The intangible quality that makes The Next Episode

Cover image courtesy of The Image Is Everything

Winning the G1 Golden Slipper or the G1 Coolmore Stud Stakes guarantees a colt will be sought after at stud. A decision to overspend on a broodmare has taken Widden Stud’s Antony Thompson to the G1 Coolmore Stud Stakes. Thompson extended his budget on Humma Humma (Denman) from $600,000 to $1 million and brought in a couple of friends, Paul Frampton and Bill Betar to the mare.

They were repaid when her Snitzel colt sold for $2.8 million at the 2025 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale, and repaid again when he won Saturday’s G1 Coolmore Stud Stakes as The Next Episode.

“When he went to the sales, he had that intangible quality. You know it when you see it. Everyone who looked at him just said, ‘Wow, what a horse.’ Sometimes you see a horse that really shines. The Next Episode is that horse,” Widden Stud’s Antony Thompson said.

“We're really excited to see what he can do. Ciaron (Maher) believes we haven't seen the best of him yet. He’s still a young horse on the up and certainly when he retires to stud, he’ll be that colt that the best breeders send their best mares to and he’ll get every chance.”

A colt’s race record already

Trained by Ciaron Maher, The Next Episode debuted in the Golden Gift as an early 2-year-old but only managed to beat one home.

“He drew badly and got a squeeze at the start, and he pulled up a bit off after the race,” Maher’s assistant trainer Jo Gerard-Dubord said at the time.

He resumed as a March juvenile, winning at Warwick Farm, before running second to Blue Door (Stay Inside) in the G3 Kindergarten Stakes. Sent to Queensland, he won the Listed Dalrello Stakes and the Magic Millions National Classic.

The Next Episode resumed at three in the G2 Danehill Stakes, winning by just under half a length, and then the big one.

The G1 Coolmore Stud Stakes.

It’s the race that every potential stallion prospect wants to win with a sire-making reputation thanks to past winners like last season’s Champion First Season Sire Home Affairs, Champion Sire Zoustar, and Champion Sire Encosta De Lago. Proven Group 1 sires Flying Artie, Brazen Beau, Sepoy, Star Witness and Northern Meteor all feature on the honour board, while young sires Tentyris, Switzerland and Ozzmosis have their stud careers ahead of them.

The Next Episode has plenty ahead of him with only seven starts under his belt so far. He’s won five times, three at stakes level, and has earnings over $2.1 million.

“Ciaron did say last night that if he comes through right, maybe we run him back next Saturday and take on the older horses in the Champion Sprint. That'd be a great race with some serious opposition,” Thompson said.

“Ultimately it’s Ciaron's call, but he's got enormous belief in him, and if he comes through well, that'd be a really exciting race next week.

“Mark (Zahra) was out with us last night and he said, he didn't want to get there quite as early as he did, but he couldn't hold him. As soon as he produced, he got to the front in a hurry and then had a bit of a look around. We were lucky to have a champion jockey like Mark who rides the straight so well. He’s got a really good feel for these sprinters, and he said there’s plenty more there.”

He’s the one that he wanted

‘You’re the one that I want’, as the Grease lyrics say. And for British owner Phil Cunningham, The Next Episode was that horse. Like all of Cunningham’s horses, The Next Episode is named after a song, in this case a Dr Dre number from the year 2000. Ciaron Maher paid $2.8 million at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale for the colt on behalf of Cunningham’s Rebel Racing and partners. Widden Stud retained a share in the colt who was the second top lot for the Gold Coast in 2025.

“What a horse. He’s just a magnificent colt, and he's been a special horse from day one. We had the sense there was something about him in the early days, and then he went to the sale and everyone got to see him. We had lofty expectations at Magic Millions but he really exceeded even our expectations making $2.8 million through the ring,” Thompson said.

“To see him live up to that price tag and to everyone's expectations of him was really awesome yesterday. Obviously that's been his target race. Ciaron had always said he's a horse we can win the Coolmore with, and he was laser sharp in his focus and his determination. When offers of Everest slots came on the table, Ciaron didn't waver. He stayed true to what we needed to do. We wanted to win the Coolmore and he said that’s what we are going to do.

“The way he looks, the way he moves, his temperament. Everything about the horse is just so cool.”

Thompson views thousands of horses every year but he wasn't the only one who saw quality when they looked at The Next Episode.

“He’s the horse that everyone was dying in a ditch over at the sales. Phil Cunningham had come out from England and said to Ciaron, ‘I don't want to buy a lot of horses, I want to buy one, just buy the best one.’

“He races a lot of horses in England. Ciaron identified The Next Episode as the best horse in the sale, and once Phil saw him, that was it. Even when Ciaron said, ‘Maybe that’s enough’, Phil wasn’t stopping. He'd come all this way to buy the horse of the sale and he was going to do that. That was a pretty cool day, but yesterday was way more special again.”

Back in May this year, Phil Cunningham spoke to The Owner Breeder in a long interview and mentioned The Next Episode.

“We had a great holiday and ended up at the sales where I decided to get more involved, as it’s a totally different experience there. It’s expensive, but less so with the exchange rate as it was, and the prizemoney is so good, with a $1m race every week,” Cunningham told theownerbreeder.com.

“My usual methodology would have been to buy five or six and hope that one of them would come good, but with the time difference I realised I wouldn’t be able to see them much, which I really like doing, and I’m not going to keep getting up at three in the morning to watch them live, so we decided to go all in on one and bought the Snitzel colt.

