“He’s come from obscurity” – Maison Louis leads home a Queensland Derby quinella for O’Shea and Charlton
This year’s rescheduled Queensland Derby (Gr 1, 2400m) proved worth the wait for training partners John O’Shea and Tom Charlton, as did the emergence of Super Seth’s (Dundeel) Maison Louis, who at $21 led home a quinella for his stable in the Eagle Farm Classic.
The winning gelding was last seen finishing fourth in the Rough Habit Plate (Gr 3, 2000m) at Doomben on May 17 in what was his first attempt at stakes level, and clearly thrived for the extra 400 metres on Saturday.
Coming from three–back on the fence under Ryan Maloney, Maison Louis found a gap shortly after turning and showed grit to break through the five-strong line in the final 200 metres, putting distance between him and his rivals.
Among them was his more fancied stablemate King Of Thunder (Tivaci) ($12), who just denied Maison Louis a placing at Doomben, and who despite sticking on came up a length short this time around.
Chase Your Dreams (Contributer) was another 0.3 lengths behind, rounding out a trifecta for New Zealand-breds.
In what was a first win for Maison Louis beyond Benchmark 64 grade, his Derby victory also marked a fourth individual Group 1 winner for Waikato Stud’s promising second-season sire Super Seth, following on from the feats of Feroce, La Dorada and Linebacker.
The latter of that trio was the first elite-level winner for the O’Shea and Charlton partnership when taking out the Randwick Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) in March, a success quickly followed by Schwarz’s (Zoustar) William Reid Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) win for the Sydney stable.
Maison Louis brought up a third Group 1 for the burgeoning pair, who are only in their first season together.
A rapt O’Shea was quick to commend both the gelding’s constitution – now boasting four wins from seven starts since his February debut at Hawkesbury – and his rapidly rising sire, who has produced seven stakes winners from 82 runners to date.
“I’m a proud Queenslander, not just a Queenslander, so it’s a big thrill today,” he said.
“He’s just been a progressive horse by a top young stallion in Super Seth. It’s one of the few horses that we have for Go Racing, who do a wonderful job.
“He’s just a tough, resilient little horse and he’s come from obscurity to win a Queensland Derby so we’re very excited.
“I think the key was that he was able to cope with the workload. He’s just a great doer and a good, tough horse.”
Winning rider Maloney, who had earlier landed the Spear Chief Handicap (Listed, 1500m) aboard the Tony Gollan-trained Transatlantic (Snitzel), said: “It was a very dawdling run Derby, and when J-Mac [James McDonald] sort of made his move [aboard $4.40 favourite and eventual seventh Belle Detelle] at the half-mile, he increased the tempo, but not by a hell of a lot.
“We were sort of on the fence and everyone was starting to want to get to that better ground, and John [O’Shea] wanted me to get one off, but after the scratchings, we ended up drawing one.
“But that’s why I wanted to be three back the fence, so I had two options when I wanted to stake my claim. When he got the gap, he pinned his ears back and was just tough as nails.”
Albert Bosma’s Go Racing purchased Maison Louis for NZ$250,000 from the Pencarrow Stud draft at Karaka 2023, while King Of Thunder was a NZ$50,000 New Zealand Bloodstock Ready To Run Sale purchase by O’Shea from the draft of Ohukia Lodge later that year.
“He came off Pencarrow Stud in New Zealand, and we always rush to New Zealand each year to participate in their sales,” O’Shea said of Maison Louis.
“We’ve been well-rewarded because the second horse comes out of one of their sales as well.”
Maison Louis (3 g Super Seth – Cote D’Or by Makfi) is from a prominent Pencarrow Stud family, being the first stakes winner out of Makfi (Dubawi) mare Cote D’Or, who won on eight occasions including the Matamata Cup (Listed, 1600m).
Cote D’Or is herself a half-sister to the Travis Stakes (Gr 2, 2000m) winner and International Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m) runner-up Dolmabache and Group 3 scorer Pure Elegance, both by Redoute’s Choice (Danehill), with multiple top-flight winners Ethereal (Rhythm) and Darci Brahma (Danehill) also featuring in the pedigree.