Mr Mozart delivers a high for Jamieson Park principal

From disappointment to elation, last Saturday Jamieson Park principal James Chapman experienced the full gamut of emotions that racing and breeding can throw up.
The disappointment came first with the scratching of Jamieson Park-bred Inspirational Girl from the Gr. 1 Makybe Diva Stakes, wrecking plans for a big Melbourne spring to go with her Group One-winning West Australian form. Hours later those feelings turned to elation when fellow Jamieson Park-bred Mr Mozart stamped his class with victory in the Listed Exford Plate at Flemington.
A black-type win at the start of the spring carnival is like gold for a colt with a pedigree and in the case of this Hawkes Racing-trained three-year-old, Chapman’s good fortune is two-fold. Not only is Jamieson Park the official breeder, but the North Waikato nursery is also a part-owner of Mr Mozart.
“Yes it was a funny old day the way things worked out,” Chapman conceded to RaceForm earlier this week. “We were really looking forward to Inspirational Girl stepping up to the mile after she had run so well (for fifth) in the Memsie.
“So it was a big let-down when she was scratched with a temperature spike, and I’ve since learnt that she’s on her way back to WA, so that looks like the end of the carnival for her.
“Mr Mozart sure turned things around though. He’s a colt we’ve liked from day one, he won his first start at two and finished fourth in his only other run in a Group Three. They had been telling us that the best was yet to come, and to see him win like that on Saturday was a huge thrill.
“He didn’t have it easy hitting the front a long way from home but he wasn’t going to let anything past. It says a lot for him that he was able to hold out a horse like Artorius.
“Watching the race from home was pretty exciting, then the messages started. All these people texting to say they got him at 20-to-one – that upset me a bit. Not often I don’t have a bet on one of mine but this time for some reason I didn’t. I hope it’s not an omen!”
Chapman, who established Jamieson Park just over a decade ago with respected horseman Sam Munro as manager, celebrated the farm’s first Group One breeding success last November when Inspirational Girl won the Railway Stakes in Perth. The daughter of Westbury Stud’s Reliable Man was purchased from the Karaka yearling ring by leading West Australian owner Bob Peters.
Reliable Man is one of a number of high-profile stallions across New Zealand and Australia in which Jamieson Park holds shares and breeding rights, complementing an elite broodmare band that Jamieson has invested in enthusiastically. Mr Mozart’s dam Euro Angel is one such example, although her case is somewhat different to the sole ownership of most of her fellow broodmare band members.
The Rip Van Winkle mare was bred from the Windsor Park Stud import Polish Princess, who had been purchased by Nelson Schick for 75,000 guineas at the 2004 Tattersalls October Yearling Sale. She was never out of the money in 11 starts Down Under, her four wins including one at Listed level and her placings headed by a third in the Gr. 1 Easter Handicap.
Polish Princess excelled at stud with all five progeny to race winners. Leebaz won two editions of the Gr. 2 Hollindale Stakes and was runner-up in the Gr. 1 Doomben Cup, Polish Knight won the Gr. 2 Tulloch Stakes and finished second in the Australian Derby, a placing that was replicated by his sibling Zebrowski, while Euro Angel’s three wins included the Gr. 3 Ladies Day Vase at Moonee Valley.
Chapman had singled out Euro Angel as a likely target when Windsor Park offered her at the 2014 National Yearling Sale, but he was beaten to the punch by John Hawkes’ bid of $200,000.
“I really wanted to buy her but it didn’t work out as planned,” Chapman recalls. “I went and saw John Hawkes who said he had some people already organised, but if I was still keen I could have the remaining 30 per cent.
“It’s been a very enjoyable partnership; we’ve all become good friends and we stayed together when we retired her to stud.”
Mr Mozart is the result of Euro Angel’s maiden mating to Snitzel in 2017. After producing an attractive colt she returned to the Arrowfield Stud stallion and her second foal was a filly. She missed the following year but has just delivered a colt to Coolmore’s Pierro and with Mr Mozart having proven himself, Snitzel is again a logical choice.
“We never seriously considered selling Mr Mozart as a yearling and we kept the filly too,” said Chapman. “She’s very strong through the body, early looking, and she’s just gone into work with the Hawkes. We’ve named her Angel Flight.”
Chapman and his partners are now understandably looking forward to Mr Mozart’s spring target, the Gr. 1 Caulfield Guineas on October 9. “Talking to Wayne (Hawkes), the plan is to run him in the Stutt Stakes over 1600 metres at Moonee Valley next week and then it’ll be another two weeks to the Caulfield Guineas.
“We’re all dreaming of him being good to become a stallion, that would be the ultimate,” added Chapman, who adds that such an outcome wouldn’t change Jamieson Park’s business model.
“It still wouldn’t mean he’d be standing here. I love the lifestyle we’ve got here, it’s working well for us and I wouldn’t want to change that.”