SEPTEMBER 27, 2022, TBV
Jacquinot ridden by Damian Lane wins the H.D.F. McNeil Stakes at Caulfield Racecourse on August 27, 2022 in Caulfield, Australia. (Photo by Pat Scala/Racing Photos)
For Jacquinot’s breeder and part-owner Lindsay Maxsted, it was a case of two of his great sporting loves clashing head-on during a hectic Saturday afternoon.
The corporate high-flyer, who is also chairman of Coolmore Stud Australia, is Geelong born and bred and a passionate Cat supporter.
And as a horse breeder, he just happened to have one he bred, the talented Jacquinot (Rubick x Ponterro), racing in the Group 1 Golden Rose (1400m) at Rosehill.
A check of the clock showed that it would be around half-time of the Geelong and Sydney Grand Final when the Mick Price and Michael Kent Jnr trained Jacquinot would be loaded into the barriers in the 16-horse field.
As far as Saturday afternoons go, it must rate as one of the best for for Maxsted with the Cats thrashing the Swans and his three-year-old colt winning the Golden Rose to give his stallion Rubick, now standing at Swettenham Stud, his first Group 1 winner.
Throw in the fact it was Geelong’s first premiership since 2011 and that Jacquinot was retained to race by Maxsted after the colt was passed in for $90,000 off a $120,000 reserve at last year’s Magic Millions Yearling Sale, then the Saturday afternoon got even better.
Kent said Maxsted ducked out from his seat at the MCG just as the third quarter started.
“He watched the race on his phone out on the wing somewhere,” he said.
“I think Geelong kicked two or three goals in that five minutes and the game was over and he won a Golden Rose.
“He had a great day.”
Who knows how long it will take for Geelong to win another premiership, but in the meantime Jacquinot is being touted as a stallion prospect and aims to be one of the 12 horses in the $15m The Everest (1200m) at Rosehill on October 15.
Kent said they would like to emulate what another of Rubick’s three-year-old colts – Yes Yes Yes – did by winning The Everest before starting his stud career.
“It was very exciting,’’ Kent said.
“It’s Rubick’s first Group 1 but he has already sired Yes Yes Yes and we are trying to emulate his achievements and win an Everest now.
“We would have to knock off the world’s best sprinter (Nature Strip), but the horse is on the improve and ran a very big rating.
“Only special horses can do what he did to sustain a long sprint. It’s quite extraordinary as nothing took him into the race and he did it all on his own and beat the right horses. The hot favourite was second.”
Kent said Jacquinot was an immature horse when he was passed in at the sales and says the colt still is and can’t wait to see him in 12 months.
“He is just from one of those fantastic families and Lindsay Maxsted and his co-owners believed in the family and didn’t want to give him away,” he said.
“In hindsight it was a fantastic decision to keep him and put him into training and we are very lucky to train him.”
Kent said Jacquinot, which has now shot past $1m in prizemoney, was a beautiful colt, a gentleman, and wasn’t boisterous or dominate in the stables.
“I think he will come into his own in the next 12 to 24 months,” Kent said.
“He is very athletic, won’t get too heavy and will be a lot of fun for us to race over the next little while.”
Jacquinot’s victory has been great timing for Swettenham Stud which negotiated a deal with Coolmore, where Rubick started his stud career in 2015, to relocate the stallion to Victoria last year.
Swettenham Stud principal Adam Sangster said it was a pleasing result for Rubick to get his first Group 1 winner, as well as for his friend Maxsted.
“He has always said this horse will be a brilliant two-year-old which he was and said he’ll be an exceptional three-year-old but he’ll be an even better four-year-old,” Sangster said.
“And looking at him physically it looks like he has got a bit of a way to go in improvement, so it’s enormous for Rubick being his first Group 1 winner.
“He will have two stallions at stud out of his first couple of crops so that’s going to be pretty good.”
Sangster said it was of massive importance for a stallion to have produced a Group 1 winner.
“It’s what you need,” he said.
“You can do as much talking and telling people that these stallions are going to do a good job and they have got the numbers coming through as Rubick had and we at Swettenham don’t take this lightly by choosing stallions.
“People have listened to us in the past and they haven’t listened in the past.
“We had Rebel Dane and of course he produced Fireburn (dual Group 1 winner), we had Sioux Nation who is going to be champion sire in the Northern Hemisphere and we have been telling people about Rubick, about numbers coming through and the quality coming through.
“It’s proven now with a Group 1 winner and more to come. He has got some great looking stock coming through and he’ll keep on reaching good levels.
“Hopefully this time next year I’ll be counting how many Group 1s he has had on my fingers.”
Sangster said Rubick was an ideal horse for the Victorian breeding industry and the lucrative VOBIS schemes
“He had more winners than any other stallion in Victoria as two-year-olds so he produces the two-year-old winners that can go onto three-year-olds and from limited numbers he had had great success in Hong Kong as well,” he said.
