Guineas redemption for Feroce and Sutton
Saturday’s Australian Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) showcased some of the best of New Zealand breeding and provided a tale of swift redemption, with Dominic Sutton’s Feroce (Super Seth) giving the trainer his first Group 1 win in the Flemington feature.
After falling agonisingly short in the Caulfield Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) in the spring, the son of Waikato Stud’s second-season sire Super Seth (Dundeel) resolved not to make his connections wait much longer for Guineas success, going one better in the hands of Billy Egan after a home stretch duel with Kiwi superstar Savaglee (Savabeel).
Another Waikato-bred by champion sire Savabeel (Zabeel), Pam Gerard’s New Zealand 2,000 Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) hero had long been targeted at the race and went down fighting by 0.8 lengths under Michael Dee in what was his first start on Australian shores.
The 1600-metre feature lost pre-race favourite Angel Capital (Harry Angel) on race morning after the colt showed up a dirty scope, but boasted a Classic-winning trifecta, with November’s Victoria Derby (Gr 1, 2500m) scorer Goldrush Guru (American Pharoah) rounding out the placings another length behind the runner-up under Jamie Melham.
Feroce’s career has been running somewhat in parallel with Sutton’s own rise through the ranks.
The gelding’s debut win at Pakenham last March was also a first for his trainer, whose team has grown from four horses to 50 in the last year, with operations at Ballarat and now Flemington.
That debut win at Pakenham was followed by the pair’s first metropolitan victory at Caulfield at Feroce’s second racecourse appearance, sixth months before he came within 0.2 lengths of Private Life (Written Tycoon) and a breakthrough Group 1 back at the track last October.
A spell came after Feroce’s placing in the Carbine Club Stakes (Gr 3, 1600m) in November, and the three-year-old resumed with another third-place finish in the C.S. Hayes Stakes (Gr 3, 1400m) two weeks ago.
His career, and that of his trainer, reached a crescendo on Saturday, and Sutton was duly elated that it was Feroce who gave him his first elite-level win.
“I can’t even think of a word to say right now,” the winning trainer said post-race.
“I’ve got so many people to thank, especially my fiancée, Raquel. I couldn’t do it without her. Her dad’s flown over from the UK. Simon [Chappell], our biggest owner, our biggest supporter, is over as well. He flew in this morning.
“And look, we can’t do it without the horse, and he’s just an absolute warrior.
“We thought we had him right for the day. Everyone sort of wrote him off a bit off his first-up run, but Billy came in and said he’s flying and just hated that soft ground. I can’t quite believe this, to be honest.”
Despite the merit of his runner-up finish in the Caulfield Guineas, Sutton admitted to the sour taste it left in his mouth as he pondered when his next Group 1 opportunity would come.
“It took a long time to get over the Caulfield Guineas, I’m not going to lie,” he said.
“A lot of people were congratulating us, but I still felt pretty bitter about it all, thinking that we could have won on that day. And we all know how hard it is to win these races and to have a horse good enough and present him in the right order on the day.
“So you sometimes think, ‘Am I going to be waiting for a long time now until the next one comes along?’ But this horse has just been super. He’s just improved, improved, improved.
“I was just hoping he’d really knuckle down and go past that leader [Savaglee]. He’s had a tendency of just getting his head up a little bit, but once Billy changed the stick through, and gave him a couple more reminders, he really let down and flew.”
After tasting South Australian Derby (Gr 1, 2500m) success aboard Dunkel (Dundeel) in 2023, the result marked a second Group 1 win for Egan, who has partnered Feroce in each of his nine starts.
“It’s taken a while for the penny to drop,” the winning rider said. “Dom’s done a lot right by him and it’s showing.
“The race really worked out really nicely. We had the plan to press forward and be just behind those leaders so we weren’t too far away. He can really hold a good gallop, and it just worked out a treat for him today.
“I’m just really happy for Dom. For a young bloke, having so many horses in his first year of training and also having Group 1 runners, there’s a lot of pressure that comes with that, and he handles himself really well.”
It was also a Group 1 first as a sire for Super Seth, who currently leads the way in the second-season standings across the Tasman with eight winners and three at stakes level.
The 2019 Caulfield Guineas winner was champion first-season sire in New Zealand last season, with his total tally amounting to 25 winners thus far, with Feroce the best of his six individual stakes winners.
His daughter La Dorada won both the Karaka Millions 2YO (RL, 1200m) and Matamata Breeders’ Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) this term, while Sethito, Linebacker, Poetic Champion and Super Photon have also won at black-type level.
Bred by Pencarrow Stud, Feroce (3 g Super Seth – Corinthia by O’Reilly) is the sixth foal out of the unraced O’Reilly (Last Tycoon) mare Corinthia, herself a half-sister to the Group 1-winning De Beers (Quest For Fame), and who has also produced the Listed-winning and Group 2-placed Siracusa (Sebring).
He was purchased out of Kilgravin Lodge’s New Zealand Bloodstock Ready to Run Sale draft in 2023 for NZ$160,000 by his trainer and McKeever Bloodstock.
“He was probably the third–ever horse we’ve bought out of the sales, and I’ve got to thank Johnny McKeever,” Sutton said.
“He’s [McKeever] been instrumental in helping us select these horses. He’s also selected horses like Garachico, Detroit City, our proper flagbearers. So I’ve got a lot to thank him for as well.”
McKeever was at Flemington on Saturday to see Feroce improve his record to three wins, three placings and over $1.3 million in prize-money.
“To be honest, it was the usual story,” he said of scouting the gelding. “I came to New Zealand to see some Ready to Run Horses before heading back to Europe for the Goffs Foal Sale.
“I put together a list, and Dom bid on several horses. By some miracle, one of the ones on the list was Feroce and he got him. That’s racing for you, and that’s picking out horses at sales for you.
“This is just incredibly special. Dom’s father is one of my best childhood friends. Dom is just starting his training career, and in the first year of his career, he’s trained a Group 1 winner with a New Zealand-bred.
“This is very special for me for a number of reasons. It’s also very special for Waikato Stud, with their young stallion Super Seth coming through with a lovely Group 1 winner like that.
“It just gives me so much pleasure on so many levels. It’s just fantastic.”