For more than two decades, Evergreen Stud Farm’s Tony Bott and Hong Kong owner-breeder PK Siu have been developing the family of talented but arguably under-the-radar colt Anode.
The association started in the early 2000s when Bott negotiated privately with Coolmore to buy the stakes-placed Cirque du Soleil - a sister to top sprinter and later champion sire Fastnet Rock - to provide his client with a high-quality commercial broodmare.
The sum paid for Cirque du Soleil is unknown. The Irish didn’t give her away, but whatever the amount, Siu's investment then and since has been more than worth it.
And Evergreen’s biggest payday may just be around the corner.
The three-year-old, co-trained by Bott’s son Adrian at Tulloch Lodge for owner Siu, will attempt to upstage his rivals in the Group 1 Golden Rose as one of just four colts in the race not already aligned with a stud.
Tony Bott was this week cruising around Europe on holiday, so he deferred to his son Aaron who manages Evergreen Stud Farm at Heatherbrae near Newcastle.
Aaron Bott, the elder brother of trainer Adrian, takes up the story of Anode, one of 35 I Am Invincible colts offered at last year’s Magic Millions sale on the Gold Coast.
He was, however, unable to find a buyer, passed in with a reserve of $375,000, and put into the colours of Siu’s red, black and diagonal striped colours, also worn by Group 1-winning stablemate Converge.
“There were two people who really loved the horse. One was (Magic Millions’) Adrian Hancock who definitely loved him on inspections and noticed him in the paddock. We still joke about it,” Aaron Bott told The Straight.
“He said, ‘what's that horse?’ He just stood out to him and that was from the paddock before he knew what it was.
“Then there was (bloodstock agent) Dean Hawthorne who liked him a lot at the sales, but obviously he found another one that he thought was better.
“He did say there's a lot of Vinnies at that sale and I don't know if he got lost or what, but we didn't put a high reserve on him for a Vinnie and for whatever reason he didn't sell. But, again, it has turned out to be good fortune for us.”
Arthur and Harry Mitchell, who stand Anode’s three-time champion sire I Am Invincible at Yarraman Park near Scone, are adamant that his progeny are far more effective on dry tracks and Aaron Bott isn’t about to question that hypothesis.
Certainly not in the case of Anode, anyway, a colt who was stakes-placed in the Lonhro Plate, the Pago Pago and the Baillieu at two.
Rosehill was rated as a heavy 8 on Friday morning.
“He is very much underrated and an almost forgotten horse. As a two-year-old, we probably went to the well one too many times with him and hindsight's always a great thing,” Bott said.
“His last two races were on really heavy tracks and he didn't quite handle them, they didn't suit him.
“The start before those Group 1s he really should have won that race (Baillieu) where Linebacker just beat him.
“He was giving Linebacker three kilos and only got beaten by a whisker.”
The underrated tag placed on Anode could possibly be drawn from the fact that he’s played second fiddle to stablemates Lady Of Camelot, the Slipper winner, and publicity machine and Golden Rose rival Storm Boy, throughout much of his short career to date.
Storm Boy, the subject of a $22.5 million buyout by Coolmore after his authoritative Magic Millions victory in January, has taken many of the headlines, including for his last-start defeat in the Run To The Rose when beaten by Godolphin’s Traffic Warden and Anode.
Again, Broadsiding ($3.30 favourite), Traffic Warden ($4), Storm Boy ($4.60) and Linebacker ($6.50) are ahead of Anode ($14) in early Golden Rose betting.
“He's come back better than ever. He won two trials and that run in the Run To The Rose was huge, so hopefully he'll finally take the next step and go well in the Golden Rose,” Bott says.
“I think he is a Group 1 horse and he deserves a race like that.”
A victory by the son of I Am Invincible would also put him up on a pedestal alongside Home Affairs, Hellbent, Brazen Beau and Move To Strike, all Group 1-winning colts for the Yarraman Park stallion, and his appeal as a sire prospect would be enhanced considerably. He already boasts a stallion's pedigree thanks to that Fastnet Rock connection.
“Being a son of I Am Invincible from the family of Fastnet Rock, if he's got that Group 1 tag against his name, he’d definitely be a great addition to any stallion farm as he's definitely got the looks,” Bott said.
Tactics will play a key role in the result of the Golden Rose, with stablemate Storm Boy slowly away in the Run To The Rose before being driven forward by jockey Adam Hyeronimus.
In the Golden Rose, Storm Boy drew barrier 11, one outside Anode who led early in the Run To The Rose before his stablemate took the lead and Switzerland took up the position outside the leader. It left Anode sitting third.
“Being a son of I Am Invincible from the family of Fastnet Rock, if he's got that Group 1 tag against his name, he’d definitely be a great addition to any stallion farm as he's definitely got the looks” - Aaron Bott
As for tactics on Saturday, Aaron Bott said his brother had not given him any early indication of where it is intended Anode to be settling in the run for jockey Tim Clark, a noted exceptional judge of pace.
“I'm not going to get into tactics. I'll leave that to Adrian and the jockey, but I'm sure it'll be a very interesting race,” he says.
It will also be Adrian Bott’s call where Anode races next, with or without a Group 1 beside his name.
Could it be a Caulfield Guineas over 1600 metres or freshened up for the 1200m Roman Consul?
“At some stage we're going to have to separate them and stop taking on all the big boys, I guess, and try to find a suitable race for him rather than head-butt each other all the time,” Aaron Bott says.
Outside Anode, Linebacker, Clear Proof and the James Harron Bloodstock-raced Fearless are the three other colts not either part or outright owned by a stud in the Golden Rose.
