Coolmore Classic fancy Expat a tidy piece of real estate for Srikandi man Tony McGrath

Cover image courtesy of Ashlea Brennan

As far as good races go, the G1 Coolmore Classic at Rosehill Gardens has been one of the best since its inception in 1973. Its very first winner, a Vibrant (GB) mare by the name of Miss Personality, produced a stakes winner of her own, and all through its rich history since, this race has turned over stakes-producers.

In 1984, Emancipation (Bletchingly) won, followed by Bounding Away (Biscay) three years later. In 1993, Skating (At Talaq) was a winner before Bollinger (Dehere {USA}) a decade later, while Eskimo Queen (Shinko King {Ire}) won the Coolmore Classic in 2008. In 2011 it was Gerry Harvey’s Aloha (Encosta De Lago), the dam of Libertini (I Am Invincible) and OfcourseIcan (Mossman) a year after that.

Each of these has gone to stud and produced stakes winners, and there were plenty of others. In fact, of the race’s 49 winners since 1973, 21 have produced stakes-winning progeny.

Gallery: Some of the winners of the Coolmore Classic who have gone on to be stakes-producers, images courtesy of Sportpix

None of this takes from some of the other, non-stakes-producing mares that have emerged from the Coolmore Classic, because they include the likes of Sunline (NZ) (Desert Sun {GB}), who won the race twice, Tuesday Joy (NZ) (Carnegie {Ire}) and Typhoon Tracy (Red Ransom {USA}).

This year’s race has a likely field of 14 to chase down the $600,000 purse. It’s headed by the Star Thoroughbreds filly Espiona (Extreme Choice) and the American import Lighthouse (USA) (Mizzen Mast {USA}), who races for LNJ Foxwoods.

Third on the line of betting, there is a Mark Newnham mare called Expat who is vying for her ninth win in 14 starts.

She belongs to a Port Douglas real estate agent who lives on 20 acres outside of town, who admits he’s been hiding from COVID for two years, and who also happens to own a very large chunk of the $2 million-selling Coolmore mare Srikandi (Dubawi {Ire}).

Million-dollar babies

Tony McGrath has lived in Port Douglas since 1988. For decades he was a trotting man, but around 2011 he was introduced to thoroughbreds, and his hobby has taken him on quite a ride.

He was involved with the Postponed (USA) gelding Mr O’Ceirin (NZ), who won 10 races including the G3 Naturalism S. and Listed Grafton Cup. Mr O’Ceirin was unplaced to Fawkner (Reset) in the 2013 Caulfield Cup, and equally so to Protectionist (Ger) in the 2014 Melbourne Cup.

McGrath bought into Srikandi through connections in Victoria, and he bought bigger and bigger shares in the filly as she kicked through the grades.

Srikandi won stakes races on the Gold Coast and at Doomben, then the G1 Stradbroke H. and G1 Tatt’s Tiara before chasing home Chautauqua (Encosta De Lago) for second in the G1 Manikato S. in 2015.

“When she went to stud, she had a Snitzel foal before I sent her to I Am Invincible,” McGrath said. “There was a bit of an argument in the camp, and it got to the point where we had to either buy out the others for a big price, or we had to put her in the ring, so that’s what we did.”

Srikandi was sold for $2 million to Tom Magnier at the 2019 Inglis Chairman’s Sale, consigned by Kitchwin Hills. It was a huge result for the chestnut filly, who had two foals behind her.

“She’d had the Snitzel foal (Heroess), and the I Am Invincible was Billiondollarbaby, so I’m listed as the breeder of both of those horses,” McGrath said. “We put Billiondollarbaby into an auction and she got $600,000, and she was the highest-priced weanling at that Sale.”

Billiondollarbaby sold to Andrew Williams Bloodstock at the Inglis Sydney Broodmare and Weanling Sale, again consigned by Kitchwin Hills. The following year, she was a million-dollar yearling at the Inglis Easter Sale. Now with the Snowden team for GPI Racing, she’s won two races from three starts.

Gallery: Images courtesy of Inglis

“Because of that $600,000 we got for her, we had a little bit of money in the can and we went to the Chairman’s Sale with Srikandi,” McGrath said. “We were the underbidders on her at $1.95 million when Coolmore went to $2 million, so we went back into her, me and my partner, for a substantial bit, and we were very happy with that arrangement.”

Srikandi brought McGrath and his partner, the Bali-based businessman Troy Mobbs, right to the top of the racing game with her deeds on the track, her sale ring results and her Coolmore career as a broodmare.

