How an Australian Guineas-winning colt found a home on a Victorian wheat and sheep farm

There is an aberration among all the colts who have won an Australian Guineas that lays bare the realities of the commercial breeding industry against a backdrop of well-intentioned sentiment.

His name is Lunar Fox and not for the first time, the odds are stacked against the horse who shocked the racing world three years ago.

Given no chance in a race that included blueblood colt Ole Kirk, a close relation to the champion mare Black Caviar, Lunar Fox produced a late surge to win one of Australia’s premier three-year-old events at the history-making odds of $301.

Lunar Fox returned to scale as the longest-priced winner of an Australian Group 1 race amid scenes of disbelief.

The reception was hardly consummate with the prestige that is bound to one of the autumn’s most important races. His trainer Paul Preusker didn’t bother going to Flemington.

And his jockey Michael Dee seemed just as stunned as the Guineas day crowd.

“To be honest, I didn’t give him much hope. No one else really did either,” Dee said.

Blinkers did the trick after a dismal return in the CS Hayes Stakes but part-owner Greg Baldwin revealed other factors came into play.

In a bid to reignite a competitive spirit, months of planning to keep the colt focused and as far away as possible from the fillies in Preusker’s stable was abandoned in the lead-in to the Guineas.

It worked.

“They put a filly next door to him and he got a bit revved up and he might have got schooled over a jump that week as well. It turned him around,” Baldwin said.

“He came out on Guineas day like a real man.”

Nevertheless, Baldwin watched the race on television in a shed on his wheat and sheep property he runs near St Arnaud in Victoria’s Wimmera region.

And now one of the inhabitants of a paddock on that farm serves as a constant reminder of one of Baldwin’s greatest days as an owner – and the fickle nature of racing.

It’s where Lunar Fox is living his best life with a retired gelding as his mate, having cheated death when a serious injury ended his racing career.

But it’s also a long way removed from the journey traversed by fellow Guineas alumni such as Zabeel, Flying Spur and Pins as they embarked on stud careers that made them breed-shapers throughout Australasia.

And there have been others: Shamus Award, Reset, Dash For Cash among some of the more notables for their success at stud from an extensive list of graduates.

Lunar Fox, a son of Foxwedge who cost $45,000 as a yearling, emerged as a potential stud prospect with his VRC Sires’ Produce Stakes win as an autumn two-year-old.

In keeping with many other colts with a similar racing record, an Australian Guineas triumph should have clinched the deal but a loss of form and a sudden retirement because of a fractured leg left the entire in the breeding wilderness.

“We didn’t get a heap of interest … his form dropped and then he was injured,” Baldwin said.

“He was insured and any other horse would have been put down but when they found out he was insured they had to take the chance to try to fix him.

“And bugger me dead if they didn’t manage to screw his leg together.

“Still, I suppose there were just too many queries about his future so we just kept him.

“Anyone thinking about standing him before would have been nervous I imagine, given his injury, but we’re a couple of years down the track now so I think we’re pretty safe.”

And thanks to what Baldwin says “might be stupid sentimentality”, Lunar Fox served two mares in the 2022 breeding season and he was even more active in 2023 with seven coverings.

“We just sent him a couple of average mares but he’s too well-performed to just do nothing with,” Baldwin said.

“I just like to follow the horses through and I suppose I’m a bit sentimental about this bloke but I knew there would be a few people interested in his foals.

“So we’ll get a couple of foals and race them among our friends and see what happens.

“You never know. If his first horse – he’s only got two in his first crop which makes it almost impossible – if they showed something he might end up with a few more.”

“They put a filly next door to him and he got a bit revved up and he might have got schooled over a jump that week as well. It turned him around. He came out on Guineas day like a real man” – Greg Baldwin

Baldwin, who is enjoying time in the spotlight again as the breeder and co-owner of Steparty, has been involved in racing long enough to know the odds of Lunar Fox ever becoming a truly commercial stallion are much higher than those offered in the Australian Guineas.

“Because of the Guineas, everyone sort of writes him off as fluke,” Baldwin said.

“Realistically the chances of him being successful (as a sire) are more than 300/1, I would have thought.

“He just hasn’t had the opportunity but we’re not giving up on him in a hurry.

“That’s what makes racing what it is. You just can’t go and buy the best and expect to get the best. There is still opportunity there.”

And even if there is only a glimmer of hope, that’s all Lunar Fox might need to prove the doubters wrong for a third time.