Autumn G1 racing action arrives in beautiful Adelaide, with the girls taking centre stage for the running of the Schweppes Oaks (2000m) for the middle distance types and the Robert Sangster Stakes (1200m), a race named for a legend in the sport of kings.
The Robert Sangster Stakes was inaugurated in 1983 as the Swettenham Stud Stakes.
In 2005 it became the Robert Sangster Stakes to honour the legendary international owner /breeder and principal of Swettenham Stud, who had passed away the previous year.
Between 2010 - 2021 this great race was, successively, the Sportingbet Classic, the William Hill Classic, the Ubet Classic and the TAB Classic until in 2022 it became the Robert Sangster once more.
Only a book could do justice to the life and times of Robert Edmund Sangster (and there are a couple of absolute beauties out there, well worth a read!) - suffice to say he transformed both the sport of horse racing and the breeding of racehorses - indeed the global industry as we know it today would not exist without him.
His horses won 125 G1 races worldwide, including 27 European Classics. Check out this list of thoroughbred names who raced in Sangster’s famous emerald green and royal blue silks:
Sadler’s Wells, The Minstrel, Alleged, Golden Fleece, Caerleon, Detroit, El Gran Senor, Lomond, Godswalk, Thatching, Sookera, Storm Bird, Try My Best……
He bred and sold champions like Dr Devious, the great filly Balanchine, and Carnegie. He bred the G1 winning filly Wind In Her Hair who would become the dam of Deep Impact.
Under the Swettenham banner, Robert Sangster bred the beautiful colt who would become the SH equivalent of Sadler's Wells - the immortal Zabeel.
Swettenham bred the VRC Derby winners Blevic and Blackfriars ( his son Playing God is now the undisputed king of the WA breeding scene), Marauding, Special, Kensington Gardens, the much-loved “people's champion” Zipping and many more.
Black Caviar, bred and foaled at Gilgai Farm, was part of the Swettenham Stud draft when she went through the ring in 2008.
Back in the 1970s, Sangster, in partnership with John Magnier and Vincent O’Brien, founded the global thoroughbred juggernaut that is Coolmore.
The trio pioneered the “shuttle sire” concept that would shape the breed and change the industry overnight.
Sangster's fearless buying of yearlings had begun in the 1960s and peaked during the crazy '80s, a decade in which the bloodstock battles between the big industry players were totally off the charts!
In 1983 Sheikh Mohammed Al Maktoum made world headlines and smashed records when he paid $10.2 million in Kentucky for a Northern Dancer colt who was duly registered as Snaafi Dancer.
The horse never even made it to the track, and was reported to be “so slow it was embarrassing.” Poor Snaafi went to stud but he had limited fertility and only ever sired four foals, and all were sadly as talentless as he.
Two years later Sangster and associates went to an unheard of $13.1 million (about $40 million today) to secure a half brother by Nijinsky to Seattle Slew - still the record for the most money ever paid for a yearling at public auction.
Named Seattle Dancer, he would at least become a G3 winner and place at G1 level in France before siring 37 stakes winners. He became a good broodmare sire, in fact he features on the damline of one of our 2026 contenders, Stretan Angel!
Early Sangster investments included Derby winner The Minstrel, who cost $200,000 and was sold to America for $9 million, and Alleged, purchased for $175,000 as a 2YO and sold to Kentucky a year later for $16 million.
Sadler’s Wells was born at Swettenham Stud, and even if Robert Sangster had bred no other horse but this freak of nature, we would be singing his praises for all time!
The great stallion never shuttled to Coolmore Australia but his brother Fairy King did for two seasons, and left us the priceless gift that was Encosta De Lago.
Robert Sangster's thoroughbred racing and breeding empire included interests in England, Australia, Venezuela, the United States, Ireland, France and New Zealand. At the height of his success, he had around 1,000 horses in training or at stud.
Colin Hayes trained Sangster's imported galloper Beldale Ball out of Lindsay Park to win the 1980 Melbourne Cup, and their association grew to involve partnership in Collingrove Stud (now Swettenham) in Victoria.
In 1993 Robert Sangster sold his interest in Coolmore, retaining breeding rights to Sadler's Wells and the dual-hemisphere king, Danehill.
At this time many of his finest racing fillies and broodmares were sold to the Makhtoum family.
Sons Ben and Guy carry on the Swettenham tradition in the UK, while Adam bought out the Hayes family interest in the old Collingrove Stud at Nagambie in 2006, rebranding it Swettenham Stud.
To the delight of many, Swettenham relaunched the revered Collingrove name in partnership with the Hayes family in 2020 as a bloodstock business in its own right.
Robert Sangster died at the age of 67 in 2004.
What an incredible life he lived, what a contribution and legacy he left for all of us who love the thoroughbred horse.
Though born into immense wealth and famous for his glamorous lifestyle, it was said ofSangster that “you didn’t have to be a wealthy person to sit at his table”.
For all his high-flyer antics, entrepreneurial vision and business smarts he was known to be a likeable, fun loving and unpretentious character.
It was remarked that “His pleasures were boxing, champagne, golf, racing and beautiful women, in no particular order, and often more than one at the same time!”
The Robert Sangster Stakes was traditionally held in February but when the Adelaide Cup carnival was rescheduled in 2006 the SAJC moved it to the autumn, and it received G1 status in 2005.
The inaugural winner in 1983 was Ranee's Palace, a daughter of the brilliant son of Pakistan, Rajah Sahib (1968 Cox Plate,1971 Doncaster / Stradbroke).
She was one of the first big winners for a young trainer named Colin Little, who would go on to experience Cox Plate glory himself with El Segundo decades later!
Notable winners through the 1980s/90s included Wicked Smile, Leica Western, With Me, Western Chorus, Tarare, Apple Danish and Dantelah.
Umaline ran a blistering 1.08.14 to win in 2001 and her race record still stands.
Our Egyptian Raine, French Bid, Alinghi, Ellicorsam, Universal Queen, Juste Momente, Bel Mer, Rostova and Response were a fantastic series of winners from 2003-2011.
Then came 2012 - the year of Caviar! Morphettville was a rippling ocean of salmon and black banners, hats and co-ordinated outfits as 30,000 racing fans packed in to get a glimpse of their idol in the flesh. The city had been abuzz for weeks at this opportunity to stand trackside and watch the great one shoot for her twentieth straight victory!
She didn't disappoint. Black Caviar barely moved into second gear as she cruised away from the good mares Sistine Angel and Power Princess to take the Robert Sangster Stakes by four and a half lengths.
With this win that was little more than a track gallop, the mighty daughter of Bel Esprit surpassed the Australian record for consecutive metropolitan wins set by the turf legends of yesteryear Gloaming and Desert Gold, and broke the modern day streak set in 2010 by the amazing mare Zenyatta.
Everyone on course that day bet a dollar on Black Caviar to souvenir the ticket, but one supremely confident punter had plonked $100,000 on her at $1.04 which earned a nice little profit of 4k in approximately 70 seconds!
Black Caviar was next scheduled to race in the G1 Goodwood before she took off on her now-folkloric journey to Royal Ascot. Luke Nolan sat still as a mouse on the mare as she went to the line untouched to the delirious roar of the crowd under 57kg to win by a length. It would have been ten times that if he'd tickled her on the bum!
Platelet, Driefontain and Miracles Of Life took us up to 2015 with the Robert Sangster honour roll.
Click here to read Breeding to Win for our tips for Saturday.
