A Cox Plate-winning Cosmic cocktail – A Japanese sire, a Kentucky Derby-winning damsire, a French phenomenon and 19 generations of Australian mares

A New Zealand-bred Cox Plate winner by a Japanese stallion would not, on the surface, seem to owe much to Australian bloodlines, but while Cosmic Crusader’s pedigree is dotted with international sire influences, on its bottom line runs an Australian damline dynasty.

The Bob Peters-bred and -raced six-year-old descends from 19 successive Australian-bred mares, stretching back to a mare called Betty, foaled in Parramatta in 1818, 208 years prior to Saturday’s success.

Beyond Maurice, in strong positions of genetic influence are an American Kentucky Derby winner and a French stallion who helped shape Western Australian breeding.

Maurice’s own Australian spring began less auspiciously. As Cosmic Crusader embarked on his campaign for his new stable, the Japanese stallion arrived for his annual shuttle sojourn to Arrowfield with some unwanted passengers.

The ticks detected in quarantine delayed his arrival in the Hunter Valley. As John Messara detailed to The Straight’s Tim Rowe, Maurice nevertheless made it in time for the late-August parades and the start of the breeding season on September 1.

Since then, his progeny’s success, led by Cosmic Crusader, has taken Maurice to second in the Australian champion sire standings, with $8.4 million in prize money and five stakes winners. It looms as his most significant season.

So what about that NZ suffix? Cosmic Crusader’s Kiwi residency lasted just over four months. Destined for a date with Charm Spirit at Windsor Park, his dam Cosmic Storm was sent across the Tasman to foal down.

Cosmic Storm has visited Maurice seven times, with Peters committed to that mating. But in 2020, the pandemic meant that Maurice couldn’t shuttle. Cosmic Crusader’s Kiwi suffix is arguably a geopolitical accident.

Behind Maurice comes another international influence: Cosmic Storm’s sire Street Sense, the Kentucky Derby winner and Darley shuttle stallion who spent five seasons in Australia, from which he produced 10 stakes winners.

Street Sense is by Street Cry, whose influence on the Cox Plate becomes more remarkable by the year. There have been 16 starters in the Cox Plate with Street Cry in their pedigree, and on seven occasions this has resulted in a winner, while there have also been two seconds and two thirds.

Another generation back, Cosmic Storm’s dam Stormy Nova brings in the French-bred Metal Storm, whose influence runs through some of Peters’ best horses.

In 1995, Mungrup Stud’s Gray Williamson had wanted a son of Kenmare, and Brett Howard sourced Metal Storm for him for just under $100,000.

His success proved a slow burn, with no stakes winners from his first crop, but as Williamson recalled to Written In The Stars earlier this year, the winners started flowing in May of that first season.

From his second crop came six stakes winners: Storm Shot, Krystal Storm, Kalatiara, Metal Master, Dark ‘n’ Dangerous and the Group 1 winner Old Fashion.

In mid-September 2001, just three weeks into the new breeding season after a previous season of covering 144 mares at Mungrup, Metal Storm was found dead in his paddock from a snake bite.

“We had about 600 horses on the property at that time, and a snake found him,” Williamson said. “I reckon in all my time I could put only one other horse down to a snake bite.”

His 248 starters included 184 individual winners, 23 of them stakes winners. His premature death robbed WA of what would have been a generational influence.

As fate would have it, on the very same day, a Metal Storm filly out of the Protos mare Pro Challenge was foaled. Named Stormy Nova, she would win four stakes races for Peters and go on to produce four stakes winners herself, including the Group 1 winner Superstorm. She is also the dam of Cosmic Storm, and now the granddam of a Cox Plate winner.

Peters had been enthused by Metal Storm from the outset. In 2000, he purchased two of his fillies, Antique and Avenida Madero.

Antique is the second dam of Peters’ Group 1 winners Arcadia Queen and Regal Power, and Avenida Madero produced his Winterbottom Stakes winner Graceful Girl.

From Metal Storm’s daughters have come 28 stakes winners.

Further back in the damline, American-bred Protos and Irish-bred Moon Sammy extend that pattern to five successive generations matched with internationally bred sires. The one consistent factor was that long line of Australian mares.

According to Thoroughbred Heritage, Betty was foaled at Wentworth Stud, where Accor Stadium now sits at Sydney’s Olympic Park. She only had one foal, Camilla, who became a foundation mare at Manilla Stud, north of Tamworth. From that family extends a host of influential Australia familes, a Melbourne Cup winner in The Assyrian, and now, a Cox Plate winner.