After Saturday's win in the G1 Underwood S. at Caulfield, his second Group 1 success in just seven starts, the Danny O'Brien-trained Russian Camelot, who is still a 3-year-old by Northern Hemisphere time, continues to rise to new heights.
He became the first Northern Hemisphere-bred horse to win one of the four Group 1 Derbys in Australia with his victory in the SA Derby in May, and his extraordinary progress has continued this spring with a Group 1 weight-for-age success under his belt on Saturday.
Russian Camelot is now $3.50 favourite for Australia's traditional weight-for-age championship, the G1 Cox Plate at what will be just his ninth start. Should he complete that task, it sets him up as an intriguing stud prospect going forward.
Dan Fletcher, who owns and operates Queensland's Telemon Stud, is a part-owner in Russian Camelot, and sees his considerable potential as a stallion prospect, but is also cognisant of the local market's preference for fast, precocious sires.
"Nick Williams tweeted last night that he's probably the best horse in Australia and certainly the most exciting stallion prospect," Fletcher told TDN AusNZ.
"I guess the challenge is that we can all say that, but when the time comes we really need to appreciate, and as an industry, embrace those horses. It will take the industry and the buying bench in Australia to support that and make it happen."
While he and fellow owners have enjoyed substantial success from Danny O'Brien's strategy to utilise local agent Jeremy Brummitt to purchase Russian Camelot out of the 2018 Tattersalls October Yearling Sale, Fletcher said it would be a pity if Australian investors saw that approach as a shortcut to homegrown success.
"There are yearling sales up there at the moment and we need to be careful as an industry that it doesn't just become a template for our buyers to simply go up and buy these horses. We should be trying to breed them down here, put them in the Easter catalogue, or wherever they need to go. There is no reason we can't get this blood working down here," he said.
"We need to be careful as an industry that it doesn't just become a template for our buyers to simply go up and buy these horses. We should be trying to breed them down here." - Dan Fletcher
Fletcher points to the fact that Russian Camelot's own sire, the multiple Derby winner Camelot (GB), stood in Australia for a season at Coolmore, to indicate the opportunities that were there for Australian breeders to access elite Northern Hemisphere staying bloodlines right here in this country.
"We miss a trick with these horses to a certain extent. Over the years, my observation is every time we tend to have an English Derby winner here, they inevitably leave their mark and only really get appreciated when they aren't here anymore," he said.
"It’s funny how the commercial landscape works. We never appreciate them enough, but they certainly are not lost on me how much they have to offer."
Camelot (GB) stood at Coolmore Australia for a season
A game changer?
Fletcher does believe a European-bred but locally based and raced stallion like Russian Camelot has the potential to change the game.
While the dominant sires in Australia tend to be those who fit the 'young and fast' mould, there are a host of top level weight-for-age performers who have made a significant impression as stallions in recent years.
Dundeel (NZ), Ocean Park (NZ) and So You Think (NZ) are all winners of the Underwood S. to go on to be stallions of note, while along with the latter two on that list, Savabeel, Shamus Award and Adelaide (Ire) are recent Cox Plate winners to have become Group 1-producing stallions in their own right.
"We talk about a Golden Slipper being a breed shaping race, and that's understandable, so too is the Coolmore, and in past years, the Caulfield Guineas. The Cox Plate is the other element to that especially when you have colts who can contest and win it," Fletcher said.
"It’s a proven formula that they inevitably produce Group 1 winners. I'm sure this horse would be no exception."
"It’s a proven formula that they inevitably produce Group 1 winners. I'm sure this horse would be no exception." - Dan Fletcher
The obvious question for Fletcher is whether he would put his money where his mouth is and stand Russian Camelot at Telemon if given the chance.
"We would think about standing any sort of quality animal that is commercial," he said.
"I'm not someone that wants to go broke while I argue with the market, so we need to offer horses that people are able to support and get the commercial return in the sales ring. He's definitely a horse that could fit all that criteria.
Part-owner Dan Fletcher would consider standing Russian Camelot (Ire) at Telemon Thoroughbreds if given the chance
"We would never presume to be angling in that direction and there is a lot to play out before we could ever do that. We’d be the same as everyone else. Fortunately for us, we are in the horse, which helps.
"He's a dual Group 1 winner after seven starts, you'd make a list of horses that have done that and it’s not a long list and everything on that list is a very special animal and he is no exception."
Group 1 success shared
While that might be a plan for somewhere down the path, Fletcher is focused on just enjoying the experience of having a share, along with a group of 20 close friends, in one of the most exciting horses in the land.
Fletcher and his wife Rae secured an interest in the horse through his contacts with fellow owners Melvyn Ford and Mark Edwards.
"Originally we had planned to be involved off our own bat and we mentioned him to a couple of others, who said 'that sounds like a good idea'. They spoke to a few of their friends, and suddenly we went from doing it ourselves to a few people and ended up with 10 couples involved," he said.
"We called it the Queensland Cup Colts and expected it to be a long, long, long term project and maybe we’d get a runner in a Melbourne Cup. We would have taken a Mornington Cup or a Beaudesert Cup to be honest, we certainly felt it was going to be a long term thing."
Dan and Rae Fletcher (centre and right) are part of Russian Camelot's (Ire) ownership along with 10 other couples
Instead, it has been a fast track to the best races of the spring, and a serious shot at a Cox Plate, with considerable upside to come beyond 2020.
"He's the equivalent of an autumn 3-year-old and that's the thing, he's such a freakishly talented individual. If he had have been a Southern Hemisphere horse, he would have been contesting stakes races at two and is the sort of horses that could win a Champagne S., Sires' Produce or a JJ Atkins," Fletcher said.
"He would have been a Group 1 level 2-year-old any day of the week, if he wasn't out of his age group. He's now just showing what he is capable of.
"You talk to Danny and he's got furnishing to come and whatever he's doing now there is no reason why he won't keep improving. He's entitled to do that and that’s what is so exciting about him."
