9 minute read
Home and Away
MARIE KIZENKO
When Away Game belied her odds to post an emphatic score in the $2,000,000 The Star Gold Coast Magic Millions 2YO Classic last January, it mirrored the swift rise to prominence in the racing industry by one of her co-owners, Hannah Mathiesen.
The young American had developed an interest in the sport while at university in California and, just a few years later, found herself in the winner’s circle on the Gold Coast.
“It was amazing,” Mathiesen recalled. “There’s a big atmosphere around the Magic Millions sales and the race series that tie into them are very cool. My whole family was able to come and it was really great to have them there. We weren’t really expecting her to win, so that added to the excitement of the day. It really was a special day and one we’ll never forget.”
In addition to landing the seven-figure payday for winning the 2YO Classic, Away Game also secured a $325,000 bonus as part of the Magic Millions Racing Women initiative. Established by Magic Millions in 2012, the bonus offers a total of $500,000 to the top four finishers that are owned or leased by all-female syndicates.
“I think racing in Australia is very accessible to everyone and there are more reasons to get involved,” Mathiesen offered. “The concept of the Women’s Bonus was really new to me. They’re very advanced in the amount of partnerships and syndicates, and all the ways you could get involved in racing. It opens the doors for a lot of people. You can get involved with just a tiny piece of the action. That could be the culture of Australia in general, they seem to have a better knowledge of racing and there are more people involved in the process. Along with the sales themselves, there’s all of the hospitality--the marquees, the tents, lunch provided--it’s just more of an event.”
Mathiesen believes the opportunity for stable visits and watching morning trackwork in Australia has attracted more fans--and potential future owners--than in other parts of the globe.
“That’s one of the things that got me hooked, being able to get a behind-the-scenes look,” she explained. “It all goes back to having a connection with the horse to really develop a love for the sport. That’s what sets our sport apart: there’s an animal that’s trying its heart out for you. In Australia, you can just go to Racing TV, it’s a regular channel. They’ve got segments on retired horses and it’s really helpful to be able to grow the sport. Going to Australia opened a lot of doors for me and I definitely wouldn’t be where I am now without it.”
Mathiesen grew up in Del Mar, California, not far from the famed oceanside racecourse, but focused on volleyball as a teenager and enrolled at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, in central California, to pursue that sport further. However, an injury curtailed her playing days, and Mathiesen chanced upon the “Thoroughbred Enterprise” program offered as part of the university’s Animal Science Department.
“I had ridden a bit in summer camp but growing up it was all volleyball for me. I had always liked animals and enjoyed athletics, so racing combined the two perfectly for me. We got to learn the hands-on part of the industry, and once a week there were lectures, so I got a good education all around. That’s what sparked my interest.
“I was extremely lucky that I went to Cal Poly,” Mathiesen added. “We had horses on campus, mainly Quarter Horses, but a select group of four or five Thoroughbreds. Most of them were donated mares from people in the area that wanted to help out the program. We helped with the breedings and got stud fees donated from farms in central California. We were able to get a little taste of all of the parts of the industry and see what we liked. We took trips down to Del
Mar, up to Golden Gate, and even went to the Kentucky Derby one year.”
Upon completing the program, Mathiesen returned home and shared her enthusiasm with her father Mark, and they attended a new owner’s seminar conducted at Del Mar, where they got involved with the prominent partnership syndicate West Point Thoroughbreds.
“We ended up buying five percent of a horse, which we did not expect,” Mathiesen commented. “The horse was being broken in (nearby in San Diego), so we were able to see the whole process of how a racehorse develops, and we really loved it.”
Mathiesen went on to intern with West Point as well as Del Mar, and during her junior year spent a semester in Adelaide as part of a study abroad program. Ahead of her graduation in 2018, she traveled to Florida for the breeze-up sales, where she was able to network with both bloodstock agent Kerri Radcliffe and Tom Ryan of SF Bloodstock. Those encounters would have a profound impact on her immediate future.
“He’s got a lot of involvement in Australia through SF Bloodstock,” Mathiesen said of Ryan. “I wanted to have a future in racing, and asked him what he thought my next step should be. He said, ‘Absolutely go to Australia, you’ll learn more in six months there than in two years anywhere else,’ because of how dominant the industry is there and how important it is to their culture. He got me in contact with Ciaron Maher and Dave Eustace and the rest is history. It was an incredible opportunity.”
