NZ Racing News

The training partnership of John O’Shea and Tom Charlton continues to flourish as evidenced by a stable quinella in Saturday’s Gr.1 Queensland Derby (2400m) as Maison Louis defeated King Of Thunder in a perfect result for the Sydney trainers.

Charlton joined O’Shea in partnership this season and Maison Louis becomes the duo’s third Group One winner for the term after elite-level wins from Schwartz and Linebacker.

Ridden by Ryan Maloney, Maison Louis came from three back on the fence and tracked Imperialist through to find clear air shortly after turning and was strong through the line.

King Of Thunder and Chase Your Dreams made good ground from the back to fill the minor placings as New Zealand-bred horses comprised the trifecta.

O’Shea was quick to reference his penchant for sourcinghorses from New Zealand and his fondness for budding young sire Super Seth, with Maison Louis becoming the stallion’s fourth Group One winner from his first two crops.

“Maison Louis has just been a progressive horse by a top young stallion in Super Seth. He’s one of the few horses that we have for Go Racing, who do a wonderful job,” O’Shea said.

“He’s just a tough, resilient little horse and he’s come from obscurity to win a Queensland Derby so we’re very excited.”

From breaking his maiden in late February, Maison Louis has now won four of his seven starts and has made steady progress throughout the campaign.

“I think the key is that he was able to cope with the workload. He’s just a great doer and a good, tough horse,” O’Shea said,

“He came off Pencarrow Stud in New Zealand, and we always rush to New Zealand each year to participate in their sales, and we’ve been well-rewarded because the second horse comes out of one of their sales as well.”

Prominent syndicators Go Racing purchased Maison Louis for $250,000 from the Pencarrow Stud draft at Karaka 2023, while King Of Thunder was a $50,000 New Zealand Bloodstock Ready To Run Sale purchase by O’Shea from the draft of Ohukia Lodge.

Winning rider Ryan Maloney was grateful for the ride and said the gelding conserves his energy exceptionally well.

“It was a very dawdling run Derby, and when J-Mac sort of made his move at the half mile (on Belle Detelle), he increased the tempo, but not by a hell of a lot,” Maloney said.

“We were on the fence and everyone was starting to want to get to that better ground, and John wanted me to get one off, but after the scratchings, we ended up drawing one. But that’s why I wanted to be three back the fence, so I had two options when I wanted to stake my claim.

“I was given the opportunity to come out and I ended up on the back of Imperialist and he was just too tough.

“When he got the gap, he pinned his ears back and was just tough as nails.”

By Waikato Stud’s Group One winning son of Dundeel, Super Seth, Maison Louis joins Linebacker, Feroce and La Dorada as Group One winners for the young sire who has had seven stakes winners from 82 runners to date.

Maison Louis is from a famed Pencarrow Stud family and is out of the stakes winning Makfi mare Cote D’Or who won on eight occasions, including success in the Listed Matamata Cup (1600m).

Cote D’Or is a half-sister to the Gr.2 Travis Stakes (2000m) winner and Gr.1 International Stakes (2000m) runner-up Dolmabache with multiple top-flight winners Ethereal and Darci Brahma featuring in the pedigree.

– NZ Racing Desk

Maison Louis powers home to win the Queensland Derby. Photo: Grant Peters

 By Paul Vettise, LOVERACING.NZ News Desk

Velocious will bid to add Australian black type to her impressive domestic record when she steps out at Eagle Farm on Saturday.

The Stephen Marsh-trained daughter of Written Tycoon will run in the Listed U & U Queensland Day Stakes (1200m) with multiple Group One-winning jockey Ethan Brown to don the Go Racing silks aboard the three-year-old.

She won’t be the only feature race contender on the card for the syndication company, with the John O’Shea and Tom Charlton-prepared Maison Louis to take aim at the Gr.1 Queensland Derby (2400m).

Velocious earned her passage across the Tasman with her most recent success over 1100m.

“We’ve always had Australia in the back of our minds for her and she had a couple of unlucky runs before her last start at Te Rapa,” Go Racing General Manager Matt Allnutt said.

“That was the race that was going to decide whether she went over or not.

“She duly went out and won that and there’s not much left for her in New Zealand, especially with the way the tracks are, so we’re trying our luck in Queensland.”

Saturday’s performance will determine the length of Velocious’ stay in Australia.

“If she came out and won, there are other races for her coming up and we would like to think she’s going to run very well,” Allnutt said.

“Then we can push on and reassess targets, basically it’s an open-ended ticket at this stage.”

Velocious has six victories from her 12 starts, including the Gr.1 Systema Stakes (1200m) and Listed Karaka Millions (1200m) to earn champion juvenile honours before underwent a wind operation earlier this season.

She has returned to win twice, both noteworthy efforts against older open grade opposition, and in between times had little luck when out of the frame in the Gr.3 Cambridge Breeders’ Stakes (1200m) and in an age group event at Ellerslie.

“Thankfully, Michael McNab got her out of the gates well last start and got the job done for us,” Allnutt said.

Bred by Inglewood Stud, Velocious was a $190,000 Karaka purchase for Go Racing who also purchased her younger half-sister by Dundeel for $300,000.

Also trained by Marsh, Alacritous suffered an interrupted passage when unplaced on debut before she beat Cream Tart, a runaway winner on Monday, at Matamata.

“She went away for a spell after that and is a different type being by Dundeel,” Allnutt said.

“We’ve taken our time with her and she’ll come back into work shortly and be prepared for the 1000 Guineas (Gr.1, 1600m), all going well.”

Meanwhile, Go Racing’s Maison Louis has won three of his six starts and finished fourth in the Gr.3 Rough Habit Plate (2000m) at Doomben in his final Derby lead-up. Ben Melham has been booked to ride the son of Super Seth on Saturday.
– LOVERACING.NZ News Desk

Velocious will contest the Listed Queensland Day Stakes (1200m) at Eagle Farm on Saturday.
Photo: Kenton Wright (Race Images)