'I'm sure there’s plenty of studs looking at him and why wouldn’t they be?'

Magic Millions 2YO Classic winner Storm Boy, the unbeaten son of global sire sensation Justify, could command international interest from stud farms as well as fierce competition from Australia’s stallion operations.

The Sydney autumn two-year-old triple crown is on the cards for the imposing two-year-old, but co-trainer Adrian Bott expects breeders to be on the phone well before March’s Golden Slipper.

“I am sure there’s plenty of studs looking at him, and why wouldn’t they be? He’s got a great profile. He’s undefeated at the moment and he made a statement every time he’s stepped out,” Bott told ANZ Bloodstock News.

“[Saturday] was a very impressive performance. They ran great time [1:08.00] and the best part of it all is that he’s doing it all naturally now when maybe technically he shouldn’t be. 

“There’s a lot more upside, so I think the best is yet to come for him. There’s some big targets for him through the autumn in Sydney and I haven’t even thought about his three-year-old career yet, but I am sure he’s going to be much better then.

“We’ve got a large syndicate of people involved, so there’s a lot of discussions to be had, but I am sure he’s on a lot of radars.”

In a telling interview at the Magic Millions on Saturday night, a euphoric Bott also revealed that the new incarnation of Tulloch Lodge was not focused on ending the 13-year Sydney reign of premier trainer Chris Waller.

The appeal of Storm Boy, meanwhile, is more than his unbeaten record - a dominant Rosehill win on debut before adding the BJ McLachlan Stakes in Brisbane to his CV - it is the best of Scat Daddy that has been cultivated by Coolmore for decades.

Justify is the sire of 25 stakes winners worldwide, including six at the highest level headed by Europe’s unbeaten champion two-year-old of 2023 City Of Troy, while in Australia he has five stakes winners from 52 runners from just two crops of racing age.

Coolmore’s Colm Santry credited his visionary boss, John Magnier, for the foresight to buy unbeaten US Triple Crown champion Justify in 2018 from China Horse Club, SF Bloodstock, WinStar Farm and accompany at the end of his brief but brilliant racing career for a reported A$100 million.

Justify: Coolmore's phenomenon is enjoying a red-hot run of form

Now the race should be on, Santry said, to buy into Storm Boy even without a Group 1 beside his name.

“I’d say every farm will be chasing him, to be honest with you,” Santry said. 

“He’s a world-class commodity and world currency will be following him and trying to buy that horse when he goes to stud, I have no doubt.”

A A$460,000 purchase by Bott, Waterhouse and Kestrel Thoroughbreds’ Bruce Slade, Storm Boy is raced by a syndicate headed by Cunningham Thoroughbreds whose colours the colt races in.

The Cunninghams stepped up their level of involvement in the industry by purchasing Ridgmont Farm in 2021 and late last year they stepped up their investment by buying out their partners.

Barry Bowditch: "they’ve added a great vibrancy to our industry"Credit: Darren Tindale

“For Loralie, Gary, Mitch, Steph and the rest of the family, it’s a fantastic result,” Magic Millions managing director Barry Bowditch said. 

“They’re very passionate about the game, they’re fun and they’ve added a great vibrancy to our industry. They now own Ridgmont Farm in its entirety, so they’re investing in broodmares, they’re investing in horses to race.

“They’ve made a significant investment already, so to get a result like that … is enormously well deserved and it couldn’t happen to better people.”

Tulloch Lodge purchased 38 yearlings either outright or in partnership at a staggering cost of over A$17 million on the Gold Coast in the last week, having taken home more than 30 from the same sale last year, but Bott maintains the stable’s approach was about quality, not quantity.

The 2023 Waterhouse-Bott Gold Coast haul includes Storm Boy, The Debut fillies winner Too Darn Lizzie and the unbeaten Golden Gift winner Shangri La Express.

“It all starts here [at the sales] trying to attract the quality stock and get the right horses into the stable and that determines the success of your upcoming years,” Bott says. 

“We’ve been fortunate to land some of the right horses over the last couple of years and that comes down to having the confidence that we’ve got the right support to be able to secure those right horses.

“It fulfils itself in that regard and I am glad we’ve been able to deliver on that [on Magic Millions day].”

Since August 2016, when Bott officially joined the stable, it’s been Waterhouse and Bott, but it is now clear that it should be Bott and Waterhouse. The Hall Of Fame trainer has let Adrian take charge and the stable’s re-emergence has built year-on-year, helped no doubt by the Golden Slipper success of Farnan and Golden Rose winner In The Congo, among others. 

Runner-up to Waller in the 2022-23 Sydney metropolitan premiership with 71 winners and more than A$9 million in prize-money, the Waterhouse-Bott stable has trained 44 city winners in NSW so far this season, 15 wins shy of Waller, but they are 18 clear of the third-placed James Cummings when only one win separated the pair on July 31.

Bott says winning the premiership - something Waterhouse has achieved seven times and her famous father TJ Smith won a record 33 times - is “not necessarily something that comes into calculations for us”. 

“If it happens, that’s fantastic, but … we don’t have plans to expand the stable,” he says when asked of any premiership ambitions. 

“Obviously we want to concentrate on attracting as much quality to the stable as we can with the numbers we have and I think that’s the key for us. 

“We’ll remain at that level and improve our processes to deliver all the way to the top end. We’ll do that within a range of numbers that we can do it with.”

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