Cover image courtesy of Sportpix
The rain may have dampened spirits at yesterday’s Magic Millions Raceday on the Gold Coast, but not before connections of Rush Hour (Russian Revolution) could enjoy his impressive success in the inaugural Magic Millions The Debut, a win that saw his sire unearth yet another contender for the autumn’s juvenile features.
A mere few hours earlier, another Russian Revolution colt by the name of Red Resistance landed the 2-Year-Old Handicap at Rosehill Gardens, claiming the scalp of the highly-touted Steel City (Merchant Navy) in a sustained duel up the straight.
Both the winner and runner-up were bred by Sir Owen Glenn’s Go Bloodstock, who opted to keep a share in $700,000 Magic Millions yearling graduate Steel City while retaining Red Resistance to race in partnership with Newgate.
Early evidence suggests that those two decisions could pay a handsome dividend for Go Bloodstock, who are enjoying an excellent season with their juveniles thus far.
“Sir Owen watched the race with me and we’re really thrilled,” O’Connor said. “He wanted to have a really good go with the 2-year-old crop last year, so we retained some of the nicer colts that we bred.
“We also purchased horses with Henry (Field) and Gai (Waterhouse), spending a lot of money and trying to get the best opportunity to have those nice 2-year-old colts.
“We also purchased horses with Henry (Field) and Gai (Waterhouse), spending a lot of money and trying to get the best opportunity to have those nice 2-year-old colts.” - Steve O’Connor
“Red Resistance is one of the 2-year-old colts we retained, so it was fantastic to see that kind of faith in him justified with a good win on debut.
“It’s a testament really to Sir Owen’s investment and the drive to focus on this 2-year-old crop. Stallions is what Sir Owen wants to achieve and this is the fruit of his investment. He’s a very exciting horse for us.”
A masterstroke
Having initially been entered in last year’s Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale, Red Resistance was withdrawn after the decision was made not to sell him, a move which could prove to be a masterstroke should he progress as his connections expect.
Red Resistance as a yearling | Image courtesy of Inglis
“We were strategising at the time and tossing up different plays going forward, so we originally entered him for the sale,” O’Connor added. “He was a horse that just kept improving every time we saw him, and we just thought he was a horse we couldn’t sell.
“For that reason we put him into the racing system and Matt Vella broke him in. We always thought he was a horse with a lot of promise.
“He’s a big horse, so pre-Christmas he just wasn’t ready. Gai and Adrian (Bott) gave him a little break and I think that patience early on has really been rewarded. He’s come in the second time a better horse mentally and physically, and he’s really gone on with it.
“He’s (Red Resistance) a big horse, so pre-Christmas he just wasn’t ready. Gai (Waterhouse) and Adrian (Bott) gave him a little break and I think that patience early on has really been rewarded.” - Steve O’Connor
“We will look at him as a Golden Slipper horse and plan how to get him to the Slipper in the best possible shape. He’s a beautiful black horse like his mum Heatherly and we think he’s a really nice horse.”
Heatherly (Lonhro), a Group 2 winner and multiple Group 1 placegetter for Mathew Ellerton and Simon Zahra, set Go Bloodstock back a cool $1.6 million in 2018 when she was purchased in conjunction with Paul Moroney Bloodstock at the Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale.
Red Resistance is only her second foal to race, and with her yearling colt by the reigning Champion Sire I Am Invincible being retained to race for next year, there is a definite sense that the best is yet to come from the daughter of Lonhro.
Heatherly, dam of Red Resistance | Image courtesy of Sportpix
“He’s a stunner, he’s as good a colt as we bred this year,” O’Connor said of the I Am Invincible yearling.
“He’s just a beautiful colt and judging on what Red Resistance did yesterday, we’re very excited to put him into the system to see what he can do.
“The mare is back in foal to Snitzel, so it’s very exciting. She has produced the goods for us early on and that’s exactly what you want to achieve when you spend big money on the mare.”
Maintaining the gallop
Coincidentally, Heatherly’s penultimate start on a race track saw her finish runner-up behind Russian Revolution in the G2 McEwen S., and the son of Snitzel hasn’t looked back since. He has made a superb start to life at stud and was crowned Champion First Season Sire last season on all key metrics, including both stakes winners and prizemoney.
Watch: Russian Revolution winning the G2 McEwen S. with Heatherly coming in second
There is every possibility that Saturday’s across-the-card double contributed heavily to Russian Revolution achieving his best result of the week in last night’s final session of Book 1, with Kia Ora and TFI going to $500,000 in conjunction with trainers Gerald Ryan and Sterling Alexiou for a colt out of stakes producer Hot Summer Night (Fusaichi Pegasus {USA}).
Earlier in the week, he unearthed another contender for this season’s juvenile features in the shape of The Instructor, who like Red Resistance is also trained by Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott. The Instructor’s 3l demolition job in the 2-year-old maiden at Pakenham on Thursday was enough to catapult him to second favourite for the G1 Blue Diamond S., a race in which Russian Revolution sired the runner-up twelve months ago.
The filly in question, Revolutionary Miss, added another Group 1 placing to her resume in the Thousand Guineas earlier this season and breezed to a comfortable trial victory at Rosehill on Thursday. She is heading on a path to the G1 Surround S., while her Peter and Paul Snowden-trained stablemate Russian Conquest will bid to go one place better than last year at this Thursday’s re-arranged Magic Millions Raceday.
It’s an exciting time for everyone associated with the stallion, and after buying two of his colts at this week’s Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale as part of the Newgate-China Horse Club colts partnership, O’Connor is confident that the best is yet to come.
“We’re super excited for Russian Revolution and we have always supported him with very good mares,” he said. “Last year in his first crop we had Rise Of The Masses, who’s a horse we have a big opinion of. He’s just coming back from a little setback but he’s a horse who we think can compete in the better 3-year-old races.
“We bred another five to 10 mares to him again this year, some of our better mares, and we have a lot of faith in the stallion, as does Henry (Field), China Horse Club, Gavin Murphy from S F Bloodstock, Matthew Sandblom. We have made the effort to make him into a good stallion and we think we’re very much on that path.
“We have made the effort to make him (Russian Revolution) into a good stallion and we think we’re very much on that path.” - Steve O’Connor
“I think the market maybe hasn’t copped on to how good these Russian Revolutions are just yet. He’s affordable to the trainers and syndicators, and I thought we did some really good buying on the Russians that we saw. They’re sharp, very tractable horses with good minds and they handle all conditions.
“We’ve always had complete faith in him, and judging on what we can see coming through, he could be a lot more expensive come Easter.”
