In today's Rowe On Monday, Tim Rowe speaks to bloodstock agent Shane McGrath about Rosberg's debut win, he checks out the quality of Wootton Bassett's 2025 book and reveals why America could be the next frontier for Hong Kong buyers.
Rosberg a rousing success for McGrath and McDonald, but what’s in the next crop?
The minutes after Rosberg’s impressive debut McKenzie Stakes win at Moonee Valley, agent Shane McGrath and trainer Clinton McDonald felt a sense of relief as much as anything.
McDonald, in particular, had talked up the Deep Field colt’s potential for almost 12 months and on Saturday, the now three-year-old delivered, putting a career-defining Coolmore Stud Stakes firmly on the agenda.
There was a dinner on Saturday night to celebrate the occasion with the McGraths and the McDonalds as well as the rest of the syndicate, which had shelled out $750,000 to buy Rosberg at last year’s Inglis Ready2Race Sale.
Cranbourne-based McDonald had the inside running on the early ability of Rosberg, a $260,000 Inglis Easter Yearling purchase by McGrath, having prepared the cohort of the agent’s trade horses for the Inglis two-year-old sale last October.
There was also another breakfast on Sunday after checking on how Rosberg had pulled up, then it was back to business.
Under the watchful eye of McDonald and McGrath, as well as his son Darcy, who strapped Rosberg on Saturday at Moonee Valley, the latest group Rathosheen Bloodstock-consigned juveniles to be offered at the Ready2Race sale on October 16 ramped up their work on Monday morning.
They are in the final stages of their preparation ahead of the September 30 breeze-ups at Wangaratta.
The group to gallop included two-year-olds by Toronado, Exceed And Excel, Alabama Express, Brave Smash and Tiger Of Malay.
“Obviously, Rosberg is our flagship horse, but we've got a couple of other horses that have gone to Hong Kong out of our initial draft that we (sold) who are showing promise and the latest crop are in the final stages of their prep now,” McGrath said.
It was about this time last year that McDonald began to have an inkling that Rosberg was something different, and he started rallying support to ensure the colt remained in his care, having overseen most of his early education.
“Clint can probably answer it better, but he's got such a good system down there with Ben Melham and Jamie Melham, who do a lot of his gallops and his fast work,” McGrath said.
“What they were saying to him, from a training perspective, gave him the confidence (to buy him).”
After Saturday’s race, one of the first people to offer congratulations to McGrath on Rosberg’s win was US-based bloodstock agent Marie Yoshida, the long-time buyer of the Liang family’s “California” monikered horses who have raced with distinction in Hong Kong and Australia.
Yoshida was also the underbidder on Rosberg.
“From my point of view, I brought him with some partners to trade him at the ready to run (sale),” McGrath said.
“And when he went into the ring, he had a reserve of far less than that ($750,000), so if he'd gone to Hong Kong, for my brand and from that perspective, with the ability he has, it wasn't going to do us any harm at all.
“But the fact is that he stayed here and obviously we had the opportunity to buy it back into the horse … at the new price, not the old one. (So far he’s) been a win for everybody and, and you've got to give Clinton his credit.”
There were also similarities between Rosberg and other high-class horses McGrath is credited with buying such as Golden Slipper winner Farnan and the McDonald-trained Blue Diamond-winning filly Hayasugi.
“As someone told me years ago when you're buying one, you've got to imagine them walking around with a saddlecloth on them in a big one (race).,” McGrath said.
“Could you see him walking around in a Golden Slipper or walking around in a Coolmore? Well, you know, the honest answer is you could. And you could say the same about Farnan or Prague or even Hayasugi.
“She had the most beautiful quality about her, that filly. Her pedigree at the time didn't suggest she'd be as good as she was. But after she'd shown her ability, I showed her to numerous good judges and they all raved about her as a physical type.”
Wootton Bassett chosen as Clean Energy’s maiden beau
Coolmore shuttler Wootton Bassett chalked up another Group 1 winner in Europe at the weekend, with Al Shaqab homebred Sahlan landing the Prix du Moulin du Longchamp (1600m).
The upset Group 1 scorer, who is Wootton Bassett’s 16th elite level winner, comes as the sire is in the early stages of his southern hemisphere season where he will cover a select band of Australasia’s premier broodmares.
Among them are the recently retired Sunshine In Paris, the three-time Group 1 winner owned by Fairway Thoroughbreds’ John Camilleri, and Sunlight’s stakes-winning sister Clean Energy is another booked to the top sire.
A sister to champion mare Sunlight, Clean Energy brings together two of world racing and breeding’s superpowers in Coolmore and Yulong, who jointly paid $2.6 million for the daughter of Zoustar at the 2023 Magic Millions sale on the Gold Coast.
Trained by Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott, dual stakes winner Clean Energy was retired last week on the eve of the spring.
Wootton Bassett has five first-crop southern hemisphere-bred three-year-olds entered for Saturday’s Group 2 Run To The Rose.
American strength could suit Hong Kong
From a global bloodstock perspective, all eyes will be on the US and Keeneland for its September Yearling Sale, which starts Monday night (Australian time) in Kentucky.
While Australasian participation is expected to be limited, the Hong Kong Jockey Club, through its southern hemisphere representative, Craig Rounsefell, is compiling a shortlist of potential candidates to be educated and re-offered at its International Sale.
And one Hong Kong trainer who advocates for more American-bred horses racing at Sha Tin and Happy Valley is David Eustace, who is in his second season based in Asia.
“I think America is interesting (because) I think the style of horse (and their) physique really suits Hong Kong,” Eustace told last week’s Straight Talk podcast.
“I actually went to America before coming to Hong Kong because 90 per cent of our training is on dirt and so it's about 10 per cent to 15 per cent of racing.
“It's not all about size and weight, but just with the style of training and racing here, where horses are in work, for 10, if not 11 months of the year, they just need to be horses that carry condition.
“They don't necessarily have to be a certain height or a certain weight, but if they have got some strength about them, I think it's very important. With American horses, largely that's bred into them and you certainly have the dirt breed, which has to help too.”
