THE reigning Horse of the Year Via Sistina has no peer in Australian racing.
Since her purchase by Yulong as a Group 1 Pretty Polly Stakes winner, the Fastnet Rock mare has tore through rivals like Thanos on his quest to collect all six Infinity Gems.
Completing back-to-back victories in the Cox Plate and Champions Stakes, Via Sistina’s Australian record now stands at 16 starts for 10 wins at Group 1 level and in excess of $19.13 million in earnings.
This quote from Kerrin McEvoy after her third Australian start, a win in the 2024 Winx Stakes, was prescient.
“She’s just a winner basically, I’ve only sat on her once, which was last Saturday, and she was on her own, but she’s just a competitor.”
THE decision, finalised in June, for the Australian Turf Club to lease its A$700,000 Everest slot to the Hong Kong Jockey Club is far and away the marketing move of the year.
“For this year, the club will use the slot to enable Ka Ying Rising to take part in The Everest,” said HKJC executive racing director, Andrew Harding at the time.
“In future years, we will use the slot to either facilitate a Hong Kong horse running or to target Australian or New Zealand sprinters to come onto the Hong Kong International races after The Everest.”
The flow-on effect for the $20 million sprint at Royal Randwick in having the world’s highest rated sprinter, was record attendance, record turnover (A$16.44m or HK$83,024,693) aided by the alignment with the World Pool and an unprecedented level of international interest.
An estimated 60% of the 50,000 people on course were under 26-year-olds whilst Business Sydney estimated that The Everest generated at least $30 million in economic activity in the Harbour City.
LAST year’s next big thing is this year’s breakout horse. The Joe Pride-trained Ceolwulf announced himself 13 months ago when he overpowered an Epsom field to claim his first Group 1 win.
What followed was 10 starts for two wins before the five-year-old won a second consecutive King Charles III Stakes at Randwick prompting Pride to remark; “Twelve months ago, I thought ‘here he is, the best horse I’ll ever train,’ and we spent another 12 months waiting to see that again.”
An enigma perhaps, but Pride’s belief was franked at his following start when Ceolwulf outlasted Pericles to win the Champions Mile at Flemington.
“That was fantastic, really special. I love winning races here,” said Pride, who has a Cox Plate on his wish list. A four-time Group 1 winner at a mile, the gelding may find the Plate a different beast.
Young guns
Few dominate the Coolmore Stud Stakes for three-year-olds in the way Tentyris did during the Melbourne Cup Carnival.
From near last in a compressed field, he split them open and won by nearly three lengths. “He’s very good. Today was dominant and when produced he showed an electric turn of foot,” said co-trainer Sam Freedman.
There’s little doubt Tentyris will return to Flemington in the autumn for the Lightning Stakes and, or Newmarket Handicap, with those results setting up a trip to Royal Ascot. “We’ve got some unfinished business there after taking Artorius a few years ago,” said Freedman.
An Autumn Glow
Unbeaten in eight starts and by a horse who was beaten just once in nine starts, Autumn Glow, a filly by The Autumn Sun, has the world at her hoofs.
Trained by Chris Waller, the four-year-old won her first Group 1 in the Epsom before finishing her campaign with a win in the A$5 million Golden Eagle, her fifth in a row as an odds-on favourite. “She is a star,” said Waller. “It is as simple as that. That heart and determination and presence that she has is really quite special.”
It’s a sentiment echoed by part-owner John Messara. “We really feel she is something special, she is an outlier.” Her trajectory is projected only as far as the Sydney autumn but as Messara highlighted: “Royal Ascot would be nice but that would take a lot of planning.”
THE Group 1 Turnbull Stakes was the highlight of the spring carnival. A traditional guide for spring success, it threw up all the major spring winners whilst ultimately leaving fans unsatiated.
