Un-named (So You Think – Weona Karioi)

Patrick Payne to train.
5% shares $13,750 – 10% shares $27,500

After I had done my lead up work at the 2024 Inglis Classic Sale I was determined to purchase Lot 17, a beautiful type of filly by Champion Racehorse and Sire So You Think(NZ). The filly is an outstanding type of filly. She has a great presence about her and is as attractive a filly as you are likely to inspect. The filly is a good size and gets around well and has excellent conformation.

The filly has a serious pedigree and is a ¾ sister to the Group 1 placed stakes-winning colt Political Debate who is also by So You Think. Political Debate is nominated for the Group 1 Doncaster Handicap and ran 2nd at his second last start in the ATC Filante Handicap. He won the BRC The Phoenix Stakes and was placed 2nd in the BRC Group 1 JJ Atkins, one of only five Group 1 races run for 2yo’s in Australia. He has always run in the best races, including the ATC Group 1 Epsom Handicap, ATC Group 1 Golden Rose and the ATC Group 2 RunTo The Rose Group 3 Bill Ritchie Handicap.

I often write it is more important where a foal is reared than who its parents are. In this case, this fellow was reared at Valiant Stud at Aberdeen in the Hunter Valley which has a great reputation for breeding winners.This is the third yearling I have purchased from Valiant Stud with the other two being the multiple stakes winner The Cunning Fox and two-time winning 3yo filly Gerety. Valiant Stud is situated next to Newgate Farm and close to Darley’s Hunter Valley Stud.

So You Think 

Where do you start with So You Think (NZ). He was a magnificent racehorse winning the coveted MVRC Group 1 WS Cox Plate twice. He is by the Champion sire High Chaparral out of the Group winning Tights mare Triassic. In total So You Think won 10 Group 1 races five in Australia and five in Europe. He has been a prolific sire of winners and elite racehorses. He is currently second on the Australian Sire Premiership behind I Am Invincible. This is the 3rd season he has held this position. His conversion of Stakes winners to Group 1 winners is a remarkable 20.4% which is outstanding. Compare this with I Am Invincible’s 13.3%, Zoustar 12.5% and Snitzel 13.5%. He has sired some outstanding horses including Think About It, Think It Over, Nimalee, La Bella Diosa, Nakeeta Jane, Palaisipan and Sopressa.

Weona Karioi

Weona Karioi is by the multiple Group 1 winner All Too Hard, a ½ brother to Black Caviar. He has been a very good sire consistently sitting in the top dozen on the Australian Sire’s Premiership. I believe he will become a major force as a broodmare sire. His sire Casino Prince has jumped from 169th position three years ago to currently holding down 29th position. All Too Hard has just appeared on the Broodmare List for the first time with him having 19 winners from 35 runners and two Stakes horses, Man Crush and Scentify. This is a good start with Man Crush winning the WA Magic Millions 3yo Classic last year. When you start investigating Weona Karioi’s pedigree down the page it gets very exciting.

Her dam is by Zabeel who has had 36 of his daughters have foals raced by So You Think, with five being stakes winners including Think It Over, Nimalee, Midnight Blue, Asathought and of course Political Debate. Weona Karioi’s 2nd dam is Destined (GB) by Danehill who is a great influence in any pedigree. Destined has given us the NZ Filly of the Year in 2012/13 as well as Galileo’s Destiny which was 2nd in the Group 1 South African Derby. She currently has Sudbina which recently won the Group 3 Western Gold Stakes and was 4 the to Molly Blooms in the Group 2 Sir Tristram Fillies Classic in NZ.

The Trainer

Patrick Payne has been a remarkable success for Prime Thoroughbreds. Here is a summary of the yearlings purchased from 2013 to 2020 for Patrick by Prime Thoroughbreds to have raced. In total 35 of the 45 yearlings to have raced are winners having won 116 races and returned $7,357,748 to date in stakes money (In addition to this the retired mares were sold for $1,664,500 in Public Auctions on completion of their careers with Prime Thoroughbreds. This takes the gross returns to $9,022,248). The 35 winners collectively were purchased for just $2,427,500 ($69,357 average purchase price). Seven of the 35 winners are still racing in our team. I expect Flattered, Xaphan, Hot Gospel, Hell Of A Trip and Another Nephew which have raced but not won to win races. This would see us having 38 winners from the first 44 horses to race with Patrick (86%). The current value of the seven still in our team is probably greater than the combined purchase price of all the winners to have raced with Quang Tri, Seonee, Birdies Galore and The Devil In Her valuable breeding propositions. Six of the horses I syndicated with Patrick failed to make the grade and win a race. I have been thrilled with Patrick’s handling of our horses and we have been building up a nice team with him.

An impressive part of our story has been 51.4% (18 of 35) of the winners with Patrick are Stakes, Magic Millions, Inglis Race Series or Metropolitan winners. He has guided horses like Rubisaki – Rubick’s best filly or mare, Quang Tri – Shalaa’s highest-earning filly or mare in Australia and Seonee – Winning Rupert’s most-winning horse. Patrick is an outstanding conditioner of horses and probably the best jumps trainer in Australia. Patrick has done a remarkable job with the colts I have syndicated with him. He does a great job educating them and bringing them through. 12 of the 13 colts I have syndicated with him to race have gone on to win. Patrick has a big advantage over many of his rivals with outstanding riders educating his team. These include Steve Arnold and Bill Egan.