Who are we highlighting this week? - Analysis of the G1 winning 3YO’s for this season has made us realise how many horses on this list took giant strides from two to three, so we are looking into the crystal ball to find some juveniles we believe could end next season as G1 performers if not G1 winners.
Click here for the story on 3YO G1 winners for 2024/2025.
Coolmore supersire Wootton Bassett (GB) just keeps on making global headlines and this week the possibility emerged of the stallion having a runner in the upcoming Melbourne Cup in Al Riffa, read about him here.
The sire was to the fore with his first Australian crop, and some of those who showed good ability as juveniles will soon launch their Classic campaigns and this week we look at one of those Wootton Bassett colts West Of Swindon - and he certainly has a Cups and Classics connection in the family!
Rewind to the mid-2000s and one of the best horses in the land was Lloyd William's popular grey galloper Fawkner, the 2013 Caulfield Cup winner.
Fawkner was sixth in the Melbourne Cup that year to Fiorente, and in 2014 he was behind only the ill-fated Admire Rakti in betting for the great race after his eye-catching third in the Cox Plate.
But it proved too big a task for the seven year old carrying 57kg and he faded in the straight as Protectionist claimed the prize.
Fawkner's half sister Fife by the champion Starcraft was a grey like her famous big brother, and she is the dam of West Of Swindon.
The attractive colt was presented by Widden (as agent) and fetched $350,000 when purchased by Hawkes Racing at the 2024 MM Gold Coast sale.
Though not particularly bred to excel at two, West Of Swindon like many of Wootton Bassett's first Aussie crop, was up and about early.
He beat fellow-Woottie Wodeton (our previous BTW horse ) in a trial and then it was straight into stakes company on debut in the $1million Inglis Golden Gift 1100m where he ran second to speedy Waterhouse/Bott youngster North England .
Next stop was the G2 Silver Slipper 1200m and he showed his quality again, second to upset winner Beiwacht (Bivouac), who bolted in, with Wodeton in third.
Things went a bit pear shaped for West Of Swindon at this point and he was scratched several times, then despite placing in a trial seemed underdone in the Golden Slipper where he made no impression.
Nevertheless the colt went to the paddock with two placings from three Group starts and $246,000 in earnings. Not a bad start to a racing career!
West Of Swindon is owned by and races for Qatar Bloodstock and a large syndicate of owners.
The colt has been transferred to the stables of Ciaron Maher and trialled at Randwick earlier this month in preparation for what promises to be an exciting spring three year old campaign.
His dam Fife (Starcraft) - bred by famed SA nursery Mill Park Stud and Steve Bennetts - was a $650,000 purchase at the 2014 Inglis Easter yearling sale for David Redvers of Qatar Bloodstock.
She won and was six times placed from her twelve career starts and was a good honest performer at 1400 -1600m and West Of Swindon is her first foal to race.
West Of Swindon has given a kickstart to her breeding career and his performances have done much to upgrade the commercial appeal of yearlings coming along from this immediate family - as it's generally not an early maturing one.
As mentioned the family typically take time and are not a tribe to set hearts fluttering at yearling sales - but many a “buyer-magnet” type of yearling has struggled to get out of maiden company, so there's that!
What's for certain is that the deeds of West Of Swindon on the track so far are very much a testament to the precocity of Wootton Bassett, who was of course a champion juvenile.
West Of Swindon was stamped with much of the physicality of his sire, but his pedigree suggests a heap of improvement still to come as he matures.
His second dam Dane Belltar by the mighty Danewin was an absolute ripper by every measure!
Bred by Emirates Park, the strongly built filly was a leading Classic contender of her generation. While her one stakes win came in the G3 Auraria Stakes 1800m, she was also runner up in the G1 VRC Oaks, and third in the G1 Australasian Oaks, G1 South Australian Oaks.
Dane Belltar then launched her breeding career in fine style.
She became a genuine Blue Hen and her progeny merit detailed examination here - because her family might be about to explode with some of the quality youngsters coming through - including of course West Of Swindon!
Dane Belltar's first foal by the great Galileo was the warhorse Tanby. At one time a leading Melbourne Cup contender, Tanby never ran in the great race.
