Military Tycoon
Written Tycoon (Iglesia) is almost 23 years of age.
He was born the year Damien Oliver won that tear-soaked Melbourne Cup (Gr 1, 3200m) on Media Puzzle (Theatrical), when John Howard was only half–way through his prime ministership, and a full two years before there was such a thing as Facebook.
But at a stage in life when most stallions are thinking about grabbing their pipe and slippers and embarking on a crossword, Written Tycoon was still imbuing his stock with enough early speed and precocity to become last season’s champion two-year-old sire in Australia and New Zealand.
On the matter of slippers, his daughter Lady Of Camelot won a golden one at Rosehill last term, while in New Zealand Velocious ran amok by winning the Sistema Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) and Karaka 2YO Millions (RL, 1200m).
This season, Written Tycoon’s three Australian two-year-old stakes winners runs second only to the four of I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit), while his current fourth rank on the general sires’ table betters his past three finishing positions – sixth, seventh and sixth – since his sole champion sire title of 2021.
As if all that wasn’t remarkable enough, a few months ahead of a 2025 breeding season in which Yulong Stud will manage him to cover only a couple of dozen of their own mares, Written Tycoon has three of the 16 runners in this Saturday’s edition of the world’s richest two-year-old race.
They are:
– the $8 third-favourite Skyhook, the Gerald Ryan and Sterling Alexiou-trained colt who looked dazzling in winning last Saturday’s Pago Pago Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m);
– the Yulong-bought, Team Hayes–trained $15 chance Tycoon Star, who flashed home for third in the Blue Diamond Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) before a 1.14–length fourth in the Todman Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m);
– And Military Tycoon, who despite an impressive second-start two–length win in Flemington’s Ottawa Stakes (Gr 3, 1000m) in her last outing, and a push from trainer Ciaron Maher’s data mavens, is a $26 hope.
Typical of Written Tycoon’s diversity, the trio come from very different crosses.
Skyhook’s dam was by Redoute’s Choice, by Danehill (Danzig).
Tycoon Star is Danehill-free, being out of a mare by former French shuttler Equiano, by British sire Acclamation (Royal Applause).
And Military Tycoon, also Danehill-free, is out of a Sadler’s Wells (Northern Dancer)-line mare by the Western Australia-based Universal Ruler (Scenic), in Military Reign.
“He’s just a fantastic stallion,” Yulong CEO Sam Fairgray told It’s In The Blood. “Year-on-year, he keeps producing high-class performers. Whether they’re colts or fillies he keeps churning them out.
“Certain broodmares suit him, on pedigree and physically, but he’s upgraded a lot of mares as well.”
Very late in the piece, the market has perhaps caught up with Written Tycoon. While he had just six million-dollar yearlings to his name little more than two years ago, he now has 11. They’re capped by the two $1.8 million Gold Coast sellers this year, borne of Yulong’s deep investment in quality racemares, in this case Away Game (Snitzel) and In Her Time (Time Thief).
Military Tycoon wasn’t one of them. Bred by young Mornington Peninsula farm Merricks Station, and put through the Emirates Park draft at the 2024 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale, she was sniffed out for $200,000 by Bennett Racing.
Two years earlier at the same sale, Nathan Bennett had parted with a little more – $300,000 – for a Written Tycoon colt who became his operation’s first Group 1 winner in Southport Tycoon, who won twice at the top level and is now a Widden stallion.
“She was a standout from day one,” Merricks Station owner Ben Cooper said of Military Tycoon.
“She was always earmarked, from when she was a foal, to head to one of the premium sales and the Gold Coast was the one. She was a good moving, athletic sort of filly. Nathan loved her, and I don’t think they were heading home without her.”
Military Tycoon says much about the story of Merricks Station.
Ben and his wife Lizzie bought an old cattle farm around a decade ago beside the coastal hamlet of Merricks, overlooking Phillip Island and the entrance to Western Port Bay. A railway line had run through a top corner of the farm, and since the railway’s Merricks Station had been nearby, farming vernacular was co-opted for the name of this other kind of station.
The Coopers would soon start barrelling along, with Tuvalu (Kermadec) – a horse they bred while still refurbishing their old cattle property – becoming their first top-tier winner when he took the 2022 Toorak Handicap (Gr 1, 1600m).
A few months after opening as Merricks Station, the Coopers bought former Perth racemare Military Reign (Universal Ruler) for just $80,000 at the 2018 Inglis Chairman’s Sale, in cahoots with long-term associate and pedigrees advisor Mat Becker’s Group 1 Bloodstock.
