Cousins Rogers and Blacker dreaming of bigger things with Skyphios
More than a week on from a breakthrough Flemington win by Skyphios (Fiorente) in the Byerley Handicap (1800m), a testament to owner-breeder Glenn Rogers’ unwavering belief in the lightly raced two-year-old, the Victorian farmer hopes the gelding can put Arrandale Stud on the map.
Ballarat-based Rogers, in his early 40s, is an all-rounder and is not afraid to give something a red-hot go. The son of Ararat-based trainer and farmer Jeff Rogers, Glenn’s focus on breeding racehorses in recent years mirrors much of his adult life: if he’s going to do something, he’ll do it properly.
Establishing his own 3000-acre farm at Purap Pura between Ararat and Ballarat, where he developed a highly sought-after herd of Red Angus cattle as well as breeding sheep, Rogers downsized to a 700-acre property three kilometres from Ballarat racecourse, a little more than two years ago. This allowed him to dedicate more time to his family and to his passion, the horses.
Skyphios – assured of a start in the Victoria Derby (Gr 1, 2500m) as a result of his Byerley success at the hands of Rogers’ cousin, Mornington-based trainer Rob Blacker – could be the horse to showcase Arrandale Stud.
Having sold a Ribchester (Iffraaj) colt for $80,000, but passing in a colt by So You Think (High Chaparral) at the Inglis Melbourne Premier Yearling Sale this year under the Arrandale Stud banner, Rogers is still coming to grips with the commercial realities of the industry.
“You can either do one or the other, but trying to do both is hard work. I’ve learnt the hard way but… if I get results, it all follows through [to the sales],” Rogers says.
Skyphios could have been sold at the yearling sales, but the gelding, out of Spleasure (New Approach) and bought for $11,500 at the 2018 Inglis Great Southern Sale as the winner of three races, was worth more to Rogers than he believed the market would value him at.
His decision to retain Skyphios, one which is faced by many commercial breeders each year when buyers don’t match vendor expectation, has so far been vindicated.
“I prefer to breed stayers. Most of my horses here go back to European Oaks winners and Spleasure’s grandmother won the Yorkshire Oaks twice,” he said.
“When I bred Skyphios, I bred him to win a Caulfield Cup … but I always thought he’d be good enough to run in a Derby.”
Skyphios had been unplaced in his first three starts, and he drifted in betting to $1 when winning the Byerley, but there was merit in his lead-up form, finishing fourth at his first start in the Mornington Sires (1500m) on March 26, before again running on to finish fifth in the Anzac Day Stakes (Listed, 1400m) at his second start.
Rogers received enquiries about his interest in selling the horse after the Anzac Day Stakes but they were “nothing life-changing”, so he kept him in work with Blacker.
Things then went awry in the Taj Rossi Series Final (1600m) on July 2 at Flemington, his first run in more than two months, but all was forgiven when [jockey] Harry Coffey caused the upset in the Byerley.
Blacker and Rogers are mapping out how best to get Skyphios (named after the first horse born in Greek mythology) to the Victoria Derby (Gr 1, 2500m).
If he Skyphios is to continue his progression as an improving middle-distance horse, particularly in the new season, it will also potentially provide a welcome dilemma for Rogers who has his weanling half-sister by US Triple Crown champion Justify (Scat Daddy) at home.
“I have always been going to keep her because she’s just a beauty. She is the best horse that I’ve bred, the Justify,” he says.
But Rogers, who “kept my eye in by working at nearly every Premier sale since I was 17” and helped prepare Hong Kong sprinter Sacred Kingdom (Encosta De Lago) at the 2005 Premier sale, also wants to make his mark as a Victorian breeder and seller of quality racehorses.
“Everything’s for sale, except the three Shetland ponies,” said Rogers, the father of three young girls, aged five, three and nine months.
The ponies now residing at his farm had him casting his mind back almost four decades to when he and Blacker would ride their ponies – Bubba the Shetland was handed down from Blacker to Rogers – through the pine trees on the family farm.
“My racing memories as a kid were that we seemed to go to Moonee Valley a lot and I was always running up and down the escalators to watch the next race,” said Rogers, who also fondly remembers getting $10 to look after horses at the races who were trained Mark Bairstow, a champion Australian Rules footballer for Geelong in the 1980s and early 1990s.
“My old man hardly missed a Cox Plate and it was the race that meant the most to him because it takes a really good horse to be able to win it. That race does mean the most to me, too.”