Farmer's reluctant buy brings rich return

Hawke's Bay farmer Doug Phillips is now thanking his lucky stars he finally relented when veteran Tauranga thoroughbred owner-breeder Phil Bayly kept insisting that he take a mare and foal off his hands 18 months ago.
The mare was Lioness and she had a colt foal at foot by Falkirk.
Apart from being a granddaughter of the outstanding racemare Blue Denim, Lioness didn't have a lot recommend her but she is now a very valuable acquisition after her son Lion Tamer scored a runaway win in last Saturday's Group 1 A$1.5 million ($1.95 million) Victoria Derby in Melbourne.
Phillips recalled this week that he wasn't that fussed about taking on another mare as his property had dried out and there wasn't much good grazing on his small Te Aute farm block. But Bayly, who is now 87 years old, was in the process of winding back his thoroughbred interests and was insistent that Phillips should buy the mare.
"I'm now very lucky that I did," Phillips said.
"When Lion Tamer finished second at Moonee Valley the other week I thought he might be a chance in the Derby but I just couldn't believe he did it so easy."
Phillips and his wife went along with Bayly to inspect Lioness and her foal and says he was particularly taken with the foal at foot.
"The colt was a magnificent foal and I knew that the top price for a Falkirk for his first crop at the sales had been $180,000," Phillips said.
"Phil said 'Doug I want you to have this mare' and so we came to an agreement that I got the mare and foal for $25,000."
At that stage Lion Tamer was a rising 2-year-old and Lioness had left two previous filly foals, neither of which had got to the races at that stage.
One of those fillies has since been named Miss Lioness and was unplaced in her race debut at Otaki last Thursday, for Hastings trainers Guy Lowry and Grant Cullen. The value of that horse has also increased dramatically after Lion Tamer, trained by the Cambridge father and son combination of Murray and Bjorn Baker, scored an outstanding victory in last Saturday's 2500-metre feature at Flemington.
Doug Phillips said he met Phil Bayly purely by chance and the two immediately hit it off.
"I was part of a syndicate that bred the horse Apache and we sold it to Phil Bayly. He won his first start and looked like being really good but unfortunately he hasn't done much since."
"But Phil and I have just clicked."
Phillips said he hasn't done a lot with the Falkirk colt, which is now a 2-year-old, as he wanted to wait until Lion Tamer ran in the Derby.
"But Murray Baker has already shown an interest in him so he will probably get him to train," Phillips said.
Lioness is by Generous out of the Pompeii Court mare Blue Satin, who was out of Blue Denim.
Dave O'Sullivan trained Blue Denim and she included Group 1 victories in the Auckland Cup, Sydney Cup and BMW Stakes in Sydney among her many wins and also finished an unlucky second in the 1980 Melbourne Cup.
Phillips had Lioness, who is still only 9 years old, served by Castelli last year but the mare failed to get in foal. However she is now in foal again to the promising stallion Iffraaj.
Doug Phillips has had racing shares in horses for about 15 years, with little success, and has dabbled in the breeding side for the past four years.
Lioness is one of four broodmares he presently has shares in, the others being Strike Five, Moldivian and Kaatch The Breeze.
Strike Five is a Star Way mare and the dam of Apache. She has since produced a Gold Centre yearling filly.
Moldivian is a Cape Cross mare and has just produced a filly foal by Handsome Ransom while Kaatch The Breeze is a Kaapstad mare and is to be served this year by Castelli.