Growing Empire aiming to conquer Caulfield’s McNeil Stakes
Ciaron Maher believes Growing Empire (Zoustar) can take the next step in proving himself a special colt when he resumes at Caulfield on Saturday in a race that’s repeatedly been a guide to future stallions, the McNeil Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m).
But rival trainer Jerome Hunter won’t be surprised if his gelding, Wonder Boy (Cosmic Force) can run the favourite down.
The McNeil has been a springboard for new season three-year-olds which has served as a pointer to many stud careers, with previous winners including Jacquinot (Rubick), Super Seth (Dundeel), Merchant Navy (Fastnet Rock), Starspangledbanner (Choisir) and Black Caviar’s sire Bel Esprit (Royal Academy) all landing places on various rosters at the completion of their racing careers.
In terms of other sires, Saturday’s edition is shaping as a clash of stallions at different stages of their careers, yet both on the ascendancy.
Growing Empire’s sire Zoustar (Northern Meteor) – fresh from matching I Am Invincible’s (Invincible Spirit) Australian record 208 winners in running second to him on last season’s general sires’ table – is an early leader in this one. He also begins Saturday with three stakes-winners for the current term, two more than a clutch of rivals.
And while Growing Empire was a deserved favourite at close to even money on Friday, he’ll likely face concerted opposition from two sons of emerging young sire Cosmic Force (Deep Field): $9 shot Wonder Boy, and Phillip Stokes’s second-favourite Stay Focused.
Maher is hopeful Growing Empire – currently second-favourite for the stallion-making Coolmore Stud Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) – can track the same way as those aforementioned McNeil winners and pay back his owners’ hefty investment. After two impressive wins from three memorable starts last autumn, he’s begun in ominous fashion.
The second foal of the triple city-winning, Group 2-placed mare Miles Of Krishan (Snitzel), Growing Empire was bought by Yulong for $700,000 from the Vinery Stud draft at last year’s Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale.
That’s a solid sum, but is exactly half the amount Bryce Heys and Ellerslie Lodge paid two Easters earlier, again from Vinery Stud’s draft, for the colt’s half-sister Dancing Alone (I Am Invincible). The lightly raced five-year-old has won six from ten for Heys, including at Flemington and Caulfield last spring. She also has a Group 3 third to her name, and was fourth in last Saturday’s ATC Toy Show Quality (Gr 3, 1100m).
Growing Empire is showing he might yet prove at least twice as good for half the price.
He began in dramatic fashion at Kensington in February, running a strong and close second to Yulong team-mate Chateau Miraval (Zousain), before taking a sharp left turn and crashing through the outside rail, unseating Jason Collett and almost collecting a photographer.
With blinkers urgently applied, he won Moonee Valley’s St Albans Stakes (Listed, 1200m) – beating subsequent Group 2 winner and Group 1-placed Bittercreek (Snitzel) by two lengths – following that triumph he headed to Adelaide for the Breeders Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m).
There, he was solidly backed and took the breath away, leading throughout to destroy an 11-horse field by 4.5 lengths.
Asked if he was a special colt, Maher said: “He’s certainly shaping that way.”
“He was a lovely yearling, with balance and strength and a good colt’s head,” Maher told ANZ Bloodstock News. “And he’s always shown a lot of ability, right from the first time he came in. He’s a lovely mover, and clean winded, though he was a bit raw when he first started racing – if you remember that first start.
“But he’s come back well. He’s had a good spell and he’s furnished and progressed as you would hope.”
Despite their effect last campaign, Maher has removed the blinkers.
“He learnt a helluva lot last prep,” he said. “I’ve trialled him with and without blinkers this time around, and I just felt he was a little bit busy in them. He may have them on again down the track, but for 1200 metres first-up, he doesn’t need them.”
The gear change was noted by Hunter, private trainer for Graebar Park’s Graeme Gathercole, who’s hoping Wonder Boy and Craig Williams won’t give too much of a start to Growing Empire.
“I see they took the blinkers off Growing Empire, so I don’t think they want him fired up too much,” Hunter said. “It would be good if he went forward, and hopefully Craig will follow him and be a couple of lengths behind him.”
