Expat New Zealand trainers Emma-Lee and David Browne are dipping their toes into breeding with the purchase of a familiar broodmare, and their investment quickly paid off with a win at Sandown on Saturday.
The Brownes' promising two-year-old Le Zebra led all the way and scored by three-quarters of a length. Saturday's win came in the third start of his career, having previously finished fourth at Moonee Valley in January and third at Mornington two weeks ago.
Le Zebra is by Rip Van Winkle out of the My Halo mare Angel Del Dinero, who herself was a winner and finished second in the Group 3 Desert Gold Stakes (1600m) at Trentham. Le Zebra is the fourth winner from five foals to race out of Angel Del Dinero, who is also the dam of the Brownes' four-race winner Bifrost.
The Brownes bought Bifrost for $40,000 at Karaka 2020, followed by the $60,000 purchase of his half-brother Le Zebra two years later.
Adding to their investment in the family, the Brownes went online for the April 17 auction on gavelhouse.com and secured Angel Del Dinero for $26,000.
“It started with Bifrost, who I actually bought without David's knowledge at the time, but that worked out pretty well for us,” Emma-Lee Browne said. “He was a city winner here at Sandown for us as well.
“So then, back at the yearling sales again a couple of years later, we saw this guy and I thought he was a spitting image of Bifrost, so we bought him too.
“It's been a great family for us, with both of these horses now winning city races, and now we've bought the mare. She has a full-brother to Bifrost (by Turn Me Loose) at foot, and she's in foal to Circus Maximus.
“It's pretty exciting to be starting a bit of a breeding foray. One of our really good owners has come in and taken shares in the mare, Brian Webb, so it's pretty exciting times.”
Le Zebra, meanwhile, is raced by a syndicate featuring a number of Australian owners – some of whom took inspiration from the Brownes' popular racehorses Elephant and Rhinoceros.
“We've brought a lot of new Aussie owners into this horse, and he was named by one of the owners because of ‘the zoo',” Browne said. “He came out with his black mane and white body, so he's called Zebra.
“I'm so pleased for all the owners and supporters that he's won today. It's pretty exciting.
“He did a good job to hang on. Mark (Zahra) gave him a lovely ride out in front. There were a few nervous moments as we were hitting that Sandown hill, and I just wanted the straight to be over, but he's done a good job. He was only second-up, so he's still probably got a bit of improvement in him.
“I think he has a bright future. He's got a fair bit of growing up still to do, but just on ability, he's got the job done today.”