They are selling a few yearlings at Karaka right now. Trainers will be quoted that they couldn’t leave without them. Cracking types, athletic naturally, maybe an Oaks filly in time or with a real Derby pedigree and a body to grow into.
So that’s year’s away, and without any such guarantee that they will.
Richard and Will Freedman, they had a big weekend, are already on the New Zealand Bloodstock buyer’s sheets but don’t expect enthusiastic client Sean Triplett and his mate Jon Deeble – they form the “World Series Group” – to rush into those Kiwi snoozers.
Sure, the Freedie’s had winners in Queensland (Elettrica won the Sunshine Coast Cup), at Randwick (Sam Kavanagh’s former galloper Magnatear kept the emotions rolling), but Triplett was at Sandown because he had bought into Coastwatch just last Monday.
That’s it, buy it Monday, win Saturday. No waiting, no delay, every player wins a prize. So, there’s Triplett taking the John Dillon Stakes trophy (named after the former Melbourne Racing Club chairman), from his son Andrew, boss at the AFL and racing enthusiast himself.
But this isn’t just a one-off stroke of luck for Triplett, one time coach of South Melton Footy Club and recruiting Brendon Fevola to break a long drought, or Deeble, who has just been fitted with his sixth championship ring at the Los Angeles Dodgers.
You know that Osipenko of Chris Waller’s, hadn’t won for yonks, Triplett and Deeble buy an available share on-line and bang, win the January Cup last week.
Wait there’s another one. A good filly in New Zealand, good name too, Real Class, Jamie Lovett’s Australian Bloodstock sources it as a rising star, the World Series lads buy in, she wins the Group 2 Sir Patrick Hogan Stakes in a heartbeat and now sit pretty for the NZ Oaks in just over a month.
Oh, forgot to mention, Rising Pacific, a winner at the Sunshine Coast in the Australian Bloodstock ubiquitous blue, white and black colours, the World Series lads are in it too.
They also had shares in Menshevik which debuted in the Blue Diamond Preview (4th), while King Of Roseau recently went around in the Magic Millions Guineas for them.
But talk about hitting home runs, so fresh was the Coastwatch deal that their names weren’t even in the book at Sandown on Saturday and Will Freedman had to ring his cousin Sam to borrow a set of the old Freedman family colours for Damien Lane to wear.
Oh, that’s right, it beat Chorlton Lane, in the Dillon, the World Series boys recently bought into that too.
“It’s been an incredible day,” said Triplett almost incredulously in the Robert Hunter winner’s room at Sandown.
“I got an email from Will on Monday, we’ve got a few with them, and he said he had a horse that you guys should be interested in called Coastwatch,” Triplett said.
“I rang my racing partner (Deeble), in America, we do probably talk 20 times a day, and I said let’s jump in, we transferred the money and here we are today.”
If this all sounds a bit far-fetched, there is a strategy in Triplett’s enthusiasm.
They have a motto – “double the pleasure, divide the pain.”
“We just like to buy into good horses, put a few mates together and enjoy the excitement.”
“And you can buy a lot of enjoyment for not a lot of money, but always with good people, that’s the key.”
“I’d had a few trotters and always loved a bet and started scouring the Inglis Digital on-line to get more involved,” Triplett said.
Luncies (with Kris Lees in Rupert Legh’s colours) , was one of the first. “He never won for us, but he more than paid his way and we got to run in many good Group races and have fun.”
Both Triplett, who lists himself on "X" as “Entrepreneur, New York Investment Group et al”, and Deeble, an Australian Baseball Hall Of Famer but with championships rings with the Florida Marlins, Boston Red Sox (three) and now two at the Dodgers, can afford to have the fun.
And while Triplett, who succeeded with Vodaphone Business Centres, can lay claim to recruiting former AFL star Fevola to player-coach alongside himself at a drought stricken South Melton in the Ballarat League (and once sat alongside Denis Pagan in the North Melbourne coaches box moving the magnets), Deeble may have dibs on him through a few scouting highlights, none more so than Japanese superstar Shohei Ohtani, yes the bloke who hit a record 54 home runs and stole 59 bases last season.
So, while we can at best try and keep an ear out for what the World Series Group buys into next, be sure they will be living their motto, doubling their pleasure, and right now not even having to consider dividing the pain.
PS:
COASTWATCH was a $750,000 yearling through the Coolmore Inglis Easter draft in 2020 bought by Gul Mulcaster with the vendors racing with clients of the Chris Waller stable.
He had 15 starts for Waller and the ownership group winning a Kensington Maiden and gradating to stakes company, winning the Group 3 Ming Dynasty at Newcastle, then placed third behind In The Congo and Anamoe in the Group 1 Golden Rose. He came back and won the Group 2 Autumn Stakes at Caulfield at Caulfield before eventually being offered in line selling to Macau/Hong Kong for $500,000.
He came back unraced from Asia to join Richard and Will Freedman, won the Listed Luskin Star at his fourth start for the HK clients, but another nine winless starts saw owners sell out, opening the door for the World Series Group and others to run for them on Saturday after an undisclosed sale agreement.
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