The local contingent of OTI’s racing stock will swell in the coming weeks with four European horses either currently in quarantine, or awaiting quarantine for the next flight to Australia.
Le Juge and Mantastic have already arrived in Australia and are continuing the Australian leg of their quarantine period at Donnybrook, just north of Melbourne.
Le Juge has raced under the ownership of OTI in France for the past 16 months under the care of Andre Fabre in Chantilly. A son of Dansili, he has taken his record to two wins and five placings from his 17 career starts to date. One of those placings was at Listed level, finishing third in the Grand Prix du Nord. Chris Waller has an outstanding record in training sons of Dansili, including Group 1 winners Foreteller and Grand Marshal. Chris jumped at the chance to train this 5yo (by Australian time) colt and he will get that chance from the end of next week.
Mantastic is still a relatively inexperienced racehorse, with just the three starts to his name. He won his most recent start, having finishing third at his first two. On both of those occasions, he was slow to begin – in particular on debut, when he missed the start by 22 lengths. In his last start win, he was again slow to begin. He then managed to weave a passage through the field in the home straight to win convincingly, pulling away over the concluding stages. Darren Weir has been selected to train this young son of Fastnet Rock and is very much looking forward to getting his hands on him.
The next to arrive will be another son of Fastnet Rock, Fastnet Tempest. He is booked to fly out amongst the first batch of horses arriving at the Werribee Quarantine centre for racing throughout the spring carnival. While not competing in the middle-distance and staying races, Fastnet Tempest will instead be set for potential runs over 1600m in the Toorak Handicap at Caulfield on October 14 and/or the Kennedy Mile on Derby Day. Much has been made of Fastnet Tempest’s quality since an outstanding win in the Royal Hunt Club in June. He has mixed his racing since, with a win at Chester followed by disappointing efforts at Ascot and Chelmsford. He is sure to appreciate the firmer Victorian tracks and we are excited by his arrival.
Awaiting commencement of the next period of quarantine is the 3yo Prinz Hlodowig, who performed strongly as a 2yo in France but whose form has tapered off this season. A son of Rajsaman, Prinz Hlodowig competed bravely in the Group 1 Criterium de Saint-Cloud when concluding his 2yo preparation and we expected to be targeting the various European Derbies with him as a three-year-old. Those expectations have not been met, so the colt comes to Australia in search of reinvigoration in a fresh environment with Archie Alexander at Ballarat. As a half-brother to one-time Caulfield Cup favorite, Prince Cheri, we continue to have confidence that this young galloper can make it.
We look forward to all four horses arriving to Australia to continue their racing careers.
We wish all our connections the best of luck for their horse’s Australian careers.
