On face value this stakes-winner last Saturday was just another mare gaining a Black Type win to set her up for a lucrative career at stud, but I was intrigued by her being offered for sale this year at the Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale with the notation ‘breeding proposition only’ and sure enough there is more to the story.
When astute trainer Matt Dale was interviewed after well bred All Too Hard mare Danny’s St Darci won the Listed Just Now Stakes at Eagle Farm, he was quick to acknowledge Willow Park Stud for sourcing the mare, who is now part-owned by his wife.
Funny thing though, Danny’s St Darci was knocked down to Mick Malone of North Bloodstock at the Gold Coast for a modest $70,000 when offered by Yarraman Park on behalf of her Victorian based owners, so how did Willow Park get into the picture? Glenn Burrows has the answer to that.
A former head of bloodstock at Inglis many years ago back in the day when I was there, Glenn Burrows swapped sides of the fence switching from auction house to vendor and under the Willow Park Stud banner has achieved plenty of success and particularly as a savvy trader of quality mares and he takes up the story.
“I’d shortlisted her in the MM sale and inspected her,” Glenn explained.
“She'd only raced about one month prior to the sale so I thought she would've been entered prior to that run which was far from disgraceful being beaten 3 1/2 at Caulfield in a 175k race so I called her previous trainer Archie Alexander.
“He was very open and forthcoming and said she's sound and right, but feels she's reached her level and was going through the motions. He said she's a sweet mare and I'd be happy to get her back, but possibly with the breeding season approaching she's probably done her job on the track.”
Glenn had his hands full presenting his own draft for the sale and didn’t even go up to the ring when Danny’s St Darci went through, so it was not until later he realized she had been passed in.
“So we had a lull in parades and I was scanning through the results and I saw that she was passed in with a reserve of 130k from memory, but I didn't want to leave the draft of mares in the hope that someone would want to inspect something, so I sent my stud manager, Jade Rossington, a 20 year + employee to go and make an offer,” Glenn revealed.
“She went to Yarraman's draft only to be told that the mare had just been sold to Mick Malone for 70k!”
It proved a challenging sale for a lot of people, but at the end of the day Willow Park sold all bar two mares and when Glenn got home Danny’s St Darci kept creeping into his thoughts.
“A couple of days after the sale I again looked up Danny's page in the catalogue and I had 100k written as what I thought she was worth. There was nothing to pot with her as she's a lovely type, a talented stakes placed sprinter from a current, solid running two dam pedigree. I've always been a fan of her sire All Too Hard (coincidentally the other SW on the day for him Babylon Berlin was bred, born and raised at Willow Park) so what was there not like,” Glenn said.
“I decided to call Mick and see if he'd take a profit and you know as well as I do that I'm not excessive when spending money, so to offer a chunk of money for no pedigree upgrade really goes against my grain.
“Anyway, after a few back and forth negotiations I thought just back yourself, you thought she'd be good buying at 100k so just pay the man the money which I did.
“I offered her to my close friend of 20 years Matty Dale to train and told him the story. I sent him the pedigree and he went through her videos and said a change of scenery might do the trick, she's sound in wind and limb so I would need to work on getting her back to her best by getting into her head and keeping her happy. He then said if it's ok I'll take a leg and naturally I said sure.”
The rest is history and if you are wondering about the appeal of this family consider that four yearlings in upcoming sales have all taken benefit from Danny’s St Darci adding a little more BLACK TYPE to what is already a quality page.
“She is so genuine and kind and travelling doesn't worry her one bit and she is already back at his Goulburn stable now,” said Glenn.
“It's three weeks until the Nudgee and although it's yet another big trip, she simply loves it at Matty's farm. If she can happen to win the Nudgee it's a win and you’re in race for the MM mares race worth $1m, that's something to dream about!”
Danny’s St Darci will ultimately go to stud and her second career is likely to begin at Willow Park.
“At this stage, when she's done racing I'd love to keep her here on farm and breed and sell yearlings from her, so I'd look to sell down a proportion of her to some clients,” Glenn added.
“This calendar year alone my sale mares have produced 12 individual SW's with three of them being G1 winners – Sunshine in Paris, Benedetta, Velocious- so it makes sense to again back myself and keep these mares for the longer term rather than selling for a break even or a loss and then see them come out and produce a SW.”
