On Saturday at Flemington, a 4-year-old who began his preparation with a third-placing in a maiden at Wangaratta in April officially booked his ticket to one of the world’s greatest staying races in the G1 Melbourne Cup.

The Ciaron Maher and David Eustace-trained Persan won the G3 Bart Cummings, automatically locking him in for the $8 million staying feature, and it has become a dream ride for the connections of a horse who was once unwanted at the yearling sales.

Persan was purchased by James Bester for $160,000 at the 2017 Magic Millions Weanling Sale before passing in at the Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale the following a year.

Bester, who ended up retaining Persan and syndicating the horse himself, has been involved with a number of star horses but he said the journey with the 4-year-old has been one of faith and persistence.

“It was an exciting win,” Bester told TDN AusNZ. “I gave him a better chance than the betting simply because horses like Lord Belvedere and Schabau were all within 1l of each other at their previous start and they were ahead of him in the betting.

“I thought he was a big chance on Saturday and so it proved after that wonderful ride he got from Jye McNeil, absolute poetry.”

Bester said he and the rest of Persan’s connections have always thought highly of the colt but a start in the Melbourne Cup is something they never thought possible.

“Obviously we couldn’t even imagine that (running in the Melbourne Cup),” he said. “But that said, we ran him in the G1 Champagne S. as a 2-year-old when seven days before he fell in a Listed race after challenging to win. He landed flat on his back at Randwick on the day of Winx’s farewell and it was race one.

“Two horses, two jockeys all somersaulting together in front of 50,000 people at the winning post. Imagine how that could’ve impacted Winx’s swan song if it had’ve ended differently.”

High opinion

Beginning his career with David Payne, Persan contested the G3 Schweppervescence H., then aforementioned dramatic Listed Fernhill H., and the G1 Champagne S. as a juvenile.

As a 3-year-old he went on to run in the Listed Dulcify S., the G3 Gloaming S. and the G1 Spring Champion S., showing the belief connections had of his ability to mix it with the best of his age group.

“We thought highly of the horse and even as a 3-year-old we ran him in the Gloaming en route to the Spring Champion S.,” Bester said.

“So we always thought he had elite-level ability but it just didn’t work out for various reasons. I think the horse has matured so much more now.

“He loves the Maher Eustace environment at Ballarat and he’s thriving in those conditions but I think maturity has a lot to do with it as well.”

Blessing in disguise

Bester said he purchased Persan as a weanling for a client along with two others at the 2017 Magic Millions Sale and all three horses ended up being passed in at the yearling sales.

They included a So You Think (NZ) colt, who became G1 Australian Derby winner Quick Thinker, and a Toronado (Ire) colt, who ended up as the multiple stakes-placed Laverrod. That pair managed to sell, albeit for under their reserves, however it was insisted that the Pierro colt, now known as Persan, be retained to race.

“I make a practise of never buying a weanling that I wouldn’t be happy to race myself,” Bester said.

“The primary driver of any weanling purchase is not a pinhook, but trying to purchase a proper racehorse and as a result, he (Persan) went through the yearling sale ring before Pierro was Pierro and was unappreciated even though his mother was a Group 1 winner.

“Obviously others didn’t see in him what I thought I had and I left that sale ring with my tail between my legs, apologising profusely to the client for which I bought him as a yearling.

“The same client for which I bought Quick Thinker as a weanling. I think he came out of that sale doubting my own abilities and certainly didn’t make any profits in the yearling sale ring.”

However upon reflection, Bester does believe that the passing in of Persan was a blessing in disguise.

“Certainly in my case and my partner’s case as far as Persan is concerned it was a huge blessing,” he said.

“In the case of Quick Thinker, Hubie de Burgh, who thought he saw something in that So You Think colt, came up to us and bought the horse for under reserve price very smartly and very astutely as Hubie often does, and he won a Derby.

“The other horse went to Western Australia and he turned out to be a good horse. They were both bought on the same day or the day after, but my client insisted on keeping Persan. He just loved the idea of Pierro out of a Group 1 winner.

