At Sandown today, there is a 3YO who could give his incredibly underwhelming sire, a bite at the big time.
Maybe only for that 15 mins of fame, but a bite none-the-less.
And if he wins today, it’ll place his sire, way above lofty names like multimillionaires: Dissident, Wandjina, Puissance de Lune and Hallowed Crown – all Gr 1 stars.
The 3YO’s name is Terbium and he is unbeaten in 2 starts to date.
His sire is Terango. Yes, I hear you, who indeed?
Well the tale of Terango, who stands in South Australia for a next-to-nothing fee, gives all hobby breeders a reason to hope. A reason to smile, and a reason to continue believing they too might strike it rich one day.
Not that Terango is rich or made his peeps rich as yet, but he has a chance to sire a city winner and those millionaires above, who have had babies sell for massive returns up to high 6 figures on occasions – all have yet to achieve a city win as a sire.
Terango (Akhadan-Sarajaavo Gold) with his lacklustre pedigree and even more unfashionable record at stud, has in his six seasons as a stallion, produced just one winner – Terbium.
So bad a start did he have as a stallion prospect that in his first book of foals, none of them won a race, in fact none ever beat a runner home!
Like most no-name stallion hopes, he didn’t get great mares to be fair, and so the surprise of the world happened when with his 2nd crop of runners came Terbium.
Phillip Stokes trains this big bad boy and he can sit off speed and just explode, like you’d expect a son of I Am invincible, or Snitzel etc, to do.
He completely defies the pattern his sire has achieved in terms of producing gallopers thus far.
Maybe he gets his talents from his mum, Serene Lass, who is by Not A Single Doubt – but maybe not. She never even came near running a place in her 5 start career.
She has however produced another foal by Monaco Consul called Gracena who has won 4 races, but the emphasis for success here is still with Terango, who did win races – 7 in fact with another 12 placings.
But while the multimillions won by – and then subsequently paid for – the likes of Hallowed Crown, Dissident, Wandjina and Puissance de Lune are expected to reward those who are involved in them, one final noteworthy thought re Terbium at Sandown today.
He was home bred.
Of recorded purchases, his mother cost only $2000 when Shelly Hancox bought her, and his dad Terango, well he cost $6000 only as a yearling.
Nothing about the pedigree of Terbium would ever suggest he would be good. But he is.
He has already won $33,050 in stakes and adds another $27,500 to the tally if he takes out race 3, the BM 64 Le Pines Hcp for 3YOs over 1300m where he is the heavily backed $1.70 favourite with Sportsbet.