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Clarken Racing | Clarken Racing News 53084 Lucky Breeder Rides Emotional Rollercoaster

Lucky breeder rides emotional rollercoaster

Lucky breeder rides emotional rollercoaster

Although Brenton Parker has experienced all of the highs and lows of thoroughbred breeding over the last three decades, not many of the horses he’s bred have taken him through the full spectrum of emotions quite like Extremely Lucky.

Along with his wife Liz, the SA-based breeder has dabbled with a small broodmare band since the early 1990s, with three-time Group 1 winner Happy Trails the best horse he’s bred and, incidentally, the cheapest horse he’s ever sold at $11,000.

Around the same time he purchased Happy Trails’ dam Madame Flurry, Parker also bought Eastern Charm, who is the grand dam of Extremely Lucky.

The son of Extreme Choice won Saturday’s Listed Lightning Stakes at Morphettville to stamp himself as one of the most exciting young sprinters in the land, with trainer Will Clarken now eyeing next month's Group 1 Moir Stakes (1000m).

Extremely Lucky's journey to the racetrack has already been filled with obstacles and unlikely twists, as Parker explained in this week's Thoroughbred News on Racing.com.

“We bred her (Tamarind Lane), she’s by Stratum out of a mare called Eastern Charm who was the first mare we ever bought – we bought her in foal the same year we bought Madame Flurry (dam of Happy Trails),” Parker said.

“Tamarind Lane was a nice enough filly but wouldn’t have bought much at the sales so we decided to race her with David Jolly but she never got to the track.

“We sent her to Extreme Choice because we generally always like to go to a first season stallion with at least one of our mares every year and he was the one that was nominated by my breeding guru.

“She was covered by Extreme Choice in early September and within a week we’d got a call to say that if she wasn’t positive, we’d better find another stallion because he wasn’t firing on all cylinders.

“Fortunately she was in foal and he turned out to be a nice foal and he got accepted into the Gold Coast Sale (Magic Millions GC Yearling Sale) in 2020 but he had a bit of a throat issue and probably woulsnt have passed the post-sale scope.

“The throat didn’t really get better so my wife and I decided to race him and when he won his first start at Murray Bridge, the phone started ringing.”

WATCH: Brenton Parker chats to James Tzaferis in the Thoroughbred News.

Despite not being able to sell Extremely Lucky as a yearling, Parker was happy to cash in for an undisclosed six figure sum when the offers flooded in after the gelding's eye-catching debut win for local trainer Sam Burford at Murray Bridge.

And while he's no longer an owner of the four-year-old, the horse's success on the racetrack could yet deliver Parker another windfall. 

The Adelaide-based breeder will offer a half-brother to Extremely Lucky by All Too Hard during the 2023 yearling sale season, while he also races half-sister Magical Ride (ex Kermadec) with Ryan Balfour and has retained half-sister Rua Raposa (ex Foxwedge) to breed with.

RELEVANT NEWS

Keeping it in the family

Later in the day, a pair of lots sold for $200,000 respectively to secure their placings as the joint-second-top lots on the second day of trade. Lot 273, the first of the duo to go under the hammer, is a filly by Yulong’s Written Tycoon who sold to Ridgeport Holdings, Clarken Bloodstock, and Suman Hedge Bloodstock (FBAA). The filly is out of Blue Morpho (Hussonet) who from 16 starts on the track managed three wins, including landing the 2018 Laelia Stakes (Listed, 1600m).  Clarken and his training partner Niki O’Shea know about the family, with the filly’s brother, the unraced Windrow, and her Alabama Express half-sister, who Clarken bought for $80,000 at the Inglis Premier Yearling Sale in 2021, both residents of their Murray Bridge stable.  “The quality always makes money and there have been some really nice types and there’s been no doubt that they have been well received. We were narrowly beaten on the Zoustar filly [Lot 255] earlier today and we were lucky enough to get the Written Tycoon filly a second ago,” Will Clarken told ANZ Bloodstock News. “I’ve got her two relations who have shown great promise and haven’t been to the races yet. Written Tycoon has been a good stallion to the yard and we’ve got Kuroyanagi who was Group 1-placed in the Blue Diamond and it’s going to be for the same ownership group [Ridgeport].” “We’ve got four so far [on the day], we’ve been sent a few and I think there’s a couple more on the list for the rest of the day, but we really came here to buy what we thought was the best filly and the best colt and I think we’ve done that. “Adelaide has been a really happy hunting ground for us. We bought Beau Rossa here and he was narrowly beaten in a Group 1. I bought Galaxy Patch out of here, Prawn Baba and  both of them have run in a Hong Kong Derby [Galaxy Patch second in 2024] and I just know the sale and it’s been really good for us. “Let’s hope the Magic Millions lives on here in South Australia. Obviously there are some changes ahead, but it’s a great asset to have a sale in our backyard.”Story from ANZ Bloodstock News

