Jamie Beatson had to dig deeper than intended to secure a son of Ole Kirk last year, but topping up his budget proved to be a wise and lucrative move.
Under his and wife Chanel’s Ohukia Lodge banner, he paid A$180,000 at the Magic Millions Adelaide Yearling Sale for the youngster offered by breeder Gerry Harvey’s Baramul Stud.
Te Akau chief Sir David Ellis subsequently went to $480,000 for the colt at New Zealand Bloodstock’s Ready to Run Sale and as System Of Play is now a $4 favourite for the Gr.1 Al Basti Equiworld Dubai New Zealand 2000 Guineas (1600m).
Put aside after an autumn debut win at Te Rapa, the Mark Walker and Sam Bergerson-trained representative was an impressive victor in his Ellerslie reappearance over 1400m on Saturday.
“We weren’t at the sale and got Bill and James Mitchell to do the work for us over there,” Beatson said.
“We went through their list and picked out the ones we liked, we saw this colt online and he’s a pretty classy horse on pedigree and type.”
System Of Play is out of the Medaglia D’Oro mare Statuesquely, whose granddam is the two-time Group One winner Lotteria, with former champion Singapore sprinter and top-flight performer The Inferno also on the family page.
“We had to go a bit further than we thought we’d have to go, but we were pretty keen to get him and it’s worked out well,” Beatson said.
“It was good to see him come back from a spell on Saturday and make it two from two like that, he’s pretty exciting and he should get the distance of the 2000 Guineas.”
While System Of Play was one of the stars of the Ready to Run Sale, a non-starter has also since made his mark with Justin Case the winner of three of his five starts.
He was initially destined for Karaka, but a rethink resulted in the son of Banquo and the Group-winning Savabeel mare Do Ra Mi stepping out in the ownership of breeder Waikato Stud with Beatson.
“I rang Mark (Chittick) and said he goes pretty well and he said if he goes that well we’ll race him, and here we are,” he said.
Trained by Kris Shailer, his two wins last term included the Gr.3 Matamata Slipper (1200m), and he kicked off his three-year-old season with victory in the recent Listed Sir Colin Meads Trophy (1200m).
Justin Case is also nominated for the 2000 Guineas but is unlikely to head toward Riccarton in favour of a target closer to home.
“Mark is quite keen to put him in his slot for The (NZB) Kiwi ($4.5 million, 1500m), so we’ll get him up over a bit more ground and see how he goes,” Beatson said.
Meanwhile, Ohukia will again have a sizeable consignment at November’s Ready to Run Sale, with Lot 89 expected to be a leading light at Karaka.
He is a colt by Toronado with his third dam the great three-time Gr.1 Melbourne Cup (3200m) winner Makybe Diva.
“On type, the Toronado is a stand-out and the way they go up in Hong Kong he should be pretty popular,” Beatson said.
“I really like the All Too Hard and the one by The Autumn Sun, we’ve got a really nice draft again.”
Lot 132 is the son of All Too Hard from the family of Gr.1 Blue Diamond Stakes (1200m) winner True Jewels, while The Autumn Sun colt from a Group One-performed South African family is Lot 453. – LOVERACING.NZ News Desk
