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Tulloch Lodge dominate Breeders’ Plate with second successive trifecta in Sydney’s two-year-old opener

It was a case of something old and something new as two-year-old racing began for the season in Saturday’s Breeders’ Plate (Gr 3, 1000m) at Randwick.

The old was represented by Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott.

They trained the trifecta in last year’s edition of this much anticipated event, as they launched what would be a phenomenal juvenile season for the stable.

And on Saturday, they were at it again, preparing the first three home as King Kirk (Ole Kirk), Tempestuous (Extreme Choice) and North England (Farnan) filled the placings. Minutes later they also won Melbourne’s juvenile opener, the Maribyrnong Trial Stakes (Listed, 1000m) with Tremonti (Hellbent). Same old Tulloch Lodge.

The new was represented by first season sires Ole Kirk (Written Tycoon) and Kia Ora’s Farnan (Not A Single Doubt), whose first two runners finished first and third at stakes level.

Vinery Stud’s Ole Kirk had shone with two winners at the nation’s first official two-year-old trials at Randwick on September 23, and followed up by making his first runner a black-type winner in King Kirk, who was relatively easy in betting at $8.

Farnan came close to doing the same, with $4.60 third favourite North England reprising his impressive trial success by setting up a commanding lead, only this time being collared late by the flying first pair.

Newgate’s Extreme Choice (Not A Single Doubt) looks to have another good one in Tempestuous, the longest priced of the Waterhouse-Bott quartet at an easing $9.

Punters were left on the wrong side of the Tulloch Lodge quartet, with $1.55 million colt Tuscany (Zoustar) – a well-supported $2.50 favourite – looming but dying on his run to finish fifth.

But all honours lay with King Kirk and his sire.

Settled last from a tricky gate six of eight by Rachel King, he was four lengths off North England at the 300 metres, and still two lengths behind at the 100 metres as Tempestuous stormed through the middle. The race was still a three-horse lottery at the 25 metres, before King Kirk lifted for a final effort to prevail by 0.2 lengths.

The win recalled his trial, in which he surged home late with the fastest closing 600 metres of the day – 33.32 seconds. Saturday’s 33.86 was not quite as impressive, and was 0.12 slower than the fillies one race later in the Gimcrack Stakes (Gr 3, 1000m).

But King Kirk clocked an overall faster time than Bel Merci (Extreme Choice) in the Gimcrack – 57.60 compared to 57.84 on the Randwick Good 4 – in a win momentous for horse, stable and sire.

Bred by Queensland’s Ged Nolan, King Kirk has now emulated Ole Kirk by winning on debut. But while Ole Kirk won Flemington’s Talindert Stakes (Listed, 1100m) in his first race and ran third in Randwick’s Champagne Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m), he more brilliantly blossomed at three, winning the Golden Rose (Gr 1, 1400m) and the Caulfield Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m).

Given that form reference, Vinery were immensely encouraged when the official trials produced two winners by their $55,000 sire, with the equal-fastest time of the day set by O’ Ole – who ran second in Saturday’s Gimcrack.

Those trials sparked a swift swelling in bookings for this, Ole Kirk’s fourth season at stud. Given the seven-year-old’s later development through his career, and the precocity now shown by some of his two-year-olds, it’s easy to see why.

“He’s a lovely horse. He’s been very professional,” Bott told Channel 7 of King Kirk after the Breeders’.

“He got further back than expected today in the run, and it was a great effort to pick them up there in the final stride.”

King Kirk’s victory was loudly celebrated by his large team of owners through syndicator My Racehorse, who teamed with Waterhouse-Bott and Belmont Bloodstock to pay $300,000 for the colt at the Gold Coast Magic Millions sale, from Widden Stud’s draft.

“He’s an exciting horse going forward and rightly so, they [the owners] should all be excited,” said Bott, adding King Kirk would likely spell now ahead of the $3 million Magic Millions 2YO Classic (RL, 1200m) at the Gold Coast on January 11.

“He’s a Magic Millions horse so I’d say that’s first and foremost the main target for him. We’ll look to give him a spell now and work back from there. Obviously, big picture, you’re always looking for the Golden Slipper.”

King Kirk (2 c Ole Kirk – Oxford Angel by Nicconi) is the third and most expensive of three live foals – and the first to race – out of dual winner Oxford Angel (Nicconi), herself a half-sister to the Listed-winning and multiple stakes-placed Oxford Poet (Dylan Thomas).

Oxford Angel is due to foal a full sibling to King Kirk in the coming days.

On numbers of offspring, for Ole Kirk to have had a Breeders’ Plate winner and a Gimcrack second is impressive.

According to the Australian Stud Book, he has just 28 named foals from 170 covers in his first season of 2021. For comparison’s sake, fellow first season sire Farnan has 40 from 192, Snitzel – 2022-23’s champion two-year-old sire – has 55 from 165 covers in 2021, with Capitalist having 57 from 243.

Overall, Bott was delighted to have landed a second straight Breeders’ Plate trifecta, having achieved the feat 12 months earlier when Espionage (Zoustar) beat Straight Charge (Written By) and Prost (Snitzel).

“It’s a bit of a relief there when you have a representation that they perform well, which they all did. I’m very proud of them all,” he said. “I’ll have to go back and watch that again and individualise the runs there, but I thought it was a great effort from all of them.”

It was a red letter day for My Racehorse and Tulloch Lodge, who later cheered Just Fine (See The Stars) all the way to Melbourne Cup qualification with his victory in Flemington’s The Bart Cummings (Gr 3, 2520m).