The Melbourne Cup is hardly seen as a stallion-making race, but for Thompson, Shocking wasn’t a one dimensional prospect having also won quality weight-for-age races and he had no hesitation in signing the horse to the Rich Hill roster.

“If he’d only won the two mile race and hadn’t won below 2000 metres you might have possibly been wary,” he said.

“The simple fact of the matter was he won the Makybe Diva S., which at the time was a Group 2 mile and it’s now a Group 1 because horses like Shocking won it.

“He also won the G1 Australian Cup over 2000 metres and the Melbourne Cup actually made the horse more viable, believe it or not.

Watch: Shocking win the 2009 Melbourne Cup

“To win a Melbourne Cup a horse has to be sound and tough to run out the distance, and it actually made him cheaper than if he hadn’t won it.

“I weighed up the other factors about the horse and they clinched it for me. He’s by Street Cry out of a Danehill mare and the fact that he won the Melbourne Cup was a major bonus.”

Shocking, whose son Surprise Baby (NZ) is a leading Australasian chance in Tuesday’s Cup, received a warm welcome from breeders when he first retired to Rich Hill and served 154 mares in his opening season.

“In the initial years he was very popular and then it dropped off a bit like it does with a lot of staying stallions,” Thompson said.

“I’ve been through that with Pentire and Zabeel went through it. It’s that patch when they’ve got 2-year-olds and early spring 3-year-olds and people wait and see and numbers can drop off.

“He’s always had the support of the syndicate and then he got the G1 New Zealand Oaks winner Fanatic from his first crop.”

Thompson has been in the game long enough to know and accept the fickle nature of the breeding industry.

“He was struggling a bit for numbers earlier this season, but he’s getting some momentum again with some nice results,” he said.

“I remember when Pentire sired Xtravagant and Prince Of Penzance to win the 2000 Guineas and the Cup in the space of a week and he suddenly got 40 extra bookings.

“There’s always people with mares that haven’t foaled yet and may decide to mate their mare with Shocking if he’s at the forefront, which he is at the moment.”

Surprise Baby aside, Shocking’s daughter Vegas Jewel (NZ) has emerged as a top hope in Thursday’s G1 VRC Oaks following her recent runner-up finishes in the G3 Ethereal S. and in last Saturday’s G2 Wakeful S.

Out of a half-sister to the dam of the champion Winx (Street Cry {Ire}), the filly was bred by Rich Hill with Totara Park Stud and sold at New Zealand Bloodstock’s National Yearling Sale for NZ$130,000 to Laurence Eales.

He raced Shocking, and has remained in the ownership syndicate of the stallion, and like his Cup hero, Vegas Jewel is trained at Flemington by Mark Kavanagh.

The Rich Hill-bred and sold Surprise Baby (NZ) will attempt to emulate his sire and win the Cup on Tuesday and credit the farm with its second breeding success after Prince Of Penzance (NZ) (Pentire {GB}) triumphed in 2015.

Unwanted at sales

Surprise Baby had originally been passed in by the stud at the 2016 New Zealand Bloodstock Select Yearling Sale with a NZ$20,000 reserve and he failed to meet a NZ$35,000 reserve at the 2016 Ready To Run Sale.

“He didn’t breeze up well,” Thompson said. “I put him in work with Margaret Falconer with the idea of winning a trial and getting him sold.

“He proved a bit difficult and he never got to the trials early in his 3-year-old season, so I thought we’d missed the boat.”

Surprise Baby was subsequently listed on gavelhouse.com and bought by his Australian part-owner John Fiteni for a mere NZ$5500, but that’s not something Thompson dwells on.

“It would be a fantastic story for us and the New Zealand industry if Surprise Baby won,” he said. “It would be great to be part of it.”

Melbourne Cup history is initially what ignited Thompson’s racing passion and the first step to becoming a multiple Group 1 winning breeder.

“When I think back, what got me interested in breeding was when I was a kid and Mum and Dad had a yearling to sell at Trentham and it was from Think Big’s family,” he said.

