Statuario ready for South Australian Derby assault
Trainer Emma-Lee Brown is confident “class clown” Statuario (D’Argento) can make a serious bid for a breakthrough top-tier success for stable and sire when the bargain buy contests Saturday’s South Australian Derby (Gr 1, 2500m).
Grey like his dad, Statuario is the first stakes winner for Bowness Stud’s sole stallion D’Argento (So You Think), the Rosehill Guineas (Gr 1, 2000m) hero who’ll stand his sixth season this spring at an unchanged $16,500 (inc GST).
Statuario claimed that title with an imposing 2.25–length victory in Caulfield’s Galilee Series Final (Listed, 2400m) on April 5 – form franked by third placegetter Litzdeel’s (Dundeel) subsequent second in last Friday’s VRC St Leger (Listed, 2800m).
Bought at Melbourne’s Inglis Gold Yearling Sale for just $18,000, Statuario made it three wins from ten outings with that victory, which boosted him to clear favouritism for the $1 million SA Derby at $3.50.
Next at $5 comes his fellow gelding, Godolphin’s Lavalier (Microphone), who was a 0.45-length second in Saturday’s Chairman’s Stakes (Gr 3, 2000m), also at Morphettville. VRC Derby (Gr 1, 2500m) hero Goldrush Guru (American Pharoah) is at $13 to complete a derby double after running fifth in the Chairman’s.
Browne, who trains at Cranbourne with husband David Browne while their daughter Lucy rides their trackwork, is confident they have the horse for the job in Statuario, who’ll go in with a month between runs, having had a top-up jump-out when second at Pakenham on April 22.
“We’re very happy with him,” Browne told ANZ Bloodstock News. “He had his final piece of serious work on Saturday, going around with our mare Basilinna, and Lucy was very happy with him. He’ll have a little sprint to keep him sharp on Tuesday.
“You can’t be too confident. They don’t like to give them away, these Group 1s, and it will be a tough enough race. And it’ll be a big field and luck in running has to come into it – a lot can go wrong on raceday.
“So hopefully we’ve got him there as best we can, things will go our way and he puts his hand up.”
As relatively cheap as he was across the sales season, Browne was surprised to have to go to $18,000 to buy Statuario at Inglis Gold, where the average was $14,681. He was purchased in conjunction with Lenny Russo’s Bluegrass Bloodstock and Matt Sellick, of start-up syndicators Toward Reward Thoroughbreds, whose colours the gelding carries.
Bred by Bowness, he’s the first foal of Miss Entice (Dash For Cash), a four-time winner up to 1600 metres, whose sister Boom ’N’ Zoom made a name for herself where the Brownes now train, winning the Cranbourne Cup (Listed, 1600m) in 2011.
While the yearling in the catalogue photo perhaps looked a shade more closely coupled than out-and-out stayer, the Brownes correctly anticipated Statuario’s development and lengthening out.
“He was pretty compact as a yearling but he had a lot of presence about him,” Browne said. “He lengthened out nicely, and he’s grown in all the right places.
“We were pretty keen to buy him. We knew about D’Argento and his deeds, but we went a lot on type, plus Lenny Russo picked him out from the catalogue as well. It’s also been a great buy for Matt Sellick and Toward Reward, who were pretty new at the time.
“We thought he might have been a bit cheaper, actually, because at the Gold sale you can pick up a few bargains. Same with Melbourne Premier,” she said, citing their $14,000 Premier purchase of the exciting McGaw (I Am Immortal), the two-year-old gelding who’s unbeaten in two starts including the $1 million VOBIS Showdown (1200m).”
With McGaw having earned $601,000 and Statuario $257,000, the return on those two investments so far is substantial.
“There’s a few nice horses to be found around that price range actually, and often it’s the cheaper ones that are more successful,” Browne said.
Bowness bought Miss Entice privately off the track and were delighted with the colt she threw from D’Argento’s first crop, also seeing his staying potential despite what the catalogue photo hinted.
