Fortuna Racing acquires a genuine Derby/Cups Type by the emerging Sire of Stayers, Circus Maximus, on Day One of the NZB Karaka Sale
Background
Pre Sale Mark Walker, David Ellis and I had hatched a plan to buy a genuine Staying type at this years Karaka Sale, a type with the pedigree behind him or her, backed up by strong physical attributes. The Te Akau selection team had picked out Lot 283, the Colt by Circus Maximus out of the Fastnet Rock Mare, Asama Blue and we had set a budget of $100k to buy him. As always, we don’t bid on a horse until it is “on the market” and, noting that he was passed in @ $70k, we followed up with the Vendor, the Sir Peter Vela owned Pencarrow Studand we successfully negotiated a sale at just $60k, well within our budget
Physical Type
A strong, well developed yearling with a lovely free flowing walk, this Colt is not going to be an early 2yo, but has the scope and the pedigree to develop into a powerful 3yo, with raceday targets such as the NZ 2000 Guineas in the Spring of his 3yo year and the NZ Derby in the Autumn as logical targets and then as an older horse, the 3200m Cups races such as the NZ Cup, the Wellington Cup and the Auckland Cup, would be logical targets
Pedigree
Our new Colt is by Circus Maximus, himself a son of the mighty Galileo. Circus Maximus was a champion miler and triple group one winner who after displaying group one form as a two-year-old trained on to beat the best of his generation as a three-year-old in the group one St James Palace stakes at Royal Ascot over a mile. He franked this form in the autumn of his three-year-old season against the older horses when winning the group one Prix-de Moulin at Longchamp also over a mile. At four Circus Maximus was successful again at Royal Ascot and the Queen Anne Stakes over a mile joining the champion Frankel as a son of Galileo to have won both of these prestigious Royal Ascot races
Circus Maximus is a shuttle Stallion who stands at Windsor Park in the Southern Hemisphere breeding season – he joins a long line of successful shuttle Stallions to stand at Windsor Park, including Tale Of The Cat, Montjeu, High Chaparral, Mastercraftsman and Rip Van Winkle The dam of our new colt is the Fastnet Rock Mare, Asama Blue – bred in the UK, she was a winner there before coming to NZ, where she won again and was good enough to run 2nd in the Group 3 Anniversary Handicap at Trentham – the 2nd Damsire is the mighty Sadlers Wells and notable that Sadlers Wells is also the 2nd Damsire of Circus Maximus This is a very strong International Pedigree page – Click HERE to see the Sales link page – you can see this Colt’s parade video clip here as well as his pedigree
The oldest progeny of Circus Maximus are now 3y’os and currently he sits in 2nd place on the 2nd season Sire table with 5 individual winners (6 wins) and has already had a 3yo Stakes winner, the Te Akau trained Towering Vision, who is the current equal favourite for the $1m NZ Derby run on the 7th March
Selector David Ellis comments “Congratulations John in securing this lovely Colt at a great value price – I really loved this horse at inspections and my notes say “definite Derby, Cups type” – he has a wonderful pedigree page being by an emerging Sire, who was a high class racehorse and a son of the Champion Stallion, Galileo – and his damsire is Fastnet Rock, another champion and the 2nd damsire is Sadlers Wells, you cannot get better blood than that”
Trainer Mark Walker comments “John, as you know, pre sale you and I identified Circus Maximus as a Stallion that we wanted to target at this Sale as he is a Stallion that we have taken a lot of notice of late, not only with winners on the track but also good trial performers as well and we think he has the potential to be the next Zabeel here in NZ. We have one of his sons, Towering Vision in the Stable – already a Stakes winner, he is one of the faves for the NZ Derby in a few weeks time. Just incredible that you were able to secure this horse for just $60k – we admired him at inspections with his lovely walking action and his physical type – he has all of the attributes to develop into a powerful staying type and Sam and I are really looking forward to getting him under way in the Stable”
Plans
This Colt is now at Phoenix Park near Ohaupo and we will parade him at our Owners Day 8th February at Matamata Racecourse. After a decent paddock break, he will be broken in and then have a short initial preparation at the Matamata Stables before another paddock break and then a 2nd, more comprehensive preparation which may well lead to a trial in the Spring, that dependent on Trainer assessment of his his physical maturity and development. He will be registered for the Karaka Millions Series – the 2yo race in January of 2027 may well be beyond him but the 3yo Karaka Classic over 1600m in January 2028 for $1.5m would be a genuine target – sold through a NZ Sale, he is also eligible for the NZB Kiwi for $4m in March of 2028
Terms
Full syndication paperwork is yet to be finalised but we have done the numbers and he will be syndicated in total for $110k, this includes purchase price, GST, Promoters Fees, Karaka Million Fee, Insurance to 31 Jan 2027 and working capital of over $10k We are taking expressions of interest ahead of completion of syndication paperwork and you can do that by dropping John an email HERE defining the precentage you would like to reserve or you can call/text John 021 921 460
