Trevor Marshallsea: It’s In The Blood
You would have to think back to Atlantic Jewel, perhaps even Black Caviar, to find a horse who’s created as much early excitement as the four-year-old currently bearing that most revered of titles in Australian racing – the Melbourne Cup favourite – Russian Camelot.
The powerful Danny O’Brien trained entire has already achieved the unprecedented. In May, he became the first Northern Hemisphere-bred galloper to win a Derby in Australia, overcoming tremendous odds as a natural two-year-old – he was 26 months at the time – against southern rivals who’d officially turn four only two months later, in the 2500m of South Australia’s three-year-old classic.
At the same time, he’s been raising echoes of some glorious past.
The son of Camelot was bought for O’Brien by agent Jeremy Brummitt from Book 1 of the 2018 Tattersalls yearling sale for 120,000 guineas (approx AUD$228,000), as O’Brien sought to make hay in a field which had yielded some exceptional results for some other notable Australians.
Group 1 Australian Cup winner Fifty Stars, by Sea The Stars, and another son of Camelot, the Listed Warrnambool Cup winner Furrion, were also bought at the Tattersalls sale and shipped to Australia before racing.
But the template for such a long-range endeavour was set in more legendary fashion – if a little by accident – more than two decades ago.
Australian agent John Foote went to the Newmarket broodmare sale in 1998 to buy a breeder or two for a South Australian tuna fisherman making a splash in the world of thoroughbreds, Tony Santic.
Why go all that way? “The depth of quality is immense,” Foote explained. “We in Australia advocate that our sprinters are better, and they probably are. But certainly the depth of pedigrees in England, when you’re talking 1600 metres to 2400 metres and up, is better.
“They’ve been breeding horses for hundreds of years, and we haven’t. They’ve got rid of most of the rubbish.”
Foote bought the Riverman mare Tugela, who happened to be in foal. While originally intending to sell the offspring, Santic instead flew her to Australia where she raced – as Makybe Diva.
Of course she became the only horse to win three Melbourne Cups, and while such a feat remains fantasy, at this stage, for Russian Camelot’s connections, you can see traits evident in the four-year-old which inspired the likes of Foote and O’Brien to look north; the qualities jockey Glen Boss witnessed when he first rode Makybe Diva in trackwork, feeling beneath him for the first time the sort of “ground-swallowing” English stayer who seemed able to “run all day”, and recover from those exertions disarmingly swiftly.
Similarly, Damien Oliver felt quality when riding Russian Camelot to a comfortable debut victory up Ballarat’s uphill straight in a 1400m three-year-old maiden last October.
“Good horse,” the veteran said.
“I’ve trialled him and he’s trialled like a nice horse, but because he’s six months behind, being a European two-year-old, we haven’t really tried him hard as such.
“He’s a great looking horse and he’s always given you the feel of a nice horse, but it’s always nice to see it there when you ask them for the effort and they do respond.”
O’Brien gave his developing colt time, spelling him after his next start, a Listed class second over 1800m at Flemington, and resuming in the autumn. It wasn’t all smooth sailing. Russian Camelot blew the start by several lengths at his resumption, flashing home for fourth over 1400m at headquarters, then aborted his next assignment – and gave Oliver a sore head – when he reared in the gates at Caulfield and was scratched. That was the last hitch we’ve seen.
O’Brien hastily diverted him into a 1600m Benchmark 64 at Pakenham five days later and, quality of the opposition notwithstanding, Russian Camelot took the breath away with a seven-length annihilation. A month to the day later, he left eyebrows raised and heads shaking in wonderment when John Allen (Oliver couldn’t travel due to Covid restrictions) sat wide and well back but purely sailed to a two-length victory in the SA Derby. A neck second in the Group 1 Makybe Diva Stakes first-up in September has now been followed by his second top-tier triumph, an imperious win in last Saturday’s 1800m Underwood Stakes.
The future looks immense for Russian Camelot. His ancestral past is laced with quality as well.
One unsurprising but important point: he traces back to Pocahontas.
In the 1990s, research on horses’ hearts by American expert and author Marianna Haun identified the genetic trait for a large heart was carried in what she called the ‘X-factor gene’. Her work suggested the gene traced back to one single thoroughbred mare: Pocahontas, born in England in 1837, with an apparent mutation of a gene affecting heart size.
The gene reappears randomly, but appeared to be at play in two of her huge-hearted offspring – Phar Lap and Secretariat – and most probably Makybe Diva as well, although her heart has not been measured.
Pocahontas touches Russian Camelot as the dam of Stockwell, whose direct line flows down to Northern Dancer, sire of the great Sadler’s Wells, who appears on both sides of Russian Camelot’s pedigree in a 3×3 cross.
Now, since Pocahontas lived so long ago and produced a much-coveted line, she does appear in most modern pedigrees. Still, it’s good to know she’s there.
On Russian Camelot’s paternal line, Australians are well familiar with the sire who provides half his name, the Epsom and Irish derbies winner Camelot. The son of Montjeu, by Sadler’s Wells, has sired some other quality stayers to have raced here. There’s last year’s Moonee Valley Cup winner Hunting Horn, and another of Camelot’s five Group 1 winners worldwide in Irish Derby winner and 2018 MacKinnon Stakes runner-up Latrobe. Plus there’s one other imperious stayer who gave O’Brien more South Australian glory last autumn, and who’s also high in Melbourne Cup markets, the Adelaide Cup winner King Of Leogrance.
Russian Camelot takes the first half of his name from dam Lady Babooshka (GB), a grand-daughter of Sadler’s Wells. She was by the famed Cape Cross, sire of the champions Ouija Board and Epsom Derby winners Sea The Stars and Golden Horn. Russian Camelot is so far the only one of Lady Babooshka’s three offspring to have raced.
On Russian Camelot’s female line, you have to go back to his great-grand dam Bella Colora (GB) to find a stakes-winning producer. By Bellypha (IRE) out of the Jimmy Reppin (GB) mare Reprocolor (GB), Bella Colora was herself a triple stakes-winner in the UK and France. Put to Sadler’s Wells she produced Stagecraft, winner of the (then G2) 1991 Prince Of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot and eight other Group races, and thrice G1-placed.
Stagecraft enjoyed success as a sire in Chile, siring the mare Noches De Rosa, a black type winner at home before moving to the US to win the 2004 G1 Breeders’ Cup Handicap at Hollywood Park and Santa Anita’s G2 Santa Ana Handicap, both 1800m.
Stagecraft also sired Benhur, who was good enough to win more than $US5.6 in such a market as Chile, with nine wins in 34 starts.
Another Bella Colora performer was Stagecraft’s half-brother, Mullins Bay by Machiavellian (USA), a G3 winner at York who was multiple stakes-placed.
In all, Bella Colora was a prolific producer, with 13 named foals, 10 of whom raced. These also include the source of the current Melbourne Cup favourite’s Russian flavour, Stagecraft’s full sister Balalaika, a Listed class winner of two of 13 starts in the UK.
Russian Camelot is so far the only dual victor among Camelot’s five G1 winners. With two G1s and almost a million dollars in the bank, he might just prove the best of his sire’s offspring for quite some time at least.