A Compelling power – business mixes with sentiment for Gooree on Everest day

Before the idea of splashing around millions on a reinvented spring carnival became a reality, sponsorship investment in racing didn’t come any bigger than the money Eduardo Cojuangco poured into the Sydney scene.

In a contribution that nowadays borders on the unimaginable, Cojuangco tipped in $40 million over five years to support what was then the Australian Jockey Club’s (AJC) major autumn attraction.

Cojuangco’s financial backing helped turn the traditional Easter AJC Derby meeting and seven supporting races, including the Doncaster Handicap, into the richest day’s racing of its time.

The Derby carried a $1.9 million purse and the Doncaster, always regarded as one of Australia’s best races outside of the Melbourne spring, had $2.4 million attached to match its prestige.

Cojuangco, the Filipino billionaire businessman, leveraged his position as chairman and chief executive of the San Miguel Corporation to sponsor the AJC.

It was also an action borne of his passion for the thoroughbred and a thank-you for the opportunities that Australian racing gave him, as he established Gooree Stud as a private playground that delivered celebrated public results on the racetrack.

“Racing got a lot more out of that than San Miguel did,” Andrew Baddock, who managed Cojuangco’s Australian and racing and breeding interests at the time, said in a later interview.

“It was a very generous gesture. He was keen to do it because he loves Australian racing.”

A few lengths behind Sheikh Mohammed’s Darley and Godolphin for size and scale, Cojuangco had up to 300 horses on his Australian books, with at least 90 in training at any one time.

From Gooree, a famous thoroughbred nursery outside of Mudgee in NSW’s central west, Cojuangco raised an endless number of homebreds that figured on racing’s biggest stages.

Aptly named ironhorse Desert War became a Gooree favourite while Northern Meteor was without question Cojuangco’s fastest, and now, thanks to the deeds of his sons and grandsons, his most influential.

Along with others such as Hallowed Crown, Smart Missile, Your Song, Prized Icon and Lazer Hawk, they have played a significant part in making Gooree’s red and black silks among the most identifiable on Australian racetracks for the past two decades.

Cojuangco’s deep pockets complemented the state-of-the-art property in the wine-growing region, a 3-1/2 drive west of Sydney, as a haven for producing top horseflesh.

In 2000, he outbid a southern hemisphere record to pay $NZ3.6 million for a Zabeel yearling from the famed Eight Carat family at Karaka.

Named Don Eduardo, the colt lived up to his cost and pedigree as a three-year-old to win the San Miguel-sponsored AJC Derby.

When San Miguel’s deal ended in 2004, the AJC admitted it was left with a shortfall of $2 million in sponsorship revenue.

But Cojuangco never gave a thought to downsizing his racing interests. In fact, his fortunes on the racetrack flourished.

Desert War scored back-to-back Epsom Handicap wins before graduating to weight-for-age ranks with Mackinnon Stakes, Ranvet Stakes and Queen Elizabeth Stakes victories and Northern Meteor came along soon after.

Northern Meteor’s racing career was brilliant but fleeting. It was the same way his stud career unfolded.

Losing Northern Meteor to colic was a cruel blow, but the young stallion’s demise was softened with another era of sustained success for Gooree.

Over the next decade, horses such as Hallowed Crown, Smart Missile, Your Song and Prized Icon made their way to stud.

Later, Tropical Squall and Speak Fondly enjoyed Group 1 success in the three-year-old fillies ranks.

Inducted into the Australian Racing Hall of Fame in 2015, Cojuangco died in 2020.

But his influence still looms large over the Australian industry. Appropriately, Gooree links that represent a new direction for the stud since Cojuangco’s death at the age of 85,  will be easily found on Everest day at Randwick, now without rival as Australia’s richest race meeting.

Briasa will represent the Twin Hills Stud-based stallion Smart Missile in the Everest, and Melody Again and Compelling Truth run for a share of $2 million in The Kosciuszko, the latter in the famous red and black colours.

Melody Again is a daughter of Your Song, a cornerstone sire of Gooree’s move from a private concern to a more commercial outlet that includes new additions to a small stallion roster.

Prized Icon has returned to his birthplace to continue his career at stud, while the 2019 Everest winner Yes Yes Yes, owned by a syndicate that includes prominent racing figure Julia Ritchie, has relocated from Coolmore.

A Briasa or Melody Again victory will be good for business, but if Compelling Truth wins, it will mean more than any other result for general manager Jeanette Tioseco, who runs Gooree Park for the Cojuangco family.

Compelling Truth is raced on lease to clients of Mack Griffith, who supervised the pre-training of the Cojuangco team before taking up stables at Mudgee racecourse.

“He is one of the last horses Mr Cojuangco bred, being out of Speak Fondly,” Tioseco said.

“After Mr Cojuangco passed away, basically we still have a breeding program but we are more of a boutique-style farm now and we are at a level we think we can handle.

“But what Mr Cojuangco was able to create with five stallions in 10 years from his own broodmares is a very big accomplishment.

“I was always telling him that creating a stallion takes at least 10 years from the time of imagining which sire will be serving your mare up to the time that the first runner of that stallion, the first progeny runs. So it’s not easy.”

Gooree has been transformed into an all-purpose farm that includes vineyards and a cellar door, a continued focus on producing wagyu beef cattle and a fresh emphasis on farm stay visits.

“We have opened our doors to agri-tourism. The property is our own slice of heaven and earth, so we decided to share it with those who also enjoy racing.”