Scarborough Offering Classic Sister

A year ago, breeder Bob Scarborough opted to roll the dice and scratch his mare Cabaret (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) from the Tattersalls December Mares Sale after her 2-year-old Magna Grecia (Ire) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}) won the G1 Vertem Futurity Trophy. One can imagine it was an agonizing decision; to sell while the mare's stock was unquestionably high, or take the risk that another year might see her perceived potency as a producer decline.

Scarborough rolled his dice, and he hit the jackpot.

Six months after beating Phoenix of Spain (Ire) (Lope de Vega {Ire}) in the Futurity Trophy, and on his next start, Magna Grecia won the G1 Qipco 2000 Guineas. Some five months after that, his two years' younger half-brother by Siyouni followed his brother into Ballydoyle when bought by MV Magnier for 1.3-million gns at Tattersalls October.

Cabaret wasn't the only family member the Melbourne-based Scarborough-former chairman of the Moonee Valley Racing Club–held on to last year. Cabaret's then yearling filly by Kodiac (GB), a three-quarter sister to Magna Grecia, went through the ring at the Arqana October yearling sale last year but was brought home by Scarborough after failing to meet her €100,000 reserve. Thanks to the exploits of her brother, the filly now named Koala (Fr) is likely to make many multiples of that when she goes through the ring on Saturday at Arqana as lot 130.

“When I offered her as a yearling, she didn't make her very modest reserve of €100,000 despite the fact that at the time Magna Grecia had won his maiden and had been beaten a neck in a Group 3 as a 2-year-old, and clearly looked very promising,” Scarborough recalled. “A week later Magna Grecia won the G1 Vertem Futurity Trophy. All of a sudden I got a few phone calls-“I'd be happy to pay the €100,000.” I declined that and thought, 'I may as well race her and see what happens,' which I've done.”

Koala has made one start for trainer Nicolas Clement, finishing off the board over nine furlongs at Fontainebleau on Nov. 14. Scarborough said he is reluctant to sell Koala seeing as she is the only female he has thus far retained out of the 12-year-old Cabaret, but has deemed it a necessary business decision to further the progress of his boutique European broodmare band.

That broodmare band is headed by Cabaret, who goes to Kingman this year after coming up barren for 2020. She foaled another colt by Siyouni-once again emulating the cross that produced this year's G1 Prix du Jockey Club winner Sottsass (Fr). This year's G3 Prix Penelope winner Cartiem (Fr) (Cape Cross {Ire}) visits Frankel (GB) for her first season at stud next year, having been bought by Scarborough for €750,000 at this year's Arqana Arc Sale.

Another headed to Frankel after producing a Siyouni filly as her first foal this year is Cash in the Hand (Exchange Rate). The 4-year-old received a huge pedigree update when Star Catcher (GB) (Sea The Stars {Ire}), who is out of Cash in the Hand's half-sister Lynwood Chase (Horse Chestnut {SAf}), took three Group 1s and Cartier champion 3-year-old filly honours.

Headed to Star Catcher's sire Sea The Stars is Blissful Beat (GB) (Beat Hollow {GB}), the 12-year-old dam of Home of the Brave (Ire) (Starspangledbanner {Aus})-a multiple group winner in England and Australia-who foaled an Invincible Spirit filly this year.

Grade III winner Cheetah (GB) (Tiger Hill {Ire}), whose 2-year-old colt Dark Vader (Ire) (Dark Angel {Ire}) recently broke his maiden for Joseph O'Brien and whose yearling colt by that same sire was bought by Shadwell for 135,000gns at Tattersalls October, goes to Magna Grecia.

The multiple Group 3-winning Bewitched (Ire) (Dansili {GB}), who Scarborough owns in partnership with John Magnier, produced a stakes winner on Wednesday when Pablo Escobarr (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) took Kempton's Listed Wild Flower S.

Scarborough was bit by the racing bug at the age of 19 after cashing in a small exotic bet to the tune of £1,000.

“In those days I could have put a deposit on a reasonable family home with those winnings, but I decided I'd buy a yearling instead,” he recalled.

