by Brian de Lore
Published 11 October 2019
The strike-rate in Group One races in Australia by New Zealand-breds has been sporadic for a couple of decades, but Saturday at Randwick erased all memory of a run of Epsom Handicap outs with a momentous result for multiple parties.
Celebrating with good cause were Waikato Stud who stand Kolding’s sire, Ocean Park, Trelawney Stud for breeding and racing the Cox Plate winner sire, Wentwood Grange who co-bred, foaled, reared, prepared and sold Kolding at the Premier Sale in 2017, Guy Mulcaster who purchased him for $170, 000, and New Zealand’s pride and joy trainer Chris Waller who made it four Epsom wins, albeit his first with an NZ-bred.
Kolding’s success broke a 27-year drought for a Kiwi-bred horse in the Epsom, the previous being Kinjite in 1992 when the Garry Chittick bred four-year-old son of Centaine and Wenona Girl’s daughter Pilmuir, by Super Gray, took the race by almost two lengths from two more Kiwi-breds in Prince of Praise (Crossways) and Palatin (Palatable).
Prior to Kinjite, New Zealand horses had enjoyed regular success in the Epsom with such names as Dalmacia, Bold Diplomat, Leonotis, Citadel, Lord Nelson and the celebrated Syd Brown-trained Triton who prevailed in 1972 in a historic win over the legendary Goondiwindi Grey, Gunsynd, trained by T.J. Smith.
Garry Chittick was new to the breeding business in the mid-seventies and was yet to establish Thornton Park Stud at Longburn when he attended the Sydney Easter Broodmare Sale. He purchased the Champion and subsequent Australian Hall of Fame inductee Wenona Girl as a 17-year-old mare in foal to Planet Kingdom (Star Kingdom).
Unfortunately for him, the mare had a mishap when unloaded from the plane upon her arrival in New Zealand, and slipped the foal. Three years later in 1978 she produced Pilmuir and ten years after that Kinjite was foaled in Thornton Park’s final season before the Chitticks upped stakes and moved the operation to Waikato Stud.
The Wenona Girl purchase gained justification with Kinjite’s success, but without the accident and with a little luck a Planet Kingdom filly would have greatly sweetened the venture. Wenona Girl won everything – the Winx of her day – with 27 victories from four and a half furlongs to a mile and a half. Fifteen of those wins are today rated as Group One races.
With Garry Chittick cheering home Kolding to his game Epsom win to give Ocean Park his first Group One victory, he was unaware his previous cause to cheer an Epsom winner had been so long ago with one he bred himself.
Others celebrating were Australian jockey Glen Boss who claimed his fourth Epsom and 83rd Group One winner, and my personal friend in 83-year-old Sydneyite Warren Pegg, who co-bred Kolding and who has had a long and fruitful association with Wentwood Grange at Cambridge.
If not celebrating, the whole of the New Zealand racing and breeding industry would have at least been cheering home a rare Epsom Handicap NZ-bred trifecta. The result is massive boost for New Zealand Bloodstock and especially for the coming Ready To Run Sale in November, and it clearly sends a strong message to Australian owners and yearling buyers that New Zealand-breds are still very much a force on Australian racecourses.
The 2019 Ready To Run Sale is strong with 414 lots catalogued including 12 by Ocean Park, 18 by each of Per Incanto and Champion Sire Savabeel, 15 by Showcasing, 13 by the resurgent Tavistock, eight by Rip Van Winkle and seven each from Smart Missile, Pins, Shocking and Charm Spirit. The strength is both paternally and maternally, and the NZ Epsom trifecta is sure to have reignited Australian interest.
The Epsom result was perfectly timed after The Bostonian’s Brisbane winter Group One successes and only a week before his contesting this Saturday’s Group Two Alfa Romeo Schillaci Stakes over 1100 metres at Caulfield. A win in that event would likely see him contest The Everest on Saturday week.
Also enhancing NZ-breds with only a slim chance of The Everest inclusion was Saturday’s Hawkes-trained Premiere Stakes (1200m) winner Brutal, by O’Reilly, who won his fifth race from just eight starts which is inclusive of the Gr.1 Doncaster Handicap (1600m) in the autumn, and who has the turn of foot to have been a considered option for the $14 million race.
Brutal has been set for the $7.5 million The Golden Eagle (1500m) at Rosehill on November 2, and this week was to contest the Gr.3 Sydney Stakes (1200m) at Randwick. Slots for The Everest are now in short supply and Brutal may miss a start for that reason, although Michael Hawkes said an offer would be carefully considered if forthcoming.
As unusual as it would seem for a Doncaster winner to be competing against Australia’s best sprinters in the world’s richest sprint race on turf – stranger things have happened. Brutal ran his last 600m in the Premiere in 34.02 and last 400 in 22.65 and the Hawkes camp is under no illusion he has all the attributes to be competitive.
Interestingly, Epsom winner Kolding is also aimed at The Golden Eagle, so NZ-breds could be strongly represented in that rich event. Kiwi representation could materialise as the strongest seen in many years for the remainder of the spring with five-year-old Surprise Baby, by Shocking, now the favourite for the $8 million Melbourne Cup on the first Tuesday in November after the Adelaide Cup winner took out the Bart Cummings (2500m) and firmed into $9 for the Flemington two-miler.
Add Thousand Guineas Prelude winner Acting, by Savabeel – bred and owned by Waikato Stud, coming into contention for this week’s grand final at Caulfield as fourth favourite, and the representation is strong. Madison County should also run well in the Toorak this week.
Epsom runner-up Te Akau Shark who ran his final 1000m of the race in 58.61, now heads towards the Cox Plate on October 26 in which he has firmed with bookmakers to the fourth favourite at $10. Jockey James McDonald was incredulous the four-year-old son of Rip Van Winkle could run so well and not win, adding further merit to Kolding’s performance in staving off ‘the Shark’s’challenge over the final 300 metres.
Top Kiwi two-year-old of last season Yourdeal, by Dundeel, should be an improver when contesting the $2.2 million Caulfield Guineas, also on Saturday, but the Tavistock Busuttin/Young trained The Holy One is a winner at three of his five starts and is favourably drawn in barrier four, and rated a better chance according to the bookmakers.
Kolding ended his sire’s frustrating near misses in important Australian races, and with third placegetter Star of the Seas consolidating the result, the spotlight is firmly focused on Ocean Park. His progeny and other highly ranked NZ-breds in both Sydney and Melbourne should see Kiwi-breds achieve their best Australian spring in many years.
