When Auckland NZTBA Branch member Liz Allen purchased My Marguerite (Spectacular Love[USA]-Caress Success) as a broodmare she didn’t really have a lot going for her.
She didn’t make it as a racehorse but she had been the Champion led Thoroughbred at the Auckland Easter Show in 2004, however some 16 years after she won her good looks title at the Auckland Easter Show, she left her first stakes winner when Supergiant (by Red Giant[USA]) won the Gr.3 Gunsynd Classic (1800m) at Eagle Farm.
“She didn’t have a lot going for her,” enthused a very delighted Liz Allen when talking to the NZTBA, “but she did have Success Express(USA) in her pedigree and Forn Vell(GB) her grandam was a good racehorse.
“Supergiant is a brave little horse in winning that race he just wouldn’t give up. He was a lovely horse and from the start when I first saw him at the track at Matamata, I had a wonderful feeling about him.
“Jim Collett had him in his stable and Sam rode him in a trial to run second where he was spotted by Phil Cataldo and sold to Michael Costa.”
Brave indeed, Supergiant was having only his fifth start when he took out the 1800m event for three-year-olds, a lead-up race into the Gr.1 Queensland Derby. Two weeks prior he had run second in the Listed Doomben Guineas (1600m) off the back of a win at Ipswich over 1350m.
Prior to that he ran sixth fresh up in early April on his home track at the Gold Coast where he is prepared by Michael Costa, and where he had won his maiden at his first start back in November.
Supergiant is one of only two named foals from the 2016 crop of his sire Red Giant(USA) who was then was exported to Turkey. A record breaking racehorse, Red Giant (USA) stood at Westbury Stud for seven years.
My Marguerite commenced her breeding career at the ripe old age of 13 and her first foal Zavamar by Savabeel (AUS) won two races. She left a colt to Perfectly Ready (AUS) the following year, then was not served for three years.
“I spent hours and hours researching pedigrees to get the right balance,” explained Allen.
“What I had was a mare of lovely type but from a family with a lot of stamina and the mare herself had abundant slow twitch muscle fibre (23 starts for one placing).
“For any foal to succeed I had to find a stallion with a degree of fast-twitch muscle fibre to produce winners.
“After much research I called upon the services of Ken McLean - one of the world’s foremost blood advisors. Ken Mclean was brilliant in helping me and said the stallion to use was Red Giant. He had personally been responsible for Storm Bird’s covering in his first three years and had sighted many of the stallions in Red Giant’s pedigree (including Red Giant).
“So, I set up a syndicate with my cousin Geoff Brown and called the syndicate Red Giant Breeding Syndicate and we went to Red Giant.”
The first mating produced Five Princes who has been placed this season, and the second Supergiant, but for the horse going to Turkey, Allen would have sent My Marguerite back to Red Giant again as well.
According to Allen the key to the success of the mating is Princequillo (IRE), and Supergiant has Princequillo (Prince Rose[GB]-Cosquilla[GB]) repeated five times in his pedigree.
“There were tantalising things in the pedigree. Forn Vell (GB) (Air Trooper[GB]- Newport [GB])left four winners and her daughter Misskap left the VRC Derby winner Kibbutz and then it all fell apart. The one really good thing about her pedigree is Success Express, and that is where Supergiant gets two of his five strains of Princequillo.
“You have to have Teddy(FR) (Ajax[FR]- Rondeau[GB])and Tracery (USA)(Rock Sand[GB]-Topiary[GB]) in your pedigrees you have to get that right. My mare had hardly any Tracery and not a lot of Teddy, but through Red Giantwe dosed up on that.”
Supergiant gets the Traceryline through Princequillo’s dam, while Teddy comes through Red Giant through Storm Cat (USA) and Mr Prospector (USA).
Since Supergiant, My Marguerite has had one more foal, a filly by Puccini, and even though she is rising 24 she may go to stud this year. Apparently, it’s all down to the care she receives at Mapperley Stud where she roams on their gentle hills.
Mapperley Stud is where Supergiant was raised, and their Bloodstock Manager Kat Malcom recalls what he was like as a youngster.
“As a weanling he was tall and athletic,” she said.
“He was very mature mentally and was extremely intelligent. He was eager to please and the more education he received the more he flourished. As an 11month old he showed that his hormones were maturing as quick as his brain and had to be gelded at this early stage.
“He went away to Ohukia Lodge to be broken in at 18 months old and he continued to develop into a lovely athlete, each preparation he had after this he continued to strengthen and turned into a lovely looking horse. We are so proud that he is another group winner to be raised and grazed on the rolling hills of Mapperley hopefully he will continue his outstanding race record and become a champion like his other Mapperley comrades, It's A Dundeel, Brutal and So You Think.”
Horses have always been a part Allen’s life with a family background in farming.
“I grew up with ponies on a sheep and cattle farm in Onewhero, and my father was involved in stud cattle. I also bred some exotic breeds and won prizes for them before I moved to a career in the city. I got a good grounding in breeding from my father.
“Now I spend my weekends visiting my horses and have a couple of mares and young stock at Mapperley Stud. I have another mare there Interdict(AUS) (Quest For Fame[GB] – Destruct), and she has a lovely Ken McLean designed two-year-old by Nadeem that I have high hopes for.
“It’s been an exciting journey with Supergiant,” Allen concluded, “and there are other people involved in the journey that I would like to thank.
Mapperley Stud where he was born and raised, Westbury Stud, Ohukia Lodge (who broke him in) and Jim Collett who trained him up to trial stage where he was bought by Phil Cataldo for Michael Costa in Australia.” -Michelle Saba, NZTBA
