O'Brien forging new Russian frontiers

Russian Camelot is not only the first Northern Hemisphere-bred horse to win a South Australian Derby in its 160-year history, but he also becomes the first horse foaled outside of Australia and New Zealand to win any Derby in Australia.

To give that some context, there have been 615 previous editions of Australia's current Group 1-level derbies, the Victoria, Australian (formerly AJC), South Australia and Queensland Derbies.

Trainer Danny O'Brien not only defied history but rewrote conventional wisdom which said that a Northern Hemisphere bred 3-year-old, with a six-month age disadvantage on its rivals, could not win a Group 1 staying race in Australia.

The truth is that nobody had really ever tried, and when you consider that the G1 Epsom Derby is run in June, the readiness of these horses for the 2400 metre/2500 metre trips is well-proven. At one year, one month and 11 days, he is the youngest ever South Australian Derby winner but it is noteworthy he is actually older than Warning (Declaration Of War {USA}) when he won the G1 Victoria Derby in the spring.

It certainly paves the way for those who purchase yearlings out of the Northern Hemisphere sales to target races like the South Australian Derby and the Queensland Derby, which are held later in the season and traditionally have weaker fields. Those races have also proved attractive for Hong Kong buyers to purchase from with an eye to the Hong Kong Derby, which is ran for 4-year-olds, the following year.

Russian Camelot is the second Australian Group 1 winner this season to have been purchased by Australian interests out of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale, following in the footsteps of G1 Australian Cup winner Fifty Stars (Ire) (Sea The Stars {Ire}).

Russian Camelot was a 120,000 gns (AU$239,400) purchase by bloodstock agent Jeremy Brummitt on behalf of O'Brien and his clients out of the 2018 Tattersalls Sale, while Fifty Stars was picked up for 110,000 gns (AU$219,450) two years prior by John Foote on behalf of Gerry Ryan's Ryco Equine.

They are two of the 11 Northern Hemisphere-bred Group 1 winners in Australia this season, while all in all, 88 Group 1 races since 2010/11 in Australia have been won by internationally bred horses.

Table: Australian Group 1 wins by Northern Hemisphere-bred horses per season

A new trend

Fifty Stars and Russian Camelot are the only two internationally bred Group 1 winners in the past decade to have been sourced as yearlings by their Australian connections, with the remainder either sourced as tried horses, trained and owned overseas or transferred from overseas to local stables, such as often happens with Godolphin.

However, there has been a move towards more Australian agents, trainers and buyers sourcing their own young horses from the best Northern Hemisphere foal and yearling sales.

Gai Waterhouse has been buying at Japan's JHRA Select Sale over the past few years, sourcing Group winners Hush Writer (Jpn) (Rulership {Jpn}) and Wolfe (Jpn) (Novellist {Ire}), while Peter Moody secured five weanlings at the 2016 Tattersalls December Foal Sale, one of which, Shepard (GB) (See the Moon {Ger}) delivered him his first win on his training comeback on Sunday.

As well as several Australian agents buying on behalf of local and international clients, the likes of Aquis and Spicer Thoroughbreds were also on the buyers' list of last year's Tattersalls October Yearling Sale in 2019.

Following Makybe Diva's trail

The most famous import this century to have arrived in Australia in her formative years was of course triple Melbourne Cup winner Makybe Diva (GB) (Desert King {Ire}), who was less than 12 months old when she travelled from the United Kingdom.

Foote had sourced her dam Tugela (USA) (Riverman {USA}) on behalf of Tony Santic for 60,000 gns (AU$119,700) at the 1998 Tattersalls December Sale and she had foaled down at Britton House Stud, with the resultant foal to follow her dam to Australia after she was passed in at the 1999 Tattersalls Foal Sale.

With that Northern Hemisphere birthdate, she was given plenty of time to find her feet and didn’t debut until very late in her 3-year-old season and won her first Melbourne Cup as a 5-year-old (Southern Hemisphere).

Not Russian to comparisons

There are a few comparisons between the early stages of the careers of both Makybe Diva and Russian Camelot. Both are Northern Hemisphere-bred and Australian-raised and both made spectacular progress through the early parts of their careers, with Danny O'Brien's star colt ascending at an even quicker rate, winning a Group 1 at just start number five, while it took 14 starts for Makybe Diva to do the same thing.

The next time we see Russian Camelot is likely to be in the race named in the great mare's honour, the G1 Makybe Diva S. at Flemington in September.

“We’ll just give him the chance over the next few months to mature and then we’ll kick off in something like the Makybe Diva,” O’Brien told RSN on Sunday.

“Maybe the Makybe Diva then the Turnbull and that will tell us where he goes."

The obvious comparison for O'Brien is with his Melbourne Cup winner of last year, Vow And Declare (Declaration Of War {USA}), who was able to win the famous race at just his 12th start.

But O'Brien thinks that while Russian Camelot ran out the 2500 metres on Saturday in brilliant fashion, swooping home after a wide run to prevail by 1.8l going away, he is a much more brilliant horse than his stablemate and could prove a 1600-2000 metre horse in time.

O'Brien uses a genetic system for testing the stamina profile of horses and sees a marked difference between his two stars.

“He’s a CT on the scale, whereas Vow And Declare is the out-and-out stamina TT,” O’Brien said. “So he’s probably sharper than Vow And Declare going forward.

“Most of the stuff we’ve seen at home, he’s got the equal engine of him, particularly over a staying trip. He’s also at the same stage six months younger, so it’s an exciting next 12 months ahead of him.”