Greece Featured in Thoroughbred Daily News Aus NZ
The calculated risk taken by Nxt Level Syndication to invest with some of the biggest names in the industry in $1.2 million filly Greece (I Am Invincible), the sister of multiple Group 1 winner Loving Gaby, could be set to pay dividends as soon as her debut in Saturday's G2 Reisling S.
Article Originally Published by Thoroughbred Daily News Aus NZ
Written by Bren O’Brien
Cover image courtesy of Ashlea Brennan
Ciaron Maher and David Eustace, who trained Greece's high-profile sister, were the first to react when she initially passed in through the 2021 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale, negotiating the seven-figure pricetag with Kia Ora Stud, who offered her.
But alongside them on the docket was a fledgling syndication company from Queensland, soon to be joined in the ownership by powerhouse operations Coolmore, who officially bred her, and Kia Ora. That pair had joined together to pay $2.25 million for her dam, Maastricht (NZ) (Mastercraftsman {Ire}), in foal with Greece in 2019.
The connection between Nxt Level and the I Am Invincible filly's family comes through its bloodstock manager David Lucas, who had picked out Loving Gaby as a yearling for Phoenix Thoroughbreds at the 2018 Inglis Easter Yearling Sale, paying $500,000 for the big filly from Kia Ora.
After that powerfully built filly won both the G1 Manikato S. and the G1 William Reid S., the family was set for stardom, and it was clear her siblings would not be easy to buy from then on in.
That did not deter Chris Andersen, director of Nxt Level Syndication, who found a way to buy into Maastricht's next I Am Invincible filly, even at her seven-figure pricetag.
"I remember looking at her at the Sale and she was one of the most well-conformed horses I have come across in a long time. She just had that presence about her, she is similar to Loving Gaby, she is probably a bit bigger and she seems to have a bit of strength about her," Andersen told TDN AusNZ.
"David Lucas was involved in purchasing Loving Gaby originally. He was there when we inspected Greece. He mentioned then that she was even bigger and stronger than what her sister was as a yearling. She has developed into a beautiful filly."
Andersen recalls the frantic moments of the aftermath of Greece passing-in as Maher rushed to get a deal done with Kia Ora.
"I caught up with Ciaron and said let’s work in together and do a deal. Pretty much by that stage, as soon as we got the deal done with Kia Ora, Coolmore was there wanting to be involved and then it followed straight after that to keep Kia Ora involved as well," he said.
"It was a quick-moving purchase. We had done the deal with Kia Ora and within a couple of minutes it was done."
What the deal did do was propel Nxt Level into some significant company, just 18 months after Andersen had set-up the business.
"We are very lucky and grateful to be involved with the guys at Coolmore and Kia Ora and obviously Ciaron and David as well. We have a good relationship with Ciaron and Dave that has been going on for a while. Hopefully we can continue to grow that," Andersen said.
Into the deep end
Off the back of two very good trials, Greece is a firm second-favourite for the G2 Reisling S. and has been backed from $101 into $11 equal third-favourite for the G1 Golden Slipper S. next month, despite not yet debuting.
She certainly has a boom on her, but Andersen and the Nxt Level team are keen to keep the lid on things for now.
"It’s very exciting. Obviously, we are hoping that she can be a little bit similar to her full sister and I think we would all be happy to see that," he said.
"A hard Group 2 like that with the weather Sydney has experienced should make for an interesting day. If she is as good as we can hope for, she's going to have to come up against those quality of horses sooner or later."
As a measure of comparison, Loving Gaby debuted for the same stable in the G3 Chairman's S. in early February of her 2-year-old season. Seven weeks later, she ran fourth in the G1 Golden Slipper S. at her third start. She would then go on to run second in both the G1 Inglis Sires' and the G1 Champagne.
A similar path awaits Greece should she win on Saturday.
"Obviously, the plan would be to look at the Slipper if she was to win. We will see how it goes. It would be nice to get a Group 1 win just three years into the business, but we will take every day as it comes," Anderson said.
"We have our 25 per cent of her and we are quite happy with the ownership group we have been working with."
Forging an identity
Among a crowded landscape for syndicators in Australia, Nxt Level Syndication has aimed to standout from the pack in two ways. Firstly, through its commitment to best practice communications with owners, and secondly, through the use of technology to keep owners, quite literally, on the pulse.
"I've been in horses my entire life with my father. I started to get a bit sick and tired of owning horses and never knowing where they were and not receiving too many updates," Andersen said.
"I thought there was a good way into the market to make sure we are really servicing our clients and involving them every step of the way.
"We now send out at least two updates a week, even if the horse is still spelling, just to make sure they are involved as much as possible."
The second aspect which Nxt Level is focused on is the use of technology to bring owners even closer to the horse.
"We work in with a company called E-Trakka which is a heart rate monitoring system, so we are working on an app at the moment which will allow our owners every day to watch it live, or review replay information on what the horse has done from a heart rate point of view," he said.
"We also look at stride length, sectionals, recovery and so on. We want to involve our clients every step of the way."
The commitment to making the ownership experience as connected as possible has seen the business grow over the first three years.
"We've got a really great ownership base which is continuing to grow quickly. We have got a lot of owners that have numerous horses previously through various trainers and syndicators and they will only buy through us now," he said.
"We have also got a great team around us. David Lucas does all our bloodstock. He's got a very good eye and our staff like Claire (Attwater), Jay (Mathieson) and Leah (McBurney) and they are very much about horse welfare and the clients and about what we need to do to be achieving a lot of success long-term."