Cosmic Crusader edges Northerly thriller
Cosmic Crusader (Maurice) broke a top-level drought for West Australian breeding legend Bob Peters and became a long-awaited third Australian elite-level winner for his sire in taking Saturday’s Northerly Stakes (Gr 1, 1800m) at Ascot.
Ridden by Clint Johnson-Porter, the Michael Grantham-trained five-year-old jumped well from gate nine of 16 and settled midfield one off the fence as a frenetic pace was set by bolter Osipenko (Pierro) and former Peters runner Western Empire (Iffraaj), the field stretched out more than 20 lengths after 800 metres.
Johnston-Porter eased Cosmic Crusader to a three-wide line with cover passing the 800 metres before bringing him out as the widest runner on the turn, six horses off the fence.
Cosmic Crusader exploded to the lead at the 200 metres, only for Railway Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) winner Watch Me Rock (Awesome Rock) to burst from the pack with a fearsome challenge to his outside.
The pair settled in to fight a torrid battle down the home straight, and just as it looked like the latter was about to take the ascendancy, Cosmic Crusader dug in and scored by 0.15 lengths, providing Peters’ private trainer Michael Grantham with his first top-tier success.
Illustrating the top pair’s dominance, Western Empire hung on gamely for third – 4.73 lengths further back.
Previously unbeaten three-year-old King Of Light (Earthlight) didn’t feature as $2.40 favourite under Willie Pike, finishing 14th, while Ciaron Maher’s Vivy Air (Hellbent) – heavily backed into $5.50 second-favouritism, managed only eighth after settling at the rear.
Cosmic Crusader had support as a $6 third-favourite in the $1.5 million feature, with Watch Me Rock at $14 and Western Empire $8.
In 2021, Peters swept the board of WA’s three elite events, claiming the Railway with Western Empire, the Winterbottom Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) with Graceful Girl (Nicconi), and the Northerly with Regal Power (Pierro).
But those were Peters’ last Group 1 wins, and were the last time his famed cerise with white crossed sashes had placed in Perth’s top-level trio – until the victory from his homebred gelding on Saturday.
The win also made up for Cosmic Crusader missing a start as an emergency in last month’s Railway. However, the fact he beat Watch Me Rock at level weights in Saturday’s weight-for-age feature, having been allocated a kilogram less in the handicap Railway, raised questions about what he might have done that day had he not been an unused emergency.
“It’s really good to see,” Peters said of the win. “Makes you wonder what might have happened in the previous race [the Railway], but still that’s passed and it’s very good to win this race.”
Cosmic Crusader has now won eight of 16 starts and more than $1.2m in prize–money. He’s won four of six this preparation, after requiring a year off due to injury – which Peters feels may have helped turn him into a special horse.
“He had an injury and I gave him 12 months off to get over it, and I think that was the making of him,” Peters told Racing.com. “He was a bit fine before but he developed well and he’s a big strong horse now.”
The two starts this campaign that Cosmic Crusader didn’t win were unlucky thirds in the Asian Beau Stakes (Gr 3, 1400m) four starts back and in his subsequent run in the RJ Peters Stakes (Gr 3, 1500m).
Those beaten runs meant he was only an emergency for the Railway. On that day, he instead went into the Carbine Club Stakes (Listed, 1400m), and won by 2.59 lengths at $1.75.
Johnston-Porter was scathing in his self-criticism for both those third placings, suggesting in his post-race comments after the Asian Beau that “the jockey should give up”. He was thus naturally thankful not only that Peters and Grantham stood by him, but elated to have rewarded them with a Northerly title.
“I thought I was the one getting in his way. I always thought he was a good horse. I was so gutted when he won the Carbine Club. I thought he should’ve won the Railway that day. So for me to get it right today is pretty special,” the jockey said after his second career Group 1 win, the first having been last year’s Railway on Port Lockroy (Better Than Ready).
“It’s always special winning your first Group 1, but with the opportunities I get from Bob and Michael who support me so much, to get the job done is quite special.”
Johnston-Porter, who was also emotional in revealing his grandfather had died on Friday night, paid high praise to Cosmic Crusader for his determination, saying he had heard Watch Me Rock coming to his outside.
“That’s why I carried on so much after the line – he just gritted his teeth,” the 27-year-old said. “I don’t know if it was someone watching over me or what it was, but I just sort of fell down on my legs and he just found something I didn’t know he had.”
Grantham was almost lost for words after his first elite success.
“I never lost belief in him, not one bit,” he said, referring to the horse’s two recent third placings. “Myself and my trackwork riders are very onto little things about him. He pulled up every time from a race and was licking the bin out. I knew there was nothing wrong with him, it was just the luck we had in running.
“When he won last start I thought the drop back in distance [from 1600 metres] to 1400 wasn’t going to be ideal for him. Jumping up to the 1800 today I was still stuck in the middle. But no, I never lost [faith] in him.”
Grantham happily recalled what led to him becoming Peters’ private trainer, after the giant breeder’s split with Grant and Alana Williams – now Watch Me Rock’s trainers – in early 2022.
It came thanks to Grantham’s good friend Liam Peters – Bob’s grandson – though Grantham admitted to copious nerves in the lead-up, given an almost reverential respect for WA’s biggest breeder.
“We were talking on and off. Liam said ‘Stop being a wuss and give the old boy a call. He’s looking [for a trainer]’,” Grantham said.
“I remember sitting in the middle of a paddock in the long grass, kneeling down and making that phonecall to Mr Peters. It was the most scariest phone call I’ve ever had to make. It wasn’t even scary when I hung up because I was the only one stressing about it.”
Cosmic Crusader not only broke a drought for Peters but for Arrowfield shuttler Maurice (Screen Hero). The 14-year-old hit the highs when Hitotsu won three Group 1s in 2021-22 and Mazu added another later in that season, but had not sired another Australian elite-level victor until Cosmic Crusader’s Saturday triumph.
The 14-year-old, currently in his eighth Australian season, has 11 stakes winners here from 223 runners at 4.9 per cent. Worldwide, he has 34 from 898 at 3.7 per cent, including six Group 1 victors.
Cosmic Crusader is the first of five foals to race for Cosmic Storm (Street Sense), who won four Perth stakes events for Peters, capped by the 2016 La Trice Classic (Gr 3, 1800m).
A firm believer in sticking to a mating, Peters has sent Cosmic Storm to Maurice seven times. Her only other cover, just after Cosmic Crusader was born, came from Windsor Park Stud shuttler Charm Spirit (Invincible Spirit), which explains why among Cosmic Storm’s progeny, only Cosmic Crusader comes with an NZ suffix.
Cosmic Crusader missed to Maurice last year, while a filly foal by him died soon after birth in 2024. She’s now in-foal to him again.