Huetor provides agent Will Johnson with first Group 1 winner under own banner

Bloodstock agent Will Johnson enjoyed a memorable day at Eagle Farm on Saturday as Huetor provided him with a first Group 1 winner under his own banner, running out a surprise winner of the A$1 million (£567,000/€667,000) Doomben Cup.

The Peter and Paul Snowden-trained five-year-old got a lovely split down the rail entering the final furlong and managed to run down long odds-on favourite Zaaki, before holding on well from the fast-finishing Maximal to win by just under half a length.

Although it was his first Group 1 winner, Johnson is no stranger to success at the top level having been involved in multiple Group 1 winner Postponed when assistant to Roger Varian, and also in the purchasing of Mirage Dancer and Warning, winners of the 2020 The Metropolitan and 2019 Victoria Derby respectively.

"I did purchase Mirage Dancer, who won The Metropolitan, and also Warning, who won the Victoria Derby, but under my own banner this is my first Group 1 winner,” Johnson told ANZ Bloodstock News.

"This horse is right up there with the best purchases I've made. Seeing the horse come through the grades and now beat a horse like Zaaki is very satisfying."

In what was a memorable 40 minutes for the Snowden team, having secured a win in the Sires' Produce Stakes with Sheeza Belter one race earlier, the son of Archipenko notched his fourth victory on just his sixth start since moving from Chantilly-based trainer Carlos Laffon-Parias.

Kerrin McEvoy, who has ridden Huetor in all six of his Australian starts, and Johnson both thought the gelding appreciated a return to better ground, having finished a last-start fourth behind Zaaki on a heavy track in the Hollindale Stakes.

Johnson said: "It was a great ride from Kerrin, and Peter and Paul had trained him to perfection. We had worked back from this race and the Q22 in two weeks' time and it was likely to the horse's advantage that it was a good track today, as well as the 2,100-metre trip."

Johnson, who purchased the horse alongside the Snowden stable’s racing manager Colum McCullagh, had been taken with the form of his two handicap wins in France, from nine starts, and also identified the horse as a laid-back type that could acclimatise well to his new surroundings.

"I approached Peter and Paul in the middle of last year, just after Covid, and put a couple of horses up to them and promoted the fees, and funnily enough this was the first horse we identified,” said Johnson.

"If you go back through his form in France, the horse that won a Sydney stakes race last week, he beat at handicap level, and there was another Group 3 winner in behind too.

"We'd identified him as a horse that had a good turn of foot, which is obviously important here, and he had a good pedigree being a half-brother to a Group 1 winner [Villa Marina]. So in that respect the purchase made sense, but we could never have thought he'd be a Group 1 winner when selecting him.

"I'm very surprised by his progression. Going on his French form, it probably shows the difference in training between here and Chantilly; Peter and Paul really look at speed in horses. Plus some horses just acclimatise better, like Zaaki, and Huetor struck us as one who could do just that."

The win provided former Lanwades Stud stallion Archipenko with a sixth individual elite-level stakes winner. The son of Kingmambo died at the stud in 2017 at the age of 13.

Bred by Dario Hinojosa's Darpat France, Huetor is one of six winners to race out of the stakes-winning Peintre Celebre mare Briviesca. He is a half-brother to the 2019 Prix de l'Opera winner Villa Marina, by Le Havre.

Huetor’s next target will be the A$1.2m Q22 back at Eagle Farm in a fortnight’s time, as he bids to land the Doomben Cup-Q22 double that Zaaki completed 12 months ago.

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