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NEXT GENERATION BACK HICKMAN & PIERRO
By the five-time Group 1 winner Pierro an impressive racehorse despite racing for two seasons only. By Lonhro, Pierro won the ATC Listed Breeders’ Plate (1000 m.) on debut during the spring of 2011. Returning to the track the following autumn the colt finished off his juvenile preparation as the best in training winning the coveted Group 1 treble of the Golden Slipper (1200 m.), Sires Produce (1400 m.) and Champagne Stakes (1600 m.).
Each time Pierro won - the colts victories were more impressive than the last as the bays’ fitness kept improving after winning the Group 2 Sliver Slipper Stakes (1100 m.) in March 2012.
Trained by Gai Waterhouse, who held a high opinion of the colt after the first time she watched him gallop, she set him for a classic spring program aiming firmly at the Caulfield Guineas (1600 m.). Pierro returned in the same he left his 2YO’s season, winning his seventh consecutive race-start the Group 3 Run to the Roses (1200 m.).
Waterhouse sent the colt to Victoria for the Group 2 Moonee Valley Stakes (1600 m.) where Pierro toyed with his rivals recording an eighth success by a widening margin of 4-3/4 lengths. Unfortunately, it was a masterful ride that caused Pierro’s first defeat when All Too Hard, under Dwayne Dunn, had the last crack at Pierro in the Caulfield Guineas after a torrid run. Two weeks later Pierro ran a gallant third behind Ocean Park and All Too Hard in the Group 1 W. S. Cox Plate (2040 m.) at Moonee Valley.
A short summer break Pierro won the Group 2 Hobartville Stakes (1400m) before beating the older brigade in the Group 1 Canterbury Classic (1300 m.) and the George Ryder Stakes (1500 m.). Pierro's final start was in the Group 1 Doncaster Handicap (1600 m.), on a heavy track, under 57kilos the colt finished a brave runner-up to Sacred Falls.
This filly is out of Mullins Beach that retired as a winner of seven races including two at black-type level in Canada at Woodbine the Damsel and La Voyageuse Stakes in 2009.
NOT ENOUGH? Mullins Beach earned connections $548,709 (Australian dollars) in Canada and America before being imported into Australia in 2014. Covered by Pierro in the spring of 2014, Mullins Beach is by Speightstown (by Gone West) and is out of Treasure Beach a winner of two races at 1600m in America.
Speightstown won 10 races including the Grade 1 2004 Breeders’ Cup Sprint (1200 m.) as a sire the chestnut has been very successful siring 84 stakes winners (14-Group 1’s). More importantly as broodmare sire the son of Gone West’s daughters have produced five stakes winners that include the Group 1 winner, Paso Real (ex Pocket Patience) winner of the Premio Gran Nacional Augusto B. Leguia (2600 m.) in Peru and the Grade 2 Saratoga Jim Dandy Stakes winner, Laoban (ex Chattertown).
This filly is the second live foal out of Mullins Beach with the first an un-named colt by Big Brown. Last spring Mullins Beach foaled down another filly, this time by the VRC Group 1 Makybe Diva Stakes winner Dissident (by Sebring).
Greg Hickman describes himself as genuine lover of horses who is passionate about winning, fanatical about work and a trainer who invites his owners to enjoy every level of involvement in stable life.
Born and bred in country New South Wales, Hickman has wanted to train horses from the time he was a teenager riding at pony clubs and shows.
Hickman has lived the dream, setting up a successful stable that produces a steady stream of winners that has included two at Group One level along with a string of other stakes and city victories.
Along with his wife Erika, Hickman began his training career with a few stalls at the Boggabri Showgrounds from where he turned out eight winners.
In the early 1990s Hickman moved to town, taking a job with Vic Thompson Jnr who duly handed over to the training of the Ingham horses to John Hawkes.
"I cannot begin to tell you how much I learned in nine years at Crown Lodge, at first from Vic Thompson, Peter Snowden and later from John Hawkes," he recalls.
In 1996 Hickman was granted a new licence, beginning with the mare Perfect Flight who won him 10 races.
Since then there have been the Group One winners Royal Purler, an $8000 purchase who won the Flight Stakes, and Murjalisa Lass who claimed the Vinery Stud Stakes.
Other high quality horses like Sportsman, Sir Dex and Private Secretary have followed, all of them bargain buys that suggest a keen eye to match Hickman’s skills as a trainer.
Hickman has 26 boxes at Warwick Farm and offers an open invitation to his owners to join in whenever they wish.