Fresh from another successful shopping trip on the Gold Coast last week, Astute Bloodstock’s Louis Le Metayer is hoping his 2025 Magic Millions graduate Angels Fury (Harry Angel) can deliver a devilish display in this Saturday’s Blue Diamond Preview (F) (Gr 3, 1000m).

Le Metayer departed the Boondall complex with a trio of yearlings, headlined by his purchase of a $320,000 Farnan (Not A Single Doubt) filly from the Kenmore Lodge draft, with all three set to join Ciaron Maher’s mammoth operation once they have undergone their initial education at the breaker’s yard.  

While his immediate attention now turns to inspecting yearlings at Karaka ahead of the centenary edition of the New Zealand Bloodstock National Sale, which gets underway on Sunday, there is no doubt that Angels Fury’s eagerly anticipated debut at Caulfield is already occupying his thoughts. 

The juvenile’s eye-catching jumpout jaunt at Southside Cranbourne two weeks ago was hard to ignore, with her trial pilot Ethan Brown set to retain the ride for her competitive bow in the fillies’ Preview, for which she holds early favouritism.  

Indeed, the Maher stable have been so taken by her progress that they teamed up with David Redvers Bloodstock last week to buy her half-brother, a bay colt by Queensland’s leading sire Spirit Of Boom (Sequalo), for $200,000 from the Bell River Thoroughbreds draft.

Despite being impressed with the colt’s innate athleticism, Le Metayer’s prudent strategy of sourcing fillies with residual value as broodmares for his clients - partly as is he unable to compete financially with the bigger farms on their voracious hunt for future stallions - precluded him from placing a bid on Lot 69. 

However, he is certainly hopeful that his half-sister can provide a significant pedigree update by registering a first stakes win for their dam, Ashra Jahre (Headwater), whose breeding career is firmly on track to exceed her moderate racetrack record.         

“We’re getting pretty excited about this filly,” the French native told ANZ News. “She won her last trial by about seven lengths so it was hard not to be impressed by her. 

“We generally tend to hold our two-year-olds back and not run them until March or April at the earliest, but with this filly she’s so electric that we couldn’t find any reasons not to press on and kick her off in the Blue Diamond Preview on Saturday. We’ve been counting down the days for a little while now, so it’s good that the big day is almost here. 

“She ran good times in her trial and Ethan [Brown] was very keen to stick with her for Saturday, so that’s always a good sign. Raceday pressure is another thing but she’s been a very tractable filly from the very start, she’s been very easy to train and has done everything the team have asked of her. She’s very push button so hopefully she can put it all together on raceday. 

“If she runs up to expectations on Saturday the plan would be to take her straight to the Blue Diamond after that.” 

Perhaps surprisingly given the extraordinary success he has achieved, Maher is yet to saddle up a Blue Diamond placegetter but, with last week’s Magic Millions 2YO Classic (RL, 1200m) hero Unit Five (Supido) heading towards the $2 million feature and Angels Fury currently tucked in behind her stablemate on the sixth line of betting, there is a good chance that anomaly will be rectified in precisely one month’s time.

Despite his palpable excitement Le Metayer is certainly not getting carried away just yet, but purely on potential the $270,000 he invested 12 months ago on Lot 172 would already appear to be money well spent.        

“I really like the stallion [Harry Angel], he was just an elite sprinter,” Le Metayer told ANZ News. 

“I also love the farm she came from [Bell River], plus she was extremely correct and a nice size for a filly. She has very strong hind legs and wide hocks, and she has a lovely nature as well. I just loved everything about her and hopefully my instincts are proved right.”

Angels Fury was one of three yearlings sourced by Le Metayer on the Gold Coast last year, with her Maher Racing stablemate Savorthemoment (St Mark’s Basilica) winning a recent jumpout and the unraced Frankel (Galileo) filly he purchased for $550,000 also showing some promise in her embryonic career.

Their encouraging early progress had emboldened Le Metayer to double his tally of acquisitions to six this year, but those grand designs were foiled by a fiercely competitive buying bench and he was ultimately content to come away with Lots 664 (St Mark’s Basilica x Pearl of Manama), 671 (Justify x Pearl Of Manama) and 736 (Farnan x Roam Free).      

“We were hoping to buy six on the Gold Coast this year, but because the market was so strong we only came away with three in the end,” said Le Metayer.  

“We generally tend to be selective anyway, we came home with three last year and although we would have liked a few more this year, they were very hard to get. We tend to focus on the fillies, because then you’re not competing for colts with the likes of Coolmore and Yulong who have unlimited funds, plus the well-bred fillies always have some residual value. 

“You also don’t have to factor in testosterone levels like you do with a colt, so I find it easier to identify a nice filly and we’ve had some success with that strategy in recent years. I thought the Farnan filly we bought was one of the most precocious physical specimens of the whole sale.

“She’s from a strong Redoute’s Choice family and I’m a big believer in first impressions, which is why we bought her because she made a very strong first impression on me. Her sire is going very well and she has everything I look for in a racehorse.”

Once he has returned from New Zealand, Le Metayer will pause briefly to draw breath before beginning to cast his eagle eye over the stock on offer at the Inglis Melbourne Premier Yearling Sale, an auction that has proved a happy hunting ground in the past. 

In 2023, he formed an alliance with Maher at Oaklands Junction to acquire Lot 123, a striking chestnut filly by Trapeze Artist (Snitzel) consigned by Widden Stud. Just over a year later, She’s An Artist won by a lazy five lengths at Bendigo and seemingly had the world at her hooves when she promptly backed up her dazzling debut with a 3.75-length demolition at Flemington. 

Despite being downed at her next start as the $1.30 favourite in the Creswick Stakes (Listed, 1200m) by Bridal Waltz (Snitzel), the fact that the winner subsequently went on to claim the Bletchingly Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m) and finish in the minor placings at Group 2 level in both the Gilgai (1200m) and McEwen Stakes (1200m) suggests that she may have bumped into a smart one that day. 

Following a post-spring spell, She’s An Artist recently returned to semi-competitive action with a solid hitout at the Cranbourne jumpouts and with one eye on a potential tilt at The Galaxy (Gr 1, 1100m) in the late autumn months, the mare will ramp up her preparations in the coming weeks.                    

“She had a nice gallop on Tuesday morning, so she’s progressing really well and everybody is very happy with her,” said Le Metayer, who also nominated She’s An Artist’s juvenile stablemate Long Throw (Brave Smash) as one to watch for the future. 

“We’re likely to see her come back in the next couple of weeks, I’m not sure which race just yet but Ciaron and the team are working through the options now. She’s not overly big but she’s extremely athletic and she showed how quick she can be with those first two wins, which were amazing. 

“It all depends on how she comes back but at this stage we’re dreaming big, so a race like The Galaxy could be a suitable option with her. We’ll maybe look to raise the bar with her, but we’ll just reassess after her first-up run and map out a prep from there. At this stage the main goal is to get a stakes win on her page, because that’s the name of the game with all these race mares.”

Courtesy of Paul Symes, ANZ Bloodstock News 21/1/26