'I am addicted to new stallions': David Peacock on breeding Too Darn Discreet

Cover image courtesy of The Image Is Everything

With the Group 2 success of Too Darn Discreet joined by a G3 Caulfield Guineas Prelude and a Listed Mitchell McKenzie S. win for Angel Capital (Harry Angel {Ire}), David Peacock is currently Australia's leading breeder of stakes winners and with these two exciting 3-year-olds having major spring plans the best may still be to come.

Which has Peacock rather excited, the self-confessed “racing tragic” the sort of breeder who is totally engrossed by the careers of his beloved horses; getting to know their personalities and talking about them with the sort of affection that makes you want to enthusiastically cheer them on with him.

Gallery: David Peacock's stakes winners so far in 2024/25, images courtesy of The Image Is Everything

The Peacock racing story goes back decades, to when as “an 11-year-old brat” his parents wanted him out of the house; sending him to the theatre where movies about Sir Lancelot and cowboys caught his attention.

But not for too long, the young David bored with that after a time; which is when his mother decided to take him along with her to the races.

His parents had raced horses, and it took only moments for Peacock to understand why they enjoyed it.

Falling instantly in love with racing

“I fell instantly in love with racing,” he recalled, “The colour, the people, the excitement, the crowds, the noise” and, of course “the horses.”

When one of the family's better fillies, a daughter of Matrice, retired and the idea of breeding came up. That was over five decades ago, and Peacock has never looked back.

It was during his career as an Adelaide-based divorce lawyer that the basis for the naming of the Peacock horses “Discreet” first came to be. It is a sad tale but also testament to Peacock's love for the people he meets, respects and remembers.

A client wanting a divorce came to Peacock; it was not a straightforward case and there was danger involved. The woman was afraid of her husband and Peacock did his best for her. “She was a beautiful person and when she found a new love she was so full of joy that she was radiant,” he recalled.

She was however still wary of her ex-husband and in discussion with Peacock promised that she would “be discreet.”

When, just a few months later, she was murdered by her ex, Peacock was understandably upset. That conversation stuck in his mind and years later every horse with “Discreet” in their name commemorates the memory of that woman.

A fine tribute

And a fine tribute it has proven to be with Peacock breeding and racing a series of classy horses from that family, Too Darn Discreet the latest of those.

Showing good ability during her debut campaign, the Dan O'Sullivan-trained filly displayed plenty of heart breaking in her maiden at Sandown in mid-September, rising quickly in class to the Edward Manifold in which she was strong to the line after sitting mid-field.

O'Sullivan told the media that Too Darn Discreet had been “quite a handful as a young horse,” which may be a bit of an understatement going on Peacock's summation of her personality.

“She was a really rebellious foal,” he recalled. “She would abandon her mother to go off playing with the other foals and would only occasionally drop by for a drink.”

“She could be very naughty,” he said, adding that this has been the trait of some of the Discreet family horses, noting that “they can be very strong willed and strong minded.”

The matriarch Cassie

But fortunately, also talented, the foundation mare of the family, the city-placed winner Cassie (Holborn {Ire}) the ancestress of 16 stakes winners and all bar two of those were bred by Peacock.

Including Too Darn Discreet, her G1 Australasian Oaks-winning dam Maybe Discreet (Shamardal {USA}), winner also of the Edward Manifold (12 years before her daughter), her stakes-placed, city-winning grandam Oh So Discreet (Bluebird {USA}) and her Listed Queen Adelaide S.-winning third dam Halo Again (Don't Say Halo {USA}).

Oh So Discreet also produced the G3 Spring S. winner Just Discreet (Exceed And Excel) whilst Halo Again also foaled the stakes winners Be Discreet (Euclase), Gilded Angel (Made Of Gold {USA}), My Advocator (At Talaq {USA}) and Oahu (Favorite Trick {USA}).

And Halo Again is the third dam of Serenely Discreet (Exceed And Excel), yet another Edward Manifold winner.

Be Discreet was one of Peacock's favourites; “She was so little with so much courage that you just had to love her,” he said, still proud of the title she earned as Joint Champion 2YO Filly in Australia in 1996-97.

Her eight wins provided Peacock with some of his biggest thrills but also with one of his lowest moments when she died aged just three whilst being operated on for a knee injury.

“She was on the operating table, she took one big breath, and she was gone,” he said, noting that horses “can really break your heart, losing one really rocks you.”

