A plethora of stallions home and abroad represented in the South Australian Derby
From China to Brazil and India, and other parts in between, Saturday’s South Australian Derby (Gr 1, 2500m) will be must-watch viewing as progeny of something of a rogues gallery of stallions compete in the time-honoured Classic.
Of stallions still in Australia, a son of Bowness Stud’s D’Argento (So You Think) heads the market in Statuario, David and Emma-Lee Browne’s grey gelding who on Friday was a $3.20 favourite after winning Caulfield’s Galilee Series Final (Listed, 2400m) last start.
Yulong’s Pierata (Pierro) has another strong chance after the Mick Price and Michael Kent jnr-trained colt Global Eclipse scrambled into the starting field from second emergency, as a $10 shot.
Victory for the last-start Cranbourne 2025-metre maiden winner in the 2500-metre stay-a-thon would indeed be a feather in the cap of Pierata – whose service fee has dropped this year from $66,000 to $55,000 – given sprinting sire never raced beyond 1400 metres.
Away from those two, the owners of various stallions in various countries will take a keen interest.
Two geldings share second favouritism at around $7.50 in the Trent Busuttin and Natalie Young-trained American Wolf (Tivaci), and Godolphin’s Lavalier (Microphone).
Tivaci (High Chaparral) is now in China, having been sold to breeding interests there last year after his book size diminished towards the end of seven seasons at Waikato Stud.
And Microphone (Exceed And Excel) has taken up residence in Brazil, sold there by Darley after the ATC Sires’ Produce Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m) winner stood five seasons in Australia.
Tony and Calvin McEvoy will attempt back-to-back SA Derby successes with fillies. Cavity Bay (Cable Bay) – bearing the colours of South Australia’s folk hero Makybe Diva (Desert King) – will back up from her fourth in last Saturday’s Australasian Oaks (Gr 1, 2000m), just as Coco Sun (The Autumn Sun) did for the McEvoys, after running third in that fillies’ Classic, to win the Derby last year.
Cavity Bay’s progress will be keenly watched in the Punjab, at the Dr Kehar Singh Stud, where Cable Bay now stands, having last shuttled from Britain to Victoria’s Woodside Park in 2020.
The list goes on, with Goldrush Guru (American Pharoah) at $11 to become the first VRC Derby (Gr 1, 2500m)-SA Derby double winner since Rebel Raider (Reset) in 2009. That would be celebrated at Coolmore Kentucky, with American Pharoah (Pioneerof The Nile) having last shuttled to Coolmore NSW in 2021.
Among their three starters, Busuttin and Young also saddle $19 shot Confetti Garden (Saxon Warrior), whose sire hasn’t been back to Coolmore Australia from its Irish base since 2022.
Coolmore Australia’s Pride Of Dubai is represented by Dubai Focus (Pride Of Dubai), a $13 hope as he seeks a win to boost his sire’s unlikely and shrinking hold on top spot on the Australian general sires’ list. Pride Of Dubai still heads the table, but only by $327,324. The Derby’s first prize of $547,000 would help him keep the fast-closing Zoustar (Northern Meteor) at bay a little longer.
As is often the way, nothing boosts a stallion’s performance as punting him to a far off land.
Tivaci in February raised his fifth stakes winner when Tuxedo took the Waikato Guineas (Gr 2, 2000m), before another gelded son American Wolf sealed his SA Derby ticket on Anzac Day by winning the VRC St Leger (Listed, 2800m).
Microphone left for Brazil on April 8, and has since had Highvol claim the VRC Anzac Day Stakes (Listed, 1400m) – his first stakes winner among 48 runners – while Lavalier came second in last Saturday’s Chairman’s Stakes (Gr 3, 2000m) at Morphettville.
Lavalier is out of one of Darley’s great blue-hens in Accessories (Singspiel), dam of no fewer than five stakes winners in Pericles (Street Boss), Pearls (Exceed And Excel) and her first three foals who’ve gone on to make sires: Epaulette (Commands) – now standing in Turkey – Helmet (Exceed And Excel) and Bullbars (Elusive Quality), whose only three stakes winners include a certain nine-time Group 1 hero in Mr Brightside.
Thus if Lavalier succeeds at Morphettville on Saturday, it would be more a vote for his dam than his sire.
Such is of course the way with the stallion game, and of course seller’s regret is a condition useful to no one.
Tivaci, bred by Bart Cummings and trained by Mike Moroney to crack elite glory at his last start in the 2017 All Aged Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m), had started with a bang as a sire, with Never Been Kissed, a filly from his first-crop, tasting a Group 1 success at three.
She remains his sole top-tier success, but Waikato’s Mark Chittick believes the results will keep coming for Tivaci, as much as he has no misgivings about having sold him.
“Absolutely not. He got plenty of opportunities,” he said. “He started off very well, with a Group 1 winner and a Group 2 winner, but then went through a flat patch.
“He’s been getting some results lately, and that will continue. He served a couple of really good books, quantity and quality wise, and those offspring are reaching racing age now. But he was very quiet in the last couple of years, and it’s hard to recover from that.”
Tivaci dropped from 100 mares in 2022 to 31 in his last year before his sale to China.
