Jamieson hoping beautifully-bred filly can break Par

On Saturday afternoon, around lunchtime, Rick Jamieson will either be at Flemington Racecourse or the Metropolitan Golf Club in Oakleigh South. He’s not sure yet. His filly, Gimmie Par, is making her debut in the Listed Talindert S., and it’s an important one.

But, the man loves his golf. “I’m pretty average at it,” he admits, despite having a par-3 course on his Nagambie property, Gilgai Farm. Golf is one of Jamieson’s two great passions, the other being pedigrees. Which brings him back to Saturday afternoon at Flemington.

Unraced 2-year-old filly Gimmie Par is the second foal from Jamieson’s blueblood mare Naturale (Bel Esprit), a full sister to Black Caviar. It’s a deep-running family on Gilgai Farm, one that has also produced All Too Hard and Ole Kirk (Written Tycoon). Gimmie Par is a half-sister to Ole Kirk, and Saturday’s debut is the same trajectory on which her now-famous sibling set off.

“Ole Kirk won the Talindert S. on debut last year,” Jamieson says, “so will lightning strike twice? I don’t know.”

Nostalgia factor strong this weekend

Gimmie Par is trained by Peter Moody, while close relative All Too Hard won the Talindert S. on debut in 2012, the same day his half-sister Black Caviar won the G1 Lightning S. for the second time. But none of this is black and white for Jamieson’s little filly.

“She’s done everything right for Peter,” he says. “He wouldn’t be putting her in the race if he didn’t feel she was up to it. Until I see her run, I really don’t know how she’ll do, but so far so good.”

“She’s (Gimme Par) done everything right for Peter (Moody). He wouldn’t be putting her in the race if he didn’t feel she was up to it.” – Rick Jamieson

The filly held a nomination for Friday night’s meeting at Moonee Valley, but Moody opted for the stiffer Talindert S. when she drew wide. Gimmie Par will instead face a field of 12 at Flemington, one that includes the fancied Godolphin colt Ingratiating (Frosted {USA}), a son of two-time Group-winning mare Obsequious (Lonhro). Ingratiating was a winner of the Listed Maribyrnong Trial S. in October and has since placed second in the G3 Maribyrnong Plate and G3 Caulfield Guineas behind Enthaar (Written Tycoon).

The field also includes Gulf Of Suez (Fighting Sun), who filled the placings behind General Beau (Brazen Beau) last time out in the Listed Blue Diamond Preview (colts and geldings’) on Australia Day. It’s a field littered with credentials.

While Gimmie Par has pedigree on her side, she is a slip of a filly, standing little more than 15.1 hands high. “She’s a bit like Ole Kirk was,” Jamieson says. “With a bit of age, that family improves. I’d expect that, whatever she does in the next 12 months, she’ll strengthen right up and be a better horse for it. But also typical of that family, I think she’ll jump and run.”

What was he thinking?

Gimmie Par was consigned to the 2020 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale, but a few physical issues, a bit of persuasion and a change of heart led to her withdrawal and return to Gilgai Farm. “I put her in Magic Millions because I was a bit burned with the game,” Jamieson admits. “And then people like Peter Ford and a few others said to me that I needed to hang onto this family, so I kept her.”

Jamieson and bloodstock agent Peter Ford go back a long way, all the way, in fact, to 2005 when Ford famously purchased Black Caviar’s dam Helsinge (Desert Sun {GB}) for Jamieson. Ford remembers the day in 2019 when he headed out to Gilgai to look at Gimmie Par, among others.

“I’ll often leave my catalogue at home for yearling inspections,” he says, “and I did that day. I came back afterwards and looked at my notes, and I asked Rick, what was that first filly? And when he told me I said, if you sell that filly, I’ll never talk to you again.”

Above: Gimme Par the day before she departed for Peter Moody’s stables

Ford says the family is priceless and, with Helsinge’s passing in 2017, it became even more priceless. Gilgai has Brigite, a full sister to All Too Hard (and Helsinge’s final foal), along with Naturale. But Naturale has been a tricky mare to breed. With only two foals on the ground, she has missed in her last two seasons to four different stallions.

“She’s a tricky mare physically,” Jamieson admits. “She was a very sick horse when she was young, so we’ve got a watch on her all the time. But she’s in-foal to Written Tycoon right now with a full to Ole Kirk, and I’m really hoping it’s a filly.”