Buy of the Weekend: King Of Roseau gets pulses racing for Capitalist

9 min read
A $90,000 purchase from the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale, King Of Roseau is this week's Buy of the Weekend after earning nine times his yearling price in prizemoney and snagging his first Group victory in the weekend's only black-type race. His performance has buyers Pulse Racing and Pinhook Bloodstock International eager to return to the Capitalist well.

Cover image courtesy of Sportpix

Capitalist 4-year-old King Of Roseau continued his winning ways on Saturday with a sterling effort to take home the G3 Aurie’s Star Handicap at Flemington for Peter Snowden. The gelding was a $90,000 purchase from Ashleigh Thoroughbreds at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale for Pulse Racing Thoroughbreds and Pinhook Bloodstock International (FBAA), and has repaid them nine times over, with career earnings soaring to $847,075.

It was only King Of Roseau’s second trip south, having finished third to Yulong’s newest stallions Growing Empire and First Settler in the Listed Poseidon Stakes last September, and the extra 100 metres of the Aurie’s Star’s 1200-metre straight shoot allowed the gelding to take charge of the race.

A new horse

Breaking his maiden on debut at Canberra just after the Christmas of his 2-year-old year, King Of Roseau has been one of the more active racehorses of his crop, running five times as a juvenile.

Alongside his win, he demonstrated his ability by running second to Fully Lit (Hellbent), who won the R. Listed Inglis Millennium at his next start, fourth in the G3 Canonbury Stakes, and second to Arabian Summer (Too Darn Hot {GB}) in the $1 million Magic Millions National 2YO Classic to close out his juvenile season.

Last spring saw him add a fifth in the G3 San Domenico Stakes behind Storm Boy and third by a neck to Amazing Eagle (Capitalist) in the Listed Brian Crowley Stakes, before lining up in the $3 million Magic Millions Sunlight and the R. Listed Magic Millions 3YO Guineas at the start of this year.

King Of Roseau | Image courtesy of Sportpix

King Of Roseau was gelding ahead of the autumn and Snowden took him back to Benchmark, where he boxed along well providing they could locate a dry enough track; this had been one of the drivers to go south to Flemington after he picked up back-to-back wins in BM78 and BM88 grade at Rosehill Gardens. The move paid off, with King Of Roseau defying a wide barrier to snatch up victory by a 1.5l.

“He’s turned into a new horse since we gelded him,” said Cameron Hay, who runs Pulse Racing in conjunction with his father Chris and brother Michael. “They say it’s the ultimate gear change, and he’s never been better.

“He’s (King Of Roseau) turned into a new horse since we gelded him. They say it’s the ultimate gear change, and he’s never been better.” - Cameron Hay

“We were able to keep him as a colt for so long because he was quite a sound horse and was really trying hard in his races, but we made the decision with Peter and it’s paid massive dividends since, because he's just been so consistent and jumped to that new level.”

Onwards and upwards from here.

“We’ll probably sit down with Peter on Monday to talk about targets later in the spring,” Hay said.

An athletic type

David Mee, proprietor of Pinhook Bloodstock International, liked the colt from the jump.

“He was a weapon from day one,” he said. “He just had a certain self confidence about his body language, and structurally he had power in all the right places. He certainly looked the part. He was a very good version of a Capitalist.”

“He (King Of Roseau) was a weapon from day one.” - David Mee

Out of the dual winner Dominica (Choisir), King Of Roseau was conceived off of a $44,000 inc GST service fee in Capitalist’s fourth season - Capitalist served the biggest book of his initial four seasons at stud that year, covering 239 mares, which was only beaten the following year when 243 mares visited him at a career fee of $99,000 inc GST.

David Mee | Image courtesy of The Image Is Everything

This raise came after he was only just pipped to the Champion First Season Sire post by barnmate Extreme Choice (and by less than $115,000 in progeny earnings).

“Capitalists have been good to us, we just find they’re good, precocious horses that have a lot of speed,” Hay said. “I think he’s a very underrated sire. Everyone gravitates to the new, flashy stallions, but year on year, he just produces really sound 2-year-olds and horses that keep training on as well. King Of Roseau is just coming to his peak as a 4-year-old.

“I think he’s (Capitalist) a very underrated sire. Year on year, he just produces really sound 2-year-olds and horses that keep training on as well.” - Cameron Hay

“He was so well-credentialled to be a stallion, he won the Breeders’ Plate, the Magic Millions, and the Slipper. You can see why the hype was there with him. We’ve bought one every year and we definitely try to target them first.”

Capitalist finished the 2024/25 season inside the top 10 on the general sires’ list for the second year running, and, looking towards the breeding season, his fee has returned to $44,000 inc GST, in acknowledgement of the air of economic uncertainty hanging over many breeders’ heads. There is also the feeling that he may experience a dip in quality as his third and fourth crops - traditionally when a stallion is least patronised - turn five and four respectively.