He didn't see a racecourse until four years of age, but handsomely rewarded this patience by going on to a 54 start career which netted more than $1m in earnings. Tanby's last of ten wins came as a spritely eight year old and it was a good one - the G2 Adelaide Cup of 2015.
Dane Belltar's next cab off the rank was Fawkner, by Zabeel's brilliant son Reset. Another warhorse! Fawkner wasn't quite a champion but he mixed it with the absolute best - and on his day he could beat them.
The triple G1 winner was the 2013 Caulfield Cup hero, one of three winners of the great race to be raised at Mill Park along with the late, great Mummify and the fine mare Southern Speed.
Dane Belltar had put so much into her first two foals, would she / could she keep it up? Well not quite, but her next progeny was pretty handy nonetheless.
This was Revitalise by speed sire Bel Esprit. He never contested a stakes race but won 8 races from 65 starts and earned over $260,000.
Dane Belltar visited champion sire Red Ransom for her next foal, a most striking black colt who raced as Viking Star. A winner on debut over 1000m at two he raced only 15 times and was twice stakes placed at three in the Listed Hill Smith Stakes 1800m and G2 Moonee Valley Vase.
During this period Dane Belltar had a major headline moment when on the same day her three year old Viking Star won over 1300m at Morphettville, Tanby won the 2520m Listed Bart Cummings at Flemington aged six, and five year old Fawkner saluted in the last race on the Flemington card that day, the Listed Tavern Stakes 1400m.
A remarkable achievement for any broodmare!
Meanwhile Dane Belltar was resting on her laurels and had some time off from breeding, having missed / slipped a couple of seasons.
Her next foal was her first filly, West Of Swindon's dam Fife by Starcraft.
She was followed by a New Approach filly Bellspath, unraced and a producer of three foals for Mill Park including the multiple winners Harbelle (All Too Hard) and Warchime (Merchant Navy).
Purchased at the 2023 MM Gold Coast Broodmare for $25,000 by famed NZ nursery Windsor Park Stud, Bellspath made the journey across the ditch in foal to the Fastnet Rock son Acrobat and the resulting filly was a $60,000 2025 Karaka Book 1 purchase for Mick Price.
Bellspath has a 2024 filly by Windsor Park / Mapperley Stud's exciting Deep Impact son Profondo, a G1 winner of the Spring Champion Stakes in Australia at just his third race start.
Bellspath is currently in foal to Windsor Park Stud’s outstanding young prospect Paddington (IRE) and with the calibre of Classic sire she is now meeting Bellspath may well found an enduring and successful line for the Dane Belltar family.
Dane Belltar had 11 foals in total and nine made it to the races for seven winners - What an enormous job the daughter of Danewin has done.
Dane Belltar was retired from breeding in 2020 to comfortably live out her days on the famed limestone-laced pastures of Mill Park.
Her dam and the third dam of West Of Swindon was unraced Kenmare (FR) mare Ameerat-Blaadi - a full sister to 5 x winner Kenmare Belle (exported to South Africa and dam of SW Limerick) and a half sister to Goldberg ( dam of SW Antidotes and Rock ‘N’Gold).
The fourth dam and matriarch of this immediate family is the G1 VRC Oaks winner Taj Eclipse, a fine daughter of the freakish three year old Taj Rossi.
Taj Eclipse produced six winners from her 10 to race. From her sire she inherited not only ability but something a little bit extraordinary that has been passed on to many of her descendants. It went beyond “toughness” - it was a strength of constitution few horses possess.
As decades pass the deeds of great horses are sometimes largely forgotten and they become just a name that is recognisable in a pedigree - it's the way of all things.
But let's revisit the mighty Taj Rossi because this was a three year old of truly epic ability.
After Taj Rossi won the Cox Plate his trainer Bart Cummings was moved to announce:
“All along I have said that he is one of the best, if not the best three-year-old Australia has known in the last fifty years.’”
Only the great So You Think would come to rival Taj Rossi in Bart's mind.
Champion jockey Roy Higgins said of the hulking son of Matrice:
“He was the best three-year-old I ever rode. His spring was incredible. His only real failure, if you could call it that, was a fourth in the Caulfield Guineas. I settled third on the fence and that’s where he finished, under a stranglehold. I said to Bart that he could have won by two lengths.”
