Litt hoping Romeo can land Missile strike at Randwick
Homebred six-year-old gelding Romeo’s Choice (Choistar) will enter the humble beginnings hall of fame if he can pull off a battler’s victory in Saturday’s Missile Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) at Randwick.
The Richard Litt-trained sprinter has already been a winter revelation, winning both starts this preparation – including a fighting 0.03 length win up the inside of the straight last start in Rosehill’s July Sprint (1100m).
That gave him three city wins in a row, having scored at Randwick in the final start of his last campaign on February 8, and nudged his earnings to just short of $480,000, achieved through seven wins in 36 starts.
He’ll face the sternest test of his career in the Missile, with nominations betting headed by Group winners General Salute (Russian Revolution), Private Eye (Al Maher), Encap (Capitalist) and Robusto (Churchill).
But with Sydney’s ongoing monsoon likely to cause severely rain-affected going, Romeo’s Choice – a $15 chance in Monday’s market – will be well served by his heavy track record of two wins and a third from four starts.
If he can score a stakes victory at the first time of asking, and at Group 2 level no less, it will write a memorable chapter for the book of modest bloodlines.
He would thus be both the sole stakes winner, and only city winner, for his little known sire Choistar (Choisir).
Bred by Bowness Stud, and a $67,500 Magic Millions Gold Coast buy in 2008, Choistar was trained out of Queensland to win Randwick’s Fernhill Stakes (Listed, 1600m) for two-year-olds on a Heavy 10 – his only other victory aside from a Toowoomba maiden.
He ran fifth in Randwick’s Champagne Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) and fourth in Eagle Farm’s old TJ Smith Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) – now the JJ Atkins – before his career was cut short after ten starts.
Now 19, Choistar has stood at stud for 14 seasons and has all of 88 live foals to his name, and 42 runners. He has 18 winners, five of whom have been city placed, and one of those at least deserves a mention in Microna, who ran second no fewer than 17 times, and third on five occasions.
Having stood in Queensland and the Hunter Valley through his first 10 seasons, when his service fee averaged $3,520, Choistar was purchased in 2021 – for $3,250 – by West Australian Robert Gardiner. Now 19, he’s stood at Gardiner’s farm at West Pinjarra, south of Perth, since then, with the stud book showing books of four, nine, 14 and seven mares in those years. He’ll stand for $2,750 this year.
If you look up his career top-selling yearling, the result is a filly who was passed in at $4,500 in 2020. He had three sell at the Magic Millions Perth Winter Thoroughbred Sale last year for between $1,000 and $2,500, and another one this year for the neat grand.
“I think he goes alright,” says the taciturn Gardiner, who’s been “messing about” with breeding for some 20 years.
“He’s getting on a bit, but he’s never had a decent crack. He’s only had a handful of foals and a handful to race. But, all stallions can get a good one.”
Then there’s Romeo’s Choice’s dam.
Romantic Zariz (Zariz) raced seven times for one win, in an Orange maiden. Her dam Romanticas (Marwina) raced once, for an 11th at Goulburn, though she did beat one home.
After retiring, Romantic Zariz was bought privately by another man who dabbles in breeding, Sydney concreting business owner Sam Gallo.
The road has been rocky, and, as with Choistar, sparsely populated.
For her first two covers in 2013 and 2014 she slipped to Redoute’s Show (Redoute’s Choice) and Testa Rossa (Perugino). In 2015, Gallo sent her to Nothin’ Leica Dane (Danehill), then at Jock McKay’s Cangon Stud near Dungog, and she missed.
“Jock said, ‘I’ve got this other stallion – Choistar’, and I said, ‘OK’,” Gallo told ANZ News. “As soon as I tried him, it worked.”
The result was Lexi’s Choice, who won twice, at Wyong and Newcastle, from 52 starts.
Happy enough that the mating was at least productive, Gallo sent Romantic Zariz back to Choistar for her next three covers. She missed, then a filly died of snake bite soon after birth, then Romeo’s Choice was born in 2019.
Romantic Zariz hasn’t been covered since.
“I was waiting to see how this one turned out,” said Gallo, who breeds with only one mare at a time, and races Romeo’s Choice with family and friends.
With that proof in the pudding, Gallo has sent the 17-year-old Romantic Zariz back to Choistar – only this time it involves a round trip of 8,000km.
“There wouldn’t be a lot of mares coming all this way to see him,” said Gardiner, probably in an understatement, possibly while dusting off some red carpet.
Some funding from Romeo’s Choice’s racetrack deeds has doubtless made the venture more justifiable for Gallo, but all that has gone before would be comfortably eclipsed if the gelding can claim the Missile.
“It would be a big party, that’s for sure,” Gallo said.
As for the chances, trainer Litt is acutely aware it’s a major step up in grade, conceding the green light was also given for the set weights Missile because “there wasn’t a lot else around for him in terms of benchmark races”.
But despite the steep rise in grade – the 96-rater carried 54 kilograms in his last–start handicap success – Litt said it would be foolish to underestimate Romeo’s Choice. That was evidenced all the way up the Rosehill straight last time out, when he looked no chance of winning until the last bound.
“He’s very tough. He always finds a way, as nice horses do,” Litt said of Romeo’s Choice, who debuted a month short of turning three.
“He’s kept improving. He’s a very big horse, and he’s a very mentally strong horse, a tough bugger. He’s got a big heart, and he always tries hard. I think horses keep getting better and better with age, and then they wear out eventually. I think he’s in a good spot right now.
“He’s always been given the appropriate time to mature. His owners are very good and understanding, and being a homebred, they hold him dearly. They’ve always done the right thing by him.
“The Missile is going to be a lot stronger than his last race. There are some pretty good horses in there. But he’s come through that run very well, and this falls nicely for him being three weeks later. Hopefully the track stays nice and soft for him. He really enjoys that.
“He’ll have to improve, up against these horses, but he’s definitely going to improve, fitness wise.”
Litt confessed to knowing little about Choistar, but said Romeo’s Choice was proof again that “all stallions can get a good one”.
“A lot of good stallions don’t get their chance,” he said. “We’re very, very quick to judge stallions. If they haven’t produced in the first couple of years, we don’t want to know them.”
He added Romeo’s Choice’s bloodlines were now as irrelevant as they were obscure.
“It’s like anything in life – just because your mother can play tennis, doesn’t mean you can,” he said.
“We can read a lot into pedigrees, and they’re a good starting point, but at the end of the day, horses are flesh and blood; they don’t know how much they cost, they don’t know who they’re by or who they’re out of.”