PT Thoroughbreds, Kilmore

The following article is reproduced from the TBV Archive November 2019. Follow the link for all the latest TBV News.

It’s a difficult task to produce winners at any time but boutique Kilmore breeders  PT Thoroughbreds were celebrating two victories in just eight days when Titan I Am broke his maiden status at Traralgon and then seven days later, Is Don Is Good won at Moe.

Both horses are products from  PT Thoroughbreds, run by Justine Phelan and Karl Tribel.

Titan I Am is by Kuroshio, out of Aultone, and is in the Ballarat stable of Ciaron Maher and his training partner David Eustace.

Is Don Is Good is trained at Pakenham by Charlotte Littlefield.

Justine and Karl offered Titan I Am at the Inglis Premier Yearling sales and he was quickly snapped up for $65,000 by Foote Bloodstock but the pair of sellers bought a 10 per cent share in the colt.

They own the dam Aultone (Canny Lad) which has now made it two to race for two winners.

Is Don Is Good also makes it two to race for two winners for Statue of Liberty mare, Someday Somehow.

Tribel wasn’t taking the credit for the breeding of Titan I Am. "Titan is evidence of the breeding genius of Andy Makiv (Darley Australia general manager) who recommended the cross of a Canny Lad mare to an Exceed and Excel stallion."

“We were just so thrilled when Titan broke through for his maiden.

“Is Don Is Good won three of his first five starts but then the real Don went missing.”

He was originally at Caulfield but he isn’t a horse that likes being boxed so he went to Peter Gelagotis (at Moe) where he could run in a paddock and he won three of his first five starts but then when he returned from a speall - went missing in action.”

He was transferred to Littlefield who has had the son of Don Eduardo for his last five runs, and was headed for the paddock after a disappointing run at Corowa, However Littlefield talked us into running him at Moe 6 days later, where he struck the heavy track he was chasing.

Tribel said there were concerns the horse wasn't putting in becasue he was nursing an injury, but a gun ride from Jason Maskiell allowed the five year-old to lump the top weight of 60.5kg to victory over the 1628m trip on a Heavy 10.

Tribel and Phelan bought Someday Somehow when she was in foal with Is Don Is Good and another two of the mare’s progeny are now in Littlefield’s care.

Titan I Am’s dam Aultone won two city races in Sydney and was owned by well-known Melbourne businessman Joe Cucuzza who was the original sponsor of The Valley’s 55 second challenge through Essendon Mazda.

‘’He owned the mare and owns Titan’s brother Star Search, but he pulled the pin on the mare after she lost a foal (she has either missed or slipped eight times),” Tribel said.

“Joe bought into Titan I Am when purchased by Foote Bloodstock.”

Tribel said his partner Justine Phelan noticed Aultone listed in a small Inglis clearance sale but as they continued to look through the catalogue they didn’t believe they could afford any of the mares as they all had city form, if not black type.

He’d been out fencing and came back inside the house and checked the sale online and was more than surprised to see there hadn’t been a bid on the mare.

“A city winning Canny Lad mare! it was unbelievable that there had been no bid,’’ he said.

“Justine rang up the Stud and found out what the story was and got her very cheaply - it cost us more to transport her down to Melbourne than it did to buy her.”

“Subsequent to that we saw Star Search beat Cliff’s Edge in a maiden, so you can imagine how thrilling that was and now her second foal has won as well.’’

Titan I Am ridden by Harry Coffey breaking his maiden at Traralgon 2nd Nov 2019 “We had already signed contracts with Darley for the season and because she was Darley bred, Andy Makiv said take her to Kuroshio which we did and Titan was the product.