“The mother (Ofcourseican), who won the G1 Coolmore Classic, is also a half-sister to a horse I bought as a weanling in Gimmethegreenlight who is now a leading young sire in South Africa, I bought both him and Persan as weanlings.”

Persan’s original owner was later forced to sell his shares in all of his horses so Bester got a group together to purchase the then 2-year-old himself.

“My client ended up being arrested in China and had to disperse all his Australian racehorse yearlings and this horse, Persan, had just turned two and was in training with David Payne,” he said.

“So I got a group of clients togethers and said ‘look, we need to buy this horse, this man needs to sell and we need to buy this horse.’

“So some of my best clients who are Kia Ora Stud and its principal in Ananda Krishnan, Robert McClure of Morning Rise Stud and Bruce Wilson of Glentree, and Aquis and Nick Wakim of Hilldene Thoroughbreds, we all bought the horse.

“While he was still a maiden and with David Payne, we got an offer from Singapore. Aquis and Hilldene decided to sell out so we bought them out, then I sent him to Maher and Eustace and the rest is history.

“It’s a long-winded way of saying we also thought he had huge ability but third in a Wangaratta maiden to a run in the Melbourne Cup in one preparation for his new trainers is the stuff of which dreams are made.”

Going the distance

Pierro has quickly stamped himself as one of Australia’s leading stallions and has also proved one of the most versatile, producing elite-level sprinters, milers and stayers but Persan will become the Coolmore resident’s first Melbourne Cup runner, adding another feather to his already very impressive cap.

Bester believes that while Persan has been trained for the distance races, he could be more than just an out and out stayer.

“I have mixed feelings about this horse’s distance range,” Bester said. “He has been campaigned towards 2500 metres at which he has excelled at his past four starts, but his mother was a high-class Group 1 miler, his father won a Golden Slipper, his mother’s brother, Gimmethegreenlight, was a Group 1 miler, and I think this horse could be trained to be whatever one wanted him to be.

“He looks like he will stay further than 2500 metres because he was in fact going away from a decent bunch of stayers on Saturday.

“You never know if they’re going to stay two miles until the day, but Pierro with his Octagonal and Zabeel and Sir Tristram genes, it’s no surprise that he gets stayers.

“Pierro himself was bred to be a stayer and his three-quarter brother by Octagonal was a two miler, if not a jumper.

“I think Pierro is capable of getting anything from sprinters like Pierata through to high-class milers and Derby or Oaks horses like Levendi and Pinot and now this is his first Melbourne Cup horse.

“He’s a long way off winning it but it’s enough just to get into the Cup. There are no expectations for any fairytale results but he’s in there and people pay a lot of money just to have a runner in the Cup.”

Persan’s campaign began on April 16, where he finished third in a Wangaratta maiden, and he has raced all throughout the winter, scoring six wins along the way.

Bester credited his trainers, Maher and in particular Eustace, for keeping the horse happy, healthy and racing well for such a long time and pulling off a long range plan in winning the Bart Cummings and getting him into the Melbourne Cup.

“That is the key to it,” Bester said. “David Eustace in particular, it’s a training partnership, but this has been David Eustace’s baby and David and his team have purposely spaced the horse’s runs.

“He hasn’t been out for more than three weeks, I think he had a three-week break at Morning Rise Stud at some point after winning the Winter Championships Final, and they’ve managed it perfectly.

“I think it’s the training performance of the year across Australia, quite honestly.”

Among the owners of Saturday’s G1 Flight S. contenders were big thoroughbred operations such as Go Bloodstock, Yulong, Kia Ora and Arrowfield, but for the connections of the winner Montefilia, racing is merely a hobby.

It was a dream result for Hugh Docherty, one of the filly’s owners, as she confirmed their long-standing opinion that she was a high-class horse.

“It was exciting beyond our belief, it was an amazing day,” Docherty said. “It’s hard to put into words when it happens what it does for you, but she’s such a favourite of the horses that we’ve got and it was just an amazing day.”

