When a trainer takes on an expensive colt for a stallion syndicate there is a considerably higher degree of pressure placed on that trainer to turn that investment into a stallion of the future and when you lose your juvenile season due to a paddock accident, that task becomes a hell of a lot harder.
Our guest this week on the Tara Talks Racing podcast was John O’Shea, who along with training partner Tom Charlton, delivered the goods for the Rosemont Stud/ Victorian Stallion Alliance partners when four year-old Zoustar stallion Schwarz won the $1million Group I MVRC William Reid Stakes last Saturday.
“He was just a horse I was pretty adamant about. He was the horse I wanted to train for them, and every year we go to the Magic millions and occasionally a colt pops out at you,” John O’Shea recalled.
“I was explaining to them when we bought him that going back in time, we found Snitzel, but couldn't afford him and we found Charged Forward, but we could afford him and I though this colt was the Snitzel or Charge Forward of this year.
“He was just a horse that met all the criteria, he's got an unbelievable pedigree and he’s off an unbelievable farm and they're all the criteria that I find important when selecting a yearling colt.”
Schwarz was purchased from Widden at Magic Millions for $1.25 million and has since won $1.3million with six wins from 12 starts and five of those wins have been in Black Type races, although he was unraced at two.
“He missed his two year old season because he got injured in the paddock and consequently, we're trying to catch up along the way by getting miles into his belt and then gradually building his profile,” O’Shea explained.
“So we’ve had to be targeted in the way we run him, but all the while trying to still season him up to getting into those major races.
“Ultimately, we've got the job done for them, but the horse was always a talent.”
O’Shea plans to be supporting Schwarz when he rides off into the sunset to a stud career at Rosemont Stud and has put plenty of time into thinking about a suitable mare for a stallion with an fascinating pedigree that features a double cross of Redoute’s Choice and has three lines of his dam Shantha’s Choice in a 4 x 4 x 4 pattern.
“You'll laugh when I tell you what we are thinking, but we’re searching for fillies by Written By,” O’Shea revealed.
“He sources back into that Redoute’s Choice family (his grand-dam is by Umatilla, a daughter of Dancing Show) and then you double up on Dancing Show, so it's a really intriguing mating.”
In a wide ranging interview, John talks about his passion for breeding horses, why New Zealand is the best place in the world to breed those horses and also gives us some insight into a couple of carnival horses in King of Thunder and Candlewick, plus a blueblood import to Black Book that has a long range goal towards the Melbourne Cup…. Yep, his name is Klondike (GB) and to find out more have a listen to this week’s podcast!
