Photo: Bruno Cannatelli
Waikato Stud stallion Super Seth and trainer Dominic Sutton stood in the Group One spotlight for the first time when Feroce (Super Seth) headed a New Zealand-bred quinella in Saturday’s A$1 million Gr.1 Howden Australian Guineas (1600m) at Flemington.
It was a case of second time lucky for Feroce, who finished second and was beaten by an agonising short head by Private Life in the Gr.1 Caulfield Guineas (1600m) in October.
Rookie trainer Dominic Sutton soon set his sights on Australian Guineas redemption, giving the gelding only two runs in the five months in between those two 1600m classics. Feroce finished third in the Gr.3 Carbine Club Stakes (1600m) at Flemington in early November, then returned from a summer break with a third in the Gr.3 CS Hayes Stakes (1400m) on February 15.
It all came together in the one that counted on Saturday. Jockey Billy Egan got Feroce into a perfect position in fifth place as Stay Focused led the field up to the home turn.
Standout New Zealand colt Savaglee sprinted past that runner and took command with 400m to go, but Feroce was following through in his slipstream.
Egan angled Feroce to Savaglee’s outside and drove him up alongside his fellow Kiwi-bred. The pair fought a desperate battle through the last 150m, with Feroce edging ahead of a gallant Savaglee to win by three-quarters of a length. There was another length back to Gr.1 Victoria Derby (2500m) winner Goldrush Guru in third.
Feroce became an unforgettable first Group One winner for Sutton, who is in his first season of training.
“I can't even think of a word to say right now,” he said. “Crazy. I've got so many people to thank, especially my fiancée, Raquel. I couldn't do it without her. Her dad's flown over from the UK. Simon (Chappell), our biggest owner, our biggest supporter, is over as well. He literally flew in this morning.
“And look, we can't do it without the horse, and he's just an absolute warrior. We thought we had him right for the day. Everyone sort of probably wrote him off a little bit off his first-up run, but Billy just came in and said he's flying and just hated that soft ground. I can’t quite believe this, to be honest.
“It took a long time to get over the Caulfield Guineas, I'm not going to lie. A lot of people were congratulating us, but I still felt pretty bitter about it all, thinking that we could have won on that day. And we all know how hard it is to win these races and to have a horse good enough and present him in the right order on the day.
“So you sometimes think, 'Am I going to be waiting for a long time now until the next one comes along?' But this horse has just been super. He's just improved, improved, improved. He was probably the third ever horse we've bought out of the sales, and I've got to thank Johnny McKeever. He's been instrumental in helping us select these horses. He's also selected horses like Garachico, Detroit City, our proper flagbearers. So I've got a lot to thank him for as well.
“I was just hoping he'd really knuckle down and go past that leader. He's had a tendency of just getting his head up a little bit, but once Billy changed the stick through, and gave him a couple more reminders, he really let down and flew.”
Egan was delighted to play his part in Sutton’s first Group One triumph.
“I'm just really happy for Dom,” he said. “For a young bloke, having so many horses in his first year of training and also having Group One runners in your first year of training, there's a lot of pressure that comes with that, and he handles himself really well. He's got his fiancée, Raq, and he's got his parents as well, they're all very supportive of him, so it's just great that he can handle himself in such a way and do an amazing job with these horses in his first year.
“He's not a bad horse. It’s taken a while for the penny to drop. Dom's done a lot right by the horse, and it's showing when he's getting results like this. So just a great job to have a horse spot-on and primed for a Group One event. It's not easy to set a horse for a race, any target, anywhere, but to do it against the best trainers and horses and riders, you know, on the big stage is a real credit to him.
“The race really worked out really nicely. We had the plan to press forward and be just behind those leaders, so we weren't too far away. He can really hold a good gallop, and it just worked out a treat for him today.”
Bred by Pencarrow Stud, Feroce was purchased out of Kilgravin Lodge’s New Zealand Bloodstock Ready to Run Sale draft for $160,000 by Sutton and McKeever Bloodstock last year. Feroce is a son of the unraced O’Reilly mare Corinthia and is a half-brother to the Listed Karaka Classic winner Siracusa and a member of the famed Eight Carat family.
Feroce has now had nine starts for three wins, three placings and A$1.33 million in stakes.
Super Seth, meanwhile, was New Zealand’s leading first-season sire in 2023-24 and heads the second-season standings in 2024-25. He is the sire of 25 winners, with Feroce the best of his six individual stakes winners. His daughter La Dorada has won this season’s Karaka Millions 2YO (1200m) and Gr.2 Matamata Breeders’ Stakes (1200m), while Sethito, Linebacker, Poetic Champion and Super Photon have also won at black-type level.
It was a quinella for the Waikato Stud stallion roster, with Gr.1 New Zealand 2000 Guineas (1600m) hero Savaglee being a son of the great Savabeel