“Just before the sale Think Big won his first Melbourne Cup and then again the next year and that was part of getting me so enthusiastic about breeding.”

Thompson and his wife Colleen will be in the thick of the action on Tuesday, having taken up a Victoria Racing Club offer to be on course.

“We’re lucky to have tickets to the Chairman’s Room, which the VRC provided us with. They came to the farm to film Pentire a few years ago and said if you ever come over let us know and true to their word they have provided Colleen and I with tickets.

“It’s a great day and we’re looking forward to it. A win from Surprise Baby would be the icing on the cake.”

Cover image courtesy of Tattersalls

As Will Johnson celebrated the G1 Victoria Derby win of Warning (Declaration Of War {USA}) on Saturday night, the advice of his old boss Roger Varian kept ringing in his head.

Bloodstock agent Johnson had just realised a childhood dream along with his great mate Sam Freedman, having selected and purchased Warning as a yearling and remained in the ownership with a bunch of friends. They were understandably keen to mark the occasion of a Victoria Derby win with a celebration but in the back of Johnson's mind was finding the next Group 1 winner.

"When Postponed won the Coronation Cup, I was in the car with Roger and having won a Group 1 on Epsom Derby day, you’d think you'd let your hair down. I just remember how hungry he was for more success," Johnson told TDN AusNZ.

"It wasn't about going out and having a big night, it was about how we can improve. It was about the other horses on the day and what we could have done better.

"As much fun as I had on Saturday night, I was thinking this is great, but you are only as good as your last horse. Straight away you need to find another one. I felt a bit like Roger, in that today was great, but it’s about tomorrow."

The advice is particularly sage for Johnson at this stage of his career. He returned to Australia just six weeks ago having spent two years working for Hubie de Burgh, having previously spent two years working as an assistant trainer to Varian.

Johnson is in the process of setting up a bloodstock consultancy in his own right, a next chapter of his career.

Gallery: the winning connections of Warning celebrate

"I'm in the process of setting up my own business now and I'm looking forward to the yearling sales in the coming months," he said. "I'm just in the process of setting up the business and the website and all the branding."

The timing of Warning's success could not have been better in that regard.

Johnson has sourced Group 1 winners for clients all around the world in his time with de Burgh Equine and handled some champions of the turf when working for Varian, including as travelling foreman with Postponed (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) when he won the Sheema Classic in Dubai. But success on arguably Australia's greatest day of racing puts him on the forefront of minds of potential clients ahead of next year's yearling sales season.

Realising a childhood dream

It also fulfilled a dream he has had since he was a kid watching Derby Day on TV as his parents Tim and Lisa, then running Ealing Park, headed off to the races and left him in the care of his grandmother.

"I used to watch the races with my sister and I always wanted to either own or train a Victoria Derby winner at some stage and to have done it with a close group of friends and especially Sam Freedman, who I worked with and went to school with, was very exciting and a lot of fun," he said.

To say Will was born into thoroughbred racing is probably an understatement. His great-grand father Walter had first been involved in breeding in the 1930s and in 1966 bred the champion Vain (Wilkes {Fr}). The maternal line was just as strong with his grandmother Mary descending from the famous family of WS Cox.

"I grew up on Ealing Park, which was my grandparents' stud. My great grandfather had bred Vain and when you grow up with a Golden Slipper on the mantelpiece, you just get the sense of how great it would be to win a race like that," he said.

"When I went to boarding school, Ben Hayes was the year above me and I used to go in with him on a Saturday morning and watch trackwork, and I used to get a really big kick out of that.

"I worked with Lindsay Park and then Robert Smerdon, on Saturday and Sunday mornings, Henry Dwyer would pick me up for work and I started out by mucking out and riding trackwork, more or less thinking I'd like to be a trainer."

What had been a bit of a side interest to earn some 'extra drinking money' while he completed his marketing degree at Monash University, then became a serious career option.