Microphone covered just 12 mares last spring, down from 59 in 2023.
“He never had the numbers here to give himself a great chance, sadly,” said Darley’s stallion manager Alastair Pulford.
“Standing stallions is a commercial world. You’ve got to hit early. And people want speed more than South Australian Derby winners.”
With all of that said, the Busuttin and Young stable will celebrate if they can lift a ninth Group 1 in the Derby, which was first run in 1860 – a year before the Melbourne Cup (Gr 1, 3200m) – but with two long stretches later that century when it wasn’t held, and another break for World War II.
While giving a push to their other two runners, Young agreed with the market in rating American Wolf their best chance, and a good hope of sparking cheers in China.
The gelding has something most of his opposition do not. There’s no doubt about him running out the trip. He won the 2800-metre St Leger at his seventh start last Friday, prevailing by 0.25 lengths in a fierce battle in the home straight with Litzdeel (Dundeel), the younger half-sister of Melbourne Cup winner Vow And Declare (Declaration Of War).
It’s in fact the dropping of 300 metres and backing up in nine days that might raise doubts, but Young isn’t overly worried.
“He’s doing well,” she told ANZ Bloodstock News. “He’s come through the St Leger win well, and he arrived in Adelaide this morning [Friday] in excellent order.
“The week back up won’t worry him too much. He’s shown all the signs he’s come through that run no problem. You know he’s fit and you know he’ll see the trip out. That’s always the question mark if you step a horse up to 2500 metres, so at least we don’t have that to worry about.
“It’s a quality field, obviously being a Group 1, and the favourite will be tough to beat, but I think our boy can take that next step and run really well.”
American Wolf did his stepping up in the St Leger, rising a challenging 800 metres from a 2000 metres Ballarat maiden win, and rising well.
“He’s bred to get that trip. He’s out of Zabeel mare and they generally get a trip,” Young said in reference to Zeitlist, a city winner up to 2100 metres and 2240 metres. The mare has also thrown another stakes-winner in Zee Falls (Sacred Falls), who’s scored at 2200 metres and took Levin’s Wellington Stakes (Gr 3, 1600m) at three.
“There was a good genuine tempo on in the St Leger and that helped him get over the top of them from midfield,” Young said.
“He had a good battle with that other horse in the straight, and came back at the line. He showed he was competitive, which is what you want. Plus, it’s not a bad form race going into an SA Derby.”
American Wolf’s other piece of unique appeal is that his jockey is the in-form Mark Zahra, fresh from a stakes-winning treble at Morphettville last Saturday including both elite features in the Sangster Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) on Charm Stone (I Am Invincible) and the Australasian Oaks on Benagil (Manhattan Rain).
Young is banking on Zahra’s guile to reduce the trickiness of barrier ten in a 16-horse field.
“We haven’t quite got the luxury of the long straight like we did at Flemington. I’d say we’ll be midfield from that gate, though we’ll leave that up to Mark,” she said.
“These Group 1s are always super competitive, and if you’ve got the top jockey on and a good gate, you’re halfway there. When it comes to these big races, Mark Zahra just finds another gear, doesn’t he?”
Expat New Zealanders Young and Busuttin felt American Wolf ticked the must-have Kiwi boxes when they bought him from Waikato for $110,000 at Karaka 2023.
“He was just athletic,” she said. “We’re always very active coming back to the Karaka sale, especially with New Zealand three-year-old staying types. We always buy them with a thought of two years later being in a Derby.
“And we’ve had a couple of Tivacis in the past that have run well. They’re nice horses, and those New Zealand-bred horses, you can’t really go wrong.
“We thought he look good from early on. When he came back from the breaker, everyone who rode him said he had a really good action.
“It’s hard when they’re three to get them into the VRC Derby in November, so we gave him a little bit more time, and at this time of year he’s just filled out nicely.”
Young also warned punters not to dismiss the stable’s other two runners.
Confetti Garden, who has barrier 13 for Liam Riordan, ran second in Caulfield’s Autumn Classic (Gr 2, 1800m) in late February before a fifth in Rosehill’s Tulloch Stakes (Gr 2, 2000m). Four days later he was 13th in the ATC Derby (Gr 1, 2400m), when forced back and wide from gate 16.
“It wasn’t ideal to back up in four days, and then he was caught deep,” Young said. “But he’s come through that run excellently well. It’s nearly a month between runs and his work’s been excellent, so he’s not the worst.”
Compressing (Savabeel) – a $41 chance for Saturday – won his first two starts at Terang and Cranbourne before running 12th in last Saturday’s Chairman’s when travelling in three and four wide throughout from the outside gate of 15.
“Put a line through that run, but at least he wasn’t knocked around,” Young said of the gelding, who has gate nine for Daniel Moor.
“He stayed over for the week, and he’s bounced through the run, and he’d won his two starts before that.
“He needs a bit of luck from the gate, but hopefully he’ll go more forward and can get in better than last week.”
Should Lavalier win it would make Godolphin trainer James Cummings the fourth generation from his family to take the SA Derby, after father Anthony, grandfather Bart, and great-grandfather Jim.