remarkable family of Eight Carat (GB).
She is a half-sister to the stakes-winner Ocean Jewel (Ocean Park) out of the Danehill mare Mariska who is a three-quarter sister to Danewin, Command and Court of Jewels and a half-sister to the magnificent Zabeel mare Shower Of Roses herself a three-quarter sister to Octagonal and Mouawad.
Purchased for the then Australasian record price for a filly of $1.45 million by Gooree Stud at the 2001 NZB Premier Sale at Karaka, Shower Of Roses won her first two races at Canterbury for Gai Waterhouse. Three starts later she won the Group 1 Arrowfield Stud Stakes.
At her following start Shower Of Roses was the favourite for the AJC Australian Oaks but found one better in by stablemate Sunday Joy.
She later added the Group III AJC Craven Plate and Listed STC Neville Sellwood Stakes and finished sixth in Fields Of Omagh's first Cox Plate triumph with Defier second and Lonhro third.
It would be no exaggeration to say that the daughter of Zabeel was the most valuable broodmare in the land however tragedy is never really very far away.
Ten days after giving birth to her first foal, a colt by Encosta De Lago, Shower Of Roses was put down at Gooree Stud after undergoing surgery for colic.
The Encosta De Lago colt was raised by a Clydesdale mare called Elle.
He was sent to the 2007 William Inglis Easter Yearling Sale where he was passed in for $450,000.
Named Mr Trinidad after Eduardo Cojuangco’s long-term thoroughbred adviser Tic Tic Trinidad, Mr Trinidad disappointingly took after his step-mom Elle rather than his biological mother Shower Of Roses.
Sent to Gai Waterhouse, Mr Trinidad did not pass a horse in three barrier trials and retired unraced.
