The price tags of well-bred yearlings aren’t the only eyewatering figures at horse sales.
Shane Nichols’ collective tally of hands shook, horses bought and beers downed at bloodstock auctions in the past two decades is the stuff of legend.
The latter might be leading the count, but who’s keeping score?
Thousands of horses crossed off his shortlists have long been forgotten but there are some thoroughbreds, and indeed some human faces, that the Mornington horseman will never forget.
One such person is Matthew Sandblom, the breeder, owner and successful businessman that has become one of his closest friends and undoubtedly his biggest client.
On Saturday, the pair will chase perhaps their most significant win together when untapped filly Esha lines up as one of the favourites in the Group 1 Moir Stakes – provided she can gain a start in the weight-for-age speed test as the first emergency.
Bred by Sandblom and bought to race by Hunter Valley operation Kia Ora Thoroughbreds, Esha is by boom sire Extreme Choice and out of Group 1 winner I Am A Star, one of the earliest collaborations between Sandblom and Nichols.
Their association began a couple of seasons earlier with I Am A Star’s sister, Band On The Run.
“I bought a filly at Easter for $25,000 for a client and she didn’t pay me so I sent it through the ready-to-run sales and she was the fastest breeze-up,” Nichols said.
“Sandblom went to $45,000 but I wanted $50,000 so I approached him and told him that’s what I wanted because I thought she went pretty well. He was standing with Henry Field and James Harron, who I knew pretty well, and they endorsed me, the pair of them, so he agreed to buy her. I then told him that I’d like to train her and his first thing he wanted to know was what I charged and he was happy enough so he let me keep her to train.”
“We ran fifth in a Blue Diamond Prelude with her and I told him that was about as good as she goes so we took her to Tassie and she ran second in a Listed race down there. That was the day before her full sister was going through the ring at the Classic Sale in Sydney and I told him that one of us needed to buy her. He bought her and it was I Am A Star.
“Matthew has been life changing for me.”
The encounter changed the course of Nichols’ training career.
I Am A Star won 10 races and more than $1.5 million in prizemoney. She gave Nichols his first Group 1 win in the 2016 Empire Rose Stakes.
Sandblom retained the star mare to breed with and Nichols trained her first foal, the modestly-performed Orion The Hunter.
However, he knew her mating with boom sire Extreme Choice might produce something more spectacular so long before Esha ever stepped foot in the ring, Nichols had done his homework.
He liked what he saw and he was keen to train her.
Again, the contacts he’d built during decades on the bloodstock sales circuit were key and he made sure he had his foot in the door, should the opportunity come to open it.
“There were plenty of moving parts,” he said.
“I knew that Esha as a yearling was OK because I’d spoken to Jim Carey at Newgate.
“Luke (Wilkinson, Kia Ora Racing Manager) went to the on-farm parades in December and I texted him and asked to see his notes on the filly, knowing full well that he bought Extreme Choice as a yearling and that he’s a big fan of the stallion’s stock and the horse has been extremely good to him.
“I’ve had horses with Kia Ora on and off over the years and Shane Wright, who is the stud manager, was at Yarraman when I had the mother so he was fully aware of I Am A Star and that I trained her. So I approached Matthew Sandblom and told him that if I was going to get something done on the filly at the sale, it would help if he kept a bit.”
“I hoped he’d keep 50% but he said he’d keep 30% so I went back to Kia Ora and said that if they were happy to do something together, I could do 30% of the horse and they took that on board. They said that if she made their shortlist, met all their criteria and all the hierarchy were happy for me to train the daughter of I Am A Star, we might be on. Fortunately, she was knocked down to Kia Ora with my client keeping 30% and away we went.”
Esha bolted in to win her first start in Adelaide as a two-year-old and was even more impressive when winning under Damian Lane at The Valley last month.
Her most recent jump out under Jamie Kah at Mornington set tongues wagging given the time she clocked and the ease with which she appeared to do it.
With each race or trial, she’s seemed to get quicker and punters have increasingly migrated into her corner.
Many will remain in it if she gets the chance to take on her older and more seasoned rivals on Saturday, although her rating of 72 means that she’s marooned on the outer as the first emergency, needing a scratching to sneak a run.
Whether it’s on Saturday or deeper into the spring, Nichols is excited to test the filly in racing’s deep end. He suspects she’ll be up to it and, if not, he’s got to find out if she’s not.
“I think she’s quite good but we don’t know where her ceiling is,” he said.
“I’m mindful of the task that I’m sending a three-year-old filly to a weight-for-age race against older sprinters at her third start but it’s about running front four, which would look very good on her pedigree.
“How many opportunities do you get like this (over 1000m) because if she runs well then she goes to a Danehill and then a Coolmore, both down the straight and both over 1200m, which could expose a filly that is quite sharp around The Valley over 1000m.”
“What’s the worst thing that can happen? We train another loser and I’ve done plenty of that. There is too much upside to worry about the downside.”
The Moir will carry an added layer of narrative for Nichols’ stable as it will be their first Group 1 runner with young horseman Hayden Black on the training ticket.
Nichols’ long-time lieutenant had his licence approved by Racing Victoria last week, with a long-mooted partnership finally confirmed in form guides.
Black isn’t the only one with a youthful exuberance around the stable at the moment, although Nichols knows the sport can humble even the best trainers in an instant so he’s not getting too carried away.
“Excited probably isn’t the right word – we toil away to find one, I’ve potentially found one, so it keeps my focus,” he said. “Going into the spring with a horse that is potentially a chance of winning a good race, I’m enthused.
“I’ve been kicked in the balls enough times in this game to not get overawed by it all. It was a process to get her into the stable and now she can run so we’re happy.”
