Queensland star The Odyssey retires to Telemon

Written by Jessica Owers

Cover image courtesy of Bronwen Healy

Queensland star The Odyssey, a son of Better Than Ready, will leave the racetrack for the breeding shed this spring, taking his place as a resident sire at Telemon Thoroughbreds. The 5-year-old horse will depart with $1.75 million in prizemoney through a career that brought him to the top of Queensland racing.

The Odyssey was trained at Eagle Farm by Kelly Schweida, who picked up the horse for $30,000 at the 2018 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale, consigned by Millbrook. He was from the first crop of his Lyndhurst Stud Farm sire, and the third foal from the Snitzel mare Jessica’s Hope.

The Odyssey was off the blocks very early in his career, winning in October of his juvenile season and then capping it with a victory in the Listed Phelan Ready S. at Doomben in December. All up, he had seven starts as a juvenile for four wins and two placings.

Thereafter, the colt was as consistent a QTIS competitor as Queensland has seen in recent years.

He was third to Alligator Blood (All Too Hard) and Eleven Eleven (Fastnet Rock) in the Listed Gold Edition Plate, and he beat Exhilarates (Snitzel) into third when runner-up in the G3 Gold Coast Guineas.

In 2021, as a 4-year-old, he won the million-dollar Magic Millions QTIS Open H. during the rich January carnival.

The Odyssey won 10 races during his three seasons on the track, and he was placed in a further eight. Schweida said the horse’s versatility and no-nonsense approach to racing would stand him well in his stud career.

“He was just as effective on rain-affected going as he was on top of the ground,” the trainer said. “I haven’t had an easier, better-natured animal through my yard, and he’ll pass that on to his progeny. He was a stable favourite from the very first time he came into work.”

Schweida said The Odyssey was no mistake as a yearling purchase on the Gold Coast.

“He’s very much in the mould of his father, who I also trained, and it’s no coincidence we came home from Magic Millions with him as a yearling,” he said.

QTIS king

The Odyssey will join Telemon Thoroughbreds ahead of the upcoming breeding season, where he will stand alongside Jungle Cat (Ire), Sun City and the Darley Australia horse Sidestep.

He will debut at a fee of $5500 (inc GST), and Telemon studmaster Dan Fletcher said the horse had it all going for him in the Queensland market.

“We can think of no better candidate to target QTIS than the king of QTIS himself,” Fletcher said. “QTIS is, we believe, the leading incentive scheme in Australian racing, and this horse won the QTIS clean sweep, winning both two- and 3-year-old Jewels and coming back at four to win the $1 million race on Magic Millions Classic Day.”

These sorts of horses are the bread and butter of Queensland racing, and Fletcher said as such.

“He’s the horse that so many Queenslanders dream about,” he said. “He ran in Exhilarates’ 2YO Classic, and he ended up defeating her when they met again at level weights as 3-year-olds. He was certainly a high-quality horse that acted on all surfaces.”

Better than Ready?

The Odyssey will enter Telemon as the first son of Better Than Ready to head to stud.

Better Than Ready commenced duties in the spring of 2015 and, with four crops of racing age, he has proved a prolific sire of 2-year-old winners in Queensland.

His six stakes winners include Apache Chase, a dual Group 3 winner, and Alpine Edge, a winner of the G3 BJ McLachlan S. and Listed Phelan Ready S. There’s also Tiger Legend among them, a recent winner of this year’s G3 Vo Rogue Plate.

The bulk of Better Than Ready’s stakes winners have come as juveniles (four of the six), and he continues to boast very healthy numbers each season at Lyndhurst Stud Farm. His book of mares last spring numbered 146, which bodes well for The Odyssey heading into his new career.