A very good buy: Vantorix and his dam prove success can come with small price tags

Cover image courtesy of Racing Queensland

Vantorix (Captivant) has been his father’s flagbearer from the start, and on Saturday, the unbeaten juvenile ticked off an all important first stakes win for his sire when taking out the G2 Spirit Of Boom Classic at Doomben.

The victory not only makes Captivant the eighth first crop sire this season to produce a stakes winner, but it gifts Vantorix’s dam Miss Loren (Stryker) with her second Group winner this season as well. For the mare's owner Richard McClenahan, it makes a $30,000 spend six years ago look like incredibly good value.

Top of the crop

The October-born Vantorix’s modest $30,000 price tag at last year’s Inglis Classic Yearling Sale, where he was bought by his trainer Jenny Graham, does not suggest a particularly precocious horse, but by November of 2025, he had hit the ground running. The winner of his one trial ahead of debut, he dutifully repeated the effort at Taree to win by two and three quarter lengths against older horses.

The latter is a particularly unusual event, especially before Christmas, and it wasn’t the only time last year that Graham employed the tactic. Fellow juvenile Royal Exile (King’s Legacy) headed to the same venue two days before Christmas and beat a field of older horses on debut. He ran second in juvenile company at Wyong’s January metropolitan meeting before being not disgraced in eighth in the R. Listed Inglis Millennium.

Vantorix was the first winner and first runner back for Graham after a three year break, and he returned in the autumn with another trial win, then a victory at Grafton that had Graham and connections looking to send him north to tackle the Queensland carnival.

Graham called Saturday’s victory “a huge thrill”, and, buoyed by positive comments from jockey James McDonald, she indicated that the G2 BRC Sires’ Produce Stakes and the G1 JJ Atkins Plate are next on the agenda for a horse that she always thought was stakes quality.

“The horse has pulled up really well, I'm actually ecstatic with how he has come through the race,” she told Racing And Sports on Monday. “I thought the race might have taken a bit more out of him than what it did. So, the plan is to run in the Sires and we will go from there.

“I'm convinced Vantorix will be an even better 3-year-old so we will do what is best for the horse.”

The G2 Spirit Of Boom Classic has been a JJ Atkins Plate springboard for several in recent years; Cool Archie claimed both it and the Sires last season, and Sizzling and Rothfire (Rothesay) - who clinched his second Group 1 in Saturday’s Doomben 10,000 - also secured the race. Brazen Beau may have run second in his JJ Atkins, but he added two Group 1s to his resume as a 3-year-old to cement the Classic's quality.

Given his sire Captivant was at his pinnacle over the mile in the G1 Champagne Stakes, there is good reason for Graham to think that Vantorix could make the grade.

A very good buy

Miss Loren’s tale in the breeding barn is one of a mare who has out-produced her pedigree. Precocious enough to run third in the Listed Debutant Stakes, it took her until she was four to break her maiden.

Aside from her own bright spot on her pedigree page, the closest black-type relation is Hammerbeam (Grand Lodge {USA}), under her second dam. The gelding carried the Ingham pink to victory in the G3 Blue Diamond Prelude (colts & geldings) and Listed Canonbury Stakes, and also ran third in the G1 VRC Sires’ Produce Stakes.

Miss Loren was a $30,000 purchase for Richard McClenahan at the 2020 Inglis Australian Broodmare Sale, where she was offered by Kingstar Farm in foal to Newgate Farm’s Capitalist, with a Vancouver yearling and Capitalist weanling on the ground at the time. In his third season at stud when the foal was conceived, Capitalist stood for $55,000 inc GST.

“She was stakes-placed and she was an incredibly nice looking mare,” said McClenahan, who also bred Yarraman Park Stud’s Hellbent. “She was very strong and with a great action, she moves very well. I love a good action on the mare, because I feel like they pass that on to their foals and a good action really helps to sell a horse.”

Miss Loren’s sire Stryker has been carving himself a good record as a broodmare sire from small numbers, with 49 winners from 81 to race including the stakes winners Icarian Dream (Blue Point {Ire}) and Meridius (Extreme Choice), and G1 Australian Derby second Virtuous Circle (NZ) (Almanzor {Fr}).

“She was in foal to Capitalist and I thought he had the potential to create a good racehorse. I thought it was a very good mating for her when I went through the mating, and she was of course very well priced.”