Eight generations of winners

The family from which the G1 Caulfield Guineas-bound Angel Capital hails has also been a great one for Peacock; his seventh dam Gold Venice being that Matrice mare that first sparked the interest in breeding.

Her five stakes-winning descendants were all bred by Peacock; the G2 Matriarch S. winner Affair To Remember (Toronado {Ire}), the in-form (he has won his last two at Flemington and Sandown) G2 Moonee Valley Vase winner Berkeley Square (Territories {Ire}), the triple Group 3 (Australia and Hong Kong) winner Senor Toba (Toronado) and the triple Listed winner St Trinians (Black Hawk {GB}).

Gallery: Some of Angel Capital's stakes-winning descendants

For taxation reasons taking colts to the sales whilst keeping fillies, Peacock does race the occasional male if they are not sold, and he was keen to hold on to Angel Capital who he describes as “such a beautiful boy.”

“I said to Chris Watson (Mill Park Stud) that I really didn't want to sell him and that we should put an unrealistic reserve on him.”

A figure of $400,000 was decided upon before he went into the ring at last year's Inglis Premier Yearling Sale and after hovering around the $350,000 mark for a while that final bid came in from Upper Bloodstock and the horse was, after all, sold.

Addicted to new stallions

There is a theme to the way in which Peacock breeds, those talented horses mainly being by stallions who were young at the time. “I am addicted to new stallions!” Peacock laughed, loving the process of “trawling through the new horses, watching their videos, studying their pedigrees.”

As a long-time friend of Alastair Pulford ("we go back donkey's years"), Peacock has kept a close eye on the Darley stallions in recent times and three to really impress were Too Darn Hot (GB), Harry Angel (Ire) and Territories (Ire).

The sires of Too Darn Discreet, Angel Capital and Berkeley Square.

And this year he will be using such stallions as Anamoe, Ghaiyyath (Ire) and Native Trail (GB).

Gallery: Some of the Darley stallions David Peacock will be using in 2024

He has also enjoyed racing horses he didn't breed, winning another edition of the Edward Manifold with So Gorgeous (Brief Truce {USA}) in 2000.

Well aware of the benefits of the VOBIS scheme, Peacock likes his mares to visit Victorian stallions every second year and has them based either in Victoria or in New South Wales during the breeding season with all of his girls and their babies coming home to his farm in Macclesfield, South Australia.

“I like to see them all grow up together he said,” always enjoying this time of year, enjoying watching videos of his newborn foals; “my heart just goes out to them when I see them for the first time!”

Gallery: Images courtesy of The Image Is Everything

Sales ring success

Slipping last year, Too Darn Discreet's dam Maybe Discreet has been tested in foal to Anamoe whilst her first born daughter Secretly Discreet (Lonhro) who was unraced due to a leg issue is shared in ownership with Mill Park who took her Bivouac filly to this year's Magic Millions where she caught the eye of Ciaron Maher who laid down $675,000 for her.

A great result for Peacock but not his best in the sales ring, his biggest windfall in that department being the $1.15 million Brazen Beau colt Border Control out of Just Discreet; a four-time winner still racing in New South Wales.

Peacock has also made his contribution to race in administration, spending a total of 15 years on the SAJC Committee including four years as Chairman. He was inducted into the South Australian Racing Hall of Fame last year, an honour he said took him “by surprise.”

“I am one of those blokes who knows everything, I'm always right,” he joked. “And as Chairman I ruled strongly! I was a bit controversial at times, but I really enjoyed that time, I am glad I did it.”

Peacock loves South Australian racing and has great respect for his fellow breeders in the state, describing them as “tremendous people who all really love the game.”

He is loyal to those in his racing life, racing horses with the same groups of people for decades, remembering early advice that he is pleased to have taken; “That if you race by yourself you have no one to commiserate or celebrate with and nobody to share the load.”

He has stuck with trainers, such as Dan O'Sullivan who trains Too Darn Discreet and with jockeys, adamant that he makes the decisions as to who rides his horses, laughing as he said, “That is the one thing Dan and I don't always see eye to eye on!”

Unfortunately, Peacock cannot be on course to witness his talented 3-year-olds wins, seriously unwell with kidney issues. But he is not one for self-pity, happily describing racing as a “hallmark” part of his life, something which after he retired kept him “up and about and using my brain power.”

“And,” he laughed, “I have had a wicked, wonderful life!”