Another Derby success on OTI's agenda

Cover image Dan Himbrechts for AAP Photos

The challenge of running any racing operation during the COVID-19 crisis is complex enough for any business, let alone one that crosses as many international borders as OTI Racing.

But while the logistics of managing horses across the UK, Ireland, Europe, Australia and New Zealand has given OTI Racing Director Terry Henderson his fair share of headaches in the past few weeks, his emerging 3-year-old stayer Quick Thinker can provide some relief should he win Saturday's G1 Australian Derby at Randwick.

OTI has built a reputation for winning Australian Classics, doing so in the G1 Victoria Derby with Kibbutz (NZ) (Golan {Ire}), the G1 New Zealand Derby with Vin De Dance (NZ) (Roc De Cambes {NZ}) and the G1 Queensland Derby with Brambles (NZ) (Savabeel).

Gallery: OTI's Derby winners

Indeed, Henderson himself has tasted success as an owner in the Australian Derby in its previous incarnation as a Group 1 race in Western Australia, winning the final edition back in 1992.

"We won the Australian Derby when it was run in Perth in 1992 with Dance The Day Away, in the days when the Australian Derby was run as a different race," Henderson told TDN AusNZ.

"We won the Victorian Derby with Kibbutz in a similar situation as we now find ourselves in with Quick Thinker. That was the year where it was EI, where we didn’t have any New South Wales competition. We've been the beneficiaries when there has been challenges for the industry, to put it mildly."

The current 'challenges' haven’t escaped Quick Thinker, who is trained at Cambridge in New Zealand by Murray Baker and Andrew Forsman.

Baker and Forsman have been forced to shut down their training operation with racing called to a halt across the Tasman, while Baker's son Bjorn has been overseeing Quick Thinker's Australian preparation.

He was a dominant winner of the G2 Tulloch S. on Saturday at Rosehill - a race won by the three previous Australian Derby winners in the lead-up - and is now showing the physical maturity to indicate he is up to running a strong 2400 metres.

"It has been a process of one step at a time, rather than saying this was his aim all along," Henderson said.

"What has happened since the spring is this horse appears to be a lot tougher. In the spring, he would have battled to run out a strong 2000 metres, but as we saw on Saturday, he was able to do that and do it under pretty good circumstances. There are good indicators coming out of that race.

"The general physical development of the horse has given us the confidence that we will go into the Derby able to run a good race."

Colt blossoms into autumn

Quick Thinker looked an ideal Victoria Derby prospect when he won the G3 Ming Dynasty S. in August, but he didn’t have the maturity to prosper in that campaign.

Quick Thinker is following a similar pattern to another horse Baker and Forsman trained for OTI, in Vin De Dance, who matured substantially heading into his autumn 3-year-old campaign, where he would win the 2018 G1 NZ Derby, and run fourth in both the G1 Rosehill Guineas and the Australian Derby.

Henderson said Quick Thinker has always shaped as a late maturing horse since they picked him out of the Inglis Easter Yearling Sale in 2018 for $100,000 from Coolmore's draft with the help of De Burgh Equine.

"When we bought him as a yearling, he wasn't particularly big and I thought at the time he would probably end up being 15-3. He's actually now 16 hands, he weighs 480kg and he's a very well put together colt," he said.

"He has been physically a later maturer in all respects, in both his constitution and his physical development."

OTI pair ready to back up

Quick Thinker has never raced on a seven-day back-up before, but with the horse in good form and the Tulloch proving such a good guide for the Derby in recent years, Henderson is not concerned.

Night's Watch (NZ) (Redwood {GB}) will also back up in the G1 Doncaster Mile after the Chris Waller trained 6-year-old registered his first win in over 18 months with a narrow victory in the G3 Neville Sellwood S. at Rosehill.

"The monkey is off the back with him. He's a very talented horse with this bad habit of coming out of the gates and not going anywhere. We were the product of a great ride on Saturday, which for him to win races we are always going to need, because of that habit," he said.

Henderson is guided by Waller's advice and agrees that the Doncaster looks a more suitable race than the G1 Queen Elizabeth S. a week later.

International challenges

With racing suspended across Europe, the UK and Ireland, Henderson is trying to work out the best way to proceed with his bevvy of internationally based gallopers, most of who were ramping up their work ahead of the Northern Hemisphere flat season.

"We've got to take it jurisdiction by jurisdiction. I'm worried about France and England, we may have to put some horses out of work that are currently in work. Ireland hasn't been as impacted as other places, so there is a chance that Ireland may be racing again in May," he said.

"We have to take it on a horse-by-horse basis as well because a lot of the horses we are buying in Europe, they are really doing their apprenticeship in Europe for coming out here.

"We might be keeping them in work because it is good for their longer-term career, when they came out to Australia."

Henderson said the knock-on effect will probably be more of OTI's international brigade coming out to Australia to begin their careers.

"It might be a bit like we did with Harbour Views. We might end up having more unraced horses coming to Australia but those horses would have had a very good grounding in Europe, providing we can continue to train them there. Having raced or not having raced is not all that significant," he said.