With horses the ilk of Everest runner-up Private Eye and Stradbroke Handicap contenders Think About It and Scallopini, syndicators Proven Thoroughbreds are flying high.
But the road hasn’t always been an easy one.
Director Jamie Walter, the brother of late trainer Guy Walter, started the business more than 20 years ago and while it produced its share of winners, he eventually realised they needed strategic change.
“I’ve waited a long time for horses like these,” Jamie Walter said.
“We’d had our successes over the years but about five or six years ago we upped the ante and we started buying more horses and spending more money.
“With a yearling market that is consistently headed north, unless you’re prepared to pay more money, you’re choosing from an ever-diminishing pool of horses.
“So we have tried to keep pace with the market and spend a little bit more, more volume, more numbers.”
The move is paying dividends and on Saturday at Eagle Farm, Proven Thoroughbreds’s black and green colours will be sported by two horses in the $3 million Stradbroke Handicap (1400m) – Joe Pride-trained favourite Think About It and Scallopini for Steven O’Dea and Matthew Hoysted.
The winner of eight of his nine starts, Think About It recently secured a slot in the Everest, but Walter revealed the horse’s start wasn’t quite as auspicious.
While he and Pride both liked Think About It as a yearling, they had already spent close to their budget at the sales and didn’t bid on him, only negotiating a deal after the son of So You Think was passed in.
“To be brutally honest, we weren’t totally set on him. We’d already bought a lot of horses and he was actually passed in, then we made an offer for him and got him, so happy days,” Walter said.
“That just shows you how lucky yearling buying can be.
“You can do untold preparation, scour over pedigrees, get all the veterinary boxes ticked and love the individual, but you miss out on the horse because it’s too expensive.”
Given his large frame, Think About It needed time.
Pride and Walter are aligned on taking a patient approach with their horses, but when Think About It suffered a leg injury as a youngster and required 12 months in the paddock, they began to wonder if time would be enough.
“He was a two-year-old and he was barely going three-quarter pace, so we feared he was going to be a trainwreck,” Walter said.
“It’s amazing, particularly in these days of everyone wanting to pressure young horses and get them going early, time can be the making of them.”
After that early mishap, things began to look up.
Think About It returned and showed ability in two barrier trials before making a winning debut two days before his fourth birthday.
In the ensuing 11 months, he has taken connections on a heady ride, culminating in his last start win in the Group 1 Kingsford-Smith Cup and next stop is Saturday’s Stradbroke Handicap, Queensland’s most prestigious race.
Scallopini will also run for Proven Thorougbreds and while he is a $31 chance, he is racing in career-best form and drawn to get every opportunity from barrier eight.
If either can win, it will settle a score for Walter, who watched on as Think About It’s stablemate Private Eye finished a desperately unlucky second in the corresponding race 12 months ago.
Walter admits he and the race have some unfinished business.
“Private Eye ran into Alligator Blood and looked very stiff in the run, so it would be lovely to win after last year.”