Wootton Bassett’s influence lives on through the Derby

Cover image courtesy of The Image Is Everything

The G1 VRC Derby win by the Chris Waller-trained Stormy Marco (Wootton Bassett {GB}) on Saturday might have come from one of Australia’s biggest stables with a top end investor, Hermitage, as an owner, but it was also a win for the small breeder taking a punt on an exposed mare who already had six foals on the ground with only a handful of minor winners.

South Australia’s Rathmore Lodge paid $55,000 for Rose Memory (Ire) (Elusive City {USA}), in foal to proven Group 1 sire Wootton Bassett (GB), and a few years later paid $25,000 for Seracena (So You Think {NZ}), the dam of second-placed Cold Shower (Too Darn Hot {GB}). Rose Memory was sold again after Stormy Marco was foaled, but she didn’t make much, and Rathmore Lodge’s Ross Hatton bought her back for $6000.

“I have to pinch myself. To breed the winner of the Derby is absolutely phenomenal,” Hatton said.

Like many things at Rathmore Lodge, breeding Stormy Marco was a team effort with credit going to the whole group of breeders for the colt: Rathmore Bloodstock, Avesta NO 2, G1g Racing & Breeding & G1g Colts & Breeding Pty Ltd, McConnell Bloodstock, Mr P Collins, Mr RB Davis and Mr T Crothers.

For Ross Hatton, the day was even better as Stormy Marco’s owner Hermitage invited them to join them at Flemington for the day.

Before the Derby, Irish born Hatton had only been to Flemington once before in 2024 to watch a horse he had a small share in, Kingofwallstreet (Dundeel {NZ}), run fourth in the G1 VRC Derby. Fast forward two years later and a phone call to Hermitage’s manager Shannon Clarke scored him tickets to the day with the rest of the Stormy Marco crew.

“It was a pretty surreal experience to be there on the day,” Hatton said, thanking Clarke and the Waller team for making him feel so welcome. Hatton made the whole group laugh when he realised Cold Shower had run second.

“About 90 seconds after the race I looked at the screen to make sure Stormy Marco had won it and I saw Cold Shower had run second. I jumped up screaming again.

“We’ve bred a Group 1 winner now. There’s no point in stopping. We can breed another one.

“There’s a lot of ups and downs in this game. We lost one foal this year to a red bag and we couldn't save it, and so you have to celebrate the highs because there’s plenty of lows in this game.”

It takes an elite sire to be versatile

Hatton has a history with Wootton Bassett, although one step removed, having worked with his dam, three-time Listed placed Balladonia (GB) (Primo Dominie {GB}).

“Before I came to Australia, I was the foaling manager at Norelands Stud in Ireland and when Wootton Bassett was a 2-year-old, his dam Balladonia was at Norelands,” Hatton said.

“She was quite like him, a dark coloured mare like Wootton Bassett, but without the same size and presence that he had. She was more in the mould of Stormy Marco, with that lovely frame.”

Wootton Bassett is a rags-to-riches stallion success story. Wootton Bassett began his stud career in 2012 at Nicolas de Chambure’s Haras d’Etreham at the fee of €6000 (AU$10,700), lowering to €4000 (AU$7160) before his first crop hit the track.

That first crop yielded just 23 foals, but among them was Almanzor (Fr), who captured the G1 Prix du Jockey Club, the G1 Irish Champion Stakes, and the G1 Champion Stakes in his Classic year, and dually booked himself a spot at stud. He has sired a G1 VRC Derby winner with Manzoice.

In 2021, off the back of multiple Group 1 winners, Wootton Bassett moved to Coolmore in Ireland where he would stand for €100,000 (AU$179,000). It was then that he joined the shuttle to Australia and his first local crop are now 4-year-olds.

“He’s a huge loss,” Coolmore’s Colm Santry said. Wootton Bassett died in September last year after serving only a small portion of his book, with his last foals being born now.

“Wootton Bassett was never going to be an extreme speed horse down here. His class was always going to prevail when they got north of a mile. When his three and 4-year-olds have gone out to those trips in Australia, they’ve performed to a very high level.

“He's a world-class elite stallion when you're racing over those distances. To produce two Derby winners in this part of the world is something special. We're going to see the best of them over the years to come, especially now that his older horses are on the scene with his oldest crop being four.

“He's got a lot of well-bred fillies here. He'll be quite influential on the breed here going forward.”

Coolmore have plenty of Northern Hemisphere-bred Group 1-winning colts by him in the works, and his penultimate crop of yearlings to sell in 2027.

It’s a sentiment that Hatton agrees with.

“With elite stallions, they get them at all distances. Like Extreme Choice, Wootton Bassett, So You Think could get you an Everest winner or a Derby winner. Choisir was another, a Champion sprinter who got a Derby winner. They’ll run at any distance with the right mare. It’s a lot to do with class,” Hatton said.

“We don’t know what Stormy Marco’s best distance is. If it wasn’t for Tron Bolt in the same ownership, they might have gone on a Guineas pathway with him.”

Winning the Derby took a planned preparation for Stormy Marco who was active as a juvenile.

“It's a very important race, obviously. There’s plenty of criticism about it at the moment, the Victorian Derby and the trip over to 2500. I actually think the race is going to go from strength to strength over the next number of years,” Santry said.

“Stormy Marco won a good race on debut, the Clarendon Stakes. A good horse normally wins that race. I'm surprised it's not a stakes race, but it will be shortly. Then he proved his class third up when he went to the JJ Atkins over a mile and ran a blinder behind Tron Bolt.”

