Explosive Jack
The Red Express was, if not quite The Red Terror, something of a New Zealand cult hero, especially down Riccarton way.
Another New Zealand-bred chestnut, he won 18 races and was placed 25 times from 103 starts in the 1990s. Four victories were in Listed class, and 11 wins – plus 12 of his placings – came at the Christchurch track.
Like many New Zealanders, Luigi Muollo was a big fan. And so, a few years after the gelding’s captivating career, when Muollo saw his full sister in a yearling sale, the reaction was intense. You could even call it explosive, which, after buying her for NZ$16,000, is precisely what he did.
Explosive – by American sire Exploding Prospect out of the Australian Beau Ghost mare Tina’s Spirit – had three wins from 25 starts and was placed at Listed level. But Muollo’s purchase would have far greater ramifications down the track. It was his first foray into buying a potential broodmare as he launched his career in making horses, naming his company, appropriately enough, Explosive Breeding. It would all lead to the founding, some five years ago, of Novara Park stud in the Waikato. And it started a hugely successful family, one that has hatched Australia’s latest track star Explosive Jack, a triple derby winner … so far.
At stud, Explosive would throw nine named foals, the third being Extra Explosive, by Ekraar. She would win three times over sprint distances, including in Listed class over six furlongs at Foxton, but has parlayed that strong work at stud.
Extra Explosive’s second named foal was Pick Number One, by Darci Brahma, who won five of his first six starts in Hong Kong in 2017-18. Her next foal, by ill-fated Melbourne Cup placegetter Jakkalberry, became Explosive Jack, winner at Swan Hill on debut last November, winner of the Tasmanian Derby at his fourth start, of the ATC Derby at his seventh, and last Saturday’s South Australian Derby at his eighth.
The Ciaron Maher and David Eustace-trained colt became the first horse since Dayana in 1972 to win derbies in three states, and may yet have the chance to equal that Bart Cummings-trained galloper’s extraordinary feat of four, in next month’s Queensland edition.
While Muollo has no hesitation putting Explosive Jack at the top of the list, he’s a little awestruck himself by the colt’s broader family, a black type-laden brood sparked by Explosive.
“It’s a real pinch-yourself situation,” Muollo tells It’s In The Blood. “I started out with Explosive, and to look at what she did in terms of producing quality racehorses has been just amazing.”
Explosive’s stud career unfolded stunningly, for more reasons than one: her first seven named foals were fillies.
“I was actually cursing my luck a bit for having all these fillies,” Muollo says. “But that soon changed.”
Put to Australian sire San Luis first-up, Explosive produced Explosive Dancer. She competed at Group 1 level, but only won two races. But when covered by Roc De Cambes she produced that stallion’s highest stakes-earner, the 2018 New Zealand Derby winner Vin De Dance, who was also fourth in the ATC Derby and Rosehill Guineas.
Explosive Dancer’s little full sister, Explosive Girl, was unraced, but threw the dual stakes-placed Jakkalbomb.
Third out was Extra Explosive, before the unraced Only Explosive, by One Cool Cat, who threw the dual stakes-placed Short Fuse, by Per Incanto.
Explosive went to New Zealand Two Thousand Guineas hero Darci Brahma in 2009 to produce filly number five, Ultra Explosive. She won only a maiden but has produced three winners from three named foals – all males this time – including Boom Boom Sweet (Jakkalberry), who’s won two of nine with six placings so far for Ballarat-based trainer Matt Cumani, and the dual stakes-placed Explosively, by exciting Novara stallion Sweynesse.
Explosive’s next two daughters – the unraced Micro Explosive (Ekraar) and Always Explosive (Guillotine) – have not quite lived up to their big sisters’ deeds, though they do have yet-to-race progeny on the ground and, likewise, the two named males that finally came before her death – Elite Rocket (Roc De Cambes) and Gelignite Jack (Jakkalberry). But what came before was superb.
“She was a phenomenal mare, really,” Muollo says with great affection. “She left some good performers herself, but anything of hers that’s had anything to race, they’ve all left something good. And to think her family has had two separate derby winners – one of whom has won three of them – is just staggering.”
Muollo was always keen to put Extra Explosive to his stud’s relatively new Irish-bred sire for the mating that led to Explosive Jack.
Jakkalberry, by Storming Home, was a very well-travelled stayer for Marco Botti. He claimed his Group 1 in Italy in the 2010 Gran Premio di Milano (2400m), and won in the US, Dubai and England. Most Australians would remember him for his third, making late ground, in the 2012 Melbourne Cup to Green Moon. But in buying him for Novara Park, and in selecting the sprinter Extra Explosive in his second season, Muollo was anticipating some zip.
“I love putting a stayer to a sprinting mare,” he says. “You can put a staying sire to a 1200-metre mare and you get horses like Explosive Jack. But also, a lot of people might think Jakkalberry was an out-and-out stayer, but I thought his ideal distance was probably 2400 metres. And, in any case, sometimes the kinds of performances you see on the racetrack don’t really indicate the kind of progeny a horse will produce. You’ve got to look more into the bloodlines.”
The physical conformation that can be achieved by breeding stayer to sprinter is also an alluring factor.
“I take a balanced approach to genetics and nicks,” says Muollo. “But for me it’s more about the type of the animal. Extra Explosive was a muscular sprinting mare, so I didn’t want to breed her to a stallion that was too heavy. Jakkalberry being a staying type, a bit more slender, was ideal. You can slow a horse down if you breed them too heavy.”
As for the wider pedigree, Explosive Jack’s key characteristic is the significant presence on both sides of the great Mr Prospector, on a 4S x 5S x 5D cross. Mr Prospector appears twice in the pedigree of Jakkalberry’s sire Storming Home, as the sire of his sire Machiavellian, and as the sire of his second dam. Meanwhile, Mr Prospector is also the third sire of the mare who started all this, Explosive.
There’s also black type all along Explosive Jack’s female line, with fourth and fifth dams Gold Tranche and Miss Goldilocks also leaving stakes winners.
Explosive Jack has two younger half-siblings yet to race, a colt by Time Test, and a weanling by Novara Park stallion Staphanos.
But, sadly, the triple derby winner is the flagbearer for the final crop of Jakkalberry, who died from an intestinal infection in 2018 after only four seasons at stud.
“It was certainly tough at the time, but it happens and you’ve got to pick yourself up,” Muollo says. “But while he’s gone I’ve got no shortage of fillies and mares who can carry his bloodlines on.”
There’s a certain staying colt, too, who might put Jakkalberry’s name into the history books in the Queensland Derby.
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Trevor Marshallsea is the best-selling author of Makybe Diva and Winx – Biography of a Champion. Click on the links to purchase yours.