In-form Costa heads south for Missile strike with Phobetor
Melbourne plans also afoot for Gold Coast trainer who has ambitions to build stable depth
Michael Costa’s immediate focus is on today’s Missile Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) at Randwick with lightly raced sprinter Phobetor (Dream Ahead), but the trainer is also looking further ahead at Group 1 spring carnival races in Melbourne for members of his in-form Gold Coast stable as he makes plans to capitalise on last season’s results.
The young Queensland trainer prepared 57 winners in the recently completed season at a strike rate of 28 per cent and with the successful comeback of Phobetor and Grafton Cup (Listed, 2350m) winner Purrfect Deal (Dundeel) among his achievements, Costa wants to also have a bigger presence on the buying bench at next year’s yearling sales.
Phobetor resumed from an injury-enforced year off the scene with a victory at Doomben in mid-June before finishing runner-up last start in the Ramornie Handicap (Listed, 1200m) at Grafton to the John O’Shea-trained Southern Legend (Ocean Park).
Costa saw enough merit in Phobetor’s performance to send him to Sydney for the Missile Stakes.
“The idea was to be in the first third of the field travelling (in the Ramornie) but he missed the kick and sat wide and had to do all the work,” Costa said.
“The figures from the race were pretty smart considering the run he got in transit, so if you change the runs, you change the result.
“He was the horse on the way up in that race. We weren’t sure how he was going to measure up against those tried and true horses but he did and he has to go to another level again in the Missile.
“It’s only a small field but there are some decent horses in there, so he will need to improve.”
Tommy Berry takes the ride on six-year-old Phobetor who is listed as a $6 chance with odds makers behind favourite Fasika (So You Think) ($2.60), Kolding (Ocean Park) ($4.60) and Viridine (Poet’s Voice) ($5).
“You have plenty of penciled-in plans and you pivot as you go. Being an awkward time of year for a horse on the way up, the Missile was a logical step for him,” Costa said.
“What we do after this is going to be based on what he does (today). If he won and won comfortably, there’s the option of keeping him at the 1200 metres, but if he ran well we could also send him south to Melbourne and stretch him to 1400 for something like the (Group 1) Memsie.
“I would say more than likely, though, that he will come home and have a Magic Millions in January as his plan of attack.”
Explaining Phobetor’s long absence from the track last season, Costa said: “He just had a strain to the outside branch of a tendon on his fetlock … so we had to give him a good spell but there’s no signs of anything this time around.”
While Phobetor was beaten at the Grafton carnival, stablemate Purrfect Deal certainly wasn’t, providing two of Costa’s five winners at the long-standing country winter event on the Northern Rivers.
The Newcastle Gold Cup (Gr 3, 2300m) on September 17 is next on the agenda for the five-year-old mare who was among the entries this week for the Melbourne Cup (Gr 1, 3200m).
“There are a few plans for her. More than likely she will head towards the Newcastle Cup and we will just keep heading down south. Whether she stops off in Sydney or heads straight on down to Melbourne will depend on how she goes at Newcastle.” Costa said.
“Maybe something like The Bart Cummings (at Flemington) would suit and we will see how far she can stretch out.
“I am not saying she is good enough for the Melbourne Cup, but I think she can stay all day, so we will see what level she can get to.”
The changing dynamic of the Melbourne Cup, brought about by the dramatic tightening of veterinary regulations placed on international horses, could open the race up for the local Australian and New Zealand-bred stayers.
“I have never really had a horse who could get to that Melbourne Cup level before, so it is all new to me in that scheme of things, but looking at the nominations, there does seem to be more of this style of horse who has been nominated this year,” he said.
“I am not sure what the stats would suggest but it would sound logical with none or very few internationals coming. It could be an exciting year for a local.”
On the back of his success, Costa hopes to up the ante at the yearling sales after receiving support from loyal and new clients in recent months.
“We have syndicated everything we bought this year, so that gives me confidence to stick the hand up a little bit more, but we still don’t have the really big players in the stable,” he said.
“The majority of our owners are the mums and dads and smaller shareholders but hopefully we are starting to make a bit more of a ripple and get more support.
“I don’t want to be playing at the crazy end of the market, but if we pick up a few (yearlings) around the sale average it would be an ideal scenario for the next buying season.”
Until then, Costa has his eye on the online marketplace for tried horses in the mould of Morethannumberone (Super One), an Inglis Digital purchase who also won at the Grafton carnival for new connections.
“We have only bought a handful from the Inglis online sales, but just about every one of them has turned out well. We’ve bought some cheap horses and we have even been able to on-sell some to Hong Kong,” he said.
“Before next year’s (yearling) sales we’re definitely going to try and pick up a few more tried horses because you can place them extremely well around South East Queensland and in the Northern Rivers (of NSW).
“They put up some stats this week which showed we had an almost 40 per cent winning strike-rate on the Northern Rivers. Popping over and grabbing that BOBS money is pretty good, too.
“If we can add another ten tried horses to our stable between now and the next yearling sales that would be great.”