STAR THOROUGHBREDS 2009 AND 2010 YEARLING PURCHASES AND THEIR SUBSEQUENT RACETRACK SUCCESS OR OTHERWISE

20/03/13

There is no question that Star Thoroughbreds is one of the best known thoroughbred syndication companies operating around Australia.

The Justracing website has been operating since 1997 meaning it’s currently in its sixteenth year and I vividly remember placing a phone call to Star Thoroughbred’s Denise Martin about 13 or 14 years ago, however I’m still waiting on a call back, the point being that Star Thoroughbreds has been in existence for a long time.

I must say that I’d never buy a share in a syndicate company thoroughbred and in fact over the years I’ve had so many negative emails from people who complain about their experiences with a variety of syndication companies that have seemed to have sprung up everywhere in recent years that I refuse to let any syndication company advertise on any of my four racing websites.

So as I’ve been researching the success or otherwise of yearlings bought by Gai Waterhouse, in both an article last week and another one tomorrow, I thought it would be a good idea to also conduct research into yearlings bought in the name of Star Thoroughbreds at the Magic Millions January sale and the Inglis Easter sale, given that Gai Waterhouse selects and trains all of Star Thoroughbreds yearlings, which she confirmed during an appearance on Sky Channel’s Off The Rails on Tuesday night of last week (12/3/13) when she stated, “I choose them (all yearlings purchased in the name of Star Thoroughbreds) and Denise (Martin) syndicates them.”

On the subject of that Sky Channel television show Off The Rails, regular panelist, jockey Corey Brown, can probably get a job in mainstream media when his riding days are over, as I reckon he’d fit in well there via his ability to make warm, fuzzy and positive comments about everything and everyone in racing. He obviously researched in-depth the subsequent racetrack performance of Star Thoroughbreds yearlings over some years before last week’s show as evidenced by this statement that he made on Off The Rails last week in front of studio guest Gai Waterhouse and the show’s considerable viewing audience when he noted, “she (Denise Martin) seems to have the lucky touch to, everything she sort of buys (at yearling sales) she seems to have a lot of luck with”. Corey Brown obviously made that statement based on his perception of the success that Star Thoroughbreds enjoys year in and year out, or simply to make inane conversation, so I thought it best that I check out the facts – to see if the researched facts agree with the statement Brown made. Let’s see if “everything she sort of buys she seems to have a lot of luck with”.

So what I’ve done is researched all yearlings bought in the name of Star Thoroughbreds at both the 2009 and the 2010 Magic Millions January sale as well as yearlings bought at the Inglis Easter sale in both 2009 and 2010 – and below is what that research revealed.

The list of 2009 January Magic Millions yearlings and Easter Inglis yearlings bought by Star Thoroughbreds reads:

LOT

RACING NAME

PRICE

R/T RACK PERF

(Starts: 1-2-3)

P/M TO 17/3/13

PROFIT/LOSS

56

Curonian

65,000

27-1-3-2

24,175

-40,825

57

Teardrop Rock

150,000

11-5-2-1

193,350

+43,350

133

Besieged

60,000

26-4-5-2

41,550

-18,450

141

Mikoyan

120,000

3-0-0-1

1,400

-118,600

177

Pendvick

60,000

2-0-0-0

0

-60,000

188

Raw Edge

35,000

10-1-1-1

17,730

-17,270

205

Romantically

140,000

0

0

-140,000

275

Battle of Britain

150,000

5-0-1-0

5,400

-144,600

287

Innsbruck

215,000

0

0

-215,000

334

Squamosa

140,000

7-4-1-0

433,000

+293,000

338

Anniversary

120,000

8-1-0-0

30,700

-89,300

478

Polar Eclipse

165,000

10-0-4-0

26,000

-139,000

482

Providence

135,000

10-2-1-3

19,450

-115,550

507

Actrice

80,000

25-3-2-3

36,825

-43,175

538

Petersburg

175,000

4-1-0-2

9,483

-165,517

587

Legally

60,000

0

0

-60,000

50

Polska*

100,000

8-0-2-1

10,030

-89,970

96

Maskhara*

160,000

25-3-5-2

47,700

-112,300

 

TOTALS:

2,130,000

181-25-27-18

896,793

-1,233,207

 

*Please note the bottom two lots (50 and 96) were the only two bought in the name of Star Thoroughbreds at the Inglis Easter yearling sale of 2009, so they were included in this grouping.

