Southport Tycoon all business in landing Australian Guineas upset

Ciaron Maher’s business-as-usual approach to training and a legacy left by a pioneer of the shuttle stallion ranks has delivered a windfall result for the “forgotten horse” of the Australian Guineas.

Southport Tycoon, the lesser-fancied of Maher’s two runners in the $1 million race, responded to a precise Jamie Kah ride to beat Veight and the favourite Riff Rocket.

The victory significantly elevates Southport Tycoon’s ranking as a marketable sire prospect while marking Maher’s first Group 1 win since the departure of former co-trainer David Eustace.

Maher and Eustace trained the 2022 Australian Guineas winner Hitotsu.

“He was almost the forgotten colt really,” Maher said of Southport Tycoon. “I was very confident last start and I almost doubted myself a little bit.”

In getting the better of Veight, Southport Tycoon led home a sire quinella for Victorian-based breeding operation Yulong.

Southport Tycoon is a son of champion stallion Written Tycoon while Veight is one of the flagbearers from the first crop of the 2018 Australian Guineas winner Grunt.

Southport Tycoon and Veight are also great grandsons of the Irish sire Last Tycoon, regarded at the time as one of the best-performed northern hemisphere racehorses to shuttle to Australia for stallion duties in the early 1990s.

Last Tycoon was champion Australian sire on earnings in 1993/94 – the same season his outstanding son Mahogany followed up a Victoria Derby win with an Australian Guineas victory en route to an AJC Derby triumph.

Southport Tycoon’s win was also an appropriate result for Queensland breeder Jan Clark and her Daandine Stud.

Like his sire, Southport Tycoon was bred and sold by Clark at the Gold Coast Magic Millions sale.

Prominent syndicator Nathan Bennett paid $300,000 for Southport Tycoon.

Clark also bred and sold Written Tycoon’s Magic Millions 2YO Classic and Golden Slipper-winning son Capitalist.

SOUTHPORT TYCOON CLAIMS THE 2024 AUSTRALIAN GUINEAS!

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“Nathan (Bennett) and his whole business, they’ve put a lot in, there’s not a race you see go round that there’s not the Bennett Racing colours in,” Maher said.

“And this colt’s always promised so much, these are your Tatts lotto tickets, colts in Group 1s.”

The Guineas reaffirmed the depth of Maher’s stable when his Caulfield Guineas winner Griff missed the race after an aborted autumn campaign.

It also provided a personal connection to important races over the Flemington mile that have delivered pivotal moments in Maher’s career.

Well before he established a stable that now rates as one of the most ubiquitous in the nation – and one that is once again operated eponymously – Maher joined the ranks of Group 1-winning trainers when Tears I Cry won the 2007 Emirates Stakes.

Rebadged in recent times as the Champions Mile, Pride Of Jenni’s victory during last year’s Melbourne Cup carnival stands as the last Group 1 success he shared with Eustace.

As Southport Tycoon put himself on the stallion radar, in Sydney, Storm Boy’s value as a future sire continues to increase with every win.

Storm Boy extended an unbeaten record in winning the Skyline Stakes at his first start since Coolmore bought into the brilliant son of its headline-grabbing sire Justify in a deal that could value the two-year-old at $60 million before the end of the autumn.

Along with Coolmore’s involvement came a rider switch as James McDonald took over from Adam Hyeronimus, the Tulloch Lodge-aligned jockey who partnered Storm Boy to win the Magic Millions 2YO Classic.

But McDonald will likely find himself riding against Storm Boy in the Golden Slipper although a Coolmore-Golden Slipper relationship still looms large through the $1.5 Snitzel colt Switzerland.

Ryan Moore has circled March 23 in his riding diary for a Golden Slipper booking as he tries to replicate a 2023 fly-in, fly-out triumph on Shinzo for a Coolmore-backed syndicate.

And there was almost an air of resignation surrounding McDonald’s glowing appraisal of the colt who is now undefeated in four starts.

“Obviously Ryan is their (Coolmore) number one and we’ll see what happens,” McDonald said.

“But if I get the opportunity to ride him (in the Slipper) I would love do that, for sure.”

On a track that was downgraded after the race, Storm Boy ran a marginally faster time than Manaal did in winning the Sweet Embrace Stakes for the fillies.