Focus Asia

Hard Too Think heads Gray’s Mile charge at Kranji

Trainer Stephen Gray boasts one of the most diverse racing and bloodstock portfolios in the world and the Singapore-based Kiwi is set to be involved in some of the richest spectacles on the planet this weekend, all while he continues to build his Australian presence as he ponders the future of racing in the Lion City.

The horseman will have two runners in Hard Too Think (All Too Hard) and Kharisma (Mossman) in Singapore’s equal-richest race, the Kranji Mile (Listed, 1600m) – a local Group 1 – while he is also represented in the final Group 1 race of the Hong Kong season, the Champions & Chater Cup (Gr 1, 2400m), by Columbus County (Redwood), who he bought as a yearling.

Speaking to Asia Bloodstock News from his Kranji base, Gray was hopeful that last year’s Singapore Derby (Listed, 1800m) and Queen Elizabeth II Cup (Listed, 1800m) winner Hard Too Think could add another Singapore Group 1 to his burgeoning resume in Saturday’s Kranji Mile after returning with a flashing third in a Class 1 handicap over 1400 metres late last month.

“He’s a lightly raced horse, he did very well last year winning the Derby and the Queen Elizabeth and he just missed in the Gold Cup,” Gray said. “We brought him back this year looking at the Kranji Mile, keeping him fresh for it second-up, and he’s going really well.

“He ran super the other day first-up but he only had a very light weight because it was a handicap. He was always going to run home because that’s the sort of horse he is.

“We’re really happy with him, I think it’s a pretty even field apart from Lim’s Lightning and a couple of others. I think he’s in with a chance and he’s going the right way. A mile may be a fraction short, but second-up fresh, blinkers go on, I think he’ll run really well and if there’s any rain on the day, he’ll appreciate it.”

Gray recalled purchasing Hard Too Think for $45,000 from the Baramul Stud draft at the 2018 Magic Millions National Yearling Sale in conjunction with the Cheltenham Stables operation of John and Rachel Malcolm.

By All Too Hard (Casino Prince) out of the unraced Mnemonic (Hussonet), it is the family of Group 1 winner Jetball (Marscay) and Group 1-placed stakes winners Into The Night (Rhythm) and Marwina (Marscay).

“We saw him and liked him as a type,” Gray said. “He suited us with what we look for from the pedigree, he was a lovely, athletic horse. He just looked a really nice type because he would suit Asia in that he’d take a bit of time. In this part of the world, much like Hong Kong, sometimes your early horses don’t last. But horses that want a bit of time can often be a bit more affordable.

“He had a very good pedigree on him and the timing was right because the All Too Hards were a little bit quiet. He was from a very good female line from a stud that sells good horses. We got him at the right price and that’s what we tend to do, especially with Singapore – we don’t often spend a big amount of money.”

While All Too Hard may have been going through a quiet patch in 2018, Gray was effusive in his praise of the Vinery Stud stallion, who will stand for $38,500 (inc GST) in 2022.

“I think All Too Hard has done really well now and I think he’s really appreciated in Australia,” he said. “His record has been extremely good and he’s value for money. A lot of the service fees are so expensive. A mare we own, we sent her to All Too Hard because he’s affordable and he produces good horses. They are versatile, some of them take time but he’s had some good early horses too. He’s a really good stallion to breed to and to buy from as well.”

A winner of five of his 15 starts with six further placings, the five-year-old looks to be hitting the peak of his powers. Gray, who blazed a trail abroad by taking sprinters Emperor Max (Holy Roman Emperor) and Lim’s Cruiser (Casino Prince) to the UK, said that Hard Too Think’s future may lie overseas with limited options for him in Singapore.

“I had to really think about it here because we went from having more than 20 features a year down to eight due to Covid,” he said. “There’s not a lot of options for him, to be fair, only probably the Queen Elizabeth and then the Gold Cup. Whether he gets weighted out of it now, I’m not sure, but definitely we’d have to look to go overseas with him. I’m not scared to travel and it’d be nice to take a horse representing us here in Singapore to Australia and win a big race.

“The owners were keen at one stage to move him to Australia but I just said, ‘you’ve got a couple of million-dollar races here that might be a bit easier to win than going to Australia’. But in the right race, I think he’d measure up and a lot will come down to what happens this weekend and what Singapore racing is going to do next year – if they put feature races back on for these horses, he’ll stay here but if not, maybe we look at other options.”

