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Meticulous planning has the Paul Messara and Leah Gavranich team firing on all cylinders

With the best strike-rate in NSW racing, Paul Messara and Leah Gavranich are adopting their own version of the “horses for courses” theory with Akasawa at Rosehill Gardens on Saturday.

Ray Thomas
7 min read
June 27, 2024 - 11:16AM
Trainers Paul Messara (pictured) and Leah Gavranich can add another win to their season tally with Akasawa at Rosehill on Saturday. Picture: Grant Guy
Trainers Paul Messara (pictured) and Leah Gavranich can add another win to their season tally with Akasawa at Rosehill on Saturday. Picture: Grant Guy

The stable with the best strike-rate in NSW racing is adopting their own version of the “horses for courses” theory with Akasawa at Rosehill Gardens on Saturday.

Paul Messara, who trains in partnership with Leah Gavranich and operates their stable from a private training complex at Arrowfield Stud in the Hunter Valley, revealed he tends to concentrate on specific racetracks when placing their runners.

“There is a lot of emphasis on placement with our horses and I’m a bit selective where I take them to race because I like to run them on bigger tracks like Scone, Muswellbrook, Newcastle, Randwick and Rosehill,” Messara said.

“Scone is a nice, big sweeping track, so are the two metropolitan courses and Newcastle. Muswellbrook has a cutaway rail which I feel it gives every horse an opportunity to run on.

“I tend to try and focus on these sorts of tracks as I feel with an even amount of luck, if our horses are good enough they can win.”

The stable’s results this season makes for compelling reading and is proof their “horses for courses” theory is working.

The Messara-Gavranich training partnership has prepared 37 winners from 114 starters during 2023-24 which equates to an extraordinary 32.5 per cent strike-rate, or a winner every third runner.

The next best strike-rate from a NSW stable that has had more than 100 starters this season is Matthew Dunn’s at 21.7 per cent.

Akasawa, the rising seven-year-old, will be the only starter for the Messara-Gavranich stable at Rosehill Gardens when he contests the TAB Handicap (1500m).

In early TAB Fixed Odds betting, Akasawa is at $21 after drawing wide out in barrier 21.

Messara describes Akasawa as a “good weight-carrier” and is not concerned by the gelding’s 59kg impost.

“Akasawa’s highest rating was the Gunnedah Cup last year which he won by nearly five lengths carrying 63.5kg,” Messara said.

“We tried to win a second Gunnedah Cup with the horse last start when he had 65.5kg and was unlucky finishing third.

“That’s a record for me, I don’t think I will have a horse carry that much weight again.

“But Akasawa drops to 59kg for Rosehill so he will enjoy that. He has been a beauty for the stable, winning eight races from 18 starts with two seconds and two thirds – and he has been unlucky in a few races.”

Messara has found the right race for Akasawa but unfortunately can’t use his regular rider Aaron Bullock.

“We had Akasawa in at Randwick last week so when that meeting was called off, we looked at Rosehill,” Messara said.

“But Aaron was already booked for Caesars Palace in the Rosehill race. So, we have gone with Sam Clipperton.”

Bullock has been an integral part of the Messara-Gavranich success story this season, riding 22 winners for the stable at a stunning strike-rate of 41 per cent rides to winners, the best in NSW racing.

“I use Aaron a lot in the country as he trials my horses and has an association with them which all helps,” Messara said.

Bullock is also the regular rider of the Messara-Gavranich stable stars, Know Thyself and Clear Thinking.

The jockey is unbeaten on both promising sprinters having won three races on Know Thyself and the two times Clear Thinking has been to the races.

Know Thyself is a beautifully-bred horse by Arrowfield’s boom young stallion The Autumn Sun out of the Dubawi mare, Mantra Of Life.

The three-year-old gelding’s dam line traces back to Natalma, the dam of the legendary American racehorse and sire Northern Dancer.

“We went to the Easter Yearling Sale with Know Thyself and we thought he was a belter of a horse,” Messara said.

“There was a reserve on the horse and I thought we will definitely get it but when he went through the ring, he didn’t get to the reserve.

“So, we agreed to buy out our partners in the horse because I loved him as a type.

“He’s from the first crop by The Autumn Sun and we thought the Dubawi cross would suit the stallion. He’s going to be a really nice horse.”

Know Thyself made it three wins (and a luckless second) from his four starts when he raced away with a TAB Highway at Rosehill earlier this month by nearly six lengths – one of the biggest winning margins in a Highway since they were introduced to Sydney racing in 2015.

“He came through his last win in great order,” Messara said. “We feel the horse came out of it better than he went into the race.

“The plan is to gallop him on Saturday morning then take him to the Sunshine Coast and aim up at the Winx Guineas next week (July 6).”

There has been at least two Hong Kong offers believed to be more than $1 million each to buy Know Thyself but the three-year-old is showing so much promise, Arrowfield Stud wants to keep him as he is a great advertisement for his sire, The Autumn Sun.

