From little things big things grow

After an inauspicious beginning Platelet becomes a G1 star

A hobby breeder for the best part of two decades, Graeme Forbes went to the 2008 Inglis Australian Weanling and Breeding Stock Sale looking for a new mare to add to his small broodmare band.

He had marked four mares in his catalogue he liked and went there hopeful of being able to take one of them home.

Luck was on Forbes’ side that particular day in June. The first of the four mares he had marked to go through the ring would turn out to be the mare that provided him with his greatest thrills in racing.

Bloodline showed glimpses of ability on the track, winning two metropolitan races in Brisbane in a 10-race career. A daughter of the very good two-year-old but moderately performed stallion Dracula, Bloodline turned up at the Inglis sales complex in 2008 as the dam of three foals but was yet to register a winner.

“I really liked her pedigree and she was in foal to Strategic, so the pedigree of the foal inside her was really appealing to me as well,” Forbes said.

“She had Champion stallions all through her pedigree and she could gallop a bit herself. When I first saw her I thought she was a little athletic mare who was well put together. I was expecting to have to pay between $8000 and $10,000 for her.”

When the hammer fell on the Woodlands Stud-consigned lot 400, Forbes became the new owner of Bloodline for just $6000.

“I was so lucky she was the first of the four mares I liked to go through the ring,” he said.

On November 2 later that year, Bloodline foaled a bay filly by Strategic.

“The foal was a little on the small side but like her mother she was well put together. She wasn’t really anything to rave about but that is just like her mother too.”

As the filly grew, Forbes toyed with the idea of racing her himself but eventually decided to sell her and advertised her on the internet. There was little interest in the Strategic filly until syndicator Darren Dance from Australian Thoroughbred Bloodstock contacted Forbes.

“I bought her sight unseen,” Dance said. “I had syndicated all my yearlings already that year so I was looking for a couple more.

“I rang Graeme and he told me she was a nice filly, so I told him if he could guarantee me she was ok and was willing to stay in for 10% I would buy her.”

The filly was soon on the truck to Dance’s property at Ballan about an hour west of Melbourne.

“My first impression of her was that she was on the small side but she was very athletic. She was also very fiery,” Dance said.

The filly was quickly syndicated among loyal clients of Australian Thoroughbred Bloodstock and a couple of new clients. She went in to the stables of Darren Weir and was named Platelet, however her first few forays to the racetrack gave little indication of the enjoyment that would await connections.

“Weiry always had an opinion of her but she was a bit of a hot head. A real wild child,” Dance said.

“She went to Burrumbeet for her first trial and they couldn’t get her in to the gates and then she was meant to debut at Swan Hill but had to be scratched after she lay down in the barriers.”

Platelet’s barrier manners improved enough for her to debut at Echuca in August 2011 where she finished second. She broke her maiden at her second start with a strong win in a maiden at Geelong before earning her first bit of black-type at her next start when third to Celebrity Girl in the Listed Cap D’Antibes up the Flemington straight.

Platelet’s six-start debut campaign culminated with a fighting win in the G3 Thoroughbred Club Stakes at Caulfield, the same day Helmet triumphed in a record-breaking Caulfield Guineas.

An ultra-consistent performer, Platelet went to another level throughout the Autumn earlier this year. After two typically solid runs to begin her campaign, Platelet made her debut at G1 level at her third run for the campaign in G1 Robert Sangster Stakes at Morphettville on April 27.

After jumping from an outside barrier, jockey Ben Melham managed to find cover on Platelet just behind the speed. Turning for home he allowed the four-year-old mare to stride up four-wide and Platelet quickly dashed past race-favourite Snitzerland. Platelet then had to dig deep to fend off several challengers, holding a three-quarters of a length margin on the line to become Strategic’s fourth G1 winner.

“I watched the race at home with my family and I was absolutely gobsmacked. I couldn’t speak after she won,” Forbes said.

Two weeks later she was at it again, this time beating the males as well in the G1 Goodwood. Platelet’s win took her record to seven wins from 19 starts and $945,000 in prizemoney. She has picked up a cheque for her connections in all 19 starts. An enviable record for any horse, but particularly for one whose dam was sold carrying her for just $6000.

“She has been a great horse for us and hopefully it can continue,” Dance said. “We will target the big G1 sprints for her in the Spring and we know she will try her hardest as she always does.”