Catching up with Olly Tait: Hallowed Crown, Peltzer's first foals and inbreeding to Danehill

Cover image courtesy of Bronwen Healy

Having provided Hallowed Crown with another stakes winner last season, Godolphin’s Vilana has given Tait every reason to believe that he can become his stallion's second elite-level winner before too long.

His performance in Saturday’s Silver Eagle was a dominant one, and he is now third-favourite for the $10 million Golden Eagle. For Tait, it’s renewed confirmation of the type of horse that does so well for Hallowed Crown; the 4-year-old appears to have come back even better this season after a more than commendable Classic campaign which saw him win two stakes races, including the G3 Fred Best Classic, before earning his place in the G1 Stradbroke H. field.

“Hallowed Crown is a horse that, above all else, has proven himself to be capable of siring horses of the highest order. Naturally, Colette is the headline horse and Vilana is in the same mould,” Tait told TDN AusNZ.

“To see him come back as a 4-year-old and beat a very good bunch… he’s an absolute live chance for the Golden Eagle, it’s a testament to the sorts of horses that Hallowed Crown can throw.

“Hallowed Crown has proven himself to be able to get those horses who can win on the big days. Vilana is still only a Group 3 winner, but certainly he’s a horse of real quality.”

Whilst Colette earned her first Group 1 as a 3-year-old in the Australian Oaks, the progeny of Hallowed Crown are known to improve beyond their Classic year. Tait accepts that it’s a trait which goes against the commercial grain in the industry, but gently pointed out that, in light of the ever-increasing number of high-prizemoney opportunities for older horses in Australia, such a stallion offers great value if you’re searching for a racehorse.

“Hallowed Crown has never covered large numbers of mares, and that really is because he’s not a horse that’s going to get sharp 2-year-olds. That’s what the commercial market wants and that’s just the reality - we don’t complain about that.

“But, not everybody is aiming to breed a Magic Millions yearling. For those people who want to breed a good racehorse, there’s a lot of stallions who can’t get top-quality racehorses. There’s a lot of stallions who get lots of winners, but there are a lot of stallions who can’t get horses of the quality of a Colette or a Vilana.

Gallery: Hallowed Crown's stakes winners

“He’s terrific value. He’s standing at $11,000, for a stallion that can get horses of that quality. I suppose, from a sales perspective, the statistics of horses that go through a sale and actually win as a 2-year-old is tiny… For buyers, there’s lots of value to be found in looking for those horses at the sales that might take a bit of time.

“The lionshare of the commercial market is trying to hit it out of the park, and to hit it out of the park you’ve got to get the horse that can win the Golden Slipper.”

Of course, it’s dangerous to pigeon hole stallions, and Tait was suddenly reminded that Hallowed Crown had a juvenile feature promisingly in the first official 2-year-old trials at Randwick last month. A colt half-brother to last year’s G1 Golden Slipper winner Fireburn (Rebel Dane), Kintyre is set to line up in the Kirkham Plate for the same connections this Saturday.

“Having said all that, if he wins the Kirkham Plate on Saturday he’ll be in the top few for the betting in the Golden Slipper. I hope I eat my words!”

Young mares and double Danehill

Vilana, a half-sister to Savatiano (Street Cry {Ire}), is inbred 3 X 3 to Danehill (USA), being out of the Redoute’s Choice mare Retsina. Whilst some breeders will warn against inbreeding so closely to Danehill, Tait rejects that notion with compelling evidence.

“(Inbreeding) 3 X 3 is still a very small part of their pedigree, relatively. The last three Golden Slipper winners were inbred to Danehill. To me, it’s a consideration, but it’s certainly not a showstopper.

“I’m not a believer in that. We go through this every generation with stallions. When I started in the game, people worried about horses inbred too closely to Northern Dancer, then it’s inbred too closely to Danzig and now it’s inbred too closely to Danehill - soon it’ll be too closely inbred to Redoute’s Choice.

“I think nicks play their part, but with all our stallions we’re looking for good-quality mares. We’re trying to attract mares that have some race performance, are well-related and some youth. Statistically, they’re the mares that produce good racehorses.”

Peltzer’s impressing

Adding to the excitement of the 2022 breeding season at Twin Hills has been the arrival of Peltzer’s first foals. The son of So You Think (NZ) was reportedly one of the fastest horses through the hands of his former trainer, Gerald Ryan, which makes him an interesting prospect for Tait.

Whilst his own sire is known to breed excellent stayers, Peltzer defied the mould in winning three 1200-metre races as a juvenile before his Group wins as a 3-year-old over 1500 and 1200 metres, which were punctuated by victory in the $1-million Bondi S. over a mile.

“It’s funny, because when I’m giving people my sales spiel I say, ‘He’s not a typical So You Think,’ because he’s out of an Elusive Quality mare and his next dam’s a Flying Spur mare - so that’s why he looks like he looks.

“Then, in the next breath you’re saying he’s by So You Think, and So You Think is such a wonderful stallion.

“He was bred to get further but never tried it, and we’ll never know whether he could or couldn’t have.”

According to Tait, Peltzer’s foals are inheriting their sire’s looks, and the number of breeders returning to use him again this year is good evidence that he's not the only one who’s been impressed by them.

“He covered 83 mares last year and he’ll cover at least that this year, so that’s encouraging. We were slightly disadvantaged last year by the fact that we only announced he was going to stud at the end of May. A lot of people make decisions earlier than that, and even if they haven’t made decisions they’ve formulated plans in their own minds.

“But we still got a good book of mares to him, and we’ve got no excuses in terms of numbers if he doesn’t make it.

“He’s got a fair bit of speed in his pedigree, and that comes out in his looks. His foals are very like him, they’ve all got nice heads, good hindquarters on them and they’ve got plenty of size.

“I say to everyone: ‘You’ve never heard of anyone who’s standing a stallion and not liked their first foals.’ But, we’re really encouraged by what we’re seeing. At this point in time we couldn’t be happier.”

A note on The Everest

On course at Randwick to watch Vilana in person last Saturday afternoon, Tait was of course also part of the 46,000-strong crowd who witnessed this year’s $15 million The Everest. With his extensive international experience, including 15 years at Darley spearheading international expansion, Tait has observed novel-format feature races around the world. So, it was interesting to hear his thoughts on the world’s richest race on turf.

“They’ve put a lot of resources into promoting the event. It’s early days post-COVID so it was great to see people turn out… It’s great to see that sort of crowd at Randwick again,” he said.

“The Pattern is a guide for cataloguing, essentially. Over time, it’s become a guide for the promotion of the sport as well, so Group 1s became something people could promote.

“I think the Pattern is really important. I think a race of its quality absolutely deserves to be a Group 1, and that’s something that it would be great to see.”