Bosustow boost – Rosemont sets sights on CF Orr Stakes as a career-defining Group 1

After almost matching one global thoroughbred superpower for Melbourne Cup carnival success, Rosemont Stud will go toe-to-toe with another as having the most to gain out of the final Group 1 race of the Victorian spring.

Rosemont emerged from Flemington as one of the leading breeding operations across the four days with three winners – Tornado Valley, Guerite and Dance To The Boom.

It was a haul result bettered only by Godolphin with its international reach as Sheikh Mohammed’s stud celebrated two Group 1 victories as well as those of Burma Star and the overseas-bred Sunset Park.

“That was a big thrill to breed three winners during the carnival,” Rosemont’s Anthony Mithen told The Straight.

“I was walking pretty tall there last week. I was rapt that the team enjoyed it so much, and there was a lot of energy around the farm.”

That buzz around the Victorian breeding outfit could turn into a crescendo at Caulfield on Saturday, thanks to a piece of reprogramming that fits into the wheelhouse of one of Rosemont’s established racetrack stars.

Bosustow will contest the Group 1 CF Orr Stakes, a $1 million sprint over 1400m that has been reinvented as a spring finale after decades of being an autumn preview for returning weight-for-age horses.

For Mithen and his crew, the timing couldn’t be better as Bosustow tries to validate the ambitions that have been held for the entire since a Rosemont-led colts syndicate paid $900,000 for the richly bred four-year-old as a Magic Millions yearling.

A son of Blue Point who is a half-brother to the Group 1-winning mare Amelia’s Jewel, Bosustow has two Group 1 placings of his own.

They complement victories in the Magic Millions Guineas and Gold Coast Guineas and $2.3 million in stakes, but his commercial value will be considerably enhanced if he can lower the colours of Jimmysstar and an old rival in Yulong’s Angel Capital.

The Orr is a set-play race for Rosemont and the Annabel and Rob Archibald stable with Bosustow. It’s a move that draws a comparison with a newcomer to the stud’s stallion roster.

Schwarz has been standing his first season at stud at Rosemont, retiring as a Group 1-winning sprinter with a William Reid Stakes victory that was a reward for patience as much as it was for placement.

It’s a blueprint Mithen is hoping can be replicated with Bosustow, one of the Orr outsiders despite a Victoria Derby day placing at Group 3 level.

“For mine, he’s an underrated horse in the scheme of things,” Mithen said.

“I can make a case for us upsetting the two hotpots, but they’ll be hard to beat.”

Mithen said the Orr became a spring destination race for Bosustow at the expense of the Golden Eagle, a contest for four-year-olds that offers a $10 million purse.

The Golden Eagle sits alongside the Melbourne Cup as Australia’s equal second richest race but there is no black-type attached to that status – and that matters in the breeding world.

“We thought about rolling the dice and the Golden Eagle sat there as an attractive prospect,” he said.

“But it was coming up as a pretty hot race and we thought about it for a month.

“In the end he’s a colt and we’re trying to turn him into a stallion so we thought why not give him a Group 1 assignment and make that the grand final.

“So it’s all been geared towards getting him here for the Orr Stakes. Annabel and Rob have trained him for this race and he’ll go there with every chance. Hopefully he pays us back.”

There will be extra significance aligned to Bosustow’s Orr bid as one of only four foals produced by his dam, the Canford  Cliffs mare Bumbasina.

In a devastating blow for Amelia Park’s Peter Walsh, Bumbasina died this year carrying a foal to the champion sire Zoustar.

“Hopefully Bosustow can fly the family flag high and proud on Saturday,” Mithen said.

“He’s a very good-looking, expensive yearling by Blue Point … with an international pedigree, so he’s got a lot going for him.

“If we can tick that box on Saturday, well, suddenly he’s got everything going for him.”

Bosustow has six rivals in the Orr but that lack of numerical depth won’t lessen the challenge against Jimmystar, an Everest placegetter and a last-start winner of the Russell Balding Stakes.

The might of Yulong will be represented in Angel Capital and Vinrock, from separate stables.

Of Zhang Yuesheng’s pair, in a business sense, an Orr victory for Angel Capital is likely to be coveted more than one for Vinrock, who has already pocketed an elite-level win via the ATC Sires’ Produce Stakes to secure a place on an ever-expanding Yulong sire roster.

Bad luck denied Angel Capital a Group 1 in the Sir Rupert Clarke Stakes, and like Bosustow, the Group 2 winner’s bona fides as a future stallion will be enhanced with the right result in the Orr.