FOR Luke Murrell and Jamie Lovett, principals at Australian Bloodstock, a day at the races in their “backyard” at Scone is far from a tough day’s work.
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Based at Rutherford, Australian Bloodstock is one of the leading thoroughbred syndicators in the land and the excitement of spring racing was captured on Friday when their lightly raced stallion Raiden was so very impressive in winning at Scone over 1100m.
The son of Foxwedge is prepared by Kris Lees and secured his second win at start six and is headed for higher honours.
“We bought Raiden as a tried horse … he was not expensive and now looks like returning his large group of owners a nice profit,” Luke Murrell said.
“Kris [Lee] considers this bloke to be at least Saturday ‘city’ class and he’s is bred to get over a little more ground than 1100m.”
His strong, late statistics tell the same story. The final 600m was covered at Scone in a slick 33.28 seconds, and that was the leader (at the 600m in Gold Skye) to the winner (Raiden).
Raiden’s dam Glowlamp won over 1600m and his next outing – in early October - albeit in tougher company, will give a clear insight into an extended spring agenda.
Australian Bloodstock’s attention will then turn to Melbourne, with the first Tuesday in November the focus.
Their royal blue, white horseshoe with black and white checked sleeves made national headlines in 2014 with Protectionist winning the Melbourne Cup for champion German trainer Andreas Wohler.
And their overseas Melbourne spring aspirants - Sixties Groove, Garcia and Red Cardinal - all prepared Wohler - arrive from Newmarket in England on Saturday.
Of that trio, Red Cardinal will head to the Melbourne Cup along with Big Duke and Admire Deus.
“Admire Deus flew into from Tokyo on Tuesday and after quarantine has been completed at Werribee, will head to Darren Weir’s stables at Warrnambool,” Murrell added.
“Our cup fifth cup entrant is Big Duke. He raced at Caulfield on Saturday and his next start will be in the Group 1 Metropolitan at Randwick on October 7.”
The Melbourne Cup is just over eight weeks away and, after last year’s commanding victory, wagering operators have always had Almandin at the head of betting.
The eight year-old showed he is in career best form with a commanding win in the JRA Trophy at Flemington on September 16 and might even be in better form than he was last year!
The one considered most likely to fly the Australian Bloodstock is Admire Deus, he’s on the third line of betting at $15 (Almandin is at $6), while Red Cardinal ($17) and Big Duke ($26) are well respected.
