TWIN HILLS Stud There is a buzz of excitement around Twin Hills Stud as January approaches, and rightly so. Olly Tait takes a quality draft to the Gold Coast led by the first yearlings of resident sire Peltzer. Olly explained just how important the first sale of the year was for a progressive farm. “Every year the Gold Coast Sale is a hugely exciting event and as a commercial stud farm, of great significance in our calendar, an opportunity to show off many of our best horses for the year. It’s also exciting to be supported by our clients with such nice horses to take to the sale. This sale sets the tone for the year so you have to take top class horses and I think our 2024 draft is reflective of that.” As evidence of that approach all 18 Twin Hills entries have been deemed good enough to sell in Book 1. When asked about the draft as a whole Olly pointed to the strength of the freshman sires saying, “We have a number of horses by first season sires, and of course the most exciting for us is Peltzer having three yearlings in the draft by him, all horses worth looking at both physically and on pedigree.” When discussing what the market might make of the Peltzers, Olly was pragmatic saying, “Being by So You Think he’s not the sort of horse you imagine is going to produce early two year-olds,
216
but then he was unbeaten in three runs at two and was a fast horse. The wonderful thing about So You Think, which is embodied in Peltzer, is he was placed in a Melbourne Cup, then sired a Sydney Cup winner, but now also an Everest winner. That shows the outstanding versatility of So You Think’s progeny and Peltzer is part of that story as, arguably, the most precocious So You Think thus far. It is realistic to think he will pass on those speed genes, and be capable of producing an early runner.” The pages of all three Twin Hills’ Peltzers make for interesting reading but the one that stands out is Lot 575. “Of the trio the most noteworthy is the colt out of Demetria, a half-sister to the Blue Diamond winner Samaready who has gone on to produce a Golden Slipper winner in Shinzo.” In Olly’s opinion, “He’s a stunning colt.” He also has a Magic Millions connection, Samaready also being the dam of Exhilarates the brilliant winner of the Magic Millions 2YO Classic. This colt is a half-brother to the Gr3 placed Plutocracy. In total there are seven Peltzers catalogued for the Gold Coast, Olly’s remaining pair losing nothing in comparison. As Lot 547 he takes north a filly out of Cosmic Powers who has already bred a two year-old Stakes winner in Lord Cosmos.
\ TWIN HILLS STUD \ GLEN LATHAM
Twin Hills 2024.indd 216
23/11/2023 7:10 am