Annabel and Olly Tuthill will be in search of another Swiss Beauty in Sydney next week after her daughter Betty Spaghetti starred on the big stage at Riccarton Park on Saturday.
A mare with a name to match her ability, Betty Spaghetti was a stakes performer and five-race winner prior to her deserved triumph in the Listed Daphne Bannan Memorial Great Easter Stakes (1400m), the first stakes winner for her sire Stratum Star.
The victory came to great satisfaction for the North Canterbury couple, who bred the five-year-old under their Beaufort Downs banner.
“It was really exciting for us, I think she was really well overdue a stakes win and she’s been very unlucky at times,” Annabel Tuthill said.
“She’s been so tough and thereabouts so many times, so it was cool to see.”
A young thoroughbred operation, Beaufort Downs was very much in its infancy when the Tuthill’s travelled to the Inglis Australian Broodmare Sale in 2019.
In search of a mare to add to their growing band, they came across Swiss Beauty, a New Zealand-bred daughter of Swiss Ace who initially trialled in her homeland before winning two races in Australia. The pedigree was strengthened by her granddam in Our Squeezer, a half-sister to a former New Zealand Horse Of The Year in Bonneval and Group winners Full Of Spirit, Lord Arthur, Imposing Lass and Lady Cumquat.
The Tuthill’s were taken by her page and secured the mare in-foal to multiple Group One winner Stratum Star for A$32,000.
“We bought the mare at the broodmare sale because we loved her pedigree, with Bonneval and a number of other amazing horses in there,” Annabel Tuthill said. “She was a good racehorse as well, so we bought her, and Betty came out as a bonus.
“She (Betty Spaghetti) was always a really lovely, strong filly and always looked like she would run. We weren’t too worried about the first foal being by a bit of a non-commercial stallion, so we took her to the yearling sales to get her into a good home and racing for the mare.”
Presented in their Book 1 draft, Betty Spaghetti was secured for $20,000 by Robert Dennis, who entrusted the filly to Anna Furlong. Based in Canterbury herself, Furlong sends most of her horses to spell at Beaufort, meaning the mare has never been far from her adoring breeders.
“We were lucky with Betty, we wanted to get her into a good stable to race and that’s our main aim when we’re breeding, to get them out and about,” Annabel Tuthill said. “Robert picked her and ended up stopping training for a bit, so she’s gone to Anna, where she’s had every opportunity to succeed.
“People love her name, it’s iconic. We’ll never forget her win at Riccarton on Cup Day, we were in the stands watching her and all of the owners were in front of us. The atmosphere during the race was electric and even more so after she won, they were all singing “there’s only one Betty”.
“We love having her back on her holidays, Anna rang us and said that she’ll be coming out again at some point soon. It’s really nice to follow her, see her at the races then have her at home with her mum, brothers and sisters.
“It’s all turned out very well.”
After Betty Spaghetti, Swiss Beauty went on to produce two-win gelding Mogul, who finished fourth in the Gr.3 Barneswood Farm Stakes (1400m) as a three-year-old. The most recent of her progeny to step through the sales ring was a Proisir colt, knocked down for $110,000 in January, while another filly by the champion sire awaits her turn in the Karaka auditorium next year.
“We’ve got another Proisir weanling filly who is lovely, she’ll be going to next year’s sales,” Tuthill said. “She’s a dark bay, a strong filly and probably stronger than the last Proisir that we sold, a nicer type. We’re pretty excited about her.
“She (Swiss Beauty) got quite late having her last foal, she seems to go overdue and holds on to them a little bit. She just got too late to send away, so we decided to leave her, give her a break and send her away early this year.
“We might send her to an Australian stallion, we haven’t quite decided which one, but that’s the plan.”
Still elated after the weekend’s result, the Tuthill’s are looking forward to their return to Sydney, aiming to further boost their ever-growing collection of quality mares.
“We’ve got about 17 of our own broodmares, we try to get another one every season because they obviously get older, and it’s nice to have a young mare each year to keep commercial,” Annabel Tuthill said.
“There are a lot of mares to choose from in the sale over there, we like to get something in-foal to an Australian stallion and then leave them there, then get back in-foal to an Australian sire. It has worked really well for us so far, it’s good to have some diversity in the draft.
“We’re going to go over to this sale again next week and have a look over there, hopefully we can find another like Swiss Beauty.” – LOVERACING.NZ News Desk
