GUEST BLOG: LIAM BIRCHLEY TALKS ABOUT SELECTING YEARLINGS AND TARGETING TWO-YEAR-OLD SALES RACES

By Liam Birchley | Monday, January 4, 2016

Trainer Liam Birchley is renowned for having an eye for a yearling and the ability to carry that forward and produce quality two-years-olds at their competitive best. Birchley has won the Karaka Million twice and, although he has yet to win the Magic Millions Two-Year-Old Classic, he is the only trainer to have a runner feature in the first three places in each of the last three editions of the race.

Here, as a very welcome guest blogger on HRO, Birchley gives readers some interesting insight into the way he goes about his business.

The effort I put into choosing my yearlings is probably the main thing I concentrate on ... more so than the training even ... because I think having the right product is the most important part of training.

It doesn’t matter if you are Bart Cummings, if your product is no good you can’t get a result so you have to concentrate on getting the right product. I put a lot of time and effort into that, looking at as many horses I can.

If you can find the right type you can then have the ability to target those early races and the sales company based races and race-meetings make good targets, particularly with the prize-money on offer.

Targeting those races is a big part of the strategy, but not the only part. It is a pre-determined strategy in a way, but different kinds of horse do come into play.

An owner might want a particular style of horse like a miler or a distance horse, but normally I have found over the years that if you can get a reasonably quick return the clients are a lot happier and they have got a bit of money in the bank to possibly go again the year after.

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I have been fortunate enough to consistently find a contender for the sales races like Magic Millions and Karaka.

This year particular has been extremely challenging though because of the training situation at Eagle Farm and Doomben.

As far as getting them educated, it was extremely difficult and my two-year-olds are probably below the standard I would normally have them when I’ve taken them to the races, but I think I learnt a lot about training two-year-olds when I was in America ... how to keep the up and how to work them through certain issues, if they have them, which has really stood me in good stead.

I’ve been lucky because that experience is a bit exclusive to me because there are not a lot of people in this country who have worked over there or spent a lot of time there.

Eagle Farm being out of action has also had an impact in terms of horses looking to qualify for the Magic Millions. Some horses need that long run-in of Eagle Farm but have had to run at Doomben so there chances have been compromised.

As people always say, it is a day to day proposition with two-year-olds. It’s a multi-faceted trick. Firstly you have to find the product. Then you have to produce them and you also have to be able to identify a problem when they have one and then fix it.

With some problems obviously there has to be a complete stop. With other things, as long as you know what you are dealing with, they can be worked through.
You just have to keep a very close eye on things to make sure you don’t do any further damage.

It is definitely all hard work and paying attention to detail.

Again, I’m very lucky enough to have some extremely good work riders that have been long term with me ... like Allan Russell, Mitch Speers and his partner. Aiden Holt is another one.

They can tell you the first instant something feels different and that’s when you must jump on it. When a horses action changes there has got to be a reason and the quicker you can act on that the better.

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As far as buying power goes, I don’t set much store by that. The most expensive horse doesn’t always win the race. In fact you have to go back to 2006 to find a Magic Millions two-year-old winner that cost more than $200 000.

Neither do I think going through the whole sales catalogue the moment you get it serves that much purpose.

I won’t even look at the catalogue until I’ve seen and liked a horse. Then I’ll see where it has come from.

The problem is you get the catalogue so early that a lot of people fall into the trap of falling in love with the pedigree before they’ve seen the horse, so when they see the horse they might forgive the horse’s faults and still buy it.

I’ll reject a horse that I don’t like on vision and I’ll go after a horse that takes my eye.

I’ve always found ... athletes run. Athletes perform and they can run fast.

I’m always looking for the athlete ... and, for me, as a starting point that overrides anything in the catalogue.

It also saves you a lot of time.

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I’ve had a horse finish in the first three in the Magic Millions Two-Year-Old Classic in each of the last three years.

I’m proud of the way my horses have run (Pepperano finished second in 2014 while Ruby Soho and Missy Longstocking both finished third in 2013 and 2012 respectively).

Like all trainers, I think I’ve got a hard luck story or two in there ... so it would be nice to get one over the line.

I’ve got Punishing involved this year. I’m really happy with this horse.

Obviously he’ll need a gate. That’s the biggest thing. He’ll be running his race in blinkers and, if he can draw a gate he’ll be able to go forward.

Even though he got beat seven lengths last start his last furlong was very good. The run before that was a little bit of a throwaway run.

It was on a track that was heavily biased to leaders on the fence and he had to go back from the gate.

He was first-up after a little bit of a break. The track was soft and I didn’t want him busted because the most important thing with the Magic Millions race is to get them there fit, happy and healthy.

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I’ve got a double interest in Sales races this month.
After the Magic Millions, later in January, I’ll be travelling to New Zealand for the Karaka Sales and the Karaka Million race-day.

The Karaka Million has been very good to me. I’ve won the race twice, with Hardline in 2014 and Sister Havana in 2010 and Sarge In Charge finished second in 2009.

This year O’Reilly Cyrus is my stable runner.

She won his only start at Doomben on December 4. That was, in fact, that Hardline won on his way to Karaka. I did have her in before that but she drew off the track.

She had to deal with a wide draw and the way she galloped out at the end of the race after enduring a tough trip in her first start showed me that she is a horse that will get a bit of distance that’s why I’m probably not going to run her again before the big race.

I’ll trial her probably on the Tuesday after the Magic Millions and decide then.

The only other race I can run her in is in Sydney. Hardline followed that route last year but he was a bit more of a sprinting type and I’m worried that another run might make her just a bit too dour.

Sydney also means another trip and you’ve got to weigh up how much that might take out of her and what problems you might expose her to going to two new areas.

You have really got to be on the ball to try and make everything perfect.

I’d rather have her go into the race nice and fresh. She really did not do a lot wrong in her race and I’ll make sure I give her a good schooling in the trial. Damian (Browne) can have a feel of her. He will be going over to ride her.

I’m quite comfortable. She’s done incredibly well in her time since her race so I’m quite excited about her prospects.

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