Ceylon Sapphire

A Decade Of Fast Fillies For Grant & Alana Williams-Could This Be Their Next One?

LONG LEAF was a stallion in demand at the 2023 Magic Millions Perth Yearling Sale, in fact he finished second in the average sale price results, with only the local Champ Playing God finishing ahead of him!

A very precocious 2 year old recording wins in his first three starts which included impressive wins in the Merson Cooper Stakes and Blue Diamond Preview, from that point, Long Leaf competed in the very best of company in the Golden Slipper, in which he ran 6th from barrier 15, and then ran 4th in the ATC Sires. In both races he was the second colt past the post in a filly dominated season.

After establishing himself as one of the best 2 year olds in the country, trainer David Hayes kept he bar high for Long Leaf setting him for the elite 3 year old races. After a string of placings in Group races such as the Vain Stakes, Caulfield Guineas Prelude and Sandown Guineas, Long Leaf showed his versatility when he went to NZ and won the Karaka Million over 1600m. During his 3 year old campaign, Long Leaf ran very good races in both the Group 1 Coolmore Stud Stakes and Australian Guineas finishing 6th in both behind Sunlight and Mystic Journey respectively. From a 20 start career, Long Leaf finished with 4 wins from 1000m to 1600m and collected $947 000 in stakes earned.

A well performed Son of Fastnet Rock, Long Leaf throws terrific types, pretty much all of them resembling Fastnet Rock himself, and buyers were immediately taken with his progeny. They sold up to $145,000, and averaged a tick over $75,000 each, which is phenomenal for a new season stallion in Western Australia.

This filly is out of the unraced Snitzel mare Gronkette, which makes this mating a genuine speed on speed cross. As a broodmare, Gronkette has had just the one runner to date, that being The Panzer who is a winner and also twice placed from just 7 starts at the time of writing. A review of the filly’s pedigree page shows that most of the success of her family’s members have been up to 1600m, and there’s no reason to suggest that she’ll be any different. It was her physique though that caught the eye of potential buyers at the Magic Millions sale, and although she was presented in Book 2 of the sale, we still had to go to $70,000 to secure her. She’s a well grown, good sized, correct filly who looks like an athlete from the start. She’s got a impressive top line, and a beautiful head with a lovely white stripe. And to add to all this, she’s got a touch of elegance about her too, all of which meant that she caught the attention of many, and hence demanded a healthy price.

She’ll be trained by Grant & Alana Williams, and after dominating Perth racing with ‘A decade of fast fillies’, we hope this filly will be their next good one!

The share price is $5,250 per 5% share and has been projected forward to the end of June 2023 to include the auction purchase price, breaking in, agistment, transport insurance, and all other costs including GST.

From July 1st, 2023, which to be fair to everyone, is the date that syndicate fees commence for all owners irrespective of sign-up date, our stress free, fixed fees of $250/month paid quarterly by direct debit ($57.54/week) will cover all of your ongoing racing, training, agistment, syndicate management and communications, transport, farrier, and even vet bills too! In fact, with the exception of annual insurance (which is optional anyway) and the possibility of feature race payments (which is a shared bill you want because it means that your horse is good enough to run in the big races), there’s nothing else to pay!  There’s no bill-shock, and you know exactly what you’re up for all of the time.