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On Saturday 17 October at Randwick, Beyond The Reef came from the very back of the field to win the Group 3 Reginald Allen Quality. It was only her fourth start.
You can read the full race report “here”
For most of our owners, a win like that is the reason you get into racing. For us, this one carried a little extra, because Beyond The Reef isn't just a horse we syndicated, we also bred her. As James put it after the race: “She's a homebred filly, that was the first foal out of the first horse we ever purchased.”
Beyond The Reef as a foal with her mum Miss Moana
A filly we knew before she was born.
Beyond The Reef is by Flying Artie, out of our former star mare Miss Moana. Her story starts in 2017 at the New Zealand Bloodstock yearling sales, where James Moss picked out an Uncle Mo filly from a Galileo mare for NZ$50,000. She was the very first yearling Tricolours ever bought. James and trainer John Sargent saw a genuine staying type in her, and she went on to prove them right. It was a pedigree with real depth for the price. Miss Moana's grandmother, Chevaleresse, had once been bought by Coolmore for 475,000 guineas, approx. $950,000 AUD
Miss Moana: Retired in 2020 with a record of 17: 5-4-2 which is an enviable record for any stayer
Miss Moana in action at Randwick Racecourse, Sydney
When a tendon injury prematurely ended her career, Miss Moana was offered at the 2020 Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale with a $100,000 reserve. The market barely noticed her, and she attracted almost no bids. Rather than let her go cheaply, James backed his original judgement and kept her.
Breeding was never part of the plan. It was “probably not fashionable to sell her as a broodmare,” James said, so the owners decided to have a go themselves. It didn't come easily. Miss Moana missed in her first two seasons at Newgate Farm, and we seriously considered calling it a day. In her third season Newgate suggested Flying Artie. On paper it wasn't an obvious match: Miss Moana was a big, staying type who, in James's words, “could have run 5000 metres.” The result was Beyond The Reef. The mare nobody wanted at the sales is now the dam of a Group 3 winner.
That is the Tricolours approach in one story. James buys yearlings at sensible prices, judges them on type and pedigree rather than fashion, and gives them time to develop. Our successful fillies have gone on to sell as broodmare prospects, including Fasika for $920,000 in 2021, Ballistic Lover for $1 million in 2022 and The Playwright for $625,000 this year. James knows this family well, too. Tricolours also bought Miss Moana's half-sister Ningaloo Star for $135,000. She won seven races and was sold to Silverdale Farm for $400,000 as a broodmare. James still describes us as “very much hobby breeders”, but Miss Moana shows the same eye for value works in the breeding barn too.
(Her story has also been told by TTR AusNZ in “The mare nobody wanted” and by ANZ Bloodstock News in “Syndicate members become black-type breeders” )
Breeding is a long game. From the day a mare is covered to the day her foal steps onto a racetrack is roughly three years, and most of that time nobody knows whether the foal will be any good. That's what makes a day like Randwick so special. And the story isn't finished. Miss Moana's Cosmic Force yearling filly is already rated by Newgate's team as the best foal she has produced, and she is back in foal.
Fourth start, from the back.
What impressed us most was how she won. Racing against fillies with more experience, she settled last and finished powerfully down the outside. Full credit to Dylan Gibbons for a perfectly judged ride, and to John Sargent and his team for having her ready to peak on the big stage.
She'll now head to Hannover Lodge for a spell. “I wouldn't rule out getting her over further in the autumn once she matures,” James said.
Beyond The Reef winning the Group 3 Reginald Allen Quality at Randwick Racecourse, Sydney
What is a Group 3 race.
Australian racing grades its most important races into tiers. From the top down they are Group 1, Group 2, Group 3 and Listed races. Together these are known as stakes races.
A Group 3 is the third tier of that system. It's a level most horses never reach. Every year thousands of thoroughbreds race in Australia, and only a small fraction win a stakes race of any grade.
"The Reginald Allen Quality is run over 1400m for three-year-old fillies."
A stakes win also earns "black type" (bold print in thoroughbred sales catalogues), which adds lasting value for Beyond The Reef as a future broodmare and for any future foals out of Miss Moana.
What this means if you own a share, or are thinking about one.
We'll be honest about it: most racehorses don't win stakes races, and no syndicator can promise you one. Racehorse ownership is about the experience. You're part of the stable, you follow the horse's progress, and you share race days with your fellow owners. Days like Randwick are the rare and wonderful bonus.
Just ask one of Beyond The Reef’s owners. He has previously raced a Golden Slipper winner, yet he told James this win gave him more joy. That’s what it means to see a horse you’ve followed from the very beginning come good. Breeding and racing your own stakes winner is, as James puts it, “incredibly hard to do.”
What a result like this does show is the value of patience. We take our time with our horses. We place them with trainers who won't rush them, and we keep our owners close to every step of the journey.
Own a share with John Sargent
If Beyond The Reef's story has you thinking about owning, we currently have shares available in a Castelvecchio x Almandine filly who has joined John Sargent's stable. After this great result remaining shares in this other promising young filly will sell out fast.
