Widden Stud’s Russian Camelot (IRE) has struck a purple patch with four winners since last Saturday and a maiden winner at Kembla today from the John Sargent stable produced a freaky finish to snatch what seemed a highly unlikely win and he also has a freaky pedigree!
Three year-old gelding Tsarevich made an unremarkable debut last September when sixth at Hawkesbury over 1400m and was not fancied by punters to do much better on his return.
With two recent unplaced trials and Molly Bourke to ride, Tsarevich went off at 30-1 for the 1300m maiden and after ambling out of the gates to settle last it appeared punters were correct in their assessment.
With a furlong to run, he was still treading water and going nowhere, but then a funny thing happened.
Tsarevich switched on and got going… got going so quick, he sailed right past his rivals to hit the line first running away.
The time was nothing flash and we’re going to want to see Tsarevich again, but gee he will have some happy owners tonight!
Not offered at auction, Tsarevich was bred by Jorshan Investments in partnership and is the first and only foal of Frankel mare Casual Reply (GB) (she died in 2024), a half-sister to Group III placed Scandalo from the family of dual Group I winning sprinter Regal Parade.
The pedigree is fascinating in genetic terms as you can see in this tabulation.
Like Russian Camelot’s earlier winner this week Veyepee, Tsarevich also has a triple cross of Sadler’s Wells, but adding further duplications to the mix are double crosses within the first five removes of both Cape Cross, Kingmambo and Danehill!
Pedigree gurus will get very excited about all of this and whether it’s a good thing to have 10 lines of Northern Dancer in a seven gen pedigree… certainly something you don’t see regularly here.
As an example for context, the best horse bred in Australia this century is Winx and she has two, recently retired superstar Via Sistina has four as does Ka Ying Rising and current rising star Autumn Glow has six, while our Aussie bred Melbourne Cup hero Half Yours also has six and he has eight of Northern Dancer’s dam Natalma.
A dual Group I winning son of Camelot, Russian Camelot has now sired 10 first crop winners with the expectation his progeny should really start to hit their straps as we head through this year.
Russian Camelot has nine entries for Inglis Premier.
