Headley Grange hits the big time with Kingsford-Smith victory
Redoubtable gelding Headley Grange (Exosphere) took his role as an Inglis Digital poster boy to stunning new heights when he became an elite and weight-for-age winner in Saturday’s Kingsford-Smith Cup (Gr 1, 1300m) at Eagle Farm.
Trained by a master of second-hand horses in Joe Pride and well ridden by quiet achiever Adam Hyeronimus, Headley Grange lined up as a solid $9 chance after a freshen-up following four consistent, if unplaced, runs in the Sydney autumn.
Most money went the way of Ciaron Maher’s Jimmystar (Per Incanto), who firmed from $4.80 to $3.80 late as he pursued a first win in five starts since November, while Chris Waller’s Fangirl (Sebring) was fancied at $8.50.
And the market had it right, if perhaps not in the right order, as the only three runners in single figure odds filled the trifecta.
Jumping from gate three of 16, Headley Grange travelled strongly in fifth, one off the fence, behind what was a healthy pace, while Jimmystar from gate 12 had to contend with being three-wide without cover a length off the leaders.
Maher’s Another Wil (Street Boss), who’d travelled in second, did well to hold the lead for much of the straight, but while Jimmystar tried valiantly to haul him in it was Headley Grange poking through the pack to the inside who won the day, if narrowly. He edged Jimmystar by 0.09 lengths, while Fangirl made enormous ground after straightening near last, finishing a further 0.32 lengths back.
Headley Grange’s win capped a wonderful story of a horse relied upon for his consistent, tradesman-like performances who can now be hailed as a Group 1 winner.
The five-year-old was bred by NSW’s Bob Manwaring and put into work with Coffs Harbour-based trainer Noel Mayfield-Smith. But after three starts including a Grafton debut win and an unplaced try at Eagle Farm, a dispute between the two men led to Headley Grange being offered on Inglis Digital in November, 2023.
“I bred him and had an argument with his initial trainer,” Manwaring said. “I said, ‘He’s too good for the bush’, so he said, ‘Buy me out then’.
“So we put him on Inglis Digital and I got a mate to come in with me because I knew we’d have to pay a bit for him, but the rest is history.”
Headley Grange was bought for $120,000, officially knocked down to HDB Bloodstock.
Sent to Pride, he won at Kembla Grange in his first start for his new trainer, then scored at the same track and his home course of Warwick Farm before a spell.
His next campaign in the summer of 2024-25 brought two wins – including at Randwick – and three seconds from five starts. After another Randwick victory, in a Benchmark 94 (1300m), he graduated to black type last June with victory in that track’s Civic Stakes (Listed, 1400m).
Headley Grange then proved his class last spring by taking Newcastle’s Cameron Handicap (Gr 3, 1500m) and Rosehill’s $1.5 million Alan Brown Stakes (1400m).
Pride lifted him to the top level for his four runs in the recent Sydney autumn when plagued by wide barriers – a fourth in the Canterbury Stakes (Gr 1, 1300m), a fifth in the Ryder Stakes (Gr 1, 1500m), a seventh in the Doncaster Mile (Gr 1, 1600m) and a fifth in the All Aged Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m).
But Saturday’s success in the $1 million Kingsford-Smith finally confirms him as an elite winner, with Manwaring’s Inglis Digital outlay hugely justified. The gelding has now won 11 of 25 starts for Pride, earning $2.44 million in the process.
“He’s up close to $2.5 million now. It’s unbelievable but hopefully there’s more to come even in a few weeks in the Stradbroke,” Manwaring said of Headley Grange, who’s now a $7.50 favourite for that $3 million, 1400-metre handicap on June 13, in which he has 55 kilograms.
Pride confirmed Stradbroke Handicap (Gr 1, 1400m) starts for both Headley Grange and veteran Private Eye (Al Maher), who ran sixth in the Kingsford-Smith at $13.
“He [Headley Grange] has been a horse who’s had no luck all autumn,” Pride said. “He’s battled some pretty ordinary barriers, and it hasn’t quite panned out for him, but it certainly did today.
“It’s the right time of year to have a horse like that up, so we’ll get him home to Warwick Farm for a couple of weeks, then back up here for the Stradbroke.
“But let’s not get too worried about that; just going to savour what happened today.”
Hyeronimus, who’s ridden Headley Grange in ten races for seven wins, was ecstatic over the gelding’s Group 1 ascension.
“He’s a beautiful horse, I actually really love him,” the 35-year-old said after his seventh top tier success.
“He’s such a kind horse and he has his few little tricks, but we seem to get on really well and the way I was able to ride him today was perfect. He enjoys being ridden like that.
“He needs to be bottled up like I was. And when I was able to dart back to the inside … I was worried that the horses out wide had probably put too much of a margin on him.
“But within three strides, I look across and I’m in front and we’re at the winning post and it couldn’t have went to script any better.”
Asked if the horse could win the Stradbroke, Hyeronimus replied: “I can’t see why not.”
Headley Grange is the second and best of four named foals for his dam Hard Go Jo (Hard Spun), a three-time country winner whose three runners have all won, and who died in June, 2024.
The gelding is one of 11 stakes winners for Exosphere – who died two months later – at 4.2 per cent of runners. His stock includes another Group 1 winner in the mare Skybird, who ran 13th in Saturday’s Kingsford-Smith.