 

The list of 2010 January Magic Millions yearlings bought by Star Thoroughbreds reads:

 

LOT

RACING NAME

PRICE

R/TRACK PERF

(Starts: 1-2-3)

P/M TO 17/3/13

PROFIT/LOSS

82

Lindstrom

80,000

0

0

-80,000

116

Colloquial

90,000

8-1-1-0

1,200

-88,800

181

Ambassador

50,000

7-0-1-1

4,875

-45,125

188

Rosini

160,000

14-1-2-3

29,750

-130,250

212

Not A Dream

100,000

16-2-2-1

27,900

-72,100

283

Iridesse

160,000

7-0-0-1

3,675

-156,325

345

Deralon

170,000

9-2-1-2

52,400

-117,600

404

Vitellius

160,000

1-1-0-0

27,550

-132,450

430

Romanair

180,000

10-3-1-0

43,635

-136,365

431

Neomagic

200,000

15-1-4-2

23,870

-176,130

462

Not named

225,000

0

0

-225,000

 

TOTALS:

1,575,000

87-11-12-10

214,855

-1,360,145

 

The list of Star Thoroughbreds 2010 Inglis Easter yearling sale reads:

 

LOT

RACING NAME

PRICE

R/TRACK PERF

(Starts: 1-2-3)

P/M TO 17/3/13

PROFIT/LOSS

17

Biographical

110,000

5-0-1-1

5,000

-105,000

84

From The Outset

90,000

0

0

-90,000

252

Enjoyment

40,000

6-1-1-0

16,800

-23,200

383

Dasharna

100,000

0

0

-100,000

 

TOTALS:

340,000

11-1-2-1

21,800

-318,200

 

So after researching the yearlings bought by Star Thoroughbreds in the 2009 and 2010 Magic Millions January Gold Coast sale and the 2009 and 2010 Inglis Easter yearling sale I can make the following deductions:

 

1. Star Thoroughbreds bought 33 yearlings cumulatively across the four aforesaid premier yearling sales across 2009 and 2010.

2. Star Thoroughbreds 33 yearlings cost $4,045,000 in total ($2,130,000 + 1,575,000 + $340,000).

3. The average price of each of the 33 yearlings was therefore $122,576.

4. The average prizemoney earned by each of the 33 yearlings to this point is $34,347.

5. Each yearling has had on average 8.45 starts to this point in time.

6. Each yearling averaged only 1.12 wins in its racing career to this point in time.

7. The total loss sustained on the 33 purchases, based strictly on their purchase price only, following their purchase at the 2009 and 2010 yearling sales – as at 17/3/2013 is $2,911,552.

8. The financial percentage of loss outlined in 7) above ($2,911,552) as opposed to the total purchase price ($4,045,000) is 71.98%.

9. The 71.98% loss sustained in 8) above is without so much as one dollar of expense being incurred by way of training fees, spelling costs, vet fees, transport costs, or any mark-up by Star Thoroughbreds on the original purchase price of the yearling prior to the syndication of that yearling.

10. If Gai Waterhouse received $3,000 per yearling for selecting the 33 yearlings above she would obviously receive $99,000 for her work in recommending the purchase of these yearlings.

11. Only two of the 33 purchased yearlings – or just 6.06% – returned a profit, based strictly on their purchase price and those two were Teardrop Rock and Squamosa, but that figure would become just one of 33, or 3.03%, when any Star Thoroughbreds mark-up and other expenses such as training fees of Teardrop Rock were deducted from the $43,350 profit shown above.

12. Eight of the 33 yearlings – or 24.24% – haven’t earned a solitary dollar as at 17/3/13 even though those eight yearlings cumulatively cost $970,000.

 

Now that he has received some factual and educated Justracing research on the topic, via the aforesaid, I wonder if he had his time over again if Corey Brown would still wish to publicly state that “everything she sort of buys she seems to have a lot of luck with”. In fact from the above two years yearling sales research on the topic, the facts certainly seem at odds with his statement.

 

Earlier in this article it was mentioned that the above figures don’t take into account any “mark up” by Star Thoroughbreds on its yearling sale purchase price. To give an idea of how that mark up can work, and so it’s not ancient history to check, Star Thoroughbreds at the 2013 Magic Millions January sale on the Gold Coast purchased a Manhattan Rain ex Bondi Blonde filly for $95,000. That filly will subsequently be syndicated for a total price of $149,500 – which represents a mark up of $54,500 in just two weeks. Photographic proof of that $54,500 mark up is seen via two photos that appear on the www.brisbaneracing.com.au website today.

 

Today on www.brisbaneracing.com.au there is the first of two big montages of photos from all over the place. On www.sydneyracing.com.au Harness Racing New South Wales have thankfully let commonsense prevail in the case of mistaken identity from Narrabri recently, whilst on www.melbourneracing.com.au Matt Nicholls edits two interesting news stories.

Stay up to date with the latest racing news
Follow our social accounts to get exclusive content and all the latest racing news!