Another midas touch from Robson Aguiar as €3,500 pinhook lands Group race glory

Some people spend huge sums of money without ever coming up with a Group-race winner, but breeze-up maestro Robson Aguiar unquestionably has a keener eye than most, having secured Sweet Solera Stakes scorer Star Of Emaraaty and Phoenix Stakes runner-up The Lir Jet for just €3,500 and £8,000 respectively.

Star Of Emaraaty became the second Group winner to have graduated from Aguiar's Mullingar base this year, with The Lir Jet having followed in the footsteps of his sire, Prince Of Lir, when winning the Norfolk Stakes at Royal Ascot.

Despite the daughter of first-season sire Pride Of Dubai having been sent off at unflattering odds of 66-1 at Newmarket on Saturday, Aguiar says he retained a great deal of confidence in the Kevin Ryan-trained filly.

"I always expected her to go very close, I thought the only horse who could beat her was Roger Varian's filly [Setarhe] but she didn't show her true form," he says. "I think Star Of Emaraaty did well and every time she's run she's improved. She was green first time out but she's gone the right way since."

The Brazilian-born pinhooker bought the Group 3 winner from the Rathbarry Stud draft at the Goffs Sportsman's Sale, and when asked what he saw in Star Of Emaraaty at the yearling stage that others must have missed, he says: "She was well made, compact and she showed class in her walk, but people maybe didn't put the effort in to see yearlings by all the first-season sires."

Star Of Emaraaty: Sweet Solera Stakes winner was pinhooked for just €3,500Credit: Grossick Racing

The Lir Jet and Star Of Emaraaty are just the latest stakes performers Aguiar has picked up for chicken feed sums, having also produced last year's Listed winner and Middle Park Stakes third Summer Sands, who he bought for just £2,000.

He was also responsible for the black-type performers Dubai Dominion and Queen Jo Jo, neither of whom cost the earth. It is a growing roll of honour that gives little indication that Aguiar has consigned under his own name for just two breeze-up seasons.

Despite securing the majority of his pinhooks from the bargain end of the market, Aguiar says he is very particular about the yearlings he purchases, and explains that there is no common denominator among them, save for the fact they are the result of him putting in the hard yards at the sales.

"I go to the sales and I work hard," he says when asked about consistently securing such sizeable talents for minor money. "The ones I like, I buy if they come within my budget. I buy them cheaper but I don't just buy any cheap horse, I select what I want and buy the ones I like."

Of course, finding the right raw materials is only half the battle for breeze-up consignors, and Aguiar, who rode the likes of Excelebration and Camelot during a spell working at Ballydoyle, says his system is more akin to what a horse will go through at a racing yard, rather than being primed for a two-furlong blitz at the sales.

"I break them in properly and give them time and train them for racing, not for the breeze-ups," he says. "The horses I sell usually win or run very well first time out, and that's because I've trained them like a racehorse, not just for cheap speed."

Both Star Of Emaraaty, in whom Aguiar still retains a share, and The Lir Jet were sold privately earlier in the year when the breeze-up season had been thrown into disarray after the coronavirus pandemic had brought businesses across the world to a standstill.

With 30 horses on his books when the Covid-19 pandemic began to take hold, Aguiar was left facing something of a dilemma.

"In March I had a very difficult decision because I had good horses but there was no racing, no sales and no plans," he says. "I still had horses to feed and no money coming in, only money going out."

Robson Aguiar casts his expert eye over a potential purchaseCredit: Tattersalls Ascot

It was then that he took the call to sell a number of his string privately, with Michael Bell, Kevin Ryan and David Simcock the benefactors. However, even once plans for the breeze-up sales were belatedly put in place, Aguiar says the post-Ascot positioning of the auctions was far from ideal for a number of his prospects.

"Every year I buy horses who I think can run at Royal Ascot," he says. "If Royal Ascot comes before the sales, then there's no point in me holding on to the horses because I prepare them for Ascot."

But, in the fullness of time, what once looked a potentially perilous situation, with Aguiar having upped his numbers to 30 breezers in 2020, has become a source of well-deserved pride. Not only has this year's crop of juveniles produced the Group-winning The Lir Jet and Star Of Emaraaty, but other winners too in the shape of Alicestar and Queen Of Rio.

"I'm very happy because I want to sell horses who are successful for the buyer, because then next year they will come and buy again," says Aguiar. "In three years I've sold five black-type horses and a lot of winners too. There are already five more winners this year. I always told people that I had good horses in a tough year, but in the end they've sold well and I'm very happy with how they've done on the track."

Moreover, Aguiar believes there is more to come from this year's crop of two-year-olds, as he expects the likes of Alicestar and Twilight Heir to develop into Pattern performers in the not too distant future.

"Alicestar won first time out and I think from the way she raced she was only half fit," he says. "If they do right with her I think she'll be a Group filly too. Twilight Heir is a really nice horse as well. He was sold to Sheikh Fahad after he was second at Fairyhouse. He's run once for Michael Bell and he'll definitely be at least a Listed horse later on."

Given his eye for future talent and his deft touch at preparing horses to shine at two, it seems a safe bet that The Lir Jet and Star Of Emaraaty won't be the last celebrities to roll off the Aguiar production line.

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