When you buy a half-brother to a Golden Slipper winner by I Am Invincible you are not expecting to be lining up for your first crack at Black Type in a 2200 metre race at the back end of your three year-old season.
But that is the scenario for the owners of Navy Cross, a $700,000 Magic Millions purchase for Gai Waterhouse/Adrian Bott/Blue Sky (FBAA).
Navy Cross runs for a big syndicate of investors including Craig Thompson’s Mt Hallowell Stud in whose colours he runs, Aquis Farm, who offered him for sale and Emirates Park, who bred him.
Gelded after failing comprehensively at his first two starts as a juvenile, Navy Cross has been competitive in every race he’s run since then, albeit contesting lower grade races at the country and provincial tracks.
Stepped up in trip at his past two runs at Canterbury and the Sunshine Coast to 1900m and then 2200m, Navy Cross has risen to the challenge and now finds himself a contender in the Group III BRC Rough Habit Plate (2200m) at Eagle Farm this Saturday.
A half-brother to Champion 2YO and 3YO Sprinter Sepoy as well as Group II winner Mulaazem, Navy Cross is one of six winners from Watchful, who had never produced a winner beyond 1400m until he came along.
In a family renowned for speed that has also produced the likes of another Golden Slipper winner in Canny Lad as well as more recent Group I winners including Bivouac and Guelph, Navy Cross on face value is an oddity, but further investigation reveals he’s not quite the fruit out of season he appears.
Watchful’s full sister Camarena won the Group I BRC Queensland Derby (2400m) and while she is best known as the dam of Group I AJC Sires Produce Stakes winner Camarilla, her next best offspring was stakes-winner Induna, who won the Geelong Derby Trial and was second in the Victoria Derby.
Both Camarilla and Induna were by Sepoy’s sire Elusive Quality (USA), so why Induna turned out a stayer (whose only wins were at 2000m and beyond) while the other two were sprinters is anybody’s guess.
Navy Cross may well be his mother’s Induna and with a good barrier, the renowned Waterhouse / Bott rock hard fitness and Ryan Maloney to ride, will be in this race for a long way on Saturday
If Navy Cross is successful, he will become the first stakes-winner for his champion sire I Am Invincible to be successful at a distance longer than 1600m. I Am Invincible has sired over 500 winners in his career to date and just 16 of them have won at distances longer than 1600 metres.
Footnote: Horses bred to sprint that emerge as stayers do crop up from time to time with Melbourne Cup winner Subzero and Victoria Derby winner Benicio two obvious examples.
