Mare’s owners roll the dice with their bargain buy

Yellow Sam got her name from a famous betting plunge in Ireland, and her ownership group is now gambling on the mare continuing her progression through the winter months in the hope of picking off some early spring riches with their bargain buy. 

Back in 1975, Irish trainer and pro punter Barney Curley pocketed a huge windfall when his galloper Yellow Sam won a hurdle race at odds of 20/1 in Bellewstown, and 50 years on that horse’s namesake – whilst unlikely to enter racing folklore – is nonetheless making a name for herself on the other side of the world. 

One of her part-owners is John Gault, the father-in-law of Warrnambool trainer Shane Jackson, who grew up in the same region in Ireland as Curley and had always wanted to name a racehorse Yellow Sam given his fascination with the tale. 

Gault had been gifted the share by Jackson, who was working as trainer Lindsey Smith’s stable foreman at the time and bought into the filly on the recommendation of majority owner Chris Wells, whose distinctive light blue and green halves silks have been carried to Group 1 glory by Scales Of Justice and Tuvalu. 

Wells gave Gault naming rights and, given the sex of the yearling, was a touch surprised when he was informed of the choice of Yellow Sam – but was happy to proceed given that Sam can be short for Samantha. 

“A lot of people think it’s a male horse but we’ve grown to like the name,” said Wells. 

“I told Shane he should buy into her because she was a really nice filly, and he passed his share onto his wife Lauren’s father. John loves his racing and the Yellow Sam Story was one of his favourites, so that’s how the slightly unusual name came about and we were happy to go with it. 

“We only paid ten grand for her at the sales but she was really well-balanced, and even though she was on the small side and her pedigree is obviously nothing to write home about, we were very happy to take a chance on her at that price.

“Lindsey has got a great eye for a horse and he’s got an amazing ability to spot any physical faults which others might miss. But he couldn’t see anything wrong with the filly, so we were very happy to buy her.”   

It hasn’t always been a straightforward journey for Wells and his fellow owners since then, with the mare spending more than six months on the sidelines recently after undergoing an operation to have a gut abscess removed. However, with her injury woes now firmly in the rearview mirror, she is currently revelling in a rich vein of form. 

After returning to action with a dashing display in the $150,000 Golden Topaz (1200m) during the Swan Hill Carnival, the daughter of Ready For Victory stepped up to 1440m at Caulfield at the end of June and dispatched her rivals again to take her career earnings past $500,000. 

“She always tries her hardest and it’s quite rare to see horses go past her when she gets her head in front, which is a great attribute,” said Wells.

“She loves a bit of give in the ground so the tracks through the winter months and into the early part of spring should suit her down to the ground. It’s great to see her back in action, because it was looking quite dicey for a while there when she came back into the mounting yard dragging her hind legs after her win at Bendigo last year. They found an abscess in her gut which was causing her a bit of pain and needed to be drained. The rehab then took a fair while, but it looks like she’s back to her best now.”

The mare will need to be at her very best – if not better – if she is to pull off an audacious early spring raid on the Group 3 Bletchingly Stakes (1200m), one of the potential targets picked out by Smith who is starting to hit some form after a relatively lean run following his move from Warrnambool to Geelong.  

Despite having trained more than 1,300 winners during his career, Smith admitted he struggled to adjust to his new environment and even expressed doubts over whether he was still capable of making a living from the training caper. 

But after some soul-searching during a long road trip across his native state of Western Australia in the company of his wife, Smith returned rejuvenated and Wells is hoping Yellow Sam can now put the stable back on the map. 

“When betting on horses I usually judge them solely on how they look in the yard, and Yellow Sam looked rock hard fit at Caulfield,” he said. 

“Lindsey is a master at getting his horses fit, and when he made the move to Geelong I think it took him a few months to get a handle on things. He takes training incredibly seriously, so when the horses aren’t performing as well as he would like, he does tend to get a bit down on himself.   

“But now that he’s on top of things and the horses are running well, I wouldn’t be surprised if he went on a bit of a run over the next few months. Hopefully Yellow Sam can continue to go through the grades and pick off a nice race or two and I believe Tuvalu isn’t far off a return to the races either, so there’s a bit to keep us going through the cold winter months.”