But the Port Douglas real estate agent is humble, unfussy and matter of fact as he recounts the highs he’s had with his racehorses.

“In the last few weeks, sitting in my office on a shelf I’ve got the Grafton Cup, the Millie Fox and Belle of the Turf trophies, and another one from Mr O’Ceirin,” McGrath said. “I’ve got all these trophies lining up, and I’d really like to a get a fifth one this weekend.”

Learning to be competitive

McGrath’s 4-year-old mare in the Coolmore Classic on Saturday is Expat, who is trained by Mark Newnham at Randwick. She has won eight of her 13 races so far.

At her last start in mid-February, she beat Belluci Babe (NZ) (Per Incanto {USA}) in the G2 Millie Fox S. at Rosehill, and the form line through that race has improved out of sight because Belluci Babe won the G3 Wenona Girl Quality last weekend.

“Initially, I’d wanted to send Expat to Queensland,” McGrath said. “She’d done all her breaking in Victoria, but I couldn’t get a horse into Queensland with COVID going on, and after about two months of waiting I gave up and sent her to New South Wales.

“I’d been watching Mark Newnham and I liked what I’d seen, so thought I’d send her to him and, being by a Dubawi sire out of a Galileo mare, I figured she could stay. I really thought she was going to be my Oaks horse.”

McGrath laughs out loud when he recalls these early days with Expat, because after the mare’s first preparation at Newnham’s yard, the trainer said that no-one was going to the Oaks with her, that she’d be lucky to get to the races at all.

“She had no idea of what she was doing,” McGrath said. “None at all. But I said we’d take her to the races once and see how she’d go, and she jumped and led at Gosford and won at 50-1.”

Expat won three of her first four races, showing tenacity well beyond expectations around her.

“When we put her in races, she became competitive,” McGrath said. “She just jumps and goes, and it appears she doesn’t want anyone to go past her. She’s won eight now and we’ve never really looked back with her.”

Expat has won her last two races, both at Group level.

In both events, she carried apprentice rider Tom Sherry, and she’ll have the jockey again this Saturday at Rosehill. She has drawn barrier 10 for the 1500-metre Coolmore Classic, and she’s one of four in the field coming in off last-start victories.

Caution to the wind

Despite his success as an owner, McGrath didn’t go in deep in the breeding industry. He knows it's a hard game in which to make money, and he's got no illusions.

He has only two mares these days, and one of them, Caution (Galileo {Ire}), is the dam of Expat.

Caution is a 14-year-old Australian-bred mare by Galileo (Ire) that McGrath purchased, in part, with a few people. He had her at the same time as another horse, Explain Yourself, who is a mare by Desert King (Ire).

“Explain Yourself was with Ciaron Maher and she won a couple of races but she broke down, and Caution also broke down,” McGrath said. “The partnership in both horses wanted to split up, and some of them wanted to take Explain Yourself because she had winning form. So I said I’d take the little Galileo, which was Caution.”

McGrath is very fond of Caution. He was taken by her stout breeding and, co-bred by Troy Mobbs, she’s a product of those years that saw Galileo shuttle to Australia.

“I wanted to breed a stayer from her, so I decided to send her to New Zealand,” he said. “I got two foals by Shocking out of her, then she went to a few others like Reliable Man before I sent her to Makfi.”

As a son of Dubawi (Ire), Makfi (GB) over Caution gave the resultant foal, Expat, some of that distance-running blood that McGrath was looking for, even if it didn’t work out that way. Expat was bred at Westbury Stud, and Caution stayed on to visit Redwood (GB) twice before returning to Australia.

Since then, she’s had a filly by Akeed Mofeed (GB), a colt by Ocean’s Fourteen (NZ)(McGrath owning that stallion outright), and she visited the Darley shuttler Ghaiyyath (Ire) last spring.

McGrath keeps his horses at Wyndholm Park in Victoria, run at Miner’s Rest by the veterinarian and studmaster Dr Kim McKellar and Ocean’s Fourteen, a son of Ocean Park (NZ), is there too.

In the wings, Srikandi’s American Pharoah (USA) filly is coming through too. Named Karnak, she’s a 2-year-old with Mick Price and Michael Kent Jnr at Cranbourne, and she will be raced by Coolmore alongside McGrath and Troy Mobbs.

This weekend, if Expat can win the Coolmore Classic, McGrath will chase a rare double on the day as his 6-year-old gelding Taksu (Equiano {Fr}), a half-brother to Srikandi, takes his place in race nine, the Vale Alan Brown H.

Taksu is trained by Joseph Pride and he’ll appear in the same red and black-spot colours as his multi-million-dollar half-sister.