“He still had a fantastic stride length, and that’s what people liked, and it’s what’s got him over a distance now,” said Bowness’s James Daly. “He built up a good bit of strength and scope, and he’s clearly got a good heart and lungs on him.”
The Brownes felt they were onto something early on with their young grey.
Statuario won a Pakenham jump-out in his first preparation, then after a spell for further development ran second in a barrier trial on the Pakenham synthetic, before another jump-out win on the course’s turf.
That helped put him among the top couple of market fancies for his first three races, breaking through after a second over 1200 metres and a soft track eighth over 1100 metres to win a 1400 metres Cranbourne maiden at start three.
Stepped up to 1600 metres, in 0-64 class, he made it back-to-back home track wins, earning a trip to town. He was fourth over the same distance at Caulfield in mid-October – 1.9 lengths behind a burgeoning star named Treasurethe Moment (Alabama Express) – but it was his 0.75–length second at his first black type attempt, in the Batman Stakes (Listed, 1800m) on Melbourne Cup Day, that confirmed a plan that will reach its climax this Saturday.
“The plan was always to spell him after Flemington,” Browne said. “He went so well in the spring, especially at Flemington, that we thought the SA Derby was the race we’d like to target with him.
“He doesn’t really like the wet, so we thought we’d stay away from Sydney because we’d be more likely to get a good track in Adelaide. I’ve been watching the weather in Adelaide closely and fine weather is forecast, so hopefully it will stay that way.”
Browne has tasted elite success in the past. When co-training in New Zealand with her father Jeff McVean, the pair prepared Rollout The Carpet (Holy Roman Emperor) to lift the New Zealand 1,000 Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) at Riccarton in 2012.
But she and her husband are yet to achieve a Group 1 win together, having to settle for two such placings in their homeland and another two since relocating across the Tasman, to sit alongside one win at each of the lower three rungs of black type.
Bearing the hopes of a stable and stud farm for a breakthrough top-level win could be quite a sizeable burden for Statuario. So it’s a good thing he’s not a horse who takes things too seriously. In fact, this was a sign of his ability the Brownes detected early on – that he was able to achieve on the track while letting his mind wander towards more frivolous matters.
“He’s a very funny character who’s well loved at the stables,” Browne said. “He’s a bit of a clown, actually. He’s got plenty of toys in the stable and he’s always throwing them out the door – to get attention from someone who’ll come and throw it back.
“In his early days, he didn’t pay attention in his races either. He was finding it quite easy and he’d muck around a bit. That’s sort of his temperament. He’s a bit of a class clown really.”
One of four sons of So You Think at stud in Australia – along with Inference, Peltzer and Quick Thinker – D’Argento has 20 winners from 50 runners, with five stakes-placed progeny alongside Statuario.
Bowness, near Young, has also been encouraged by the first of five runners thus far from the stallion’s second crop – the Gerald Ryan and Sterling Alexiou-trained Sequista – who was third on debut in the Inglis Nursery (RL, 1000m) before a handy fourth of 12 in the Percy Sykes Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m).
“We’re pretty happy with how D’Argento’s doing,” Daly said. “He keeps getting winners, he’s got six stakes horses, and he’s had a few runners in Group 1s. And to have Sequista be stakes placed – to kick off a crop like that is pretty impressive, and there’s a lot more in the pipeline.
“There’s not many sons of So You Think at stud, and there’s none performing better at this stage than D’Argento.
“But of course to get a Group 1 winner would mean a lot to the stallion. They’re the pinnacle of racing, and you look for that on a stallion’s page.
“It’s been pretty exciting to see Statuario grow and improve over the past year, and we’re certainly looking forward to the Derby.
“You need a bit of luck to perform on the big stage, and it’s not going to always be your day, but hopefully things can happen on the weekend.”
Fiercely potent, boasting fertility rates of 93 per cent in 2022 and 2023, D’Argento has covered 79 and 93 mares in the past two seasons, down from 147 three years ago.
“We’ve been trying to focus on quality with him, and honing down the mares going to him a little,” Daly said.
“He’s very fertile, he’s a pleasure to work with and his stock are performing well. With the oldest only three, they’re only going to improve from here.”