Good Week to be a Victorian!

There were 26 stakes run at Flemington during the Melbourne Cup Carnival last week and they were all won by different horses with no horse successful more than once which is somewhat unusual, although we shall always wonder could have been for Tentyris.

The powerhouse Godolphin homebred colt won the Group I VRC Coolmore Stud Stakes on Derby Day in dominant fashion and accepted for the Group I VRC Champion’s Sprint last Saturday.

He was scratched at the barrier after becoming fractious and rearing in the stalls with connections left to ponder whether the handsome chestnut could have handled the heavy track and matched strides with a heavy weights like Giga Kick, Magic Time and Joliestar … the answer to both of those questions is likely to be revealed in the autumn.

What we do know about the Melbourne Cup Carnival is that Australian bred horses won the lion’s share of the 26 stakes races and six of the eight G1 races.

The Victorian breeding industry has been on an upward spiral in the past couple of years and the proof in the pudding was there for all to see at Flemington.

Of the 20 stakes-winners bred in Australia, 12 were produced by Victorian breeders according to Australian Studbook and they include the Group I winners Half Yours, Strictly Business and Giga Kick, who does have an Arrowfield brand on his shoulder, but was bred by Jonathan Munz’s GSA Bloodstock, Vic.

Rosemont Stud can lay claim to breeding and selling two Group winners in Tornado Valley and Dance to the Boom, not to mention their homebred mare Geurite, a progressive 4YO by Shamus Award that won the $500,000 VRC Cup Carnival Country Final.

Global breeding giant Godolphin have farms in both Victoria and NSW in addition to the Northern Hemisphere and they were the most successful breeder in Cup week having bred G1 winners Observer and Tentyris as well as stakes-winner Burma Star and also the import Sunset Park (GB).

She won the Group II VRC Matriarch Stakes for the Brad Widdup stable and was purchased from Godolphin at the 2023 Tattersalls December Mare Sale where she was secured for 60,000 guineas by Peter and Ross Doyle Bloodstock on behalf of Adrian Whittingham’s Cross Park Stud.

The Victorian flavour to the carnival extended beyond the achievements of individual breeders to the stallions involved with Victoria again coming up trumps.

The two stallions that had multiple stakes-winners over the carnival were Street Boss (USA), (Tentyris and Calamari Ring) and Ghaiyyath (IRE) (Observer and Different Gravy) with both of them shuttling to Darley Victoria.

The following Aussie bred stakes-winners in Cup Week were all sired by stallions past and present that stood in Victoria and there was also Irish bred Warnie (IRE), a son of Highland Reel, who did shuttle to Swettenham Stud for several seasons.