Incredibly, before the Guineas Taj Rossi had banged his head so hard in the starting stalls he was visibly injured and actually concussed - but things were a little more rough and ready at the barriers in those days!
A dazed Taj Rossi missed the start badly and had to be used up to obtain a position then was climbing all over them in the straight, talk about a certainty beaten.
Taj Rossi was a huge horse and the hated barriers made him claustrophobic. He also had a big boofy head, inherited from his sire Matrice who frequently passed it on, along with his powerhouse physique and a streetfighting sort of temperament. These were also characteristics of his legendary grandson Manikato.
Taj Rossi won nine races from twenty one starts. In the Spring of his three year old year he won the Ascot Vale (now G1 Coolmore Stud Stakes) first up then lumped 61.5kg to victory second up at 1600m before backing up a week later to win the G2 Moonee Valley (Stutt) Stakes at the same distance.
After the Caulfield Guineas debacle Taj Rossi unleashed an astonishing sequence of victories.
Next start he took on a very tough field at Moonee Valley in the W.S. Cox Plate (2000m) and won by a head from the Caulfield Cup winner Swell Time.
He reverted back to his own age group for the Victoria Derby (2500m) a week later and fought off a determined challenge from Leica Lover to win that.
The colt then dropped back to a mile just a week later to run in the George Adams Hcp ( a race of many names but now the G1 Champions Mile) and again luck seemed to desert him. While the leader Millefleurs had romped away by three lengths with only 100m to go, Taj Rossi was hopelessly pocketed. Somehow he got out - and finished so hard and so fast he was over a length in front of Millefleurs on the line.
He was now Australia's highest ever stakes winning three year old to that time, the press were raving and Bart and Taj were on a roll. The colt backed up again against his own age group in the Sandown Guineas the following week - and won that too.
In 8 starts from 8 September - 17 November Taj Rossi had won today's equivalent of five G1 races, two G3 and one G2! Taj Rossi wasn't beating up on hacks either, his was a fine generation of three year olds which included Imagele and Grand Cidium as well as Leica Lover.
Taj Rossi was retired to stud in 1975. He was leased to Spendthrift Farm in Kentucky in the US for a couple of seasons - one of the first “shuttle” stallions, before coming home to stand at Turangga Farm in NSW where he died relatively young.
West Of Swindon's damline is quality all the way - the dam of Taj Eclipse was the imported Glad One by My Babu's champion son Milesian. She placed in both the English and Irish Oaks. Milesian was the damsire of Kenmare - giving West Of Swindon's third dam Ameerat-Bladi a powerful 3f x 3f cross of this sire, no doubt a major contributing factor to the family's success.
Thus West Of Swindon's damline will be a very valuable one indeed, should he become a breeding stallion!
It's a fascinating pedigree because the duplication of My Swanee is another underpinning of the overall theme of this pedigree.
Duplication of breed shapers Nureyev and Danzig are well established and important patterns for reinforcing speed and class.
Though he won 17 races My Swanee could only dream of being in that exalted league. He was an excellent flat handicapper in England, and a decent hurdler. But the honest, unassuming son of Petition had more under the bonnet than was supposed and despite a largely unremarkable stud career he forged his own unlikely niche in the history of the breed.
My Swanee sired the Blue Hen Cotehele House (GB), whose descedants include Australian Horse of the Year Verry Elleegant and reigning Hong Kong Champion Sire Deep Field..
West Of Swindon's pedigree is notable in that his damsire Starcraft, second damsire Danewin and fourth damsire Taj Rossi were all truly exceptional Australian racehorses.
Not “win a couple of Group races and retire to stud in a blaze of fanfare” as many well bred colts do - not that there's anything inherently wrong with that!
But Starcraft, Danewin, Taj Rossi - these were horses defined by their competitiveness and grit. They were not only well bred and gifted, they possessed a strength of character few horses could lay claim to. They were warriors - and they were all champions at three years of age.
West Of Swindon seems well placed and well credentialled to put himself into a Guineas / Spring Champion conversation.
What stands out to me the most about the breeding of this colt - it suggests that he is born and bred to love his job and love everything about being a racehorse.
If that's the case it will take him a long way regardless of the natural ability he has shown or is yet to fully realize. They have to want to win - and you can't train that into them, it's something they are born with.
West Of Swindon's family knows all about that!
