Buy of the Weekend: Rare gem Freezethemillions produces G1 winner Port Lockroy

Cover image courtesy of Western Racepix

Founders of Yarramalong Park in Queensland, Richard and Joanie Foster were elated following the Group 1 win of Port Lockyroy (Better Than Ready) on Saturday. He’s a horse they bred and retained a share in, from their homebred mare Freezethemillions (Freeze) and by Lyndhurst Stud’s Better Than Ready, a stallion they syndicated and also part own.

“We were pretty confident when we came over, more so than the press or the bookies thought because I don’t think anyone studied his sectionals from his last three starts,” Richard Foster said.

“They should of because he actually ran home in quicker time than Bella Nipotina when she won The Everest and he went 100 metres further. It’s not like Lazzat and Lake Forest are slouches and there were plenty of Group 1 horses behind him. I know the winner Lake Forest took the inside run and finished like a train but he was the only horse on the day to run a faster final sectional than Port Lockroy.

“It was a timely win because Better Than Ready needed another stakes horse to keep him current. These stallions that have been around for a little while, they can go off the boil if they don’t have current group horses running around. There is so many new stallions on the scene each year and of course they all have these big booms on them, people flock to them so sometimes they stop flocking to the tried and tested. Better Than Ready hasn’t had much Southern support and the support he was getting from south of the border was just starting to slow up a bit.”

The gift that keeps on giving

Port Lockroy’s Railway S. win provided Freezethemillions her second stakes winner by Better Than Ready with older brother Alpine Edge proving the mating a potent nick, previously taking out the G3 BJ McLachlan S. and Listed Phelan Ready S. He retired to stud this season with earnings of almost $1.9 million and stands at Clear Mountain Fairview on the Darling Downs.

Freezethemillions has proved a valuable commodity not only on the track but also in the sales ring. She has had six foals to race for five winners, with her progeny amassing $930,000 at the yearling sales. Alpine Edge was sold for $160,000 at the 2020 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling sale to Edmonds Racing, Kestral Thoroughbreds and Lucky Clover, while Port Lockroy was knocked down to Annabel Neasham and Brian McGuire for $300,000 in 2022. An incredible result for a mare that is by a stallion that no one wanted and was gifted back to Richard Foster as a broodmare after selling her for next to nothing as a yearling.

“Freezethemillions is by a stallion called Freeze that four or five of us bought as a private stallion for up here,” Foster said.

“We bought him from Vinery. He was wasting down in Victoria; he had only had 7 foals in his first crop and he got a Maribyrnong Plate winner out of them.

“What happened is that American George Hoffmeister, who used to own Vinery, he had 40 mares set aside to go to Freeze in his first season and then he sold Vinery so, all the mares got dispersed and Freeze only got seven mares. He’s got a great pedigree and it is family that is still firing.

“I knew a bit about Freeze because Jimmy Cassidy had told me he was the best 2-year-old at Gai’s but he’d got away from the handler and smashed his fetlock on the toeball of a manure cart and they put a steel plate in it. He did go back into training with the steel plate and was still able to perform in a stakes level race but was never the same.

“We put him up at Springfield which was a little stud of my cousin’s and we did well out of him. We kept two fillies and we sent them down to Moody’s because I’d had a long association with him up in Queensland. They managed to win their first starts as two-year-olds and both raced really well up into stakes class. One of them was second in the Thoroughbred Club Stakes after racing seven wide on the home turn and was pipped in a photo so they had good ability.

“We kept those Freeze fillies and bred from them and then Freezthemillions was in the next crop. I sold her as a yearling for the measly sum of $5000. She was a beautiful filly. I’ve still got the photo of her as a yearling.

“The guys that bought her raced her and had a lot of fun with her. When it was time to send her to the breeding barn the owner got diagnosed with leukemia. He said to me, I’m not going to be around long enough to breed out of her - if you give me a half share in a yearling colt that I can race you can have her, so I got her back. It worked out well and she has produced just about 100 per cent winners. She’s an absolute ripper, one of the nicest mares on the farm.”

Freeze was a stakes-placed son of Marscay out of Snowdrift (Polish Precedent), making him a half-brother to Group 1 winner Snowland (Snippets) as well as stakes winners Portillo (Red Ransom) and Snippetson (Snippets).

The mating

Foster indicated that it was no coincidence that the mating between Freezethemillions and Better Than Ready had worked; noting that Alpine Edge and Port Lockroy were both linebred to champion American thoroughbred Buckpasser (USA) (Tom Fool {USA}).

Buckpasser is one of the most revered names in American racing and breeding. His influence on the breed has been enormous; appearing in the pedigrees of stallions such as A.P. Indy (USA), Danehill (USA), Galileo (GB), Unbridled (USA) and Kitten's Joy (USA).

“At first I sent Freezethemillions to other stallions to try and make her commercial,” Foster said.

“As it turned out, that nick with Better Than Ready has Buckpasser in each of the four quarters – there is a Buckpasser mare there. That is electric when you line breed like that. That’s why they all come out similar in type. They don’t all look the same but they have similar personality, temperament and ability.”

Port Lockroy's little brother ready to start

Foster is hopeful that the cross will be successful once again and was buzzing with excitement about the imminent debut of Port Lockroy’s full brother.

“Port Lockroy’s little brother is about to have his first start, if we can get a dry track in Brisbane,” Foster said.

“He’s called Mortal Halo and he’s with Annabel Neasham as well. I’m sure he’s pretty handy, he just doesn’t like wet tracks like his two brothers but he’s shown enough – he’s in a very similar mould.

“All going well he’ll will be running next Saturday. It’s a possibility that will be in the Phelan Ready S. That will sort him out to see if he’s ready for the (Magic) Millions.

“If this 2-year-old can follow up after Port Lockroy’s success it would be fantastic.”

Freezethemillions missed to Better Than Ready in 2023 but recently foaled a filly by Supido.

“She’s got a foal on the ground by Supido and it’s a very promising foal,” Foster said. “It’s a lovely foal. Mum can’t catch the foal if that’s any guide.”

Yarramalong Park will be well represented at the 2025 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale again this year with a 22 strong draft; 17 of them by Better Than Ready.

“We have a better draft then we’ve ever had,” Foster said.

“The only thing missing is a full brother to Port Lockroy. We have a lot of young mares that we have purchased over the last couple of years that have got yearlings in that sale and we’re pretty happy with what we’ve got. We think they’re a step up from what we’ve had in previous years.

“I have a filly out of Amangiri’s (All Too Hard) mother, Secret Indulgence (NZ) (Fastnet Rock). That’s the first filly she has had for us since More Secrets (More Than Ready {USA}). Both of those are stakes fillies and this is only the third filly the mare has ever had so I think that’s a special.”

Better Than Ready’s progeny averaged $140,000 at the 2024 Magic Millions sales. He stands at Lyndhurst Stud at a fee of $27,500 (inc GST).