“She was one of the very first mares we bought building our own broodmare band,” says Cooper, whose stocks now number around 25.
“Tuvalu’s dam was like other mares we had who we’d raced then started breeding with, but Military Reign was the first go of us buying better–credentialed racehorses to breed with.”
Cooper – who also trades in industrial property – liked Military Reign’s racing record, though at the same time it was probably why he could buy her so cheaply.
She’d competed almost entirely in Perth, in a 22-start career for eight wins, and a Group 3 fourth at two, plus a Group 3 second at four. She won over $580,000.
“She maybe slipped through some cracks because of her WA pedigree, but I thought she was good buying,” Cooper said.
“She’d won half-a-million, and she had good, strong, Perth form. She would’ve cost a lot more with that sort of form on the east coast – but I thought it was good form.
“Perth form is probably a bit undervalued. There’s some really good stock that comes out of there. That’s one of the reasons why we targeted her.”
After two misses, Cooper put Military Reign to Impending (Lonhro) to produce Galeka, who returned a fair $150,000 at Inglis Premier in 2021 as a yearling but is now based in western Queensland.
A 2020 mating with Deep Field (Northern Meteor) begat Duty Calls, a $270,000 Inglis Premier buy in 2023 for Simon Zahra. She’s won one from five and, incidentally, is racing at Kyneton on Thursday carrying Merricks Station’s familiar silks of green with intersecting white lines, with Cooper hoping she’ll kick off a glorious 48 hours for the farm.
In 2021, Cooper and Becker picked out Written Tycoon, back in Victoria with Yulong after his one season in the Hunter Valley at Arrowfield, and standing for $165,000. The result was Military Tycoon, who with barrier 12 for Thomas Stockdale, shapes as an overlooked chance to bring the shrewd Maher his first Slipper victory.
“Written Tycoon was just doing really well at the time, and it was more the physical match-up that we went for,” Cooper said.
“We knew Military Reign could throw an athletic, good sort, so we moved up into a different price bracket of stallion.
“Military Reign was throwing a very sharp early horse, and sometimes the Written Tycoons can be a bit more leggy. The cross worked very well, in throwing a more compact, early sprinting type. And she’s fully Victorian bred, which is good for us.”
That mating produced precious few readily tricks in Military Tycoon’s pedigree, at first glance.
The first five generations contain only one duplication, and that’s the ubiquitous Northern Dancer (Nearctic). Having him at 5m x 5m sounds fairly standard issue, but he does come along both top lines, and via different sons in Try My Best and Sadler’s Wells.
Perhaps with a sire as mighty as Northern Dancer, that’s as much as you need, but wait there’s more.
He’s still the only double-up in six generations but importantly, for sharing the wealth, it’s through two more sons in the bottom half in Shareef Dancer and Northrop.
Peel back another layer and we have a 6f x 7f of the great American blue hen Best In Show (Traffic Judge). Though she’s somewhat buried in the bottom half, in the third quadrant tracing to Universal Ruler’s damsire, she’s prominent in the top half as the second dam of Written Tycoon’s third sire, the aforementioned Try My Best.
Another influential mare, the American Lalun (Djeddah) is repeated at 7m x 7m, 8m, through two sons in Never Bend (Nasrullah) twice and Bold Reason (Hail To Reason).
And there’s a strong and diverse smattering of the great Italian sire Nearco (Pharos), who makes 11 appearances in the first eight generations through four sons and a daughter.
Military Reign has also produced a filly by The Autumn Sun (Redoute’s Choice), who Zahra returned to the well to buy at this month’s Premier sale for $120,000, with Cooper staying in.
And, most recently, Merricks Station has bred a colt by So You Think (High Chaparral) out of Military Reign who’s headed to the Inglis Weanling Sale in May.
Golden Slipper success for his half-sister would mean a lot to the Coopers, not just for that colt’s potential yield.
“It’d be unbelievable,” Cooper said. “To be breeding a Group 1 winner, and not just a Group 1 but the country’s biggest two-year-old race – is everything that we’re targeting.
“The market’s led by two-year-old speed. If we can deliver it from Merricks, that’d be the ideal outcome, and what we’re focused on doing. Be it our farm manager Dee Gess-Jones and our whole team at the farm, or Mat Becker from Group 1 Bloodstock who assists me with the matings, that’s what our goal is.”
Needless to say, Cooper’s high regard for the remarkable Written Tycoon would also shoot through the roof if he can sire a second–straight Slipper winner – preferably the one wearing No.15.
“He’s outstanding. His results are phenomenal,” Cooper said.
“I just wish he wasn’t 22.”