It was a dinner at a Chinese restaurant in 2014 with David Eustace, then a travelling foreman for Varian, that proved the breakthrough moment. Two months later he was on a flight to England to work for Varian at Newmarket, graduating to assistant trainer and handling topline horses such as Belardo (Ire) (Lope De Vega {Ire}) and Postponed.

From training to trading

Johnson's time with Varian ended as his working visa expired for the United Kingdom but Hubie de Burgh, based in Ireland, was keen to give him a chance to show his aptitude in the bloodstock side of the business.

"I went from training horses to trading horses," he said.

Hubie's expert eye is renowned across the thoroughbred industry and Johnson had a rapid education in the game, working at yearling sales in Australia and Europe as well as in the private sales space where he was dealing mainly with fillies and mares, with a strong client base in Japan.

It was in that capacity that he and Freedman, who had both attended Melbourne Grammar and had strengthened their friendship when Johnson secured a job for Freedman at Varian's Newmarket stables, came together to buy a yearling in 2018.

"We had tried to buy a horse at the Melbourne Inglis Sale and we were outbid on a couple and we turned our attention to Adelaide," he said.

"Mill Park has a record that is second-to-none in terms of producing stakes horses and Harry Perks as a breeder is very astute particularly with horses by shuttle stallions."

Buying a Derby winner

Lot 101 from Mill Park's draft and bred by Perks, was a colt by Declaration Of War (USA), the son of War Front (USA) who had shuttled for two seasons to Coolmore in Australia, out of a Galileo (Ire) mare called Livia.

"Working in Europe, I had noticed that War Front across Galileo was looking quite strong given Coolmore and John Magnier's influence," Johnson said.

"Funnily enough Euan White bred Livia and that whole family for a couple of generations back and they were all based at Ealing Park. So I grew up with a few of those mares on the farm."

Sam's dad, Anthony, also liked the colt and saw the potential if he was given time and signed off on the decision to bid for him.

"He was a little more backward and not the colonial speed type. But Sam and I from the outset were trying to find a horse that was potentially tradable to Hong Kong, that had a bit of size and strength that would be more of a 3-year-old than a 2-year-old," Johnson said.

That was pretty much the message to the group of friends who got into the horse having paid $65,000 for him.

"To go from that to a Derby winner was very special."

Johnson is still not sure that Warning is a horse that is a natural stayer and his dominant performance on Saturday was as much a tribute to the Freedmans' conditioning and an outstanding ride from Damien Oliver.

The next Group 1 winner?

Warning is the only horse Johnson and Sam Freedman have purchased at the yearling sales but he expects after Saturday's success, there will be a few more join the club.

"I hope we can go to the yearling sales next year and put a few more syndicates together of mates from school and the wider friendship group," he said.

And Johnson is not yet finished with Cup week with unbeaten filly The Mobot (Uncle Mo {USA}), purchased for $50,000 at the 2018 Melbourne Premier Sale, to contest the G3 Red Roses S. on Thursday.

She was purchased with and is trained by good friend Eustace as well as his training partner Ciaron Maher, and has won her four starts to date for another large syndicate.

The global influence of the legendary Coolmore stallion Galileo (Ire) over the past 15 years is nothing short of sensational. He has sired 312 stakes winners, with his progeny earning over $340 million and winning most of the biggest races around the world including multiple English and Irish Derbies, Prix de l'Arc de Triomphes and even our own Cox Plate.

But there remains one special race the star stallion is yet to claim; the Melbourne Cup.

Galileo's progeny have contested the Flemington 3200 metre race on 22 occasions since 2007. The closest result came in 2007 when Purple Moon (Ire) and Mahler (GB) finished second and third, and in 2017 when Johannes Vermeer (Ire) was runner-up. None of the remaining 19 combatants finished inside the top seven.

However, the famous sireline produced last year's winner Cross Counter (GB) - who is by Teofilo (Ire), Galileo's son.

In 2019, he is the most dominant sireline in the Melbourne Cup. Galileo has four representatives himself, the same as his outstanding son Frankel (GB), while his other sire sons Teofilo has two and Nathaniel (Ire) has one.

