Cesniks toast Shelby Sixtysix’s remarkable Group 1 Galaxy victory
Mario and Jenni Cesnik were “on top of the world” on Saturday night, revelling the remarkable rags-to-riches Group 1 victory of Shelby Sixtysix (Toronado), the country gelding beaten in a bush Class 2 race just seven weeks prior to his stunning victory in The Galaxy (1100m) at the weekend.
The Riverina Downs proprietors, who mix breeding sheep and cattle as well as thoroughbreds on their farm in the rich southern NSW agricultural region of Tarcutta, bred the Danny Williams-trained cult hero, a Highway Handicap winner on February 26 who has stunned all and sundry in his three starts since.
On March 5, Shelby Sixtysix, a five-year-old, split Eduardo (Host) and Nature Strip (Nicconi) in the Challenge Stakes (Gr 2, 1000m) before going on to win the Maurice McCarten Stakes (Gr 3, 1100m) and The Galaxy in successive weeks, a rise that can scarcely be believed.
While Goulburn-based trainer Williams deserves the plaudits for turning Shelby Sixtysix into an elite sprinter, the Cesniks have also defied the odds to breed a Group 1 winner, a significant achievement in itself given the small number of mares Riverina Downs has.
“It is a pretty good feat as we only have about ten yearlings a year,” Mario Cesnik said yesterday.
“It is a good training feat by Danny, he’s done wonders with the horse, as he wasn’t overly sound. He had very bad soles (of his feet) and every time they galloped him he’d pull up lame and they couldn’t find out why. It was the hard tracks, something to do with the cannon bones, but Danny worked him out on the soft tracks.
“We’re tickled pink. People go a lifetime without even breeding a Group 1 winner.”
Shelby Sixtysix’s Group 1 victory would not have been in Cesnik’s wildest dreams nor agent Louis Le Metayer who bought the horse for $150,000 at the 2018 Inglis Classic Sale, $50,000 more than Williams was prepared to spend.
“He won his maiden at Wagga (in April 2020) and then he didn’t do anything for quite a while but he kept pulling up sore,” Cesnik said.
“I was talking to Louis (Le Metayer), the Frenchman who bought him as a yearling, and he said, ‘he’s got foot problems and they can’t get him right’. He said, ‘don’t sell the mare, he can gallop’.”
Le Metayer’s relationship with Williams came about after the Astute Bloodstock agent sent some tried horses down the Hume Freeway from Sydney for the Goulburn-based trainer to prepare.
“On the back of that, working with horses that weren’t quite up to city class, I realised that he was an exceptional horseman, and a very good rider himself, and I enjoyed working with him,” Le Metayer said yesterday.
“So, come the yearling sales, I said, ‘instead of sending you second tier horses, let me buy you some horses’.
“I said I’d seen a horse here that we should try and buy at the Classic sale. He said to stop at $100,000 but I kept going and not to worry, I’d buy it for someone else. Anyway, I bought him for $150,000. Danny did love the horse, so we got him and the rest is history.
“It is incredible what’s happened and I think it goes to show that if you look after young horses and you’re not in a hurry, you can get the best out of them and that’s called horsemanship.”
Shelby Sixtysix is the first foal to race, one of only two to do so, out of Storm Kite (Honours List), a mare sourced by the Cesniks from the 2013 Inglis Australian Easter Broodmare Sale for a paltry $8,000.
But it hasn’t been smooth sailing since then, the mare having to be euthanised last year after suffering a severe tendon injury. The Cesnicks, though, still own Shelby Sixtysix’s half-sister and Storm Kite’s last foal, promising two-year-old Incorporation (Territories).
Trained by Shane Fliedner at Bendigo, she’s raced three times, finishing fourth at her past two starts on her home track, and connections are eyeing a 1400-metre juvenile race at Sandown on April 6 in the hope of a breakthrough victory.
“She’s gone better than him (Shelby Sixtysix) because she’s raced as a two-year-old,” Cesnik said.
“He didn’t race until he was a three-year-old, but he was a heavy horse, too. He was a very strong colt when we sold him.
“With Incorporation, we put a good reserve on her (at last year’s Inglis Premier sale) and passed her in for $60,000. I know there was one bloke from Canberra that knew the family and he really wanted to buy her, but I said no.”
Williams’ management of Shelby Sixtysix, having him capable to race at an increasingly high level week after week, deserves much credit but there could also be something said for the conditions where the horse was raised at Riverina Downs.
“It is similar country to that of the Kellys (Newhaven Park at Boorowa),” Cesnick said.
“That’s why they have had so many winners, it’s pretty hilly country, too, as it is here.
“Both of us have got sheep country. You still have got to feed them during the winter, otherwise they do it too tough, but the mares and foals get fed. They have to exercise because there’s not much flat ground to walk around on.
“Anything that comes out of the hill country is pretty tough.”