Capitalist | Standing at Newgate

Saying that, he posted six individual stakes winners and 165 individual winners across Australia this past race season, an improvement of 28 winners from the season before, and finished second only to Snitzel for individual juvenile winners, with 16.

Memo, also trained by Snowden, has been one of his standout performers of the year, placing three times at stakes level en route to breaking her maiden in the G3 Magic Night Stakes, and Reserve Bank scored an impressive victory in the G1 Goodwood Handicap to become his second Group 1 winner.

Peter Snowden | Image courtesy of The Image Is Everything

“He (King Of Roseau) had length, he had strength, he had natural muscle and a great attitude,” Mee said. “Thankfully it all worked out. Having an elite trainer like Peter Snowden training them certainly helps - buying them is often the easy part, but Peter’s done a wonderful job.”

“Having an elite trainer like Peter Snowden training them certainly helps - buying them is often the easy part.” - David Mee

King Of Roseau is the eldest of three Capitalists that Pulse Racing and Mee have bought - which includes a full brother to R. Listed Magic Millions Wyong 2YO Classic winner Sovereign Fund, who Snowden previously trained before his export to Hong Kong. The now 2-year-old son of city-winning, Group 3-placed Mossbeat (Mossman) was an $80,000 purchase from Newgate Farm at the Gold Coast in January.

“The Capitalists are just fast,” Mee said. “They stand up, and we’ve had good luck with them.”

Buying within a budget

“We have the help of David Mee, and he’s quite good at identifying those types of Capitalists that are more athletic, less big and bulky,” Hay said. “He can produce a kind of blocky horse, but if we can find ones that are more of an athletic height and good temperament, that has been the way to go.”

“I’m a bit of a holistic buyer,” Mee said. “I generally look at the type first and then see what we've got on the page. I try not to let the pedigree dictate what I'm after, initially it’s all about the type.

“I try not to let the pedigree dictate what I'm after, initially it’s all about the type.” - David Mee

“Then we look at the page, and try to marry up the pedigree and the genetics. He’s (King Of Roseau) a really nice blend of Choisir, the damsire, and Capitalist. I think he was a good version of both. A lot of them can be quite a little bit more short coupled, but he had a lot of length and strength.

King Of Roseau as a yearling | Image courtesy of Magic Millions

“And he came from a good farm. Senga Bissett is a good breeder and she actually kept a small piece of him, which is fantastic for her and for everyone involved.”

Bissett has had good fortune with the Capitalists, breeding and selling the sire’s other Group 1 winner Captivant, who now stands at Kia Ora Stud and will have his first 2-year-olds on the track this spring.

“One of the things I like to see is consistency in the female family,” Mee said. “If you’re buying a short course horse, you like to see lots of sprinters in the family, and of course I generally like buying out of mares that were fast themselves, even if it didn’t show on the track. If you're doing your homework, you can usually find that out.

“If you’re buying a short course horse, you like to see lots of sprinters in the family, and of course I generally like buying out of mares that were fast themselves...” - David Mee

“And also I like to see a strong female in the first three dams on the page. Then I use a pedigree analyst to rate them from a genetic perspective. There’s a lot of things that get tied together.”

Dam Dominica does well by Mee’s scale and Hay’s budget; a dual winner over 1100 metres and 1750 metres, she is one of six winners to race from seven foals out of G1 Coolmore Classic winner Danni Martine (Danzero), who is a half-sister to Western Australian stakes perform Rory’s Ratio (Rory’s Jester) and closely related to 16-time winner and stakes-placed Isorich (Choisir).

Dominica’s first foal Antilles (Written By) was a winner last season and she is deceased with no further progeny.

“I can forgive x-rays to a degree,” said Mee. “There’s plenty of good horses whose x-rays aren’t squeaky clean, and this horse was one of them. That’s probably why we got him for a little bit cheaper.”

Pulse Racing buys around five yearlings a year and shops around the $100,000-mark, which made King Of Roseau a perfect fit; in the same sales season, they paid $40,000 for dual provincial winner Yabby Pump (Castelvecchio). The small operation keeps their model sustainable and easier to control.

“I think it's more of a strength on our side to not have to do that (buy a lot of yearlings) to keep the bills rolling over.” - Cameron Hay

“We’re more of a boutique syndication company,” Hay said. “We’re active and inspecting at all the sales, and we try to look at as many horses as possible then narrow them down, that way we can try and focus on quality rather than quantity.

“Some syndicators have the luxury of buying lots and lots of horses, but I think it's more of a strength on our side to not have to do that to keep the bills rolling over. That way you can focus on servicing clients a lot better.”

King Of Roseau
Pulse Racing
Cameron Hay
David Mee
Pinhook Bloodstock International
Capitalist
Buy of the Weekend