Fresh off the plane in September 2018, Mathiesen focused on client relations and updates on behalf of those trainers, and was
MARK, KIM & HANNAH MATHIESON, RAY & SUSIE MONTAGUE
also able to learn first-hand their process in selecting young horses at auction. At Magic Millions in January 2019, Mathiesen was able to reunite with Kerri Radcliffe to pursue several yearling fillies.
“That Magic Millions was the first sale I worked with Ciaron and Dave,” Mathiesen recalled. “I was inspecting horses with Ciaron and Kerri suggested, ‘Why don’t we try to buy a horse?’ When I heard about the (Magic Millions Racing Women’s) bonus, I thought that it would be really fun to put together a syndicate of some of my family members and friends from the U.S. and try to take a horse racing.”
During her time at Australian auctions, Mathiesen had learned to source the sort of racing prospects that would mature quickly to contest the nation’s strong and lucrative juvenile program.
“We are looking for a type that’s a bit stronger, a bit faster, earlier-looking, which is exactly what Away Game looks like,” she explained. “In terms of pedigree, Snitzel has been champion sire four years in a row so that was definitely a factor in her appeal as well. We were surprised we were able to get her; I thought she’d be the most expensive of the fillies we had on our list. At that time Zoustar was really hot, and we had a couple on our list that blew past the budget. I thought she would be over $500,000, but she fell in our range and I was thrilled. Usually it’s the other way around!”
Offered by Mill Park Stud, Away Game was secured for $425,000 by Radcliffe for the budding Mathiesen partnership. The muscular bay filly was produced by the stakes-placed mare Elusive Wonder.
There are eight of us in the group, Mrs [Loretta] Fung from Aquis also bought into her. It’s great to have her involved as well.”
Away Game backed up her victory in the Magic Millions 2YO Classic with wins in the G3 Widden Stakes and the G2 Percy Sykes Stakes, and was also runner-up in the $2 million G1 Golden Slipper in March. She signed off on her juvenile campaign with an honorable fifth against older mares in the G1 Robert Sangster Stakes in May on her way to earning over $2.4 million.
In 2019, Mathiesen also formed Oakmont Horse Club with Colt Pike, a fellow American, to establish new avenues and opportunities of international ownership.
“We focus on pinhooking, mainly weanling to yearling in Australia, but we do have a couple of racehorses as well,” Mathiesen explained. “We’re really just looking for a horse that we can improve, or one that will improve with time. But it can be hard to predict what the market is going to like in a year. Stallions can come in and out of fashion so quickly, so one part of it is doing a lot of research beforehand to predict what’s going to be desirable at the next level.”
While paying attention to pedigrees in both hemispheres, Mathiesen ultimately puts a premium on athletic appearance and potential.
“When I’m going to a sale, the main thing I’m looking for is the physical,” she pointed out. “(There are) some sires that I stay away from, but I can accept things as long as the physical is good enough. I try to stay away from exposed mares--ones that have had a lot of foals that haven’t done much on the track. Other than that, I’m always going back to what the horse looks like.”
In the U.S., Oakmont concentrated on purchasing yearlings for resale as 2-year-olds, with the youngsters being prepped by Pike’s father, respected consignor Al Pike.
“There, we’re looking more for a rangy, two-turn, dirt horse, balanced with a big hip,” Mathiesen explained. “Overall we’ve been pretty good, (although) we did struggle in Australia this year because of when the pandemic hit. In America, we did really well with our pinhooking. We had a really good success rate and got all of them sold.”
Oakmont was able to turn a tidy profit on a first-crop son of Not This Time at a Florida breeze-up sale. Purchased as a yearling for $30,000, the chestnut colt resold for $200,000 and made an auspicious debut second in a competitive New York maiden.
“He was definitely the type we thought we could improve and he breezed really well at the sale, which is so important,” Mathiesen said.
At the 2019 Magic Millions National Weanling Sale, Oakmont made a bold play, purchasing a daughter of top sire I Am Invincible and the Group 1-placed Antina for $380,000. The gambit didn’t have the immediate payoff for which Mathiesen and Pike had hoped, as the strongly made bay filly was passed in for A$425,000 at the 2020 Magic Millions Gold Coast Sale, just shy of her $450,000 reserve. However, she was given the name Fake Love and put into training with Maher and Eustace on behalf of a partnership that includes Mathiesen. Fake Love opened her account in October with a confident win in the $175,000 Listed Debutant Stakes at Caulfield.