The resultant foal, Rise Companions moved well enough to impress Mitchell Bloodstock (FBAA) when he was offered through Valiant Stud’s 2022 Inglis Classic Yearling Sale draft. The colt made $110,000 before heading across to New Zealand, where he is a three-time winner.

Darby Racing paid $150,000 for Miss Loren’s next foal Raging Force (Cosmic Force) in 2024 and it was him who elevated his dam to being a black-type producer. Sixth on debut in the G3 Breeders’ Plate, he strung three wins together in the autumn of his 2-year-old season and struck again on resumption in the spring, winning the G3 San Domenico Stakes.

Surprisingly precocious

Vantorix did not attract the same price tag in the sales ring. Initially offered as a weanling by McClenahan’s Mullaglass Stud at the Inglis Australian Weanling Sale, he was a $40,000 purchase for Kiwi Bloodstock. Mullaglass offered him at the following Classic Sale, where he was knocked down to his trainer for $30,000.

He has been particularly good buying for Graham, having now accumulated $214,000 in prizemoney across his three starts.

McClenahan always liked the colt growing up, but chalked the price tags up to his size.

“I thought he was a very nice weanling who grew into a lovely yearling and I always liked him, but he was very big,” he said. “He was a good mover like his mother, but he was big and a bit gangly. I thought the Captivants undersold as weanlings, and by the time it came round to selling him as a yearling, he just looked like he would take time to mature.

“I was really shocked when he came out and won at Taree in November. You could see in the run that he was very green, but I must say I was shocked that he came out so early, because he just looked like he needed more time. But obviously Jenny knew better.”

It was the good kind of shock at least, and now the juvenile is set to climb even higher heights through the rest of the Queensland carnival.

Unfortunately Raging Force was sidelined by a pelvic fracture in March, so won’t be joining his half-brother on the Gold Coast.

“He was very unlucky to get injured during the season, but hopefully, all being well, he'll be back bigger and stronger next year,” McClenahan said. And yeah, this guy looks like he's got plenty of future ahead of him.”

As for Miss Loren, she is in foal to Cosmic Force, with her Zousain yearling colt selling to Peter Snowden - trainer of Raging Force - for $180,000 at the Classic sale earlier this year.

“I am really happy that he went to Peter,” McClenahan said. “He obviously knows the progeny well. This colt is a different mould, he’s a very neat type that looks very sharp and early so I would hope that he will get up as a 2-year-old as well.”

And what awaits Miss Loren in the spring?

“Her mating is still up in the air,” McClenahan said. “But she mates very well with Tentyris. I haven’t seen him in the flesh yet, but there is a fair possibility that she goes in that direction. She probably deserves it now.”

With two Group winners under her belt, it’s hard to argue she does not.

Cementing the proven roster

A juvenile stakes winner in the first crop is a thrill to any stallion farm proprietor, and it is no different for the team at Vinery Stud. Kia Ora Stud stallions Farnan, Captivant, and Tropicus have recently made the shift to merge with their neighbour’s roster, which can now boast that all of their stallions with runners are Group producers.

“To get a Group 2 winner in your first crop of 2-year-olds is fantastic,” said Vinery’s General Manager Adam White. “Captivant was a very talented 2-year-old himself, so it's not surprising that he's come up with a very good one, but I do think they are a breed that will train on as they get towards turning three as well.”

That bodes particularly well for Vantorix and his connections, who have set the juvenile on a path to the last juvenile major of the season on June 13.

“This particular horse is a very strong chance for the JJ Atkins,” White said. “It will be interesting to watch him progress.”

As the Vinery team looks towards the coming breeding season, White feels that Captivant will be turning a few heads as he enters his fifth season at stud.

“It’s extremely important to get that first stakes winner, particularly for it to be a 2-year-old stakes winner from his first crop,” he said. There are 27 first season sires to have had runners so far this season and 21 have had winners, so Captivant is in good company to have his name amongst the eight with stakes winners - of which seven have produced Group winners.

“It gives a bit of confidence to the breeders ahead of the season - not just the commercial breeders, but also those looking to breed their own racehorses. He has put his hand up for that market in a big way now."

Captivant will stand his fifth season at stud at a fee of $11,000 inc GST.

“It’s a very strong, proven roster we have now, and there’s a few really exciting young horses that are going to put us in good stead for seasons to come,” White said.