I WAS intrigued recently to come across the story of Manawanui. It is a name that will not be recognised too readily in Europe, but he was once the darling of the racing scene in Australia. Foaled in 2008, the son of Oratorio is now enjoying life as a police horse, having previously been a Group 1 winner and he earned more than Aus$1.4 million.

His was the true rags to riches story, the horse that put his trainer on the map and for whom a bid of a million Australian dollars was turned down. However, in March of last year he suffered a bleed at the Rosehill trials and, as this was the second time to happen, he incurred a mandatory ban from racing. Hence his new career.

One of the best of his generation as a three-year-old, he started his career at two with a pair of victories from three starts. His first five starts in his second season saw him win four – the Group 1 Golden Rose, the Group 2 Stan Fox Stakes and Moonee Valley Vase, and the Group 3 Up & Coming Sales – and he was beaten a short neck by Helmet in the Group 1 Caulfield Guineas.

injuries

He started favourite for the Victoria Derby but could only finish sixth and then his career was beset by injuries. In fact he managed just 11 more starts over three and a half seasons and finally justified the faith his connections had in him by winning the Group 3 Bill Ritchie Handicap at Randwick as a six-year-old in 2014, having been off the track for almost a full year. This was to be his penultimate run.

When he won his Group 1 in September 2011 he was crediting his then 64-year-old trainer Ron Leemon with his first success at the highest level. It was also the first runner he had in a Group 1 race for 13 years.

Leemon’s wife Gaye part-owned the gelding with Jim Sundell, then a 78-year-old who had been owning horses for half a century but never having one as good as this.

Sundell spoke about the Aus$1 million offer for the horse and famously said that “a good horse like Manawanui is as hard to find as rocking-horse manure.

“I was in Europe when Ron rang but I said to him as long as my rear end points to the ground, I’m not selling.”

breakthrough

The breakthrough win for Leemon justified four decades of toil as a trainer, coupled for much of that period with a ‘day’ job as a maths and science teacher.

His interest in racing came after meeting his wife, daughter of the classic winning trainer Ken Chilby.

The trainer was with his father-in-law when they paid Aus$45,000 for Manawanui as a yearling at the Inglis Classic Yearling Sale.

Oratorio was a top-class performer at two and three and a three-time Group 1 winner for Aidan O’Brien.

As a juvenile he won the Group 1 Grand Criterium at Longchamp, and was runner-up to Shamardal in the Dewhurst Stakes.

The following year he beat Motivator twice to land the Irish Champion Stakes and the Eclipse Stakes and found only Dubawi too good in the 2000 Guineas at Newmarket.

Winner of more than £1 million, he retired to Coolmore and shuttled to Australia, before finally moving to his current base at Avontuur Stud in the Stellenbosch wine region of South Africa.

Manawanui is one of at least seven Group 1 winners by the son of Danehill, the others including Dewhurst Stakes winner Beethoven and the leading Hong Kong runner Military Attack. Two top Irish-trained fillies, Viztoria and Lolly For Dolly, are daughters of his.

On the dam side Manawanui is easily the best runner in three generations of the family, though his dam won seven races, his grandam won 12 times over five and six furlongs and his third dam won five times, three of them as a two-year-old.

All of these racemares became multiple winner producers.