“The ownership model is very different there and few horses are owned outright, but I named him, and I own 50 per cent. British racing is where my interest is, and while I’m so involved, it’s how I want it to be in terms of owning it, managing it and controlling it.

“The Australian venture is passive. Should we make any profit it would be reinvested over there, so it could expand on that basis, but we’ll see how it goes.”

TTR spoke to Phil Trainor and Gabrielle Nutt about The Next Episode back in May.

On Saturday, we all saw how it has gone! The Next Episode won from $2.7 million colt St Gotthard (Snitzel) with $300,000 buy Mbube (Rubick) in third.

“We saw two very high-priced colts fighting out the Coolmore yesterday and that rarely happens. It was great for the game, great for racing and we've seen some fabulous racing over the whole carnival,” Thompson said.

“People talk about the Derby and the Melbourne Cup and all the great races that happen at Flemington this week, but from my point of view, the most valuable race and the race you really want to win is the Coolmore.

“We've been fortunate enough to do it with Zoustar and we've seen what a Coolmore win can do for a young colt with Zoustar becoming a Champion Sire. We were lucky to be involved with Sunlight, who we bred, and was part of that famous Zoustar trifecta.

“Now to do it again with a horse like this, who we bred and part-own, is a dream come true.”

Widden Stud’s Zoustar won the G1 Coolmore Stud Stakes in 2013, is a son of G1 Coolmore Stud Stakes winner Northern Meteor, and was crowned Australian Champion Sire in 2024/25. He has 82 stakes winners, including 11 at Group 1 level. Sunlight, who won in 2018, leading home a Zoustar trifecta with Zousain and Lean Mean Machine, won 11 races, adding the G1 Newmarket Handicap and G1 William Reid Stakes in the autumn.

Coolmore Stud’s Tom Magnier paid $4.2 million for Sunlight at the end of her racing career, and it was her filly Lia La La (Home Affairs) who beat The Next Episode for top billing at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale that year making $3.2 million. Lia La La has placed twice from three starts in Japan and is a half-sister to Listed winner Dawn Service (Justify {USA}).

Take back the sniggers, she’s worth every cent

Widden Stud paid $1 million for G3 Proud Miss Stakes winner Humma Humma (Denman) at the 2021 Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale and she is a half-sister to Listed winner Tycoon Humma (Capitalist). The Next Episode is her second foal after G3 Blue Diamond Preview (f)-placed Price Tag (Zoustar). Humma Humma was a tough racemare, whose six wins included three at black-type level, and has 2-year-old colt Hurricane Humma (I Am Invincible) and a yearling filly by Zoustar to come. She missed to Zoustar in 2025.

“She was a lovely mare, she was beautiful,” Thompson said.

“A lot of people sniggered and a few people ribbed me when we paid so much for Humma Humma. A little stakes winner by Denman, they all wanted to think we’d gone crazy but she was really beautiful.”

Humma Humma is out of Humma Mumma (Bel Esprit), who won four races and is a half-sister to Listed winner Vignette (Spectrum {Ire}). This is the family of G1 VRC Derby winner Manzoice (Almanzor {Fr}).

“When she went in the ring, I was dead-set keen to buy her and we were thinking she might make $600,000 and when we paid $1 million, everyone was saying you paid too much, but as it turns out, those really beautiful mares, they do throw beautiful foals, and she’s rewarded us well.

“She’s a lovely mare, and a beautiful profile, a lovely pedigree. I was so pleased to have two good friends and great clients in Paul Frampton and Bill Betar at the sale and they said, ‘If you buy her, we'll take half.’ So those guys took a quarter each and I'd bought half.

“She was a mare that I wasn’t going home without. She’s just such a lovely filly and to see her really repay us the way she has in the foals she’s thrown has been awesome.

“She's just class. She has a beautiful head and she's quality and it’s just the balance of her movement. Everything about her is just class.”

Her first foal, Price Tag, sold for $600,000 to Dean Hawthorne Bloodstock and raced in the Pinecliff Racing colours when trained by Anthony and Sam Freedman. Following The Next Episode was the now 2-year-old colt Hurricane Humma who went through Widden Stud’s Inglis Easter Yearling Sale draft of 2026. McEvoy Racing and Belmont Bloodstock (FBAA) paid $600,000 for him.

From that $1 million purchase, her three foals to sell have netted $4 million minus costs and retained shares. And Humma Humma is only an 11-year-old mare, so she has plenty of years ahead of her in the broodmare paddocks at historic Widden Stud.

When The Next Episode retires to stud, he’ll join a long legacy already produced by his five-time Champion Sire Snitzel. Widden Stud have already had success with Snitzel's son Trapeze Artist, and his other sons include Shamus Award, Russian Revolution, and exciting second-season sires Wild Ruler and Sword Of State.

Among Snitzel’s young sires are the Group 1 winners Switzerland, who won this race in 2024 and is a full brother to second-placed St Gotthard, as well as first-season sire In The Congo, and G1 Golden Slipper winner Shinzo.

When buyers go to the sales and spend up big on colts, The Next Episode is exactly what they are trying to achieve. For Widden Stud, having retained a share in him, it seems likely that he’ll join their roster one day.

But for now, racing fans are assured that there is still more to come from the exciting 3-year-old colt. We may even see him next weekend against the older sprinters in the G1 Champions Sprint at Flemington over the same distance and course as the G1 Coolmore Stud Stakes.