Purchased for $125,000 from Rothwell Park’s draft at the 2022 Magic Millions Gold Coast National Weanling Sale, Wonder Boy debuted with a narrow 1200-metre win up the Flemington straight in a two-year-old handicap on June 8.
Hunter, who was overseas, sent him for a spell but was shocked on his return to see how much weight the gelding had put on.
“I had to bring him back in,” he said. “He’d only spelled for a couple of weeks. And then he had three trials and still went into his first-up run looking like he’d need the run.
“He’s a big, solid horse. He’d probably be only 16 hands but is about mid-500 to 600 kilos, and he loves a feed.”
Though underdone first-up in the Vain Stakes (Gr 3, 1100m), Wonder Boy rattled home from the back to finish third, 0.65 lengths behind the winner, Band Of Brothers (Omaha Beach). While Band Of Brothers’ price today of around $16 reflects bookies’ lack of faith in the Vain, Hunter believes his gelding can step up.
“We could’ve waited to resume in the McNeil, but he’s such a big lump of a horse I didn’t think it’d hurt him to have a run under the belt before going to the McNeil, which he’s better suited for,” Hunter said.
“The difference is that now we’re up against horses whose trainers think they’ve got a spring campaign horse. So it’ll be good to see where our boy’s level is tomorrow [Saturday].
“The horse hasn’t done anything wrong so far. The way he raced last start, the way he’s worked this week, I’m looking forward to seeing what he’s got against harder horses.”
While he might have a sprinter’s physique – his size being a reason for his gelding before racing – and though he’s by former speedster Cosmic Force, Hunter is “leaning towards” the Caulfield Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) as his spring grand final over the Coolmore.
“He’ll tell us in the next couple of runs whether he’ll get a mile or whether we drop back to 1200 metres and stay there,” Hunter said. “But Craig rode him in work at Caulfield on Tuesday and said he’s such a lovely relaxed horse, it wouldn’t be a problem stepping him up over distance and letting the horse relax in the race.”
Hunter and Gathercole were sufficiently impressed with the young Wonder Boy that they bought another Cosmic Force weanling, now the fresh two-year-old gelding Cosmic Rosa, for $18,000 from last year’s Inglis Great Southern Sale.
Cosmic Force now has a career 11 winners from 26 runners. Through their Group placings, Wonder Boy and Stay Focused sit at the top of his list, though major things are also expected of Cosmo Centaurus, who won impressively on debut in an Inglis bonus maiden at the Sunshine Coast this month.
Bennett Racing’s Stay Focused caught the eye in a three-start first preparation last autumn. He won by two lengths over 1100 metres at Geelong, ran a half-length second to Bodyguard (I Am Invincible) in the Blue Diamond Prelude (Gr 3, 1100m), then a 1.4–length fifth in the Blue Diamond Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m).
“He’s in good order,” Stokes said of the colt, who enters Saturday’s Group 3 off three jump-outs, one more than originally intended, and having won the third one on the Pakenham synthetic on August 20.
“I’m pleased we gave him that extra jump-out, and he trialled up nicely in that one. We’re happy that he’s fit and well.
“He had a very good first campaign. His run in the Blue Diamond was very good, though he was still learning his craft and learning to relax. I think he’s made the right improvement.
“In his trackwork he can still struggle to relax – he’s still a colt – but we found last prep that with more racing, he could take a sit. That said, I think he’ll be up on the speed in the McNeil.”
Stay Focused’s next target will be Flemington’s Poseidon Stakes (Listed, 1100m) on September 14.
Stokes is planning to then approach the Coolmore via Sydney, and the Golden Rose (Gr 1, 1400m) on September 28. That would echo the path of Widden Stud’s Jacquinot, who won the McNeil and the Golden Rose in 2022, before running ninth in the Coolmore.
“In Victoria, the program’s really hard against getting horses to the Coolmore, and they seem to be always bumping up against Sydney horses because Sydney horses seem to be able to get a better prep heading towards the Coolmore,” Stokes said.
“And in recent years, quite a few horses have come out of the Golden Rose who’ve won the Coolmore or run well in it, so we’ll be doing that. It’ll also be good to give the horse a trip away, for education purposes.”
Stay Focused would thus be aiming to emulate the last horse to win the Golden Rose-Coolmore double: Zoustar.