The result promises to be more important to the trainer than his horse should a fledgling stable defy the odds in the Caulfield Guineas.
Less than 12 months since opening for business - and on the eve of the Caulfield Cup carnival - Dominic Sutton is trying to reconcile how he finds himself with a runner in one of Australia’s principal races for three-year-olds.
“If somebody had turned around to me and said, ‘you know, you're going to have a Group 1 runner in the Caulfield Guineas in your first 12 months of training’, you wouldn't have believed them,” Sutton told The Straight.
Among the Guineas' lesser fancied runners, Feroce is Sutton’s stable star among a string of horses that has increased from single figures to 30 since moving from Pakenham to Ballarat to accommodate growing interest that continues to expand his client base.
A $NZ160,000 New Zealand Bloodstock Ready to Run purchase from Karaka last year, Feroce takes his place in the Guineas trying to emulate his sire Super Seth.
Super Seth ran down Alligator Blood to win the 2019 edition. Like many colts who won before him and the three that have followed since - Ole Kirk, Anamoe and Golden Mile - the Guineas fast-tracked their path to stud.
Alas, Feroce is consigned to a racing career - gelded long before he set foot on a racetrack but a fit-for-purpose buy for a young trainer from the UK who needed something to showcase his wares to potential owners.
Tapping into the vast knowledge of family friend and prominent bloodstock agent Johnny McKeever and with the backing of owners such as UK-based Simon Chappell, a ready-to-run sale was identified as the quickest way to bring a new stable to life.
“When I first took out the licence in December, I needed horses to train,” Sutton said.
“And we realised that by going to the yearling sale and just buying yearlings was not the approach.
“ You need to have horses that are ready to go … ones that are ready in a relatively short period of time.
“So, we circled the Karaka Ready to Run sale and thought that was the right sale to target.
“A lot of good horses come out of there and they present them very well. So, we went over there with the idea of buying a couple.”
With Feroce going into the Guineas as the winner of two races from five starts and the stable’s promising filly Khadime contesting a supporting race on Saturday, the New Zealand foray has been an unbridled success.
“A lot of the early horses I got into the yard are owned by people from the UK,” Sutton said.
“In the initial few months, people are just watching and they’re interested but they want to see you do it.
“For us to be able to get a few nice horses in the door and get some results really helped us get the stable off the ground.
“Having Johnny McKeever alongside me has been a big help. He’s obviously a renowned bloodstock agent and it works well for us because he’s on both sides of the pond.
“He works six months a year in the UK and six months here in Australia. It works well for the clients that we’ve got.”
Chappell is a UK businessman who shares in the ownership of Feroce and Khadime and Sutton says the owner, who made a name for himself as the pinhooker of four-time Group 1 winner and now Darley stallion Blue Point, is right behind the stable.
“Simon has been very successful in the UK but he’s going to have a big footprint over here in Australian racing,” Sutton said.
“He knows what he is doing and what he’s looking at. He came to the sales this year and we bought five fillies. They are nicely bred fillies with a bit of a page there.”
As he prepares to share a spring spotlight that is a playground for the global resources available to Godolphin, the platform for training genius that is Chris Waller and a stage for the juggernaut of Ciaron Maher’s operation, Sutton is embracing the challenge.
He will do so without the added pressure of knowing the Guineas can be a make-or-break race for a colt.
“We don’t have to worry about that, we’ve just got to go out, put the horse in a race where we think we can win good prize money,” Sutton says.
“The Guineas is a race everyone's got circled in their calendar … I know the history behind the race and to be able to have a runner is a great feat in itself for the stable and the people who have supported me.”