Third was Via Sistina who would complete a Group 1 double, whilst fourth, with a massive run from third last on the bend was the Cups double winner Half Yours. Further back were the Cups placegetters Middle Earth and River Of Stars. Overshadowing all though was the winner, Sir Delius. Electric in the closing stages of the Turnbull Stakes he coasted to a two-length win. Brought into second favourite for the Cox Plate and outright favourite for the Melbourne Cup the dream was over in a flash. The Frankel horse was ruled out two weeks later after failing Racing Victoria’s vetting protocols for the Melbourne Cup.
A winner of two Group 1s and a Group 3 from four Australian starts, it was a bitter blow for trainers Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott. “He’s an extremely valuable horse and one we firmly believe will continue to prove he’s the best weight-for-age performer in Australia,” said a defiant Waterhouse.
Special mention
As Irish National Stud graduate and one-time foreman for John Oxx, Brendan Gow observed from Sydney: “J.P. hasn’t come out here for the sunshine.”
Goodie Two Shoes, trained by Joseph O’Brien, and sporting J.P. McManus’s famed green and gold hoops, more keenly associated with Cheltenham, was less than three lengths from landing one of the great Melbourne Cup heists. Sent out at 40/1, the Fastnet Rock mare found one better in Half Yours, but still collected A$1.11 million for her effort.
Jamie simply the best
Jamie Melham is simply one of the best jockeys anywhere. A natural, Melham produced a pair of exceptional rides to become the first female jockey to complete the Caulfield/Melbourne Cup double.
“Instead of having a pram, I put her on a Shetland pony,” said Ms Karen Kah, Jamie’s mother, adding; “That was it, she just adored them, she had a natural feel with them.” Growing up in the western scene, Melham moved onto Mounted Games before starting in stables at 13. She rode her first winner in 2012 at Streaky Bay. 1,343 wins and 19 Group 1s later, Melham has no ceiling for major race success, declaring; “I’ll just try and win as many as I can.” She’s also happy to embrace her success; “Being a role model and encouraging the younger generation, that’s my favourite thing about this game.”
ALMOST as ubiquitous as Godolphin blue or Coolmore navy, Yulong’s jade green has arrived like a juggernaut in Australia. Since attending Fiorente’s Melbourne Cup in 2013 as a spectator, Mr Yueshang Zhang has since bought six properties in Victoria with a combined acreage of 3,500, building out a breeding and racing behemoth.
“The vision for what he (Mr Zhang) wants to achieve is incredible. Hopefully we will get bigger and better. It’s a good start and he’s put down a good foundation with his building blocks. We’re starting to see it bear fruit,” said Yulong’s chief operating officer, Sam Fairgray.
Their stallion band now numbers 11, their yearlings have been heading to major sales since 2019 and they race horses in Ireland, Europe, the US, Japan and Australia.
Across a seven-year period from 2015, it is estimated that Yulong’s bloodstock spend was in excess of A$220 million of which around 90% of that was spent on Australasian markets, where over time, they have amassed over 60 individual Group 1 winners or producers.
At the 2023 Magic Million National Broodmare sale Yulong bought 60 horses for $33.46 million. Conversely as a yearling vendor, this year they sold 92 yearlings for $22.9 million, at the Magic Millions Gold Coast and Adelaide sales, and the Inglis Classic, Easter and Premier sales.
“The Yulong stamp has been quite extraordinary, not only in Australia, but the world over,” said former general manager Vin Cox. “Certainly the elite part of the broodmare band is very, very strong.”
Record
Most visible to the public is their racing success headed by Horse of the Year Via Sistina and four-time Group 1 winner Treasurethe Moment. Yulong has chalked up 55 stakes-race wins in Australia with last season’s tally of 13 Group 1 wins by a single owner, a record in Australia. The rising tide of the jade green colours of Yulong looks unlikely to abate any time soon. “It’s exciting for the market to have someone who’s prepared to invest to the extent that he has,” said Inglis chief executive Sebastian Hutch.