Docherty said he, his partners and trainer David Payne knew the daughter of Kermadec (NZ) was something special from the first time they laid eyes on her as a yearling at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale, making the win all the more satisfying.

Something special

“When we actually went up to the Magic Millions, we went up with six yearlings that we fancied and we’d spoken to David Payne a few months before and told him we were looking at putting a few horses with him,” Docherty said.

“When we were up there, we had Montefilia marked out and we asked David to come down and have a look at her.

“We liked her because she’s got a bit of Galileo on one side with Teofilo through Kermadec, and the other with Monsun we really liked as well, so that’s what attracted us to her.

“So we rang up David to come to the barn and have a look. He came down and they brought her out of the stall. She walked up and down, he walked up and ran his hands over her head, kissed her on the forehead and said ‘she’s going to be a good one’. Those were his exact words.

“So we gave him our budget of $100,000 and the bidding started and she sold for $130,000, so we asked him who got it and he said, ‘You guys!’

“It was only about four months later that I was at the Wyong Gold Cup and David was there and he came up and said ‘she’s an Oaks filly mate, she is an Oaks filly’, that’s how early he saw the potential that she had.”

Docherty and the rest of the connections always knew Montefilia had talent but they believe she has only gotten better each time she has been to the races, which culminated in her landing the all-important Group 1 on Saturday.

“She was first-up at Newcastle at 66 to 1 in a field of five, then she went to a Group 3 race which she ran fourth in and then we put her out,” Docherty said.

“We just knew she was going to be such a good horse over distance and then she won over 1500 metres at Rosehill and then she went out again.

“When she came back in, she had one run over 1400 metres in the G2 Tea Rose S. and there were some really classy horses in that field but she ran a lovely race.

“We just knew, with the same horses in the race that ran second and third on Saturday, that the extra 200 would suit her but we also knew that after her first run she had improved by an extra two or 3l. Her coat had come through and she was absolutely blossoming so we really fancied her on Saturday.”

The next challenge for Montefilia is the G1 Spring Champion S. over 2000 metres on Saturday and Docherty believes she will relish another step-up in distance.

“Of course (she will be better over 2000 metres),” he said. “I spoke to David this morning, she has come through that race magnificently.

“She’s got an amazing temperament, you wouldn’t need to tie her up in the tie-up stalls before the race, she just stands there minding her own business.”

Hobby not business

The group’s involvement in racing began with a mare called State The Obvious (Magic Albert) and Docherty and his partners have built up a band of around 20 horse, but it still remains a hobby rather than a business for them.

“Our first involvement was with a mare who we bought from a trainer Johnnie Roberts, who passed away just a few months ago, he had a Magic Albert mare called State The Obvious and no one could get near her,” he said.

“She was so moody and we couldn’t get anyone to ride her but one of the vets said that she would make a lovely broodmare so I got a group together to go into partnership and that was our first entry into racing.

“Since then, including mares and foals in the belly and the new ones born, we’ve got about 21 horses at the moment, so we have a fair old stable.

“With all our stock in the racing game, we’re really into the breeding side and the stayers. I love the breeding side rather than the punting side of racing and that’s what we’re about.

“We’ve had three mares up at Coolmore in the last three weeks. One is going to Justify, one is going to American Pharoah this week and the other is going to Magna Grecia.

“Our first mare had an American Pharoah foal just about a year ago so we’re going to race him and we’ll send him to David Payne. David is our trainer and he’s just magnificent.”

Lucrative offers

Docherty said the lucrative offers had come for Montefilia but they were all knocked back because the thrill of owning a good horse is worth more to them than a seven-figure cheque.

“We were offered $500,000 and it went up to $600,000 the next day," he said.

“She came out and won on the Saturday and they offered up $1 million on the Monday. We knocked it back.

“But we only really buy fillies. Naturally, the American Pharoah is a colt but we’ll give him a race and he is magnificent. But we’ll probably go on and breed from Montefilia for sure.

