Santo Guagliardo, one of Western Australia’s most prolific owners, is hoping an affinity with South Australian racing can deliver an end-of-season stakes result in Adelaide.
About an hour from Perth on the way south to Western Australia’s famed Margaret River region, Santo Guagliardo is building a thoroughbred empire in much the same way he created a thriving transport company.
Starting with a vision as expansive as his growing bloodstock interests, Guagliardo is meticulously turning a former cattle property near the township of Waroona into prime horse real estate.
In his working life, Guagliardo set out with one truck and now he’s got up to 70 on the road at any given time.
His semi-trailers deliver general freight to some of the smaller mines in WA’s goldfields, but Guagliardo himself is more fond of digging for equine riches.
And as he has demonstrated in business, Guagliardo isn’t afraid of doing the hard yards.
Ridgeport Farm opened its doors for the 2023 breeding season with one stallion after Guagliardo relocated Rommel, a son of Commands he raced without seeing the best of him, to become the venture’s foundation sire.
Motivated by an increasing interest in the breeding side of the game as an extension of a lifelong passion for racing, Guagliardo is wasting no time.
One stallion has quickly become two with Ducimus, a son of Snitzel, joining Rommel on the Ridgeport roster in 2024.
“We’ve started from scratch. Once I bought the farm I had to get it set up. Virtually everything had to be done,” Guagliardo told The Straight.
“We had to change all the fencing, build a stable and some breeding barns. So we’ve done a pretty good job in the time.”
Coinciding with Guagliardo’s emergence as a new player in the WA breeding scene has been a racing season to remember for the Geraldton-born son of Italian migrants.
He celebrated Group 1 success for the first time when Bustler won the Railway Stakes, WA’s most prestigious race.
And he came close to winning another soon after when Kuroyanagi finished third behind Hayasugi and the subsequent Golden Slipper winner Lady Of Camelot in the Blue Diamond Stakes.
That completed an introduction to racing that announced Written Tycoon’s daughter as a spring prospect, a prediction that will be given an early examination in an end-of-season stakes race in Adelaide on Saturday.
Kuroyanagi will contest the Lightning Stakes alongside another Guagliardo-owned filly Harja who is also trained by Will Clarken and Niki O’Shea.
And while it might be a Listed race for two and three-year-olds buried away in the middle of winter, the Lightning has more than once been a launch pad for something much better.
Nature Strip thrashed Sunlight by six lengths when they met in 2018 and Viddora first became noticed as a sprinter of substance with her 2016 victory.
There is an expectation that Kuroyanagi can follow a similar path to Group 1 stardom.
Clarken and O’Shea rate Kuroyanagi among the upper echelon of horses in a stable that is locked in a battle with Richard and Chantelle Jolly for Adelaide trainer premiership honours.
In what surely must rate as a positive lead on Kuroyanagi’s chances, the filly will be one of only three Morphettville rides for Jamie Kah on Saturday
Kah will also reunite with Boognish, a Group 3 winner during the recent South Australian carnival for Clarken and O’Shea that Guagliardo also shares in the ownership.
“I never like to go the early crow with them but there’s every chance Kuroyanagi might be my next Group 1 winner,” Guagliardo said.
“Everything she’s raced and done is pointing in that direction.”
Clarken and O’Shea have trained two of the past three Lightning winners with Guagliardo also involved in the ownership of Beau Rossa (2021) and Extremely Lucky (2022).
“I never like to go the early crow with them but there’s every chance Kuroyanagi might be my next Group 1 winner." - Santo Guagliardo
It’s a profitable connection to South Australian racing that stretches back more than a decade when he was introduced to trainer Gary Kennewell.
Thanks to Kennewell, Guagliardo purchased Conservatorium, a talented sprinter who won nine races and went within a half-length of winning Adelaide’s best sprint race, The Goodwood.
“I met Gary through a worker of mine - he grew up with him - and I’ve stayed involved in South Australian racing ever since,” Guagliardo said.
“I’ve always had a bit of luck over there.”
That good fortune is expected to continue with Kuroyanagi a warm favourite to advance her record to two wins from five starts with the promise of more to come before she joins a flourishing broodmare band at Guagliardo’s new farm.
