DEMOLITION JOB
OTI Racing’s Warmonger produces emphatic display to triumph in Queensland Derby
Warmonger tumbled in the betting for both the Melbourne Cup (Gr 1, 3200m) and Caulfield Cup (Gr 1, 2400m) and brought a first top-tier success for his unheralded South Island sire War Decree (War Front) when he became the fourth straight New Zealand-bred to win the Queensland Derby (Gr 1, 2400m) – in some phenomenal style – on Saturday.
Living up to his name, this was no mere win but a shell-shocking blitz, a demolition unmatched for breathtaking ease since another stayer lit up the tracks of Brisbane three years ago, by the name of Incentivise (Shamus Award).
While that gelding burst to national prominence with a 12-length Group 3 success over the same course in 2021, this one outstripped him for prestige, if not quite in margin, by streaking away with the $1 million Group 1 Classic by an emphatic 10.4 lengths.
And while subsequent Caulfield Cup winner Incentivise had been a $1.40 favourite for that Tattersall’s Cup (Gr 3, 2400m) of 2021, the disarming nature of Warmonger’s romp was enhanced by the fact he’d travelled to Eagle Farm largely under the radar.
Now bearing OTI’s colours, the Kevin Hickman-bred Warmonger transferred to Mick Price and Michael Kent Jr’s Cranbourne stable last year in a private sale following an impressive barrier trial at Ashburton, having been a $75,000 New Zealand Bloodstock Karaka yearling, who went on to make $165,000 at the same house’s Ready to Run sale.
Taking almost another year to debut, he won a Mornington maiden second-up last October, before tasting success for the first time in Flemington’s Batman Stakes (TAB Trophy) (Listed, 1800m) at his next run last Melbourne Cup day, to become War Decree’s second black-type winner amid three crops running.
Warmonger didn’t score in his next five starts but the last of those – a fast-finishing 1.3 length second in last month’s South Australian Derby (Gr 1, 2500m) hinted at his staying potential.
Still, he went to the gates for his first clockwise run on Saturday as an easing $10 chance – still third elect, but far behind $2.35 hotpot Autumn Angel (The Autumn Sun) and China Horse Club’s Tannhauser (Dundeel) at $4.60.
Yet he made a mockery of his rivals as if this were his tenth top-flight success, not his first.
Drawn the widest gate of 18 for Blake Shinn, Warmonger was three wide and pushing forward around the turn out of the straight, and Shinn was happy to stay there.
While Craig Williams appeared to don his Declan Bates suit on Navy King (U S Navy Flag), dashing out to a ten-length lead by the 800 metres, Shinn took Warmonger to the front of the peloton three-and-four wide down the side, as the group drifted off the fence to find better ground.
On a deteriorating soft 6 track, Navy King was entitled to stop, and it was no surprise when he did. But despite his wide passage, Warmonger didn’t so much cart the field up as virtually cartwheel into the lead, pinging to the front at the 400 metres, and keeping on going like he could have run another lap.
At the post he was more than 30 metres ahead of Andrew Forsman’s cross-Tasman raider Moonlight Magic (Almanzor), completing a juicy Kiwi-bred quinella at $26, with Tony Gollan’s Felix The Scat (Mendelssohn) adding trifecta value three lengths further back in third at $61.
As racegoers scratched heads and historians checked record margins, bookmakers slashed Warmonger’s Melbourne Cup odds from $101 to $18, and his Caulfield Cup quote from $51 to $15.
“What a great run by that horse. He did it the tough way but he was comfortable. I just wanted to make sure he kept going on his run. He did it tough,” said Shinn, who was recording his 29th Group 1 success.
“It was a bit of a track gallop for him. He had his ears pricked down the back. He did it the tough way but he was comfortable.
“I asked him to extend from the 500 and he just kept building. I made sure he kept going to the line, but the horse really deserved it.
“He’s been putting up some great displays in running second and it was really well deserved. I’m grateful for the ride.”
Scarcely believable though it looked, Kent conceded there had been doubts about Warmonger’s ability to handle the going.
“He’s just flying,” Kent said. “The query was getting through the wet track, Blake said it was more like a heavy than a soft.
“During the race I’m thinking, ‘What are you thinking here Blake?’ But he just made all the right calls by putting him into the race, and when that leader got away you had to be near the pace. In the end it was just a huge staying performance by the horse.
“He obviously handled the ground very well. He’s a Kiwi so he was born in it, but he clearly relished the stamina test today [Saturday].”
Upholding New Zealand’s proud history in the race, Warmonger’s Queensland Derby followed those of Kovalica (Ocean Park), Pinarello (Tavistock) and Kukeracha (Night Of Thunder) in the past three seasons.
It also completed a Kiwi-bred sweep of the day’s Group 1s after I Wish I Win (Savabeel) took the Kingsford-Smith Cup (Gr 1, 1300m).
And it brought a first top-level victory for War Decree (War Front), who’ll stand his seventh season at stud this year – for $7,000 (plus GST) – at Inglewood Stud, far from the Waikato breeding heartland at Kaiapoi, north of Christchurch.
A winner of Goodwood’s Vintage Stakes (Gr 2, 7f) at two and Dundalk’s Diamond Stakes (Gr 3, 1m 2.5f) at three, War Decree’s other stakes winner is four-year-old Val Di Zoldo, who won Marton’s Lowland Stakes (Gr 2, 2100m) in March last year.
The rising ten-year-old stallion has 37 winners from 75 runners, and finished fifth on New Zealand’s second-season sires’ table last year, and on its first-season chart in 2022.
Warmonger was first bought from the draft of Hickman’s former Valachi Downs stud at the Karaka Yearling sale by Prima Park and Bevan Smith Bloodstock. He was then purchased at the Ready to Run sale by Riccarton trainer Shane Kennedy, who prepares his half-sister Blue Solitaire (Almanzor), who was third in last year’s New Zealand 1,000 Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m).
Warmonger is the second of three foals from the now-deceased two-time winner Princess Sapphire (Savabeel). The third, Princess Solitaire (U S Navy Flag) is yet to race.
Of Saturday’s beaten brigade, jockey Mark Zahra said ATC Oaks (Gr 1, 2400m) winner Autumn Angel was “flat” in finishing ninth, and had “probably come to the end” of her campaign.
Tannhauser weakened into 11th, a full 20.47 lengths behind the winner, with rider Nash Rawiller saying “the 2400 in the testing conditions probably found him out”.
Williams revealed his audacious lead was not his tactic but Navy King’s, saying the gelding – who finished tenth – had been “going his speed, not my speed”.