Outback stock agent Shane Stafford’s Irish horse Cercene wins The Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot
A former North West Qld stock agent and a 70yo Irish trainer have surprised the racing world after their filly won at Royal Ascot at 33-1 odds - the longest-price in the race’s history.
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A former Richmond stock agent and a 70-year-old Irish trainer have surprised the racing world after their filly, Cercene, won at Royal Ascot at 33-1 odds - the longest-priced winner in the race’s history.
Shane Stafford was born in Rockhampton to a family of racing fanatics - his uncles were both jockeys and trainers.
When Mr Stafford moved to Richmond to work in the cattle game as principal stock agent at Stafford Stock and Property, he kept up the passion for racing and trained his own horses for the North Queensland racing circuit.
In the ‘80s it was $900 wins on red dirt - but two weeks ago, it was £675,000 ($1.3m AUD) at Royal Ascot and personal congratulations from King Charles.
The winning horse was Irish three-year-old filly Cercene, who Mr Stafford had moved across the world for.
The betting odds on The Coronation Stakes had Cercene as an outsider, but Mr Stafford was back in the UK after attending the Burdekin Growers Race Day in Home Hill, and had declared he was “happy to be here whatever the results” with his Irish filly.
The filly drew gate 1 (most winners in this race come from gate 11), and she travelled in fourth place on the rail for most of the mile-long race.
As the track curved, Cercene pushed to third, and on the straight as the jockeys all steered their horses to go wide and overtake, the Australian-owned filly only had to move a metre and found herself at the front of the pushing pack, neck-and-neck for first place.
The favourite horse, Zarigana, winner of the French 1000 Guineas, was closing the gap very quickly with a lot of speed and looked to overtake the little Irish trained Cercene.
As Zarigana reached Cercene, instead of racing past her, she drew level and kept pace.
It was at this point the jockeys heated up, and Cercene’s jockey Gary Carroll was later fined $5,800 and handed a 14-day whip ban for striking Cercene eight times when the legal limit is six.
The two ran shoulder-to-shoulder down the straight, and Cercene only got ahead by a neck right at the finish line.
“She dug deep and fought back for a tenacious victory,” Mr Stafford said of his horse.
It was the first ever Group 1 win for the jockey, for the trainers, and for the owner.
“This all started back at Richmond with a young Hungarian girl, Luca, who was a friend of our’s girlfriend,” Mr Stafford said.
“We gave her a 90-day job for her visa, anyway long-story-short, we had to go to a wedding in Budapest because she called us her ‘Aussie mum and dad’,” Mr Stafford said.
While in Europe Mr Stafford and his wife Belinda rented a car and “drove 8000kms” sightseeing before they ran out of the ground and flew to Ireland to continue their European trip, stopping to tour Coolmore Stud.
“We met the people at Coolmore Stud and we fell in love with the people,” Mr Stafford said.
Mr Stafford and his wife sold their Richmond properties and cattle in July 2022 and bought two farms in Ireland - and then brought into a colt being trained by Joseph O’Brien and a filly in Joseph Murphy’s stables.
The filly ended up being Cercene - she’d won over Mr Stafford when he saw her initial race start where she ran from last to third.
“A friend of ours had a share in her and he wanted to get out, so we bought in,” he said.
“Another owner wanted to get out after her win at her next start, so we bought in again because I wanted Joe Murphy (the trainer) and his son to keep her.”
Mr Stafford described Cercene as a “pony-sized pocket rocket”.
“What a humbling experience, but I have kept faith in this filly and training staff to be rewarded unbelievably,” he said.
“To receive the trophy from King Charles was an honour and we chatted about cattle way too long for the TV apparently.”
Among Australia’s racing media, stories flourished about Mr Stafford and his conversation with King Charles - they talked about Santa Gertrudis bulls from Eidsvold Station, according to Mr Stafford.
But in the UK, racing reporters were all over Cercene’s 70-year-old trainer, Joseph Murphy, who was described as a “grassroots” trainer who’d sourced all his winners through his “own eyes and pockets”, according to Thoroughbred Daily News.
“It’s all about the dam’s side because we can’t afford to buy good stallions,” Mr Murphy said.
“We buy nice models that look like racehorses. And that’s it.”
In a twist of fate, Cercene ran in the gold jockey silks Mr Stafford’s grandfather registered 89 years ago in Monto, outside Bundaberg.
Mr Stafford still works part-time as a stock and land agent for a few special clients in the Burdekin and North-West, and runs about 1600 steers near Hughenden.
When he’s in Australia, he’s based in Ayr.
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Originally published as Outback stock agent Shane Stafford’s Irish horse Cercene wins The Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot
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