Cover image courtesy of Ashlea Brennan
Good horses can do things others can’t; they win from seemingly impossible positions and tread where other horses would fear to go. These are the attributes Paul Messara’s Clear Thinking (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}) demonstrated on Saturday when facing her biggest test to date at Randwick.
After the royally bred mare stretched her record to three, The Thoroughbred Report caught up with co-trainer Messara to discuss Clear Thinking’s journey so far.
You could have been forgiven for crumpling your ticket and walking away during Race 4 at Randwick on Saturday. Messara’s Clear Thinking was sent out as the $2.10 favourite with young gun Zac Lloyd in the saddle, but with 80 metres to go, she seemed destined for the 'forgive file.'
Even if she had run second, you couldn’t help but be pleased with the determination she showed. Yet somehow, like a good horse, she got the job done, pulling in the more-than-handy Tanglewood (Smart Missile).
“She has a fantastic will to win. Good horses find a way, and it looks like she’s a good horse because Saturday was really challenging,” Messara told TTR AusNZ.
“They don’t often win with that many things going against them. She slipped at the beginning, and then it was a slowly run race. She got boxed in and had to come from behind runners, change angles at the 100 metres. She did all that, which most horses can’t cope with at the best of times.
“She (Clear Thinking) has a fantastic will to win. Good horses find a way, and it looks like she’s a good horse because Saturday was really challenging.” - Paul Messara
“So yes, only the good ones can win in those scenarios, and it was an excellent effort from Clear Thinking.”
Fit for a Queen
They don’t come much better bred than Clear Thinking, and few horses in Australia can boast being bred by the late Queen Elizabeth II herself.
She is by the Champion Sire Dubawi (Ire), responsible for 277 stakes winners worldwide, including stars such as Too Darn Hot (GB), Night Of Thunder (Ire), and Zarak (Fr). Clear Thinking’s dam, Sweet Idea, is well-known to Australian audiences. A daughter of Arrowfield’s four-time Champion Sire Snitzel, Sweet Idea was bred by Arrowfield Group and Jungle Pocket.
Trained by Gai Waterhouse, Sweet Idea won eight races, including the G1 The Galaxy, the G2 Silver Slipper, the G2 Light Fingers S., the G2 Missile S., the G2 Tristarc S., and the R. Listed Magic Millions Guineas.
Sweet Idea | Image courtesy of The Image Is Everything
She was also placed in the G1 Coolmore Classic, the G1 Myer Classic, the G1 Memsie S., and the G1 Golden Slipper. A $240,000 purchase by Gai Waterhouse and James Harron Bloodstock at the 2012 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale, Sweet Idea was reoffered as a broodmare at the 2015 Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale, where Nick Vass Bloodstock paid $1.6 million.
The daughter of Snitzel found her way to England, joining the late Queen’s broodmare band. Sweet Idea’s first foal, a filly by Galileo (Ire) named Companionship (GB), won as a 2-year-old. She returned to the late Champion to produce General Idea (GB), also a winner.
Clear Thinking was Sweet Idea’s third foal. She has since produced the once-raced King’s Ginger (GB) by Kingman (GB) and a colt by Lope De Vega (Ire) last year.
“Clear Thinking was Sweet Idea’s third foal. She has since produced the once-raced King’s Ginger by Kingman and a colt by Lope De Vega last year.”
Despite her blueblood pedigree, Clear Thinking was initially destined for a life as a broodmare without ever racing. However, her Northern Hemisphere breeding prompted the Messara and the Arrowfield team to take a chance on her.
“Clear Thinking came out with the intention of being a broodmare. We basically purchased her as a broodmare and that was kind of our only thinking at the time. However, because she’s Northern Hemisphere-bred, she pops up as a 4-year-old in Australia, but she’s younger than that. We lose six months because of the opposite season.
“So, we were going to wait until this season to breed her. We had kind of 12 months up our sleeves. When she came through quarantine she wasn’t in training at that stage or anything like that. Clear Thinking looked good when she arrived, and we thought, ‘Well, why don’t we just give her a little try?’
Paul Messara | Image courtesy of The Image Is Everything
“We’ve got 12 months up our sleeve, maybe she can run? Regardless, we were obviously keen to have her as a part of our broodmare band when there wasn’t any racing upside. But it has just worked out as well as it possibly could.”
Casual character
Messara admits that Clear Thinking's potential was not immediately apparent, and he harboured no great expectations for her.
When asked if he first realised Clear Thinking could run during trackwork, Messara laughed and said, "No, definitely not. She doesn’t give you a massive feeling in track work.
