Racing: Windsor Park Stud salutes trifecta

Photo / Richard Robinson

Sydney galloper Descarado led home a fairytale Caulfield Cup trifecta for Cambridge's Windsor Park Stud on Saturday and a few stable employees and clients enjoyed the financial spoils with a share of the $2648 dividend.

Stud co-owner Rodney Schick wasn't one of them - "I'm not a big punter and I don't like to jinx them" - but stud manager Paul Murray did get a percentage of the trifecta, as did at least one stable client.

Descarado, runner-up Harris Tweed and third-placed Monaco Consul were all conceived at the stud, with Descarado and Monaco Consul born there. High Chaparral sired that pair, while Montjeu is Harris Tweed's dad.

The two sires were Irish Derby winners who shuttled to the stud under a deal with Ireland's Coolmore Stud. Both are six-time group one winners and rank among the greats of the turf.

Montjeu is based in Ireland, while High Chaparral still shuttles Downunder, but Coolmore has based him in New South Wales this breeding season, rather than in New Zealand.

He stood at Windsor Park for three seasons, the last of them in 2009.

"It's a fantastic result for the stud having stood both of the sires and especially for our clients who have got High Chaparral yearlings going to the sales," said Schick.

"The two sires have had a huge influence on our breeding industry."

High Chaparral sired the trifecta of the AJC Derby in Sydney in April, with Shoot Out beating Descarado and Monaco Consul.

That trio and Harris Tweed are all headed towards the Melbourne Cup on November 2, while another Windsor Park graduate, So You Think, will defend his Cox Plate crown at Moonee Valley on Saturday and may head to the Cup after that.

"Might And Power won a Cox Plate and a Melbourne Cup, and So You Think is a similar style running horse to him and is bred to get the 3200m distance, so he should be a great show if he races in the Cup," Schick said.

He remembers Descarado well. The colt was withdrawn from the national yearling sales because he needed a minor operation on a stifle and stayed at the stud until he was 2.

He entered Kevin Myers' Wanganui stable and impressed in running second in the Wellington Guineas and was then eighth in the Two Thousand Guineas in 2008 before being sold to the Gai Waterhouse stable in Sydney for a substantial six-figure sum.

"He was a really nice horse and did not look like an early racing type, so Dummy [Myers] did a great job with him. He looked like he would turn out to be really good stayer."

Descarado was bred by Wayne McQuoid of South Auckland from the mare Karamea Lady. He is High Chaparaal's fifth group one winner.

Harris Tweed, out of Prized mare Sally, is owned by his Waikato octogenarian breeder Phil Bayly and is trained by Murray and Bjorn Baker, while Monaco Consul, who won the VRC Derby last year, was bred by the stud from the Star Way mare Argante and is trained in Melbourne by Mike Moroney.

Gai Waterhouse won her first Caulfield Cup by reviving her practice of buying stayers from New Zealand. Her husband Robbie also bought Metropolitan Handicap winner Herculian Prince from Waikato, though he struggled in the mud in the Cup and finished well back.

"Last year, I sat at the Cup and I thought, 'bugger this', I'm going to have a few stayers around me. I'm sick of just being a bystander and Rob went out and bought four horses for me and two of them ran today," she told reporters on Saturday.

- NZPA