“It’s a hobby first of all. We could run it like a business but basically, it is a hobby.

“We’re all in that age bracket around the 70 mark so it’s definitely not going to be a business but it could be for our families later on.

“We don’t go in big and because we’re mainly into the stayers so we don’t pay a lot for them. In the Australian side of things, they all go for the sprinters but I think that’s changing now.

“If we see something we like, we’ll go and get it and if we were in it for the money, we would’ve sold Montefilia.”

With partner Natalie Young, the Cranbourne-based Busuttin is preparing Skyward for the feature staying contents for Arrowfield Stud principal John Messara who purchased a controlling interest in the lightly-tried Group winner last spring.

Skyward is currently at the Werribee International Horse Centre awaiting release from quarantine and has enabled Busuttin to also take a first-hand look at the carnival opposition.

“He’s a very impressive horse, he’s all quality and a lovely, relaxed type. He’s straightforward and eating well,” Busuttin said.

“He’s here with Port Guillame, a horse with Ben Hayes and Tom Dabernig, and one of the G1 Cox Plate favourites Sir Dragonet.

“They are quality horses. The Europeans are the best staying horses in the world and Skyward certainly doesn’t look out of place that’s for sure.”

Port Guillame (Fr) (Le Havre {GB}) numbers the G2 Prix Hocquart among his four victories while Sir Dragonet (Ire) (Camelot {GB}) is a G3 Chester Vase winner and a last-start G1 Tattersalls Gold Cup runner-up. His new trainers are Ciaron Maher and David Eustace.

Skyward won four of his seven starts for trainer Fabrice Chappet, including the G3 Prix de Reux over 2500 metres in August. In one subsequent appearance, he ran fourth in the G2 Prix Foy behind Anthony Van Dyck (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) at level weights.

“We will make the second payment for the G1 Caulfield Cup on Tuesday, but we’re looking at it as if he’s not going to get a run so we’ll be looking at running him in the G3 Geelong Cup to get to the G1 Melbourne Cup,” Busuttin said.

“Skyward fits the profile to win a Melbourne Cup with 52.5kg so we are very excited to be training him,” Busuttin said.

Stable double

The stable already has Mirage Dancer (GB) (Frankel {GB}) safely in the Caulfield and Melbourne Cups and the 7-year-old led off a notable double on Saturday when he landed the G1 Metropolitan at Randwick before Sierra Sue (NZ) (Darci Brahma {NZ}) won the G2 Blazer S. at Caulfield.

“We were very happy obviously with Mirage Dancer, it was a good money race,” Busuttin said.

Mirage Dancer will be lining up for a second crack at the spring staying features after finishing third in the Caulfield Cup last year and was then unplaced in the Melbourne Cup.

Sierra Sue now has five wins and a runner-up finish to her credit and the stable believes she is capable of challenging for higher honours.

“She is certainly progressive and hasn’t done much wrong. She has only been beaten twice and one of those she should probably have won, the jockey pushed the button a bit too soon.

“Then she raced in the G1 South Australian Oaks and pulled up with a bad scope afterwards.”

Sierra Sue’s emergence is something of a fairytale rise after she was purchased out of Ardsley Stud’s draft at New Zealand Bloodstock’s May Sale by trainer Peter Lock for NZ$2000. She won the second of her two trials at Te Aroha and was then sold to clients of Busuttin’s yard.

Tagaloa on target

The stable is also looking forward to this Saturday when Tagaloa (Lord Kanaloa {Jpn}) takes aim at the G1 Caulfield Guineas.

“We’re going into the race very confident that he can win. There’s no reason why he can’t so it’s full steam ahead,” Busuttin said.

The winner of last season’s G1 Blue Diamond S. on the course, Tagaloa hasn’t had a lot of luck in two outings this preparation. He was a game first-up third in the G3 McNeil S. when giving weight to the rest of the field.

The colt was then beaten 1.8l against the older horses in the G1 Sir Rupert Clarke S. after being forced three and four wide in the running, from an outside barrier.