As a young colt, Mantastic was a real challenge for his French trainer, John Hammond. Despite him showing good ability, he was more intent on becoming a 2yo stallion than a racehorse. All that is now history as this exciting 4yo has his first start in Australia at Flemington on Saturday.
When John eventually got Mantastic to the races, this exciting colt finished 3rd in his first two starts despite giving his opponents 30 and 10 lengths starts respectively. After some specialist barrier work, the colt came out and won his third start impressively.
Given OTI’s wish to keep the colt as a potential stallion, Mantastic was then shipped to Darren Weir. He had the challenge of getting the colt to become a serious racehorse while maintaining the colt’s manhood. Eventually, the challenge proved unsuccessful and Mantastic was gelded earlier this year.
After three jump outs, the four-year-old gelding is headed to Flemington on Saturday for his first race start in Australia. The 1400m distance will be below his ideal. However, the talent shown in the jump outs gives his partners confidence that he will be in the finish. With Saturday’s experience behind him, we can look forward to him stepping up to his ideal distance of 1600-2000m in his next few starts.
Mantastic is a European bred Fastnet Rock. He is out of the beautifully credentialed mare, Foreign Legionary, who has commanded high prices at the French Arqana Yearling sales. This year at the Premium sale in August, the mare’s next colt by Dark Angel is expected to add to the mare’s credentials.
While we will not see Mantastic in the breeding barn in the years ahead, hopefully, his new partners will see him in many feature races over the middle distances. He has the pedigree to do it and the looks and talent to match.