“She’s a really relaxed, kind of lazy type of horse. Clear Thinking just cruises around, does everything in her own time without putting a huge amount of energy into anything.
Clear Thinking | Image courtesy of Arrowfield
“Clear Thinking just does what’s asked of her, and those horses are always difficult to gauge. So, it wasn’t really until we took her to the trials for the first time.
“She was impressive at the trials and showed a real willingness. The second time Clear Thinking went to the trials, she was more impressive. So, I thought, ‘Gee, you know, we have got something here.'”
Clear Thinking was set to make her debut at Newcastle. However, a spanner was thrown in the works when she drew Barrier 1 and refused to load, which ended in her withdrawal from the contest.
“The second time Clear Thinking went to the trials, she was more impressive. So, I thought, Gee, you know, we have got something here.”
“She was marked as the short-price favourite on debut then drew Barrier 1. She had walked into the gates fine; we never had any trouble. But because she had the one hole, there were no other horses in the barriers at the time, and she just refused to walk in.
“They kind of only gave her two chances and didn’t put a horse next to her or anything like that, and scratched her. So, we had to take her back to the barrier trials again, where she was fine and walked in there. Clear Thinking ended up having three trials and the third was as nice as the other two, and then we were off to the races!"
The daughter of Dubawi (GB) debuted at her home track of Scone, where she bolted in by 8.2l. Returning to Scone over 1200 metres, Clear Thinking showed another dimension, winning the Class 1 by 2.25l.
Dubawi | Standing at Darley
Messara has been more and more impressed with each run. “That debut run at Scone was very, very good. To the eye, she ran away from them and won by over 8l. But I was more impressed with her next start at Scone.
“We kept her in fairly limited company because she has had limited experience. I wanted to make sure that we weren’t throwing her in the deep end too quickly. So, I was really happy with her second race in particular because she settled so well.
“She found the back of a horse to follow and got some cover, travelled well, peeled off, and went past them very easily. I was really happy with that.”
Stepping up to her toughest test to date at Randwick over 1200 metres, Messara was resigned to thinking the winning streak had come to an end. “Saturday was going to be her biggest test because the company was much better.
“Tanglewood, who finished second and was the second favourite, had every chance. He had clear running and he’s a pretty smart horse. So, to be able to run him down with the adversity that she went through was exceptional.
“Clear Thinking has shown a new dimension each time she’s gone to the races, and that’s what good horses do. I didn’t think she could possibly win, to be honest. I was watching the race down at Randwick on the big screen and thought, ‘Oh, well, we’ll run a nice third, and we’ll be unlucky, and that’s the end of that winning streak. We’ll go off and we’ll find somewhere else to run.'
“Tanglewood, who finished second and was the second favourite, had every chance. He had clear running and he’s a pretty smart horse.”
“That was my thinking halfway through the race. Even with 80 metres to go, I thought I’m still going to run a nice second or third. There’s no chance you can win, only balancing up now with 80 to go. So, it really was impressive.”
What does the future hold?
Messara indicated that the $2 million The Kosciuszko is on the cards for Clear Thinking, pending she obtains a slot in the race based on The Everest concept. He is confident, based on what the daughter of Dubawi has done to date, that she’s a ‘black-type horse.’
“Well, you’ve got to say just on what we’ve seen so far she’d have to be a black-type horse. It would have been interesting to see what she could have done on Saturday if she had a clear run.
“There’s no doubt she’ll be up to stakes company. She’ll be taking on some stakes-class horses next preparation because The Kosciuszko is pretty much that. It is definitely on the horizon and we’ll give it due consideration because there’s plenty of prizemoney and it is a country restricted race.
“You’ve got to say just on what we’ve seen so far she’d have to be a black-type horse. It would have been interesting to see what she could have done on Saturday if she had a clear run.” - Paul Messara
“I think currently, Clear Thinking is about third in the market for it. So, we’ve got to give it plenty of consideration. Post The Kosciuszko, we’re definitely looking at black-type races for her.”
As Messara noted earlier, whether she raced or not, Clear Thinking was always going to hold plenty of appeal as a broodmare. Her success on the track has just been the icing on the cake.
“These are the types of mares Arrowfield wants to have. If this mare can win some black-type, she becomes a cornerstone to the operation. She’s by Dubawi and out of a Group 1-winning mare from that fantastic family. So, they’re the ones we want. We were keen to get back into the family, and having a nice, young mare by one of the world’s leading sires, it’s great blood and great potential for us to breed from in the future.
John Messara, Clear Thinking and her strapper
“It’s all very exciting and worked out well. It doesn’t always go that way, let me tell you, most of the time it doesn’t, but it has this time.”
