Coolmore Stud Stakes 2018: How to turn not much into plenty in the stallion-making race

HOW winning or losing by a mere nose in the stallion-making Coolmore Stud Stakes on Derby Day can be the difference between your colt being worth $30 million or sold off for $5 million.

IT has become the race that starts a stud career, a 1200m test of speed and strength down a testing Flemington straight where narrow victories have parlayed into multimillion-dollar bonanzas.

Win by a nose and your colt’s worth $30 million.

Lose by a nose and you’re selling him for $5 million.

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There’s a lot riding on the jockey’s shoulders, a fact not lost on the owners of last year’s winner Merchant Navy.

If you want conclusive proof of just how a win in the Coolmore can drastically alter the value of a colt, watch hoop Mark Zahra’s masterful ride.

He won the most dramatic edition of the race when coming from last to first after being stuck in a seemingly hopeless position.

It was rated a 10 out of 10 ride, to the owners it was worth $22 million.

They sold the son of Fastnet Rock to Coolmore Stud for $27 million, a value that was further enhanced when the colt won twice in England as a three-year-old for Irish trainer Aidan O’Brien.

Brisbane Lions chief executive Greg Swann was one of the original part-owners.

His one per cent of the bay colt, a $4000 outlay, became a tax-free $270,000 when they sold Merchant Navy after the Flemington sprint.

Merchant Navy (centre) wins the Diamond Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot this year. Picture: Getty Images

“After he won the Diamond Jubilee at Ascot a few months after the Coolmore, his value probably went to around $35 million, but none of the owners are complaining,” Swann said.

Mark Zahra returns to scale after winning last year’s Group 1 Coolmore Stakes. Picture: Michael Klein

“I asked the guys who know a bit about it what he would have been worth had he run second in the Coolmore last November, and they said he might have been worth $5 million instead of the $27 million he sold for.”

As for Zahra, the pilot on Derby Day last year, it was all about working out a way to win the race.

“I remember getting a call from one of the owners in Peter O’Brien saying, ‘if we win this, he’s going to be worth a fortune’.

“So to come from last and get up on the line was just so satisfying,” said Zahra, who rides Long Leaf on Saturday.

“The Coolmore Stud had bought into him so they were keen for him to become a stallion but as a jockey you aren’t thinking about the stud side of things, more just trying to win the race.

“I drew in the middle in a massive field (20) and was well back behind a wall of horses and trying to work out how I was ever going to get clear.

“I was forced to switch in and it opened right up for me.

“I remember thinking I would flash home to finish just behind them, then as I started to flash I thought I’d better change course again because I’m going to run right up the backs of the leaders.

“Then I changed course again and got up right on the line.”

The Coolmore Stud Stakes has rapidly become Australia’s pre-eminent stallion-making event for three-year-olds.

Merchant Navy edges out Invincible Star in the Group 1 Coolmore Stud Stakes.

It was a mantle once held by the VRC Derby and more recently the Caulfield Guineas, but an emphasis on speed has seen the Coolmore emerge as the most important race from a breeding perspective over the spring carnival.

On Saturday nine colts and a flying filly named Sunlight will do battle for the $1 million Group 1 event, and while the prizemoney is significant it potentially pales into relative insignificance compared with the riches on offer if one of those colts should win.

Antony Thompson, owner of Australia’s most famous stud in Widden, has little doubt where the race now sits.

The prizemoney on offer in the Coolmore Stud Stakes is relatively small compared to the payday further down the road in the breeding barn.

“It’s the Golden Slipper for three year olds in my mind and the record out of the race suggests so … and it’s the race breeders certainly get excited about from a stud perspective, given the Caulfield Guineas in recent times don’t have the same breeding record,” said Thompson, whose stud stands past Coolmore winners in Zoustar and Star Witness.

“Zoustar from his first crop has three runners tomorrow in Zousain, Lean Mean Machine and Sunlight.

“Zousain has the chance to become a fourth generation winner alongside his father Zoustar, grandsire Northern Meteor and great grandsire Encosta De Lago.”