Scarborough soon expanded his horizons to the breeding game, with for many years Wood Nook Farm in Victoria as his base.

“The only way I felt I could compete would be to breed so I started breeding from the horses I raced in the late 80s,” he said. “I got lucky early and got a Group 1 winner in 1991 and that was the start of getting more and more involved.”

Scarborough has since raced nine individual Group 1 winners Down Under, seven of which he bred, and he has bred an additional four Group 1 winners that have run in other colours. His name is the trophies of the likes of the Caulfield Guineas and Thousand Guineas, Victoria Derby and Blue Diamond S.

All the while, Scarborough was dabbling in breeding stock in America and Europe, and in 2011 he added Cabaret-then best known as the winner of the G3 Silver Flash S.-to his lineup for 600,000gns at the Tattersalls December Mares Sale.

“She was in foal to Danehill Dancer at the time and I got a lovely filly [named Prance],” Scarborough said. “I sold her as a yearling to the Niarchos family for 525,000gns, so I was pretty much out on Cabaret in one hit.

“She's been pretty kind to me. She had a yearling go through this year for 1.3-million gns, which was another very kind thing she did for me. She's been wonderful. She's a beautiful mare, too–she's a really lovely type.”

Cabaret was sent to Invincible Spirit in two of her first five years at stud, producing Magna Grecia and the triple winner Invincible Ryker (Ire), and Scarborough said it was the Danzig line over Galileo that initially appealed to him. While that cross through Danehill specifically has been so successful in recent years, Scarborough took the route through Danzig's son Green Desert.

“The obvious cross comes with Danehill, but that route wasn't available and Invincible Spirit was clearly doing very well,” Scarborough said. “At the time, there were no other obvious sires to send Galileo mares to. Now, things like using Siyouni with a Galileo mare is probably the right thing to do, and with Siyouni being out of a Danehill mare I think that's a nick that's probably working with that.

“Cabaret missed to Invincible Spirit this year. That was a shame, but these things happen. She'd been very good; she hasn't missed a year. I'm going to do what I think is the obvious thing and go to a son of Invincible Spirit in Kingman. He's so fashionable and he's young. The market is already treating him as if he's a superstar sire which is perhaps a bit ahead of itself, but I'm willing to take the odds on that for next year.”

By the time Magna Grecia was making headlines this year and last, Scarborough had sold Wood Nook Farm and dispersed most of his Australian stock to focus on Europe.

“I had decided it was more commercial for me to focus on the Northern Hemisphere,” he explained. “I felt that pricing of stallion nominations in Australia had gotten out of whack a bit and it was difficult for owners of broodmares to conduct a profitable business. So I decided if I dealt only at the very pointy end of the market in the Northern Hemisphere, I could do this commercially. I'm passionate about it, but it has to make sense at some stage. I don't have oil wells that support my passion for the Thoroughbred industry. It has to be commercially successful at the end of the day.”

Scarborough has in recent years been selling all his stock as yearlings to fund the development of a boutique and high-quality broodmare band, but he said he may soon begin retaining the odd filly to take a shot at developing some of his own families.

“I've been trying to acquire more commercial mares over the last three years, so I've needed to sell everything I've been breeding to re-invest that into the purchase of new mares,” he said. “This year I have an Invincible Spirit filly out of Blissful Beat and I may well keep her and just see if I can get lucky. Perhaps if she's good enough to get some black-type it's a means of generating my own future broodmare.

“I'm going to have to take a bit of a punt probably every year and pick at least one of the fillies that I get from those mares and race them. It's difficult; it's always balancing this business of trying to make the whole thing commercial. I always like my mares to be highly commercial every time I put them to stud and if I don't feel they're commercial I'll sell them. I'm perfectly happy to turn them over if I don't feel happy about the progress they're making at any point in time.”

And it is plainly clear that dual hemisphere Group 1 success has only fueled the fire that is Scarborough's interest in the racing game.

“I don't intend stopping at any point in the near future,” he said. “I'm very passionate about the whole thing and I'd like to slowly grow mare numbers to perhaps as many as 10. I hope it gets a little bigger and that the industry continues to get support.”