With Stormy Marco’s win, he continues the trend for Derby winners needing to have raced at two. Only one winner in the past 20 editions hasn’t run at two, Extra Brut (Domesday), who debuted in early August.

“I'm delighted the Derby in Melbourne got a prizemoney raise. It'll help improve our racing overall, and our breeding industry overall,” Santry said.

“Trainers will need to upskill themselves to condition these horses. There’s an art to getting them to their peak performance levels over distance and keeping them sound. There's no hiding over a mile, a mile and a half. The best horse generally wins those races.”

Buying in foal mares is a deliberate strategy

Rathmore Lodge’s strategy for buying in-foal mares, selling the weanlings, then selling the mares again, is a deliberate one.

“I thought there was a niche in the market and selling weanlings has continued to be our focus,” Hatton said.

Stormy Marco was sold at the Inglis Australian Weanling Sale for $70,000 to Tasman Bloodstock.

“The Coolmore boys formed a crew and fair play to them. The good thing about them is they love supporting their own stallions, they’ll buy weanlings by their own stallions. They bought a So You Think filly off me last year too. They are great to work with,” Hatton said.

Stormy Marco went through Coolmore Stud’s 2025 Inglis Easter Yearling Sale draft where Chris Waller, Mulcaster Bloodstock and Hermitage Thoroughbreds paid $300,000 for him, slightly under the $345,000 average Wootton Bassett achieved with his second crop that year.

Santry had a simple explanation for the big uptick. Wootton Bassett’s European crops were really taking off and people were beginning to see how much class he was imparting to his progeny. He now has 100 global stakes winners, with 25 at Group 1 level.

“We brought Galileo out here and he was an amazing influence on the breed, whether it be for racehorses or broodmares. It’ll be the same with American Pharoah and Wootton Bassett,” Santry said.

“Sometimes it just takes a bit longer for the penny to drop when these horses aren't ideal for Australian racing. All our racing is about five and six furlong speed, but these horses who can win a Derby are very important for our industry and very important for the breed.

“The race should be left at the same distance it's been at forever in both hemispheres.”

A foal with plenty of personality

Being in South Australia means working with farms in NSW and Victoria for their mares who are ready to be served. Stormy Marco and his dam went to Fernrigg Farm in NSW shortly after he was born, where they walked her out to be served by Widden Stud's Zousain.

“We foal them here and then they either go to Prize Park or Fernrigg in NSW. They are an extension of us, and we put full trust in them to manage our foals at a young age because we can’t walk the mares on from South Australia,” Hatton said.

“As a foal, he always had personality. He had loads of leg under him, he was a real Derby type, like an Ethiopian Olympic runner. A natural athlete, tall, narrow, leggy with plenty of athleticism and a super attitude.

“When he was born, there was a lot of rain around, and he would come in every evening. He would be like a cat or dog and dig up the bed with a pile of hay and plonk himself on the hay. He was a very memorable foal.”

Rose Memory went back to the sales but not much interest meant Hatton ended up buying her back for $6000.

“She was my partner Max’s favourite mare. I bought her for Max as a Mother’s Day present. One of the other guys in her, Bob Davis, called me on the way home from that sale and said he was the underbidder. ‘Are you kidding me? You’d better take 10% in her’,” Hatton said.

“He’s still involved in the mare with myself and Max. We’ve got a lovely Dirty Work colt to sell at Inglis Premier next year, and she is 30 days positive to Toronado.”

Stormy Marco is the fourth winner for Rose Memory, who was placed at Deauville. She is a half-sister to G2 Longchamp Prix Noailles victor Hard Dream (Ire) (Oasis Dream {GB}) who later won twice in Hong Kong.

Their dam is Listed-placed Rose Melody (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) who is a half-sister to three stakes winners led by G2 American Derby winner Gold And Steel (Fr) (Shining Steel {GB}).

Hatton moved from Ireland to South Australia’s Cornerstone Stud in 2012, before founding Rathmore Lodge.

“I got here and never left. I love South Australia, it’s very laid-back. It has its pros and cons. We have to be very organised and can’t just change a mare’s plans on a whim. The cost of transport doesn’t help but it’s nice not being just another farm in the Hunter.

“We’ve got the wine and the food, and it’s a little bit more like Ireland down here. We’ve had a fantastic winter and spring with plenty of rain and plenty of feed.”

And two mares in the paddocks who produced the 2026 G1 VRC Derby quinella.

Understanding the Derby sets it up for success

Colm Santry had one more question when it came to the Derby.

“Why is nobody ever wanting to change the Oaks? It’s over the same course and distance only a few days later,” Santry said.

“Rather than change the foundation of the race, maybe what we need to do is change the philosophy of getting horses to the race.

“The foundations for the race are solid. It's more that we're probably lacking support for staying 3-year-old sires in this country, and our trainers are so focussed on five and six-furlong speed, which are very easy horses to train.

“You need to be able to train to train stayers. You need to be able to condition horses properly. And you need to be able to line a program up for those horses to get there on the day and win the big race.

“Look what Chris Waller has done with his four Derby winners and how they've been programmed and conditioned for the race.”

Thursday will see the 3-year-old fillies contest the Oaks without a word in the media about how the trip is too long and too arduous for young horses at this time of year. Are the fillies naturally tougher, or merely overlooked in the discussion about class?

Whatever the reason for the debate revolving around the Derby and not the Oaks, the 2026 winner demonstrated that it takes an elite stallion to win an elite race, and a horse who demonstrates class at two is one worth following as they turn three.