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Peltzer's brother turns heads

Peltzer's brother will stay in South Australia and be trained by Will Clarken and Niki O'Shea after being bought for $240,000 in the opening session of Monday's Magic Millions Adelaide Yearling Sale. Offered as part of leading SA nursery Mill Park Stud's draft, the colt (Lot 25) was on the shortlist of several good judges but was ultimately knocked down to Clarken's Racing Manager Lachie Weekley on behalf of the stable, owner Rob Chapman and bloodstock agent Suman Hedge. As well as leaving multiple Stakes winner and now young stallion Peltzer, who was purchased for $260,000 as a yearling, the colt's dam Miss Otto has also left Stakes-placed filly Madison Kate. Weekley said the stable targeted the colt and was buoyed by the record of Mill Park Stud, the property on SA's Limestone Coast which has bred or raised more than 20 Group 1 winners. "He's a beautiful colt, just a lovely, well-balanced horse," Weekley said. "He has a lovely So You Think head on him and he looks to have a lot of class. "You'd like to think he'd be that sort of miler type O like. "We tend not to rush our young horses, it's cliche to say but we'll give him plenty of time. "Mill Park Stud is such a fantastic nursery, Chris Watson and the team down there do such a good job and the stats are just phenomenal. "They've nearly got the alphabet of Stakes winners, which speaks for itself."   Story by James Tzaferis from Racing.com

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‘Quality’ So You Think colt heads to Clarken and O’Shea

A week on from claiming Adelaide Cup (Gr 2, 1200m) success with Silent Surrente (Fiorente), Will Clarken and Niki O’Shea secured a win in the sales ring when they went to $240,000 to secure a stunning colt by So You Think (High Chaparral) early on day one of selling at the Magic Millions Adelaide Yearling Sale. Catalogued as Lot 25 and offered by Mill Park Stud, the colt is out of winning mare Miss Otto (Elusive Quality), making him a brother to Group 2 winner, and now Twin Hills Stud-based sire, Peltzer (So You Think). Bidding ringside at the Morphetville sales complex, the stable’s racing manager Lachie Weekley was thrilled to snare the colt, who was knocked down to Clarken Bloodstock in partnership with Suman Hedge Bloodstock and prominent South Australian businessman Rob Chapman. “He’s just got a lovely action and a really nice demeanour, beautiful head on him, great eye,” Weekley said.  “Very importantly he came off a terrific farm in Mill Park Stud down at Meningie, from Chris Watson and the team, their record is second to none and one of the best in the land.” The partnership, who purchased four lots at this sale last year for a combined total of $285,000, had to stay strong to win the colt, and plan to continue the momentum on the second day.  “We were right at [our limit on him]. We wanted to be pretty strong on him, obviously he’s a quality colt so we didn’t want to miss out and there was some good competition as always, with those nice horses. “The clients that we bought him for, they were keen to attempt to try and buy the best horse here and that’s what we saw him as. We did the job early and there’s a couple over the next day or two and that’ll be us.”  A close relation to 2019 Adelaide Guineas (Listed, 1600m) winner So We Are (So You Think), Weekley said the colt will be given time to mature and develop.   “He’s just a lovely horse and we’ll give him a bit of time. He’d be more that sort of three-year-old type. We’ll just let the ball come on to the bat.” Mill Park finished the first day as the leading vendors by aggregate, having sold 12 yearlings for $1,031,000, the only vendor to break the million barrier. 

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