Clear Thinking is also likely to race the same day in a TAB Highway at Royal Randwick. She maintained her unbeaten record with another seemingly effortless win at Scone earlier this week.

The rising five-year-old mare is by England’s super sire Dubawi out of Sweet Idea, the Arrowfield-bred sprinter who won the 2015 Group 1 The Galaxy and was third in the 2013 Golden Slipper.

Sweet Idea was sold to Queen Elizabeth II and exported to England where she was based at the Royal Stud at Sandringham.

When the Queen died nearly two years ago, some of her racing and breeding interests were put up for sale and Arrowfield Stud supremo John Messara seized on the opportunity to buy the unraced Clear Thinking and bring the family back to Australia.

“Clear Thinking was purchased purely as a breeding prospect,” Paul Messara said.

“But when she got here we decided to put her into work and see how she goes. She’s a good-looking horse who only does what you ask of her but she is very push-button.”

Clear Thinking was impressive in a couple of barrier trials and after a hiccup at the barriers which forced her scratching at her scheduled Newcastle debut, she has since won both her starts at Scone very easily.

“I don’t really know how good she is,” Messara admitted. “It’s funny, none of the trackwork riders love her action.

“Some horses give riders an amazing feel but she is a horse that just goes through the motions. She is not one of those who you can get a great gauge on at trackwork.

“But that is often the sign of a good horse – they save it for raceday.”

Messara said Clear Thinking has done well since her latest win and he is likely to give the mare one more start this preparation in the TAB Highway next week.

“After the Highway, if she wins then I feel we will give her a break and head towards The Kosciuszko in the spring,” Messara said.

“I realise they are restricted races she has won in the bush and I’m not getting ahead of myself but she has done all that has been asked of her.

“If she can win in town third-up in her first preparation, then it is a very good effort.”

MESSARA’S DUAL ROLES AS TRAINER AND ARROWFIELD MANAGER COMPLIMENT EACH OTHER

Paul Messara, who operates a successful training business as well as managing breeding powerhouse Arrowfield Stud, believes Know Thyself’s sire The Autumn Sun will become their next champion sire.

The Autumn Sun, a former outstanding racehorse who won eight of his nine starts including five at Group 1 level, has made a sensational start to his stallion career.

His oldest crop are three-year-olds and include three individual Group 1 winners, Autumn Angel (ATC Australian Oaks), Coco Sun (South Australian Derby) and Vibrant Sun (Australasian Oaks).

The Autumn Sun, who sired an historic trifecta in Vibrant Sun’s Oaks with Private Legacy and Coco Sun the minor placegetters, is the leading second season sire for winners (44) and stakeswinners (four).

“As a stallion prospect, The Autumn Sun is super exciting,” Messara said.

“We are putting all his horses under the microscope and following his results with a lot of interest.

“The Autumn Sun is a huge investment for Arrowfield and he has a big place in the farm’s future.”

Messara concedes his two roles mean he is “always time poor” but said both jobs complement each other.

“I do enjoy wearing ‘two hats’,” Messara said.

“I love training horses and that keeps me ‘sharp’ for what is important for breeding.

“When you are training, you are not far away from them and you get to know the attributes of a horse which helps when selecting the best possible mating.

“I know a lot about their temperaments so for breeding purposes it’s important to find a stallion or broodmare with the right temperament balance. We breed a large number of stakes horses out of the fillies and mare I’ve trained.”

Some of the mares Messara trained who have done well at stud including Extremely (dam of champion sire Extreme Choice), Huss On Fire (dam of Rothfire), Jemison (dam of Hitotsu), Miss Dodwell (dam of Kenedna and Spill The Beans), Salutations (dam of Super Seth), Sarraqa (dam of Celestial Legend) and Flavoured (dam of Honesty Prevails).

Arrowfield Stud is a massive racing and breeding operation so it made sense when Messara formed his training partnership with Leah Gavranich at the start of the 2023-24 season.

Gavranich has been working with Messara for nearly two decades and took care of the trainer’s outstanding mare Ortensia when she had an extended northern hemisphere campaign in 2011, winning the Group 1 Al Quoz Sprint in Dubai before going to England and winning the Group 1 Nunthorpe Stakes at York and Group 2 King George Stakes at Goodwood.

“My responsibilities on the farm continue to grow in a managerial sense so I had been thinking about taking on a training partner for sometime,” Messara said.

“I felt I needed assistance from someone who is as fully invested in this game as I am and that was Leah.”

Gavranich came over from Western Australian to join the Messara team as a trackwork rider 15 years ago and then took the trainer’s brilliant mare Ortensia overseas.

“Leah became the travelling foreperson for me as she is a really good rider,” Messara said.

“She still rides but has added a few strings to her bow over time and has developed into a very good horsewoman.”

Originally published as Meticulous planning has the Paul Messara and Leah Gavranich team firing on all cylinders

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Original URL: https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/horse-racing/meticulous-planning-has-the-paul-messara-and-leah-gavranich-team-firing-on-all-cylinders/news-story/166cd57b7b8923eb6655daab797d2748