All in all, that's 11 of the 24 runners who have the Coolmore great as either their paternal sire or grandsire.

Extend that back to Galileo's own legendary sire Sadler's Wells (USA) and the influence grows even further. Sadler's Wells' grandson Camelot (GB) has three runners, while his son High Chaparral (Ire) has two, resulting in two thirds of the field paternally descending from Sadler's Wells. This sireline is searching for a third straight success in the Melbourne Cup and the fifth overall.

The 2019 Melbourne Cup field is notable for the concentration of stallions represented, with just 14, historically a very low number. In comparison, there were 21 sires represented last year and 20 in 2017.

The influence of both Aidan O'Brien and his son Joseph is significant. All four of Galileo's 2019 representatives, Il Paradiso (USA), Magic Wand (Ire), Constantinople (Ire) and Southern France (Ire), are either former or current Ballydoyle horses.

2017 Cup winning trainer Joseph O'Brien has four horses in the race, with Latrobe (Ire) and Downdraft (Ire) by Camelot (GB), the same sire as his father's chance Hunting Horn (Ire), while Twilight Payment (Ire) is by Teofilo and Master Of Reality (Ire) by Frankel.

Frankel's growing influence is not surprising considering the desirability of his progeny. A win on Tuesday would represent his first Group 1 success in Australia. He had his first two runners in the Melbourne Cup last year in Finche (GB) and Rostropovich (GB), who finished fourth and fifth. They back up this year for Chris Waller and Lindsay Park respectively.

The sires represented in the 2019 Melbourne Cup highlight the increasingly global nature of the race, with stallions bred in USA, Germany, Japan, Great Britain and Australia.

The USA is represented by War Front's son Declaration Of War (USA) (Vow And Declare), Germany with Lando (Sound {Ger}) and Shirocco (Prince Of Arran {GB}), Japan with Rulership (Mer De Glace {Jpn}) and Great Britain with Medicean (Mustajeer {GB}).

Gallery: Australasian sires represented in the 2019 Lexus Melbourne Cup

The two Australian-bred stallions represented in the race are both now based in New Zealand in Waikato Stud's Savabeel (The Chosen One {NZ}) and Rich Hill's Shocking (Surprise Baby {NZ}).

Surprise Baby (NZ) is looking to become the first progeny of a Melbourne Cup winner to win the famous race since Black Knight (Silver Knight {NZ}) in 1984.

The great Cup bloodlines

While Sadler's Wells has been the dominant sireline for the past two years, it was previously Monsun (Ger), who produced three Melbourne Cup winners between 2013 and 2016.

Before this decade, and noting Desert King (Ire) sired three straight Cup winners - of course all won by Makybe Diva (GB), it's back to the impeccable Sir Tristram (Ire) to see another dominant sireline take control of the race.

The Cambridge Stud icon sired three winners in his own right in Gurner's Lane (NZ), Empire Rose (NZ) and Brew (NZ), emulated by his son Zabeel (NZ) with Might And Power (NZ), Jezabeel (NZ) and Efficient (NZ). Sir Tristram was also the broodmare sire of 1996 winner Saintly (Sky Chase {NZ}) and 2001 winner Ethereal (NZ) (Rhythm {USA}).

Sir Tristram won with his first runner in 1982, then had 29 runners before his final entry, Spirit Of Westbury (NZ) in 2001. He had four representatives in 1986, with three runners on four other occasions.

Like his sire, Zabeel had a winner with his first runner in 1997, he then quinellaed the 1998 edition with mares Jezabeel and Champagne (NZ). His foal crops and Cup representatives then rose considerably and in two editions, 1999 and 2005, he had six progeny engaged in the race. He also had four run in 2012. All in all, Zabeel had 43 Melbourne Cup runners, with his final entry, Zacada (NZ) last year.

In 2019, the Sir Tristram sireline is represented by The Chosen One (NZ), who is by Zabeel's son Savabeel, while Surprise Baby is out of a mare by Sir Tristram's son Kaapstad (NZ).