Buy of the Weekend: Flying Houdini gives instant result for RedFox

Cover image courtesy of The Image Is Everything

It’s not often you can buy a full brother to a juvenile stakes winner for under the sale average. The 2026 Inglis Classic Yearling Sale averaged $96,000 and RedFox Racing paid $60,000 for Flying Houdini (Trapeze Artist) from Widden Stud’s draft.

A full brother to last season’s R. Listed Inglis Nursery Stakes winner Where’s The Circus, who already had her victory on the page at the time of sale, Flying Houdini now looks like the bargain of the spring.

His debut G3 Breeders’ Plate victory has earned his connections over $140,000 and he’s off to the paddock before being prepared for the G1 Blue Diamond Stakes.

A massive start to the spring for RedFox Racing

At the start of the spring, RedFox Racing won the G3 Up & Coming Stakes at Randwick with $120,000 purchase Plagiarism (Written By). They’ve applied a similar principle in buying Flying Houdini – a pedigree that has already worked combined with an early running physique.

“It has been huge and we're just pinching ourselves. We're just on top of the world at the moment,” RedFox Racing's Tracey Rook said.

“He's very exciting colt. He's actually just such a tough colt from day one. He's just done whatever's been put to him. He's stepped up at every level.

“We were extremely excited to secure him for $60,000. That was the same as Fully Lit money. It seems to be the magic number.”

Fully Lit (Hellbent) won the 2024 R. Listed Inglis Millennium for RedFox Racing.

Trapeze Artist not on the radar

Flying Houdini becomes the 13th stakes winner for four-time Group 1 winner Trapeze Artist who has been building a decent record in the last 12 months.

“When we went to the sales, we have our particular groups that we'd look at, our target groups. And Trapeze Artist wasn't on our radar at that time,” Rook said.

“This colt. The formula's there. It's already worked. The sister has already won at stakes level. And out of a Fastnet Rock mare, that’s a great combination and Widden Stud. It's the perfect trifecta.”

As well as R. Listed Inglis Nursery Stakes winner Where’s The Circus, Misplaced (Fastnet Rock), has also produced R. Listed Inglis 2YO Classic-placed Can’t Find Snippy (Snippetson), who is the dam of Listed Phelan Ready Stakes-placed Elusive Capital (Capitalist).

“He was a nice horse. He wasn't a standout sales horse, but that's much in line with the Trapeze Artists. We’ve said before that it doesn’t matter what shape and size you get them, they all run. He was a good, strong boned, good moving colt,” Widden Stud’s Matt Comerford said.

“And fair play to Bill and Tracey. They identified him and they kept coming back and they did their due diligence and it's a fantastic result for them.”

Trapeze Artist has always been popular at stud with over 100 foals in four of his first five crops (and 99 in the other). His current yearlings and foals are his two smallest crops, but now with a drop in fee to $27,500 inc GST and more results on track, he should track back up again from this season onwards.

“It continues a huge run that Trapeze Artist has had in the last 12 months. He keeps putting his hand up,” Comerford said.

Trapeze Artist added a second Group 1 winner when Panova won the G1 Australasian Oaks last season, and in total he had eight stakes winners of 12 stakes races in 2025/26.

“He’s very comparable to what Snitzel did as a stallion early. There's not a huge amount of difference between the two sires at the same time of their careers. Snitzel obviously went on to dominate the Australian Sire rankings and I’m not saying that Trapeze will too but he’s an affordable price for breeders and he continues to get results.”

A lot more expensive than his sister

Flying Houdini’s full sister Where’s The Circus cost $1250 via Inglis Digital. While Flying Houdini was cheaper than the Classic Sale average for 2026, he was a lot more expensive than his sister.

“On that note, we've paid top money for him,” Rook joked.

“We look for the early 2-year-olds and obviously that was an early running 2-year-old family. Sometimes on pedigree and on paper, when you get to the sales what presents itself and what walks out of the box isn't exactly what you're expecting. But when he walked out of the box, he just looked like the ready-made running 2-year-old that his pedigree suggested.

“Bill Duncan, my bloodstock manager, he said the words that he said when we bought Fully Lit. He said, just add water and you've got a ready-made 2-year-old. What you're looking at is what you're going to be looking at in six months time.”

It’s a family filled with juvenile performances. Misplaced only raced at three, placing four times in five starts. She is out of Star’s Delight (Zeditave) who debuted at two and placed at three. Star's Delight is a half-sister to Group 3 winner and G1 South Australian Derby-placed Red Colossus (Testa Rossa) and G3 Blue Diamond Prelude (f) winner Nediym’s Glow (General Nediym) who is the granddam of young sire General Beau.

General Beau, who stands at Maluka Thoroughbreds, won three of his five starts at two, including the Listed Blue Diamond Preview (c&g) and G3 Blue Diamond Prelude (c&g). He raced on at three, four and five, adding another Listed win and placing in the G1 William Reid Stakes.

“That's exactly what we try to do for Red Fox. We want them to be able to enjoy racing and include people of all economic levels. The ownership group we have in Flying Houdini are all first time owners.

“The thrill that they had yesterday was exactly the same as when we won the Millennium with Fully Lit. It was absolutely electric. There were people crying. There were people, just over the moon, people jumping up and down the air. I think we were out of control down there. It was just a fabulous atmosphere.

“I caught up with Darren Flindell last night and he said of all the races that he called, race two had noise complaints from Newtown! He said there was just so much noise from our group on the ground, which is exactly what we want at RedFox. That vibe is something that you just can't create.

“The winner's room was chokers. It was an amazing atmosphere in that winner's room.”

Set for the big ones next

Gai Waterhouse now has 10 G3 Breeders’ Plate winners, and three of them have gone on to win the G1 Golden Slipper being Vancouver, Pierro and Sebring. In partnership with Adrian Bott, they have now won three of the past four runnings of the race with ill-fated King Kirk (Ole Kirk) winning in 2024 and Lovatsville sire Espionage victorious in 2023. Espionage bookended his juvenile season with a win in the G3 Kindergarten Plate.

“The path has always been for our 2-year-olds to get here today, that is a big job in itself, and he will go for a spell now. He’s a horse we can bring back early in the New Year, resume here in Sydney, then we can possibly go to the Blue Diamond and then target the Golden Slipper,” Bott said post race.

Rook hoped he would follow Fully Lit and win the Inglis Millennium on the way to the big juvenile Group 1s.

“He's proven himself. He's extremely tough and we've got a very exciting and talented colt on our hands,” Rook said.

“Regan Bayliss has done a lot of work with him since he hit the stables. And Regan has said from day one, this is a Breeders’ Plate colt. The further into his prep, he got more and more excited and we got more and more excited. Here we are, pinching ourselves!”

Whether he can follow his illustrious stablemates into the future remains to be seen, but for his ownership group, they’ve had the most thrilling beginning to their ownership journey that can possibly be dreamed about.