Yulong colts Growing Empire and First Settler will guarantee stud future with victory in Group 1 Coolmore Stud Stakes

Growing Empire was destined to be a star colt and he can enhance his potential stallion prospects in the Group 1 Coolmore Stud Stakes on Saturday.

It was the early morning phone call in July last year that first convinced the Yulong team that they might be a step closer to finding their next stallion prospect.

David Eustace, Ciaron Maher’s then co-trainer, rang Yulong’s chief operating officer Sam Fairgray to tell him the Zoustar colt they purchased at the Sydney Easter Yearling Sales only a few months earlier might end up being “a very, very good horse”.

That colt, Growing Empire, is now one of Australia’s most exciting three-year-olds.

• PUNT LIKE A PRO: Become a Racenet iQ member and get expert tips – with fully transparent return on investment statistics – from Racenet’s team of professional punters at our Pro Tips section. SUBSCRIBE NOW!

He can frank his future as the next stallion-in-waiting at Yulong Stud in Mangalore by winning Saturday’s Group 1 $2m Coolmore Stud Stakes (1200m) at Flemington.

He is one of two Yulong runners in the stallion-making race, with First Settler – a son of the stud’s champion sire Written Tycoon – also a chance to lock in his breeding barn future by winning the 70-second charge down the Flemington straight.

“He (Growing Empire) wasn’t as mature as First Settler,” Yulong’s Sam Fairgray told the Herald Sun this week.

“He was an Easter yearling, but he just had the right physical makeup that we thought there might be something there (with him). But you don’t know until they get on the track.

“It is interesting with the trainers … they do tend to find out very early (if the signs are good).

“I remember David Eustace calling me about Growing Empire. He said, ‘We think he is going to be very, very good’. It was the July before he actually turned two.

“He was in training at (Maher’s) Ballarat (stables). They said, ‘We are going to send him to Sydney because we think he is going to be a very, very good colt.”

Growing Empire is the Coolmore Stud Stakes favourite. Picture: Vince Caligiuri/Getty Images

• Coolmore Stud Stakes tips, runner-by-runner form analysis

Fairgray said of the phone call: “It’s a long process to get there (with colts), to have that little ray of sunshine keeps us all inspired.”

He alerted Yulong’s founder Yuesheng Zhang of Eustace’s call not long after it came through.

Growing Empire has won four of his seven starts, never missing a place.

His past two runs against older horses – a second in the Group 1 Manikato Stakes and a third in The Everest – have franked the words from Eustace, who is now training in his own right in Hong Kong.

As a Group 1 placegetter, and a Group 3 winner, Growing Empire is already bound for the breeding barns. But success on Saturday in the Coolmore Stud Stakes – a race that has produced stallions including Zoustar (his own sire), Home Affairs and Exceedance – would see him join Yulong’s impressive band of sires in the not-to-distant future.

Growing Empire cost $700,000 at the 2023 Easter Yearling Sales, while First Settler went under the hammer at last year’s Magic Miles Sales for $750,000.

• Four-Play, Quadzilla: $200 betting strategy for Flemington

If First Settler – who has won three of his four starts, being beaten only by Growing Empire, wins on Saturday, he could stand next to his sire, 22-year-old champion stallion Written Tycoon, at Yulong.

Growing Empire is a $3.50 favourite with Ladbrokes, while the Mick Price and Michael Kent Jr-trained First Settler is $17.

“First Settler was purchased from Magic Millions and he was a big, strong forward colt,” Fairgray said.

“He has a great temperament and every time we inspected him (at the sales), he came out and did his thing. He was very relaxed and a good moving horse.”

Originally published as Yulong colts Growing Empire and First Settler will guarantee stud future with victory in Group 1 Coolmore Stud Stakes