'N EVER buy a doubtful-legged yearling in the hopes that he may stand training. The Arabs have a proverb: 'He is a ruined man and the son of a ruined man who buys horses to cure them,' " wrote Banjo Paterson in his treatise on racehorses and racing nearly 100 years ago.
Everyone has different views on what constitutes "doubtful legs" but for Lockyer Thoroughbreds' David O'Keeffe, breeder of Whobegotyou, the legs of the Derby favourite were a definite query.
"He had off-set knees and when he walked, his legs flapped like dodgy wheels on a Woolworths shopping trolley," O'Keeffe said.
Lawrence Eales, now owner of Whobegotyou, was looking to make his first yearling purchase at the Inglis Classic sale in Sydney in January last year. He obviously had a different interpretation of Whobegotyou's legs and at the moment has anything but the look of a ruined man.
Usually a novice yearling buyer will find an expert to help find the right horse but Eales, who grew up among horses in North Queensland, decided to do the job on his own. "I decided to have a go at it myself. My judgement has proved OK so far but it's a long road," he said.
Eales had been in Sydney with his earth-moving business and decided to drop in at the Inglis sales complex at Randwick, where he found Whobegotyou, who had been passed in. After looking at the Street Cry colt he made an offer and took him home for $19,500.
"I liked his breeding and thought he was an absolute bargain," he said — and no one is arguing with him now.
Eales, who had never had a city runner before Whobegotyou, might have had some beginner's luck but so did O'Keeffe. The son of Darley stallion Street Cry was the first horse he had bred.
Many fail to breed a group 1 winner in a lifetime of trying but after Whobegotyou's Caulfield Guineas triumph, he has achieved that goal already. Not that he can actually take the credit for mating Whobegotyou's dam Temple Of Peace with Street Cry.
At that time, Temple Of Peace was owned by Sheikh Mohammed's Darley breeding operation but breeding protocol is such that whoever owns a mare at the time she foals is deemed to be the foal's breeder.
O'Keeffe had, years earlier, been introduced to a method of pedigree analysis, known as the Brain pedigree rating system, by Canberra trainer Keith Dryden, who had tried unsuccessfully to sell him a share in a yearling.
The system trys to pinpoint what are the genetic strengths in a particular pedigree and to match those with corresponding strengths in the sire and dam.
O'Keeffe said no to the yearling, who turned out to be classy sprinter Into The Night, but was impressed by the methodology of the Brain system.
It was used by O'Keeffe when he was looking for his first broodmare and the Street Cry-Temple Of Peace mating rated very highly. On that basis, he bought the mare for $36,000 at an Inglis broodmare sale in 2005.
Pedigree software doesn't, however, guarantee what a prospective foal will look like and O'Keeffe says that as a foal, Whobegotyou was very off-set in the knees, although he improved as he grew into himself.
Following Whobegotyou, Temple Of Peace, who is by Carnegie out of the Kris mare Clovis Point, produced an Octagonal colt who, in his breeder's words, was "unattractive and ordinary looking".
He was sold for $16,000 at the Classic sale this year.
This afternoon he will be resold at the Magic Millions horses-in-training sale on the Gold Coast, where he will make more than that on the back of his half-brother's performances.
The following year, Temple Of Peace foaled a colt by Fantastic Light whose legs were so badly deformed that he was put down immediately.
O'Keeffe had been considering a return to Street Cry or his three-quarter brother Shamadaal but due to Steet Cry's greater success in the northern hemisphere and the arrival of equine influenza, neither stood in Australia last year.
After three less-than-perfect foals and then the prospective stallions not being available, O'Keeffe decided it was time to off-load Temple Of Peace.
She was sold in foal to Golden Slipper winner Strada, for just $5250, at the Magic Millions National sale in June.
In one sense he would obviously like to still own her but is more than happy with the decision-making process. "I'm from a rural background (in Walgett) and if you've got breeders throwing duds, what do you do? You cull them — she wasn't sold, she was culled," he said.
He might have practically given away the dam of perhaps racing's next superstar but O'Keeffe is philosophical about it all. "The first horse I've bred is a group 1 winner. It's like scoring a double century on debut in Test cricket," he said.
More important, says O'Keeffe, is the fact that Whobegotyou's success backs up his belief in the Brain system.
"It's not for everybody and a lot of people are sceptical but I've done a lot of research and everything I've seen vindicates the use of it," he said.
O'Keeffe might not be losing any sleep over discarding Temple Of Peace and neither is Darley managing director Henry Plumtre, who was able to joke about it this week.
"Whose decision was it to sell Temple Of Peace?" he called out to senior staff this week when The Age phoned.
After a few moments, the answer came back: "It was Ollie, we'll blame him," said Plumtre, of former general manager Ollie Tait, who recently moved to Kentucky to take over Darley's North American operation.
Plumtre explained that when Darley Australia began operations in Australia five years ago, a great number of mares were sent from the northern hemisphere. Not all were to be kept long-term and after two average quality foals, Temple Of Peace was one of many to be sold.
"Every few years one (sale) will come back to bite you and this is one of them," he said.
Just to rub salt into the wounds, two high-priced Darley-owned horses, Time Thief and Von Costa De Hero, ran second and third, respectively, behind Whobegotyou in the Caulfield Guineas.
One man's trash is another's treasure and when Lockyer Thoroughbreds sent Temple Of Peace to the sales, Bill Benson of Emerald Thoroughbreds was happy to take her home — but he also nearly gifted her away.
When Benson bought her in June this year, Whobegotyou had just won a maiden, although it wasn't shown in the catalogue.
Seeing the potential for a quick profit, he entered her in another sale in early July but after Whobegotyou won at his second start, at Moonee Valley, Benson sensed further upside and withdrew her.
Subsequent events have shown it was an inspired decision.
The win of Whobegotyou in the Caulfield Guineas — which was followed by a win in the AAMI Vase last Saturday — meant the value of Temple Of Peace had risen to at least seven figures and not long after the Guineas, a three-quarter interest in the mare was sold to Irish breeding giant Coolmore Stud.
After Vintage Crop won the 1993 Melbourne Cup, his Irish trainer Dermot Weld showed he was a fan of Banjo Paterson, reciting lines of Paterson's works.
Temple Of Peace is due to foal in three weeks' time and will then be served by Encosta De Lago.
The foal's new owners won't be the only ones interested in which way the foal's four legs are pointing.