Gray also saddles up Kharisma in the Kranji Mile, a horse better known as a sprinter but who stretches out to a mile for the second time at his 26th start.

“Kharisma is a good little horse, he’s won ten races and he’s done a great job,” Gray said. “I think he’s won about half a million. He’s the type of horse who has been impacted by the loss of some of these feature races, especially the handicaps, because he probably could have won even more. I’m looking forward to him.”

One horse that was originally bound for Singapore but ended up further north was the Caspar Fownes-prepared Columbus County, last year’s Champions & Chater Cup runner-up looking to go one better in 2022.

Purchased by Gray on behalf of Singaporean owner Paul Hickman for $33,000 from the Bradbury Park draft at the 2017 New Zealand Bloodstock Select Yearling Sale, the Redwood (High Chaparral) gelding originally raced as Sword In Stone.

Trained by Lauren Brennan, he defeated Group 2 winner Nerve Not Verve (Shocking) in an Ellerslie maiden before finishing third as favourite in the 2019 Waikato Guineas (Gr 2, 2000m), after which he was sold to Hong Kong owners for a significant sum.

“We liked him as a yearling, he was a nice horse,” Gray said. “He didn’t cost a lot. We actually bought him for Singapore because we thought he’d be a good Derby and Gold Cup type but the money was too much to turn down so that’s why he went to Hong Kong unfortunately.

“That’s the way it is sometimes, though, the money is hard to leave on the table. Paul took it and it’s cash flow, isn’t it? Whether he would have won the Gold Cup here or the Derby, I don’t know, but looking at what he became over there, I think he would have been pretty tough to beat here in the Derby and Gold Cup.

“We watch him all the time. Paul Hickman is a very successful owner here, a very good owner for us and a very good friend and I know he takes an interest too. We’d love to see him win a big race for connections because that’s what it’s all about.”

Singapore has implemented harsher restrictions throughout the entirety of the Covid-19 pandemic than many other places around the world and racing was one industry to suffer significantly. While the city-state has been able to turn its racing fortunes around a number of times before, Gray believes that a crucial moment is approaching for administrators with investment from owners at a critical point.

“Hard Too Think is owned by one of my syndicates that I’ve brought in over the last few years,” he said. “There are 25 owners in him, a lot of them have never had a horse and due to Covid, in two years, they’ve never got to see him race. They are all coming to the races on Saturday so we are excited about that, we’re going to have a big group there. It’s important for the future of Singapore racing and our business to get these people into the races because it’s really in the doldrums – it’s really at a crossroads as to where it will go over the next two years.

“The last two years have been really tough. The owners that have stayed here have been great, but will they reinvest? I’m not sure. The horse population has dropped from 1,300 to 700 in just over two years and so, naturally, the quality has dropped when you haven’t been able to replace horses. It can be fixed, it’s a terrific racing model and a great facility here at Kranji but everyone just needs certainty.

“It’s still a good place to race a horse – what you are racing for at the midweeks in Australia is similar to what your lower grades of horses will race for here. What owners need to see, especially international owners, is some direction and what’s going to happen next year and the year after.

“My wife Bridget and I have been here nearly 23 years, we’ve made our life here and been very successful and it’s been great. Like a lot of people, though, we are waiting to see what happens – it comes down to affordability in the end.”

Gray’s yellow and blue checked colours, which will be sported aboard Hard Too Think this weekend, have also become a sight Down Under. The most prominent horse to represent Gray has been Oxley Road (Exceed And Excel), winner of the Caulfield Sprint (Gr 2, 1000m) in the spring and third in the Oakleigh Plate (Gr 1, 1100m) in the autumn.

“With racing there going so ahead and the prize-money opportunities, I had some owners who weren’t that interested in investing in Singapore at the moment,” he said. “So, instead of losing those clients, I decided to put a few syndicates together to try and buy a few yearlings with the thought that, if they weren’t good enough for Australia, then they could come here.

“That was a good drawcard for them, a lot of my owners are expats and international people and during Covid, no one knew what was going to happen so I put the syndicates together, kept a share myself and they are all there to race first and see how they go.

“Oxley Road has done a pretty good job, he’s got a good future still as well, and we’ve got a few more over there now so we’ve got about five there. If they are really good, the prize-money and the opportunities are fantastic and they may as well stay there. We bought a Trapeze Artist, a Savabeel, a More Than Ready and a really nice Russian Revolution named Magadan, he’s with Peter and Paul Snowden and he won a trial the other day.”

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