After the Betfred Derby, I catalogued the astonishing price drop of what was no doubt expected to be one of the jewels of the Coolmore breeding operation, writes Tony Stafford. Australia, winner of the 2014 Epsom and Irish Derby, started the 2025 breeding season with a tag of €10,000 with only a couple of his flat-race oriented shed-mates offered at a lower figure.
When you consider he was the son of Galileo and another Classic winner, and a good one at that in Oaks heroine Ouija Board, his slump in popularity was way outside the norm for a Coolmore stallion.
His price was just 3.3%, for example, of that required for the services of Wootton Bassett in the same results-based academy. His lack of attention is generally put down to less than ideal precocity of his progeny, but Derby winner Lambourn would have pricked up a few industry ears. If he follows up in next Sunday’s Irish Derby, for which he is currently a 4/6 shot, the rehabilitation would have scurried along a little further.
I related how I’d heard that Aidan and Anne Marie O’Brien had been his staunchest followers, contrary to the perceived industry wisdom at the time, and Royal Ascot’s final two days would have given the champion trainer and his wife further cause for satisfaction.
On Saturday at Ascot, I bumped into someone who reckoned we’d met in the same spot there probably three years ago. His Royal Enclosure name tag, Shane B Stafford, inevitably caught my eye, and when this big Australian guy told me he owned a chunk of Friday’s Coronation Stakes winner Cercene, a nice story began to unfold.
My “cousin”, or more probably “nephew”, has extensive racing interests back home in Aus but has Cercene trained by Joseph Murphy in Ireland where he has a couple of properties.
There wasn’t the slightest fluke in her win on Friday, Gary Carroll sending the 33/1 shot off in front. When she appeared to have been bested by the promoted French 1.000 Guineas winner Zarzana and Mickael Barzalona, who came with apparently a perfectly-timed challenge, she simply battled back in the closing stages up the inside rail to win by a neck.
It didn’t take long for Shane in true Aussie style to downplay the achievement (unlike so many in the racing game). “Lake Victoria wasn’t here, so we might have been lucky.”
Lucky or not, she picked up the first prize of £411,572, adding to one previous win and four places in a seven-race career to date. Her 33/1 price seemed over-generous, considering she was only a 20/1 shot the previous time out when third to said Lake Victoria in the Irish 1,000 Guineas.
Just as we were finishing off our conversation, marvelling that Australia, regarded solely as a stamina influence by many, could have had a Group 1 success – and a big one at that – at a mile, there was another notification that his star is firmly in the ascendency.
Saturday’s top sprint, the 6f Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes was won by Jerome Reynier’s Lazzat. The 4yo by Territories was winning for the eighth time from only 11 career starts. His dam, Lastochka, you guessed it, is by Australia! She won over a mile on debut for Roger Varian but had just two more runs before retiring. Those speed genes, so hidden for so long, are coming to the fore. Not unnaturally as Australia won two of his three two-year-old starts at seven furlongs and a mile.
M Reynier caused something of a stir before his win. After his Facteur Cheval (a 25/1 shot) had finished sixth in Wednesday’s Prince Of Wales’s Stakes behind impressive Gosden-trained Ombudsman, the youthful monsieur, offered some Gallic fire to the proceedings.
He suggested that Flavien Prat, his fellow countryman, although one that has plied his trade in the United Stakes for many years, had made a right Flavien of himself, giving the horse one of the worst rides any horse of his has had since he started training. Nice to get a bit of fire and enthusiasm into the deal.
There was fire and heat aplenty all week with temperatures approaching 30 degrees Celsius at times. Sensational performances by the Ballydoyle juvenile colts Gstaad (not entirely anticipated in the Coventry) and Charles Darwin, massively so in the Norfolk. The money was shovelled rather than lumped on and the style of the win was mind-boggling.
Now it’s left for us to wait for the absent from Ascot Albert Einstein to show his face (and pace) when he recovers from the setback that ruled him out of the piece, causing a re-shuffle which made no difference. In between two very easy wins, I reckon we saw a Ryan Moore masterclass on True Love in the Queen Mary Stakes.
Stuck on the flank while the action was all out in the middle, Ryan needed to humour the filly, rousting her along though not resorting to the whip until she got level and then went away to win well. The end of the week juveniles from the team were not quite up to that standard but, as I mentioned earlier, it’s Irish Derby weekend upcoming and we’re sure to see some more smart juvenile talent on show as the master handler sorts his team for that fixture.
Top trainer honours for the meeting deservedly went to the Gosdens, with Field Of Gold seamlessly adding to his Irish 2,000 Guineas success with a romp in the St James’s Palace Stakes. Such is his finishing power, ten furlongs should not be a problem, and you would imagine he’d be hard to beat in the Juddmonte at York in August, probably after a crack at Goodwood’s Sussex Stakes. He’s a proper horse and new retained rider Colin Keane is pretty good too.
There has to be a congratulation though for Field Of Gold's former but now displaced partner Kieran Shoemark, who responded to the uncomfortable sight of his one-time ride picking up another big prize after the Curragh. Ed Walker expressed his delight that he can now use Kieran more often and they did each other a mutual turn with a double on the week, 22/1 shot Never Let Go in Friday’s Sandringham Handicap being followed by Noble Champion, 25/1, in the Jersey Stakes on Saturday.
Back to the Gosdens. The absence of Kyprios after his retirement left the way clear for a new staying star and yet the Gold Cup provided such a triumph for the hardly-new Trawlerman. The seven-year-old is in his sixth season’s racing but has been sparingly and shrewdly campaigned by his trainers, here winning for the ninth time in just 20 starts.
Illinois had been asked to step up to fill his departed mate’s shoes but after getting within reach at the bend, he had no answer to the leader as, under William Buick, he came up the straight in remorseless fashion to win by seven lengths with another seven back to the third, Dubai Future, a nine-year-old gelding. That veteran is trained by Saeed bin Suroor and also for Godolphin.
I could go on forever, but on a week where the honours - riding, training and owning - were spread around nicely, it ended with a general gamble that everyone knew was about to happen.
Willie Mullins booked Ryan Moore for last year’s 115k purchase Sober in the Queen Alexandra Stakes that concluded the meeting. A six-year-old, the gelded son of Camelot has already seen a hurdle, scoring comfortably on debut as befits a previous Group 2 winner in France.
Allowed to take his time, Sober appeared to have three authentic challengers coming to the last furlong, but Ryan opened him up and he went clear to give Mullins a fifth win in the race and the seventh of the week for his jockey. A great week. Don’t know how I stayed sober, but I did.
- TS
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