The top five Australian horse racing performances on foreign soil
THIS may come as a shock to many Australian horse racing fans, but there are horse races that exist outside of our country, and even more surprising, some of them are worth more and have had far greater careers than many of the top horses down under.
Whether it’s the Ascot Gold Cup meeting in England, the Hong Kong Sprint or the Dubai World Cup, horse racing is a truly global sport that has an enormous reach.
Call it Australian pride or a need to prove we can match it alongside the best, but we have never been content resting on our laurels. We want to prove that we can match and surpass the cream of the crop.
After Gary Moore declared that if Winterbottom Stakes-winner Takedown “gets a good draw he’ll win” the Hong Kong Sprint after saluting at Ascot, it got us thinking – who are some of our best racing exports who have saluted on the world stage?
We put together a list of our five favourite horses who have taken on the world and won. So sit back and enjoy five of Australia’s greatest racing exports who have dared to believe on the grandest of scales.
Ortensia proves to be one of Australia’s finest racing exports
Ortensia might not be a name that is instantly recognisable to the casual racing fan, but the late-great mare is arguably Australia’s finest ever racing export.
After forging a fantastic career in Australia, which included a Winterbottom Stakes success in 2011, Ortensia was then taken to Dubai where she broke a track record in the Group 1 Al Quoz sprint.
Not content conquering the middle-east, Ortensia was then taken to the UK later that year, where she won the Group 2 King George Stakes and less than three weeks later she won the Group 1 Nunthorpe Stakes.
Ortensia ended her career as one of only a handful of horses to win group 1 races on three different continents.
Black Caviar wins the Diamond Jubilee Stakes in 2012
Leave it to the English to make Australians feel insecure about a racehorse that had previously won 21 straight races without ever tasting defeat.
Victorian racing superstar Black Caviar had conquered all in Australia en route to creating a sporting phenomenon in this country, but horse racing is a global sport; so to truly be deemed the best in the world you have to ply your trade overseas.
So Peter Moody and the Black Caviar team flew the great mare over to jolly old England to compete in one of the world’s most famous sprint races – the Diamond Jubilee Stakes, where she would start as a short-priced favourite.
After hitting the front in the latter stages of the race it looked like jockey Luke Nolan eased Black Caviar towards the line, forcing a photo finish – but it was the Australian superstar that prevailed, giving us yet another victory over the old enemy.
Chautauqua flies home to win the Chairman’s Sprint Prize in 2016
The Chairman’s Sprint Prize may have only been in existence for just over 20 years, but in terms of short-course racing, there is no better race to determine who the number one sprinter in the world is.
After a promising career in Australia which saw the star sprinter record tearaway wins in a number of group 1 races, Chautauqua’s connections eyed off the Chairman’s Sprint as a way of showcasing to the world just how good he really was.
After missing the jump in an incredibly strong field, it looked like Chautauqua would have his work cut out for him just to be in the frame as the race drew to a close, let alone in the finish.
Those who had seen Chautauqua race however, knew differently.
Powering down the outside in a blistering display, the horse known as ‘The Thunder from Down Under’ stormed home in a performance that left horse racing enthusiasts gob-smacked, but under no illusions as to who the best sprinter in the world was at that given moment.
Buffering bests the Meyden field to record a famous Al Quoz win in 2016
Queensland superstar Buffering had nothing to prove after recording six group 1 wins across a glittering career, but one accolade that had eluded the sprinter was success on foreign soil.
That all changed in 2016.
Buffering was sent to Dubai to compete in the Al Quoz Sprint where as a $10 chance he was not expected to be in the finish, but connections dared to dream when he jumped well and landed on the speed – a spot where he had thrived in the past.
The race call belied just how good Buffering was in the running. He never looked like losing and he went on to register his seventh group 1 win which took his career prize money in excess of $7 million.
At the tail end of his career it was without question Buffering’s finest racing moment.
The Conglomerate shows them how it’s done in Durban in 2016
Although The Conglomerate has never raced in Australia, the horse has done the nation proud in South Africa.
After winning three races in a row in late 2014 and early 2015, the Lonhro product failed to win in its next eight starts, but despite the poor record The Conglomerate got a start in the Grade 1 Vodacom Durban July of 2016.
The Conglomerate was not expected to be a factor after being the race as a $20 outsider, but the horse got a perfect run just off the speed and powered away from the field to win the $2.5 million purse and chalk up another win for the good guys in Australia.